A month into the new year already? It’s award season here at Totenfolio and Telling Creative Lies, obviously. A little over a week ago, I was awarded two lovely awards – the One Lovely Blog award, and the Versatile Blogger award – by Aidan Fritz. Then, I was given the Fabulous Flash Award over here, which I only learned about through a Google search result alert on my name (yeah, I know, I’m pretty vain and want to know where my name pops up online).
A few days later, I received the One Lovely Blog award and the Versatile Blogger award again, this time from Travis King. Travis King is a writer that I enjoy reading and hold a large deal of respect for because of his support of copyright reform through the release of most of his short stories under a creative commons license.
In addition to the two awards he gave me, he also created a new award, called the Vigilant Blogger Award. His description of the award from his blog is:
It’s a truth that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and Elijah understands this well. The fiction he posts for #fridayflash is well crafted and serves as a bleak reminder of what the world may soon be like if we don’t use our collective power to stand up for the rights and privileges afforded us not only by national and international declarations of rights but by universal moral law. For his efforts toward the cause of civil liberty, I award Elijah the Vigilant Blogger Award.
As you may know, most of my fiction is ripped from the headlines and twisted into a terrifying exaggeration of what could come to pass. Stories of mine such as The Penny Pincher, Pink Slip, Camera Shy, The Unplugged and Tap all bleed with a paranoid edge and reek of the classic black hand of overbearing government or corporate reach. I am flattered and ecstatic that Travis King recognized the shreds of truth I pepper my speculative fiction with; each story is built on a concept of lost humanity, stolen rights and shattered privacy. I write, first to entertain, of course, but also to remind my readers to appreciate the world we live in and to stand up and fight for the things we could lose on our way to perfection.
I accept the award and since Travis did not specify rules for the award, I will do so now. Over the next few weeks, I will search for someone to give the award to. This someone will be the writer of fiction that sheds light on what the world could become if human rights are trampled by governing powers, corporate entities or any other power that seeks to control through deprivation of basic rights. Even if someone doesn’t realize their fiction is more than entertainment, fiction that sheds light on injustice in any form is a warning, and good fiction can act as a blueprint for what to avoid.
Be sure to check out the blogs of Travis King, Aidan Fritz and Sueperfluous for great flash fiction and other information.
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