The Daily Miracle

Before I announce the winner of our drawing for Copy #100 of A Listening Thing, I would like to share, with thanks, a beautiful comment left by Joseph Hutchison on an entry by Vassilis Zambaras that I’m sure many of you will remember:

William’s book is hard to describe, isn’t it? Reading it is like looking into a springtime brook: the impression is of clarity, motion, depth and reflection, with many layers of sound (a poet’s prose) — such that one looks up from the page with that pleasant sense of disorientation we get when we look up from the flowing water and try to take in the trees on the opposite bank. I like that because it reminds me that the whole Earth is flying on under our feet: the daily miracle. How does William/Stephen do it? On the one hand, I wish I knew; on the other, I don’t care to know. It’s enough that his book refreshes the healing pleasures of being and feeling alive.

Frankly, despite this generous characterization and others like it, I was surprised that so many people entered the drawing for a free signed copy of my novel. We’ve all been through it: what we offer, while important to us, often passes without comment, leaving us to wonder at its worth. It might well happen with this post. That’s why, anymore, when I entrust something to cyberspace, I simply let it go as if it were a baby bird or butterfly. I’ve done my best; now it’s time for it to fly or fail on its own.

Briefly, the statistics: twenty-nine people entered their names in the drawing; of that number, sixteen are readers new to the book; thirteen have already purchased one or more copies and have read, or are still reading, or are about to read, the words of our embattled-but-not-embittered Everyman, Stephen Monroe.

Also, since I announced the drawing more than a week ago, one more copy has been sold. This means that there are, at the moment, forty-nine copies left of the numbered first printing — something to think about, perhaps, especially as the holiday season approaches.

And now, live from the Used Book Room

at the fabulous Michaelian Club,

here are the names in my hat:

And here, after mixing and stirring and closing my eyes,

is the name of our winner:

Congratulations, Florian!

We’ll make the arrangements, and your signed copy will be in the mail soon!

In the meantime, my thanks to each and every one of you who entered the drawing and made it such a wonderful experience. I wish you all could have won!