It’s been a bit of a rough week, so I’m glad to be here relatively unscathed. I had a somewhat unpleasant experience talking about my writing. I’m used to people thinking what I do isn’t “real work,” but I’m usually willing to tell people I’m an author. I don’t typically disclose what I write until I’m comfortable with people and have a good read on how they’ll react. Unfortunately, I misread a situation and had a negative reaction from some other parents at my child’s school. What makes me sad is that I don’t think I have anything to apologize for, but it was a reminder that I do need to be more cautious. I wish that weren’t the case, but it is.
That said, here’s this week’s snippet. It’s longish, but it sets up the rest of what happens in the story. Adam’s realization that as a grad assistant, he’s lower on the food chain than undergrad employees is true to my experience, though I don’t know that it always works that way. (He’s referring to AJ here as “Mr. Know-It-All,” in case it’s not clear or anyone has forgotten.)
WIPmath: 12/16 = (1 + 2) x (6 – 1) = 15 paragraphs
The copier was on one side, and a plump young woman stood beside it, pressing buttons. Her pink, purple, and blue streaked hair was secured in a high ponytail which swung as she worked.
She turned around and stared at Adam as the office door clicked shut. “Can I help you?”
“Is Dr. Weinstock in? I was supposed to meet with her after I came back with the computer.”
“I’ll check to see if she has an appointment.”
The young woman obviously relished her authority to deny access to the professors. Adam tried not to look impatient while he waited for her to pull up the calendar. He knew Dr. Weinstock’s class schedule because he had to work around it. However, he had to rely on the student employees to fill him in on the rest of her commitments since she hadn’t given him any information. He wondered if it was her way of making sure graduate assistants knew their place.
At last the girl turned to him and said, “Go ahead. She’s got you in for this morning already.”
“Thanks.” Adam didn’t bother to hide the sneer, despite knowing it was probably a terrible idea to get on her bad side so early in the semester.
He knocked on Dr. Weinstock’s door and opened it at the muffled, “Come in.” Her office was a paradise of books, professional journals, stacks of papers, and artwork done by her three-year-old. Amid the clutter, Dr. Weinstock sat behind her desk, which was miraculously devoid of anything but a paper calendar and her computer. She looked up at Adam and smiled. Despite her gruff exterior, Dr. Weinstock genuinely cared about her students, and it showed in her classes. Adam appreciated any small gesture she offered him.
“The computer works fine,” he told her.
“Fantastic! I was hoping you’d say that. We’ll get the wireless printer software installed, and you’ll be off and running. Good thing, since you have a major task ahead of you.” She handed him a flyer.
Adam glanced down at it. The paper was an advert for the previous year’s health fair. “What’s this for?”
“You’ll be helping with the PR for this year’s fair.” She peered up at him over the top of her glasses. “You can use the old flyer as a guide for designing the new one. Check in with the students working in the health center to get the details you’ll need.”
That meant potentially having to talk to Mr. Know-It-All again, and he was undecided whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Unable to help himself, Adam choked out, “Why?”
Dr. Weinstock arched an eyebrow at him. “Interdepartmental cooperation. The faculty and deans have determined we’ve become too isolated in our disciplines, especially when it comes to campus-wide events. This year, the health fair has several new components. The School of Nursing will be running a flu shot and basic wellness clinic. The Health Science department is providing free materials and brochures on a range of topics, and Physical Education is hosting a variety of classes. Several other disciplines are stepping in as well. Even the Music department is sending students for a demonstration on guided imagery for stress relief. Since we’re not in the business of health or education, our contribution is the promotional materials.”
Adam held back a snide comment about wondering how the Math department fit into it all. Instead, he said, “All right. What exactly do I need to do?”
Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Witt for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!
I’m really getting g a feel for this story.
As for the school parents…it sounds like they have issues that have nothing to do with what you write. You have every right to write what speaks to you, and a general description doesn’t seem like anything tone apologizing about. Maybe if you’d read them snippets…but it seems more like your reality butting up against their preconceptions.
I see no rweaason for you to feel guilty for being up front about what you do.
Oh, it’s absolutely their issue. But because I have to work with them regularly, it feels awkward. We were talking about working from home, so I mentioned being an author and editor. They naturally asked what I write. I usually tell people I write contemporary lit or literary romance, but I was honest and told them I write gay fiction (which, really, I write bisexual characters and themes, but that’s *really* more than I wanted to get into in a brief conversation). Anyway, the one mom immediately went into defensive mode and stopped searching for a pen to write down my info and changed the subject really fast. Later on, she and her husband were in a political conversation talking about their candidate and his “good morals” (this is a person widely known to be anti-gay).
So, while I don’t feel like I need to apologize for living, I do feel weird around them now. I just don’t want it to cause problems for my son, who has to continue being in the play with their daughter.
Nice building of tension here.
It sucks that people have to react negatively to what you write. You shouldn’t have to defend it, or even feel as though you do. We write what moves us, no apologies. Keep on doing it. *fist bump*
Thanks!
That’s absolutely true. And really, it was made up for by the lovely older woman at church who read my novel and said it was wonderful. 🙂 So I’ll just chalk it up to, hey, those people are clearly not my target audience.
So sorry you had a negative experience with those people.
Definitely interested to see where this goes.
Yeah, we’ll see how follow-up with those parents goes this week. Should be interesting.
Thanks! 🙂
The math department will be providing statistics on overall student health compared to other universities. 😛
Somehow, I imagine talking to Mr. Know-It-All won’t be the end of the world.
Ha! I hadn’t even thought of that. What’s funny is that in my graduate classes, I took stats but it was with a professor from my department, not a math professor. But in undergrad, I took it with a math professor.
Talking to Mr. Know-It-All is definitely not a hardship. 😉
I’m feeling sad about that run-in with those parents at your son’s school and will hope for good news next week. Your snippet nails the lower level admin who uses whatever power she’s given. I didn’t quite understand our hero’s repeated willingness to be sarcastic, though. Is this a character flaw??? And I thought from a previous snippet that he was attracted to Mr. Know-it-all??? I liked the profile of the professor (not a stereotype!). Write on!
Fortunately, this week was good. Different set of parents, and we had a great time serving food to the kids in the cast of the school play. Seems like mostly I’ll be dealing with the other family, which is good.
Yes, Adam was definitely attracted to Mr. Know-It-All, until AJ sent him away from the student health center with…well, not exactly what Adam had expected. I think I posted it in another snippet, but I had taken a couple months off in between, so it probably wasn’t clear. The professor here is a combination of 3 different people I knew as a graduate student (two were my employers and one I had for 3 classes). I liked all of them very much, though occasionally the tasks I was assigned were a little odd.