A series of unfortunate occurrences
I got back from the high that was the Scottish Juggling Convention to find the following waiting for me:
- A big stack of letters from the library, who had decided to cut out the customary "Your book is due for renewal" stage, and proceed directly to the "Return your book NOW or pay the replacement cost (or £20, whichever is higher), and pay a £5 fine. Per book. For eight books" stage. So, I was looking at at least a £40 fine, with a strong possibility of £200, and possibly more. Damn those six-month library loans. Fortunately, I could still find all the books, and subsequent investigation showed that the reason I hadn't got any warnings was because they'd reset my email address from the one I'd specified to one I never checked. With a combination of outrage, politeness, and having Right on my side, I managed to get let off the lot (plus about 80p of fines that I did actually owe them, but I'm not complaining). Hurrah!
- A lovely email from benparker saying that while Birdshot! showed great promise, and deserved to be finished, Two Shades of Blue would instead be taking The Matrix: The Pantomime to Edinburgh. Which was pretty gutting, but not entirely unexpected: TMTP is a cracking show, it's already finished, and it'll be a lot easier to market than a Dick Barton/film noir spoof. As evidence of this, benparker and r_e_mercia apparently couldn't decide if Birdshot! was a James Bond spoof or a Thirties spoof, even after reading the script. [Hint, guys: it's both, and neither. Try a decade later, and read up on Dick Barton, Special Agent].
This was doubly annoying, as I'd just missed the deadline for STaG's own Fringe submission process. I should really read those STaG emails more thoroughly...