Oh what a perfect day. . . .

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face.

No particular reason. Well kind of no reason other than it being a Friday morning and I wasn't getting up at my standard 4 AM because I didn't have to be at work, so I got to sleep until six. 

Anyway, I got up and crept downstairs with the dog, let him out, drank a cup of coffee and enjoyed the still and quiet of my predawn living room. The baby was up 30 minutes later, which was awesome because she actually let me have those 30 minutes to myself. (Normally she's up and ready to get out of her crib as soon as she hears me stir.) I got her ready to go to day care and she was in absolutely awesome mood. I got her and the wife off to work and then Grandma Joann came out of hiding, (My mom's been staying with us the past week, and the kiddo goes absolutely buggy if Grandma is around and won't leave the house unless Grandma comes with her.) came down stairs, and we had a nice breakfast before heading out to my Mom's future retirement apartment (My mom's finally moving out here to AZ, which the family's thrilled about.) for the official tour. Afterward the tour, we drove over to both me and my mom's favorite used bookstore, Bookman's, where my mom insisted she buy me a mountain of new books. (Scored a shit load of Larry Brown and pristine copy of In the Miso Soup.)

After the bookstore we went and picked the baby up from day care, had lunch, drove home and both me and the baby went down for a two hour long nap.

A Nap, on a Friday, awesome.

Next up, I walked to the mail box and found that the Mail person had left me an Amazon delivery containing I was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond and Last Days by Brian Evenson.  

Walking back to the house, I thought to myself, how can this day get any better? Seriously, awesome book scores and a mid-day, work day nap, that's pretty much downright perfect in my book.

But then I got home where Grandma was reading the baby Yummy Cookies for the 100th time in 7 days, and I went upstairs and had this little e-mail from Christopher Grant waiting for me:

Keith,  It is my sad duty to tell you that you were up against Sandra Seamans (Yeah, Sandra scares me.) and 

you were up shit creek without a paddle.  It is also my sad duty to tell you that you won the fucking contest!  It came down to you and another author and IN THE SHOWER, THINKING was one  of the two that had two votes but inverted results.  I sent a request for  the third judge to please choose one over the other on Wednesday night and I  still haven't heard back from that judge.    So, this morning, I made the executive decision to make a choice.  And that choice was to flip a coin.  Heads, you won!  Since I made the announcement that I would reveal winners today, I had to  make a decision.  I hope you're not too broken up about taking the win.  All I require from you now is an address and a preference on how you'd like  to get paid.  Personally, I'd prefer sending a money order, as opposed to  $25 or a personal check, but let me know how you feel and I'll send it your  way.  In addition to winning the cash, Aldo Calcagno of Powder Flash Burn and  Crimewav.com has asked me if I would allow the three winners to be podcast.   Considering it is your story and I have always said that the authors retain  the rights to their stories, if you would like to go ahead with the  podcasting, let me know.    This is just more cake on the icing (or is that the other way around?) and  a great way to get your story even further out there.  (I know you have had  one of your stories podcast by Crimewav already to say nothing of stories  posting on Powder Burn.)  Congratulations again!  Christopher

So that little E-mail from Chris just shot me straight into orbit! I had to rub my eyes and read it again another two times before I grasped that I'd actually won the A Twist of Noir Alienation comp. I worked on that story for nearly two months, tweaking it re-tweaking it, think there wasn't a chance in Hell I'd win. But there I was reading that I had.

So, anyway, here's a link to IN THE SHOWER, THINKING. I scored 25 bucks, my third appearance in A Twist of Noir, and my second appearance on CrimeWaV.com.

Fucking sweet

And next up, I get an e-mail from Aldo "the Mystery Dawg" letting me know the next part in my flash fiction experiment, Pervert #16, was live.

Here's the link to Part 2

And to Part 1 if you haven't read it already.

Any way, folks, thanks for listening to me squeal like a teenage girl.

Cheers, bitches.

(PS. Yes, I apologize for calling all of you bitches.)