Hi all. Made the short-list for CBC’s short story prize – grand prize winner to be announced later in March. You can read the story, see a photo!, and read a short interview here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2014/03/2014-cbc-short-story-prize-the-finalists.html
I think there’s a voting mechanism, so if you like the story and are of a mind… I’d highly appreciate it. Words really can’t express how I feel right now. I’ve never submitted anything before, so this is all new – but awesome. Thanks so much CBC!
Trent Lewin 
Oh my GAAAWWWD! Congratulations! I hope you’re celebrating today. Count me in for a vote.
Thanks Nadia, appreciate that. I knew a while ago, so got the celebrating done early – and hard.
Heaven. One of your very best, Lewin. Absolutely *gorgeous*.
Jones, thank you, as always. I know you know what it takes to slog through a story.
And when something reads as smoothly as this does — it’s amazing how you can forget that you had to fight for it. This is *beautiful*, truly.
Fantastic news! See that…and I’ll bet you thought it was going to be just another dull Monday. Many are called but few are chosen. Good luck.
Well, I somewhat knew it was coming Mark, they’d arranged the interview and stuff earlier… but still unreal. Definitely not a normal Monday. Now if you should feel like voting… have it, sir.
Already done, except I hope it counts. It made it sound like voting was for Canadians only. They said they were going to send a confirmation ping and I haven’t gotten that yet.
I’m not sure how that works… but thanks Mark, just glad you read it.
It’s a great piece. And I’m not just lathering your ass. You could feel the movement.
Thanks Mark. Really.
Are you kidding me?! Do you know how many submissions they probably received?! And to whittle it down to just five. I’m not the only one who likes it.
Now just like I said to Aussa when I voted for her in the BlogHer awards, this better be worth all the spam I’m about to get man… Great stuff bud. Congratulations.
I’m not sure if you’d posted that piece on your blog before? But if so, I missed it. Great writing and very moving. My latest effort is about wanting to have a threesome with two Aussie bloggers! I don’t they give you any prizes for that do they..?
Sorry dude, hopefully not too much spam, but I would appreciate the vote if you liked the story. No, never posted this before, I write some pieces for blogging, some for myself, this is one of the latter I guess.
A threesome with two Aussie bloggers, eh? Dude, your stuff is meant for some late night reading with the missus… I’d totally give you a prize if I could, hopefully a Canadian shout-out will do for now.
Oh for sure man. I already voted. Apparently it won’t affect the result but you could still be crowned Canada’s most popular blogger!
Love that you read my stuff with the wife by the way.
She kind of insists… I wonder why.
huge
accomplishment
~
congratulations
Thank you very much.
Congratulations, Trent! The story is wonderful and I enjoyed your interview as well. My vote has been cast. I shall spread the word.
Thanks so much Michele – much much appreciated, and glad you liked the story.
Whoo Hoo! Happy dancin’ for the short list! Headed over to read now. Proud of you NB.
Thanks SB – hope you like the piece. You’re making me blush now…
More than liked. LOVED!
I just read, commented, and voted. This is a marvelous piece Trent…absolutely loved it. You delivered what that stunning photo promised. Bravo my friend. And all the very best luck…though you have already won.
I feel so… I don’t quite know how to describe this, sitting at work as I am. The work side never meets the writing side, really, so there’s no one to share with here – but I’m glad I can share with you and everyone else in the out here.
Isn’t that photo unreal? That guy is a Toronto photographer, I ran across his work a while ago. He takes the rooftopping phenomenon to amazing levels… he has some breathtaking photography.
It gives me vertigo just looking at it…but stunning it is! And I’m glad you can share this side of you here too…it’s important to be able to I think.
I think so too.
YAY! Geaux Trent.
Thanks Susan.
Wonderful story, Trend. You got my vote.
Thanks so much Elyse. Glad you liked the story.
I’m going to have to share your nickname for me with my wife… I keep telling her I’m trendy and all, but she never believes me…
I can’t remember why I started calling you that — I am sure it was something to do with what a trend-setter you are. Positive.
I’m totally going to remind her of that.
It’s always best that people who DO know you listen to ones that don’t really, in my opinion.
You crack me up, Elyse.
Beats working!
Plus you give Art a hard time, so naturally I must like you.
It’s my role in life. I do that to most people.
I dunno, you always seem quite pleasant to me.
I just like to lull folks into complacency before striking. 😉
Yikes.
Trent!! You are on your way! WOW. Congratulations again!! You are amazing! I see New York Times Bestseller in your future!
Thanks LV.
Congrats. Great story…worthy of the accolades…and the votes!
Thanks much Doobster… hope you were okay with the turd haiku comments the other day…
I may make a career change so I can write turd haikus on a full-time basis!
Welfare cheques, here we come… oh wait, I dunno if you have those down there. But you could make a good living north of the border – just have to withstand the cold.
No more cold for me. If I’m going to dedicate myself to poop haiku writing, it’s got to be in a mild climate.
You’re a sensible man.
That’s amazing!! I’m not Canadian, but I voted for you anyway. Hopefully that doesn’t cause an international incident.
Oh thanks Erin! From your honeymoon no less – or are you back now?
You’re welcome! Can we vote more than once?
We actually fly back today. The last few days have been pretty rainy, which has let me catch up on blog reading 🙂 It’ll be good to be back!
Hey, well glad you had a great honeymoon Erin, despite the last bits of rain – and welcome home. Hope to see more of your writing.
This is amazing!!! And to think this is your first contest. Wow!! I’m really impressed with your story (commented)! Of course, you have my vote. I hope you win!!! It’s great to see your photo, too. I feel like I’m meeting you for the first time. Good luck, Trent. I’m sending out my positive vibes into the universe.
Amy, thank you! Yah, first time releasing anything anywhere, I don’t even remember why I did it. Thanks for voting, and yes that’s me, and yes I’m horribly embarrassed. Thanks for the reblog and the positive vibes.
Now you owe me another draft of your story, right?
That’s just dizzying that you did this on your first contest. Later, I’ll say “I knew him when….” My pleasure to spread the word. I FB’d you, too.
Keep pushing me on that one! Yes.
I’m ready when you are. In fact, I have plenty of time this week, as I’m off for a few days for March Break.
Oh, good for you. I haven’t gotten back to it yet…but this is the little push I need. Thanks.
I really hope you win, Trent!
Congrats! Best of luck. I hope you win! 😀
My thanks, Matticus.
Wow. Congratulations! How can you stand to be doing regular work “stuff” right now? And you were interviewed. It’s like you’re famous. And great pic by the way. The world finally knows who Trent Lewin is … well, at least what he looks like 🙂
The story was superb. You have a very unique style that captures the reader from the first word. Oh, and I voted too. They made it sound like it was only for Canadians, so I don’t know if it counted.
Wine and scotch all around!
Wasn’t easy, Jennifer. Yah I’m feeling a bit famous, honestly. And yeah that’s me, there goes the anonymity. But I like my blog friends, so no worries.
Glad you liked the story, and thanks for voting. Wine and scotch whenever you wish – although I thought you liked gin or vodka or something, no? What does one drink at Mardi Gras, by the way? Those big sugary hand grenade drinks?
You were probably going to have to let the anonymity thing go anyway. It’d be hard to be a best selling author and have no one know what you look like.
I like wine and champagne the best. But I make vodka and gin drinks too. Scotch, no. I was just being nice since I know you like it.
For Mardi Gras it’s a lot of vodka/cranberry drinks at Molly’s and sometimes we mix our own vodka drink in the hotel room and carry it around in a backpack. We’re too cheap to pay for too many drinks at the bars. Although, my husband loves the Old Fashioned drinks at the Sazerac bar and I like the Carousel bar. I’ve never touched a hand grenade, thank you very much.
This year we did shots of Baileys from a shoe – you know, because of Old Gregg.
I liked my anonymity… but I like this better. No doubt.
You just made me really thirsty for a drink… when I’m still at work (8 pm!). And counting. Grrrr, this is really the time for office liquor, but I got none.
Why are you still at work at 8 p.m.? That is just cruel.
Office liquor? What’s that? None of my jobs have ever had that.
I have a stupid job. It never ends.
Office liquor…mmmmm….. lovely stuff.
Reblogged this on Amy Reese Writes and commented:
Congratulations to Trent Lewin! His short story has been selected for the shortlist for the CBC Short Story Prize. His story is one of five chosen from 3,200 entries. His story is brilliant! You must read. Although voting has no bearing on who is chosen as the winner, I’m sure it can’t hurt. Go check it out and vote.
Way to go! It’s a fantastic story and a fun interview.
Voted.
Thanks Guapo – I was hoping you’d remark on my incredible handsomeness too. Throw a guy a bone. This is the one and only photo of me out there anywhere.
Sorry – I was too busy shopping for that exact same outfit to up my cool quotient!
It’s not the outfit that makes the cool, son, it’s the… fuck I forgot what I was going to say.
And that’s exactly why we get along!
What a wonderful story! So many senses invoked. I cast my vote (even though I’m not Canadian–hopefully that’s okay; it seemed to take 🙂 ).
Thank you Carrie – and great to see you here! Glad you liked the story.
Dude!!! I’m soo happy and proud for you. Elated. Going over there now. My vote? Of course. Fist bump!!
Dude, Audra – fist bump back. Thank you, my friend.
It wants me to start an account… I never do that… is that a real picture of you, the black and white one?
It’s just CBC, they’re not into spam and the like. Very upstanding folks.
Yup, that’s me. Was it what you were expecting?
You are every bit as handsome as I had pictured you
Ahhhhh……..
In fact I pictured you to look more like a hedgehog… so…
Why, did you need a little prick?
I can’t believe I just said that.
If I ever do, I now know who to ask…
You mean the hedgehog, right?
sure…
I read the interview… very nice… if you want to sound like a wino… HA!
Dude, I AM a wino. I been trying to tell you that.
But a classy wino?
I’ll take it. Pass the scotch.
sure
Trent, what an amazing story. You are able to capture such a wide range of human. You are so talented. Best of luck.
Thank you Jaded. Glad you liked the story, and are okay with my weird characters.
There is no other more deserving of something like this. Congrats and kudos to you! I will hoist a beer or two soon in your honor.
My friend, thank you – hoist a few for me, and perhaps one day we’ll hoist a couple together.
I’ve already decided to see how close Amtrak can get me to Toronto.
Ha! Well played. Well, we would gladly take you off the train as you motor along on the residency, and there would of course be much indian food waiting for you.
Yes … curry all day long, every day.
Did I really just say that?
You may regret that… my curry has been known to turn people inside out… in the nicest possible way of course.
I am most definitely open to being turned inside out by great food.
Train from Sacramento to Toronto would take about 64 hours of time on the train, about 13 hours on layovers in Chicago, Buffalo, and CBN (which I can’t figure out what Canadian city that might be) before arriving in Toronto. $500 for a regular seat, almost $1,000 for a sleeper.
May have to rethink this.
Yikes! 64 hours? That seems way too much. But lots of stops I guess. CBN I believe stands for the Canadian border… they make you detrain (I hate that word), inspect your papers, and then make you get back on.
Buffalo is about 1.5 hours from Toronto, right across from Niagara Falls pretty much.
That makes sense.
50 hours of it is Sacramento to Chicago. That is a trip I would love to take. Heck, I’d like to take the rest of it as well, but unless I flew back, that would be a whole heck of a lot of hours sitting on a train. Which, of course, is the whole point of the residency, isn’t it? Something tells me they won’t be giving away trips that are that long.
Sounds unlikely… I guess you could always build on the trip they do give. When do you expect to hear back about the residency?
No idea and, to be honest, I have no idea if my application was successfully submitted. Hitting the submit button takes one back to their blog piece about the residency without any confirmation of successful submission and there is no email confirmation either. There have been a lot of comments on the blog from other people who have had the same experience and Amtrak has not responded to the questions. Very frustrating.
Congratulations, Trent! I read your story, and I have to say–wow! Raw and gritty and powerful, and also heartbreaking. Well done. And look at you–a proper writer in your own right!
Thank you so much Miranda. Yeah, proper writer – I don’t even know what that is, but I’m more than willing to find out.
Fingers crossed.
Thanks man.
Voted. Don’t know if they’ll send the RCMP to arrest me, as I’m not from Canadia, but I voted all the same.
Thanks Jones. Don’t worry about the Mounties, they’re all watching Rob Ford right now.
Where’s my “I Voted” sticker? Good luck. Being short-listed myself in the past it’s a whirlwind of much emotion. You are a winner! 🙂
Thanks much, Pete. Yup, definitely a whirlwind, but in the best possible way… any tips you want to pass along, I’m listening…
Yeh, enjoy the wait.
Congratulations on making the short list!
Thanks much Elizabeth.
yeah, yours is the best; one of them was actually painful to read, and I’m not talking about the glued on bollocks one either.
Thanks man – I haven’t read the others yet, but will tomorrow. Good to see you in these parts – or in any parts, to be honest.
well deserved and hoping you will win. We share the bad poetry bit just mines more prolific 😀
The hell you’re bad at it… I know my weaknesses. You’re a poet, Bruce.
Congratulations!!! To make it to top 5 out of 3200 is beyond impressive!
And I feel like I won something, too, because I finally know what you look like, and I got to read your award-winning story.
Cheers, X. Feels odd having a photo out there. I always believe it’s about the writing, not the writer. My wife took that photo. She is digging this whole thing. She’s also the person that suggested I blog. I don’t remember why I listened to her. Maybe because she’s smart.
And is a good photographer – I thought that picture was done by a professional photographer.
Does your wife ever regret suggesting that you start blogging? It’s good for the development of writing skills, finding readers, etc. – but it has to take a lot of time which has to come from somewhere.
I’m glad she pushed me to do this. Most of my writing is for self-consumption. Blogging made me think about actual audience. As you might be able to tell, I still write as though I’m talking to myself, at least at times. I have many bad habits.
I just try to make time. I’m going to write anyway, some of it goes on the blog, some doesn’t. I don’t sleep much… that’s irritating.
Yes, the non-sleeping part is a big downside of blogging for me. I’m down to about 5-6 hours on a weekday already. 🙂
I think the thing I’m most grateful for is the people I’ve met in the blogging world. I certainly think blogging has allowed me to try different writing bits and pieces, and I appreciate that, but not so much as the people – the funny ones, the serious ones, the profane ones, the proud ones, the damanged ones, all of them. This really is a good place, and these are good people in my opinion. I’m glad to be here, and if my wife hadn’t pushed me (she didn’t push that hard, but I would never have thought to try myself), it wouldn’t have been. I’m aware and fully know that what I write is not really compatible with blogging in general, it’s not what most are here to read – I’m still mortified sending out an 1800 word story and expecting that people will read it, cause honestly I don’t have the time or patience to read things that long. It may not be the right venue for what I want to write, how I want to push the writing, but I’ve learned to enjoy the voices of other people as much as I do the ones in my head. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s as close as I can get.
Awesomeness!
Thank you my friend, and thanks for the reblog. Much appreciated. I’m trying to keep myself level over this whole thing, but the excitement just keeps bursting out.
I can understand why!
Reblogged this on merlinspielen and commented:
Trent has been short-listed in this contest. Down to 5 wonderful short stories. And I have to say Trent’s story is my favourite! There is a link to the contest and an opportunity for you to vote on the stories. Go read the stories!
Though the vote will not earn you the prize, it will at least earn you bragging rights, but more importantly personal satisfaction, for a story that has a witty and sharp turn from a slow start into the crux of the story without unnecessary delay and a mix of humourous with ironical view into humanity’s issues -both the big and the small.
Thanks Doc. I’m glad you could read it. Means a lot to me to hear your views.
Well done regardless, but I voted because I’m unashamedly competitive! (:
❤ Carsla
Founder & CEO of Connect-the-Cloths
http://www.connect-the-cloths.com
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A stylist, foodie, & writer's blog in development.
Good to see your talent being recognized, Trent.
Well done.
Voted. Well done, I’m so happy for you! You deserve this.
Thanks so much Janey!
I’m sorry I didn’t see this till now. Congratulations! You absolutely deserve it. I voted for you, buddy. Beautifully written. It made me feel sad and free all at once. Thank you for sharing and good luck!
Thanks Lindsay, that’s awesome. Glad you liked the story.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Oh well, the finalist title and $1000 is nothing to sneeze at…
Them’s the breaks, X.
This might sound weird, but thanks for remembering.
I just hope your excitement for being in the final still trumps the disappointment for not winning it all.
It mostly makes me want to burn something down. I know that sounds petty. I guess all I’m saying is that I have to do better.
I’m not the most pro-alcohol type. but I’d suggest drinking scotch versus burning stuff.
It might be the same thing.
Trent-Finally had a chance to sit down n read “Saad…” Beautiful, sad, hopeful…excellent read.
My man, thank you… sad and hopeful totally work for me.
Hey Trent I read your short story the other night and have been meaning to comment about it. I love it a boy trying to escape from his life at home and who also feels the need to help the little neighbor girl. Very sweet and touching, Well done
So when do you find out who wins the contest?
Sweet and touching… not what I was going for, did you read the end? Sure wasn’t sweet and touching in my opinion.
Well the ending no of course not; they were doomed, but the fact that he wanted to free her from situation was good. Poorly executed however.
Hi Trent, I was just checking in to see if you won. I’m guessing from your comments that you didn’t. Don’t let that discourage you. Being in the top five is still a huge stepping stone for furthering your writing career and it’s still an honor! And remember reading/writing is subjective. Not everyone is going to love everything, but someone loved it enough to get it in the top 5.
No big deal Jennifer, I was disappointed in a big way but as you say, getting that far is really cool. This just makes me want to try harder.
Good! I’m always reminding myself that the only way to make it is to keep plugging away.
Just read it. Compact and compelling. It teases out the information just right. Fantastic in the both senses of the word.
Thank you Ross, I really appreciate that. You honour me.
enter every competition (no joke mate), you are the best writer I have ever read and I was a lonely child 🙂
Hee hee hee… great comment. I’ve only entered one. I don’t even know why. But it was awesome, I will tell no lies.
just do it … again and again… if you can handle the attention you will ultimately receive X
I think I may…I think I may have a taste for this now.
well that sends shivers up my spine
Did you win?
Nope.
Been there done that huh? I’m still sad from 2 years ago when I “almost” had it. And unlike you, I wasn’t even on the radio!
I have yet to read the winning story. I still don’t know how any of this happened. First time submitting to anything, and it was a throwaway piece I wrote in about an hour in a scotch bar. I don’t understand this writing thing. Which is why I keep coming back for more.
It’s about as subjective as anything is the case!
I just wanted to win. But I got over it. And damn if I won’t outwrite myself ten times over in the future, I despise losing and I hate it when I don’t write good. Make sense? could be the wine talking. Probably.