almost doesn't count

Today I went looking for a file.  One of those files you know you saved somewhere, but you're not exactly sure where it is.  So I was doing the slow scroll through the eternal list of documents when I came across one I had not thought about in almost two years. When I read the file name I started to get a sick feeling.  Here's why:

Having a website allows people you don't know to see your work and hopefully gain interest in it.  Sometimes those people send emails inquiring about the work or about pricing.  Sometimes those emails are from Nigerian princes who want to buy your work for millions of dollars.  Sometimes they are from legitimate people who happened across your art on the inter-worlds. 

Almost two years ago I received an email inquiring about my work.  The email was from a set designer in California.  This has happened a couple of times but I still read the email with supreme skepticism.  The set designer told me about this new movie she was currently working on and told me that she had found my work online and thought it would be perfect for a particular scene in this movie.  She mentioned the title and told how many books it had sold and how many languages it had been translated into and she asked me to provide her with a list of sculptures I had available to ship out to movie-land. 

It sounded fine, but since I'm not a "free-truster" I exchanged several emails with her just to make sure everything was on the up and up.  Eventually I provided the list of available sculptures and we even shared some jokes about some of my sculptures that were listed as "deceased" on the website. 

As I said, I provided the list and then promptly forgot the whole thing. 

Until today. 


The movie the set designer was shopping for was called "The Hunger Games".  Google tells me that this movie has grossed over one half billion dollars worldwide.  That's Billion, with a B.


Georgie read the books and kept telling me how great they were.  She saw the movie the first day it came out and told me how great it was.  I kept thinking that title sounded familiar......but I just couldn't place it. 

Now I can.  That familiar title has been sitting in "my documents" for almost two years.

Now we both feel sick.