I'm not surprised.

I am. I think it's because we both won, and that all three of the poets come out of the Poet's Asylum.

A little backstory: the JKA is given to three poets from Central Mass. each year, as well as to a number of visual artists (not sure on the details on that side, except that the award is a bit more prestigious in painting circles, but anyway...

For years, it's been dominated by poets out of the terribly, terribly dull "lit journal" crowd, who very much look down on those of us who work the coffeehouses, slams, etc. In other parts of the country, this phenomenon has smoothed out a bit, but around here it's more polarized than I've ever seen. Never mind that I'm from a different scene entirely,and actually better published than most or all of them.

So the Asylum scoring two-thirds of the winners last year, and a clean sweep this year is pretty damn vindicating.

I'll toast that.

Big congrats to Victor and Thessaly!

Last-minute entry for the "escape" challenge.

----- She dreams of someplace clean, bright, and spare. Pale walls, wide windows left uncurtained, a soft rug. A worn, comfortable chair. A broad expanse of polished pine, her computer set squarely in its center, manuscript pages anchored with a heavy stone, worried into smoothness long ago.

There would be tea makings, and a bowl for grapes. Chocolate stashed on the bookshelf, which would lend the room its color, each row crowded with orange, black, red, blue, cream.

A place to write without Nickelodeon squawking in the background, or laundry in a nearby pile. A room of her own. An escape.

AmyLiz--did you get the email I sent you, oh, a week or two ago in response to a comment on my LiveJournal about a book I wasn't overly impressed with?

Amy, I love that, and said so in your journal. I also left something for you to read in my LJ, along the same line.

Many congratulations to Thessaly and Victor! Well-earned, I've no doubt.

And yes, I do pretty well at line-editing other people's stuff, but I'm like Jesse. I know what my stuff is supposed to say, so I don't see the goofs.

(And I can very much relate to that drabble, Amy!)

Allyson, I'll just echo everyone and tell you not to mull over the "why" right now. Just write, because the "why" will work itself out when you least expect it. It's like trying to figure out how the movie's going to end without even having seen it.

Congrats, victor and thessaly! That's rockin'.

Glimmer Train wrote me back:

Dear Sunil,

Although we won't be publishing this particular piece, we do thank you for sending "Shopping". It was a good read. We're not able to give specific feedback, but please take a look at Editors' Input for some ideas. Again, we appreciate the opportunity to read your work!

--------------------------- Good writing. Thank you.

After a marathon conversation with Kristen, and an odd conversation with Fury. I gave up on "why." Just continuing to write and write, and hopefully, "why" will be evident to the reader.

Fury says "why" is because i was funny. He put a bit of trust out, i didn't mangle it, he put a bit more out, and over time, it became apparent that i was A-OK. But it seems to be the funny. So I figure as long as what I write is also funny, the reader will think, "yeah, I'd trust her, too." Hopefully.

P-C, that's the kind of rejection editors send when they think the piece is saleable, only not at their magazine. Given that they must get hundreds if not thousands of stories a month, that they took the time over yours shows how seriously they took it.

Allyson, sometimes the author is the last person you should ask for the "why." :-)