The Benefits Of Looking At Your Site Stats

So, late Saturday night I was perusing the statistics of this blog and happened across a bunch of search strings for Tod Goldberg Southern California Book Award Simplify, which seemed odd, since generally the search strings that lead people here have to do with nude photos of HGTV's Lisa Laporta. Ever a zealot for my own ego, I typed that same string into Google and, lo and behold, learned that I'm a finalist for the Southern California Booksellers Association Award for Fiction, which I'm absolutely thrilled about. To say that it is an unexpected honor would be a vast understatement. If you don't believe me, ask Wendy, who I woke up on Sunday at 1am, shoving a lap-top into her face and screaming, "Look! Award! Nominated!"

I'd like to say that I have an excellent chance of winning, except that the people I'm nominated against are pretty formidable and since I happen to know 3/4ths of them personally, it's tough to actively wish ill for any of them. Here are the other nominees:

Aimee Bender for Willful Creatures

Susan Straight for A Million Nightingales

Carolyn See for There Will Never Be Another You

Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack for Literacy and Longing In LA

The incestuous nature of things doesn't help: Aimee blurbed Simplify and I've literally known her for 20 years and adore her, Susan blurbed Living Dead Girl and I've known her for quite a few years as well and I adore her, too. Carolyn See has had nothing but lovely things to say about my work over the years (including calling LDG "brilliant" in the Washington Post), has always been exceptionally kind to me and her daughter, the fabulous Lisa See, was one of the judges for the LA Times Book Prize the year I was up for that. The writing world is actually very small, particularly in Southern California. Of course, if I'd been up for the Mystery award, it would be a similar deal. The nominees for that are:

T. Jefferson Parker for The Fallen

Denise Hamilton for Prisoner of Memory

Barbara Seranella for An Unacceptable Death

Jacqueline Winspear for Pardonable Lies

Paul Levine for Solomon Vs. Lord

All of whom I know, and, I know for certainty, all of whom know each other. It should be a fun night, presuming at some point someone calls me to let me know, you know, when that night is and what I should wear.

Comments

[Burl Barer]

Ahhhhhh -- the thrill of nomination; the glory of awards. Way back in the mists of time, when my first book was nominated for an Edgar, I almost didn't attend the awards in New York. After all, I lived in Walla Walla, Washington and that too far to drive and a bit spendy to fly. Your much older and wrinkled brother, Lee, encouraged me to attend. "Hey, even if you don't win, you get to hang out with wonderful talented people." Sure -- and they will wonder what the hell I'm doing there with them. When my book won the award, I was beyond thrilled. Once you win an award, no matter how dismal your future career path, you publishers will always put "WHATEVER AWARD WINNER!" on the jacket. Sort of like Best Supporting Actor OSCAR WINNER ALDO RAY who, reduced to exploitation films and, finally, porno appearances in his final years, was still an OSCAR recipient even though he was starring in Riot on Sunset Strip with Mimsy Farmer and the Standells.
I am not appearing in exploitation films or playing "the doctor" in porno movies -- yet.
Maybe you are, under an alias -- my family is always full of surprises. When I bought a car and it was delivered to my Mom's while I returned her car, the new vehicle was delivered by the girlfriend of the auto salesman. Somehow this got translated in the family grapevine as the woman being MY girlfriend from ALBERTSONS!
So, winning the award would be wonderful for you Tod -- but don't be surprised if you hear from a distant relative something about "Carolyne See's Goldberg Straight on Bender"
tsk tsk...we didn't even know the poor boy had a drinking problem.

[HelenKay]

Congratulations!

Interesting SCBA decided to hide the nomination from you. Maybe someone at SCBA heard about your google fetish and wanted to see how long it would take you to track it down. Apparently, not long...

[Karen]

Congrats, Mr. Goldberg!

[Dante Kleinberg]

I'm also addicted to my blog statistics.

I saw one today from Google, someone was looking for the lyrics to Treva Blomquist's CD (that I reviewed). I felt bad. I do not have the lyrics.

[Tanya]

Congratulations, Tod! You definitely deserve to win the award even among such elite company.

Good luck!

[Sara Gran]

Congratulations!

[patry]

I'm rooting for you!