HumusDecay of Shadow
Oct. 7th, 2021 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoBoy, am I grouchy today. This is a really comical week, because I had not just one but TWO lunch dates. And both lunch companions picked the same restaurant. Or rather, in the first case, I suggested it, and in the second, they did, and I didn't bother to explain that I'd just been there. I like the place, and it was easier just to do it. I slept pretty well last night, thank goodness, although I was awakened by the Lawn Crew of Satan next door. I got to the restaurant by the lake again, secured a nice table, and my companion wasn't even late, which is some kind of miracle since the last few times we've met, she has been anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour late. The first moments of sitting down and gazing out at the misty gray lake were very pleasant. I ordered a drink, to make it up to the staff for what I thought would be a long period of occupying the table without ordering. So, it was all very fine, and my complaints are strictly first world problems. However, today I am wallowing in my first world problems, and I don't care.
I will spare my readers, if any, my many gripes. However, there is just one that I feel compelled to mention. When you show someone your author's copy of the book with your story in it, and they ask to borrow your author copy so they can read the story, it's just not a good feeling. Especially when you know they have buckets of money and could well afford to, you know, BUY a copy. Good grief. Especially when you have purchased numerous copies of their books and disseminated them to a wider public. I hesitated long enough that they got the message and magnanimously said maybe I could lend it to them next month. Or maybe before then they would perhaps buy a copy . . . or get it somewhere. PEOPLE. I am reminded of the part in Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers, where Harriet Vane's horrid sister-in-law to be, Helen, Duchess of Denver, tries to snub Harriet.
Helen said, "Oh, yes, you write, don't you?" as if she'd never heard of her, and asked what the title was, so that she could get it from the library. Harriet said, quite gravely, "That is very kind of you, but do let me send you one—I am allowed six free copies, you know." Harriet is a better woman than I am.
I will spare my readers, if any, my many gripes. However, there is just one that I feel compelled to mention. When you show someone your author's copy of the book with your story in it, and they ask to borrow your author copy so they can read the story, it's just not a good feeling. Especially when you know they have buckets of money and could well afford to, you know, BUY a copy. Good grief. Especially when you have purchased numerous copies of their books and disseminated them to a wider public. I hesitated long enough that they got the message and magnanimously said maybe I could lend it to them next month. Or maybe before then they would perhaps buy a copy . . . or get it somewhere. PEOPLE. I am reminded of the part in Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers, where Harriet Vane's horrid sister-in-law to be, Helen, Duchess of Denver, tries to snub Harriet.
Helen said, "Oh, yes, you write, don't you?" as if she'd never heard of her, and asked what the title was, so that she could get it from the library. Harriet said, quite gravely, "That is very kind of you, but do let me send you one—I am allowed six free copies, you know." Harriet is a better woman than I am.
the everloving *nerve*
Date: 2021-10-08 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-08 02:23 pm (UTC)