Congratulations to my friend Young Eliot Schrefer whose debut novel Glamorous Disasters was released today!
This would make me awfully jealous except for the fact that Eliot is lovely and deserving. We met in the bed of a pickup truck being driven at dangerous speeds. We sat by a lake we were too nervous to swim and plucked strands of grass and threw them in. And later we concocted a dramatic, faux blowout with flinging napkins and tears in the middle of a boring dinner.
We wanted to shake things up.
I gave him an epithet.
When I heard the news, I went through my shoebox to find pictures, and in all them, he is wearing dashing shades with towels or jackets thrown cavalierly over his shoulder: a matinee idol, glamorous, un-disastrous.
He once left a voicemail message for me that said:You are going to be my friend whether you like it or not.
Well, I like it. And I'm very proud of you. Shake things up, Young Eliot, go.
