Andrew West…

…blogs at wongaBlog

I just searched my inbox for emails from Norm. There are more than I expected. I mean, I remembered that he’d profiled me for his blog, despite my being a little blogger with no real readership or reason to attract his attention. That was a lovely thing to do, and made me feel part of something. So there are a few emails about that. But I’d forgotten his competitions and lists. Who are your favourite poets? Musicals? Actors? For each of these there’s my submission and a thank you in reply.

But not just a thank you—there’s always some little comment or aside. Just enough to make me feel like a person, and not another entrant, of which there must have been dozens. And there’s his ‘short short story’ competition, where he published my entry. I was so proud of that. And there’s the time I asked for gift advice for a mutual friend. The reply was quick, eloquent, and apologetically unhelpful.

I only had the briefest of interactions with him. but he was nice to me. He made my life a fraction better, just because he could. That’s gentlemanly. Hat-tip, Norm.