The Presentation

“So, you're not going to La Taverna tonight to make the presentation?”

“Nah.”

“Do you have an exiting locale picked out as an alternate location for the presentation?”

“Nope.”

“You’ve perhaps written something clever and witty in lieu of setting a scene?”

“Huh-uh.”

“This isn’t like you,” Muse fixed me with a stare. “What exactly do you have up your sleave?”

“Nothing.”

Muse tapped her foot impatiently.

“It all goes back to something you reminded me of,” I explained, “many presentations back.”

“You’re saying I’m responsible for this minimalist award presentation?” She sounded offended. I nodded anyway.

“You don’t remember? I wanted to do something all glitzy and splashy, and you reminded me that it isn’t what I write that makes the awards special, It’s what the authors wrote. I said something about ‘sharing the joy’ and you said the writers writing and the readers reading was shared joy.”

Muse looked briefly shocked, that I actually paid attention once.

“So, look at the field of nominees; out of hundreds, perhaps thousands of brand new stories, these were the ones that at least one fan thought enough of nominate for the award.” Before Muse could point out the obvious, I did.“Granted, not all fans are even aware of the awards - they’re primarily fans who read ASS/ASSD/ASSM, ASSTR, Stories Online, Literotica, The Erotic Writers and Readers Association, Cleansheets, EWP... places where the awards have had varying degrees of exposure. And I’ll grant as well that some folk are more concerned with figuring out their votes for the Annual Golden Clitorides Awards , our big sister.” I smiled when I thought of Rui tallying hundreds of votes. But I continued.

“But ninety-six fans enjoyed these stories enough to vote for their favorites. Twenty-six each for the winners, twenty-one for next, and a fairly even distribution among the rest.” I reminded Muse what that might represent. “Typically, fewer than 1% of readers take the time to dash off a quick e-mail to any author, and of those, 90% are simple ‘I enjoyed your story, write another’ types; maybe 10% are ebbulent praise when a story merits it. I’d bet that only that 10% would nominate or vote, if that. So every one of those votes might well represent 1,000 or more happy readers...

“That’s a lot of shared joy.”

My Muse smiled. I doubted she agreed with my math, but it does paint a pleasant picture. “You said, ‘winners.’ I take it we have another tie?”

I nodded.

“So which are they, and which authors get to share all that joy?”

I essayed a crooked grin. “She’s new. And she’s making as big a splash in her debut as Katie or Oosh or Selena.”

“‘She,’ singular?”

I nodded again. “The Winners of the Silver Clitorides Award for the best stories of August, 2003, are Reunion and The General, by Girl Friday. Congratulations, GF, and well done to all the nominees and finalists!”

The August 2003 Silver Clitorides Awards Winners:

Reunion and
The General by Girl Friday

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