An Original Voice

I have been included as one of Border’s Books “Original Voices” for April/May 2007. Wow. I suppose it is only natural that an author who writes about the Angel of Death coming out of a washing machine would be a recipient of such an honor. Sure other authors utilize the Angel of Death and certainly washing machines and Laundromats have been the subject of books and even movies,(My Beautiful Laundrette coming to mind), but never before have the two met.

Of course, I am grateful. It means Saving Erasmus gets put out front in the store and that it will gain placement in their ads. This equates to more exposure, better publicity, increased sales, and finally my message reaching more people. But where will this lead?

Will there be an Original Voices tour for 2007? Will I need to compete with the others for final spots? Will I be the Sanjaya Malakar (without the hair) of the group? Or will I rise above? How will I handle the increased scrutiny of my work? Will there be challenges to the credibility of my creativity from authors who have written about similar material? None come to mind, but as the book hits the bestseller lists, I am expecting a few to surface.

And what of my original voice? If the tour is successful will I be expected to repeat with another story about a washing machine? Or will I be forced to search out different appliances and other angels entering from dryers, trash compactors or refrigerators? And if refrigerators are the appliance of choice, will I discover what happens to the light when the door closes? Will the genre of appliance entering angels be overdone to the point that it merely becomes a question in Trivial Pursuit, only randomly having the importance of determining the pie or deciding who wins the game?

Certainly I could select the route that Harper Lee took after writing To Kill A Mockingbird. I could stop writing and disappear from the public eye, leaving my one novel as the soul representation of my writing. Years would go by with talk of some new novel but I would simply rest on my laurels and perhaps, washing machine.

All of this, fortunately, does not keep me up at nights. That honor goes to the municipal trucks out side my window. But still as an author and philosopher, I ponder the meaning of each experience and seek the relevance within. But for now, I will just follow my bliss and hope that my voice follows.

I am an Original Voice. I will savor the moment for what it is.