24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Finalist - Settling the Score

We're not allowed to use cell phones where I work, so yesterday on lunch break I ducked out to my car to check email and see what was going on in the world. On my phone's tiny screen I saw an email with a subject line that said, "Congratulations Lammy Finalists!"

Excited to see who'd made finalist, I click open the message and read, "Dear Lambda Literary Awards Finalist." I swallowed hard and read it again, thinking surely there had to be a mistake. The next line said, "I’m pleased to congratulate you on your nomination..." Too stunned to do anything else, I reread that one line over and over and over. And then I cried, hoping no well-meaning co-worker would see me and come running over. Then I called Mom. 


After bawling and blathering incoherently for five minutes, I hung up and read the press release. No mistake. There it appeared under the Gay Romance heading: Settling the Score, by Eden Winters, Torquere Press. Finally, I had to pull myself together and go back in to work, bottling all my elations/nervousness/disbelief/gratitude up inside of me. I'm still stunned, thus the time it took for me to post. 


At first I didn't really think about the awards ceremony on June 4, but the more I consider it, the more I realize I really want to go, for this truly is an amazing, possibly once in a lifetime occurence. I'm not the most socially adept person in the world, and I have no clue what to wear, but I do know I want to go. As she is the one who first encouraged (poked, prodded) me to write a story, and who's been with me every step of my literary journey, I've asked my dear friend, crit partner, and, as Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan said recently in a blog post, my "bunker buddy," I've ask Pam, aka P.D. Singer to attend with me. 


My heartfelt congratulations to all the finalists, and I look forward to seeing you in June. Thank you, Lambda Literary. 


Read entire press release here:


Now, any thoughts on what I should wear?