An uncomfortable moment

I spent the day on a little jaunt to Sydney today. Sometimes a change of scene is nice, and I had a couple of reasons for wanting to head to the city today in particular. I wanted to buy this year's Cairo Jim book, something that each year makes me very happy. I also wanted to go to Herbie's Spices, which is right near the NSW Writers' Centre — which was doing its December mailout today, at which I was volunteering, and that was why I picked today to go to Sydney. It was also where my uncomfortable moment occurred.

One of the other volunteers — as yet unpublished — has written a large-ish work for the stage. Instead of workshopping it or applying for development grants or trying to get it produced on a smaller scale, and instead of working to build credibility by getting smaller works produced and/or published, the writer is emailing Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Branson, looking for them to back the production. The writer also reckons there's no reason why one of Australia's most prosperous and frequently performed composers (no, this does not yet describe Houston, although he's getting there steadily) wouldn't write the score for free, in return for a share in the profits of this blockbuster.

One bites one's tongue, and one prays to God one has never appeared as...well, "naive" doesn't even come close. The utter unshakable conviction this writer had of being entitled to acclaim and riches I found desperately embarrassing to observe. Please, God, keep me humble and appreciative of the benefits of hard work and diligence. And humility.

In Gauntlet news, I'm making good progress on "Mertrude, Please!" but I keep thinking of more and more problems I must fix in "Zork." But a half-finished Cairo Jim book is calling me....