Could the timing be worse? (and the writing meme)

[lls_mutant]

So I was eating breakfast this morning and flipping through C&EN when I noticed something... an open faculty position at Lasalle University.

Starting in Fall of 2005.

WHY NOW????? I would LOVE to teach at Lasalle! It's nearby, it's a smaller, mainly undergrad university, and the department head knows my current boss, so he might at least LOOK at my resume. I even finish my job in September! But because of the baby... yeah. It's just out. ::Sigh:: I mean, I know they can't refuse you a job on the basis of pregnancy, but let's face it. I am not a strong enough candidate for a teaching job (I have one post-doc under my belt, and no real teaching experience, AND it's a p-chem position, and I'm a fuel scientist) for them not to find a perfectly good, legal, and valid reason to hire someone else over the lady who's going to need 3 months maternity leave three months into the job. Honestly.

Of course, the baby would be born right around finals and all...

No. Reasons why I can not even think about this:

1.) There's a REASON I'm opting to stay home.
2.) I have very few refereed pubs. Do I really think I've got a shot anyway?
3.) First year teaching job = many, many hours to be put in. Hubby is still working 70-80 hour weeks. This is not a good combination with a newborn.

Couldn't they have wanted someone for Fall 2006? ::Sniff::

Anyway. Gakking this from everyone else:

Ask me anything about my stories and/or writing process: inspiration, process, what the hell was I thinking, etc. No limit on questions, just ask away.

And to answer the one I know is coming- I hope sometime next week.

Comments

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

A question about characters: When you come up with a character for a story, whether a main character or someone in the background, do you build the person up slowly, with details and notes and descriptions, or does just spring, fully-formed, into your mind? In other words, are you one of those people who 'character charts' (whether written down or not), or do you just start with a general idea of a person and worry about the details later?

That was a wordy question.

Also, go read this story by lacylu42. Sirius, Remus, and tickling. It's wonderful.

That sucks about the job, but I'm sure you'll find something else when you're more ready for it (i.e., after your baby learns how to sleep through the night...) ;) .

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Great story! Very darling. (I left feedback there, too.) And thanks about the job. Oh well. The logical person says who says I even would have gotten it anyway? :) Professorships are HARD to get!

Characters:

It depends. Peripheral characters often tend to pop into my head fully formed. That was the case with characters like Alphard and Caradoc. Both of them I knew a lot about before hand. Of course, the problem is we don't see much growth with characters like that... which is usually fine, because they aren't central to the story. They might be complex (like Alphard) or not so complex (like Caradoc), but they don't really change.

My main characters evolve. I will start with a character chart a lot of times, because I feel like I at least need to know things like their family, their appearance, their job, and a basic idea of their history. Then what will usually happen is a plot idea will occur to me and I'll say "oooh... how does THAT work?" Sometimes those plot ideas go away, sometimes they become incorporated into the character to the point where it becomes a defining moment for them. The best one I can think of was a character I used to write for a zine. On a whim, I had him have a daughter. You can see where that really then shaped his character. Since he was only 17 at the time, it was a development that really, really worked, watching him go from clueless to devoted dad, and learning how to balance his life (as I learned how to balance it for him!) I find that technique works much better for characters whose heads I really need to get into.