Thursday, May 29, 2008

A Rare Vintage Story


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This is in the way of a peek preview. Several people here have expressed an interest in obtaining one of my bottled stories. Well, I've just created another one. "Moon Over Lubyanka" is 415 words long, counting the title. and it was inspired by an evening with representatives from Eksmo, my Russian publishing house, in a smoky little piano bar restaurant overlooking the infamous Lubyanka Prison. There was a full moon low in the sky over the prison, and Moscow never looked more beautiful or romantic than it did then. So romantic was it, in fact, that I found an excuse to lure Marianne out on the balcony and kissed her so that moment would remain perfect in my memory forever.

But neither the kiss nor Marianne feature in this story. I printed out a single copy, rolled it up, and placed it in an old Perrier Jouet bottle. Then I signed and dated the bottle with a diamond tipped pen and drove a cork into its neck. Marianne sealed it with red wax and pressed into it the Claddagh ring I bought her when we were engaged.

Finally, I destroyed all electronic copies of the story, leaving the one in the bottle unique in the old, unspoiled meaning of that word.

I've contributed the bottle to a worthy cause, and it's going to be raffled off. So you don't need to be rich to get it -- just lucky.

Exactly who is auctioning the bottle off and where can't be revealed just yet. But I'll let you know when the time is ripe. Probably in early July.


And the Poem du Jour is . . .

. . . mirabile dictu, by Yeats again. (Can you tell that I'm Irish?) Click here to read it.

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