In which Tony is encouraged by a review of an excerpt from his journal.

Recently I allowed a small section of my journal to escape the confines of its page and be read by arbiters of good taste at an online short story symposium. The resulting assessment was that it was ‘engaging in a somewhat pointless fashion’, a glowing review if ever I’ve heard one. Such a resounding endorsement of my fledgling scribery confirms what I have suspected for some time – that I have the makings of an author of distinction. I intend to stop washing and up my alcohol consumption henceforth.

I showed the piece to The Admiral. He said I was ‘damned with faint praise,’ and I agreed that they must have really liked it. The Admiral also harbours a desire to be an author and has often said he wishes to write a ‘classic of 20^th Century literature’. Despite my misgivings about the timing of such an effort, he remains undeterred and continues to pound at his keyboard regularly, if only in frustration.

Once he showed me an example of his writing. It appeared to be in javascript. I didn’t wish to be discouraging because there are many classics of 20^th Century literature written in code. Ulysses for example, a doorstopper of some girth, requires an even bigger tome on hand for deciphering purposes. However, if it was The Admiral’s intention to compose something equally obscure, Ms-Dos might have been more appropriate, given the period.

Anyway I believe there’s only room for one great author in our circle and I should think this testament to my long-dormant genius puts me some way ahead of the fold. Soon I’ll be joining the author of the Maltese Falcon - Dan Brown I think it was - in the pantheon of literary greats, drunk, refusing to wash and asking the others what pantheon means.