Kissing Sisters

I would rather not win than be a finalist and not win. Those shots of actors as they lose their Oscars are priceless because sometimes they don’t act. You can see the disappointment on their faces. Only the winners act like themselves. When you win something, it’s like having an orgasm – you are yourself most intently. If you act your way through that moment when your name is announced, well, you can’t be trusted. But you can act your way through losing. Any actor should be able to do that. The human ones, however, don’t.

Anyway, I was up for a Sidney Prize with Storyville (which, by the way, is a great, great app for those people who like short stories – a new one every week from an already published collection; kind of like K-Tel for literates), a finalist, and I didn’t win. I congratulate the winner, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer (a fellow Canadian!) and the other finalists. No really.

The judge was Richard Nash, who has done some fine fine things in the book world. After the announcement, I tweeted a “Close but no cigar” kind of thing. To which, Richard replied. To which, I replied. To which he replied back.

Winning is great. Coming in last builds character. Getting close to winning but not winning? Well, there are worse things, for sure. But not many. Someone smart once said “you win a bronze medal but lose a silver.” Something like that. Or “you win gold and you win bronze but you lose silver.” I think. But really, in a 100 metre dash, you win gold and everyone else isn’t Usain Bolt. Right? Oh well. Maybe the person who said it wasn’t so smart. Onwards and upwards. Thank to the kind folk at Storyville and to Richard Nash. I hope to publish the story soon.