IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING… Today I was cleaning up my office. Which involves, eventually, dusting. Which I do regularly—at least once a year. And in this dusting portion of the chore, I came upon this large and heavy object, which I picked up and moved and, well, dusted. I don’t pick it up and move it very often, because it is, as I say, large and heavy. About 20” tall and 20-25 pounds. Solid… bronze… perhaps? Heavy enough that it is a challenge to do curls with it.
In case you were wondering, or even if you weren’t, what it is, is a book award. It was the first major literary award I was fortunate to receive, for my first book, Old Turtle. Presented to wonderful illustrator Cheng Khee Chee and myself by the American Booksellers Association—their ABBY Award. (American Booksellers’ Book of the Year, 1993.) It is by far the largest and heaviest award or trophy I have ever received. Perhaps Mr. Chee as well. (The beautiful art poster on the wall is Mr. Chee’s cover image of Old Turtle.)
The large and heavy statue… sculpture?… monolith?… I later learned, represents an open book on a pedestal. I am not sure I would ever have guessed that on my own, so I was glad for the information.
In any case, the presenter of the award that year was none other than Stephen King, who upon handing it over said these immortal words: “Ah, the perfect murder weapon.”
That’s just in case you were wondering.
Now, back to dusting…