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lls_mutantSo 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.
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.
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I should really read AIL
Date: 2005-06-03 06:13 pm (UTC)Why's everyone doing this meme again? (not wanting to be cranky), okay I will bite.
What's the hardest thing for you to write in terms of story? Is it plot, characterization or dialogue? How do you get around it, since you don't have someone to read over (or even speak to, if I'm correct?) about your work?
Re: I should really read AIL
Date: 2005-06-03 06:51 pm (UTC)However, the end point of Chapter 8 (which should be up in a few days) is a really nice ending if you want happy. You can guess where the story goes after that pretty well! Chapter 9 on is going to be everything starting to be destroyed.
I think everyone's doing the meme again because they're bored- no other good reason. I put it up because I like the sound of my own "voice".
What's the hardest thing for you to write in terms of story? Is it plot, characterization or dialogue? How do you get around it, since you don't have someone to read over (or even speak to, if I'm correct?) about your work?
Hmmmm. Dialogue, I think. Every now and then I have trouble with characterization, but I usually recongize it and send the scene out for a quick beta. I had that problem with Damien at one point- when Remus came out I didn't want his parents to be too angry, because Remus has enough angst, thanks. But the general concensus was Damien was WAY too soft the first time I wrote it. But that was one of those things I already knew anyway.
Dialogue can be hard for me because if you listen to me speak in person, I'm often times very awkward and stilted. I'm terrible at small talk and a lot of times I just come off very blonde. I'm much better with people I know well, but I'm very shy, so...
A lot of times I'll read dialogue outloud. That helps a lot. What gets really hard is coming up with insults- I'm really not good at that. Not even witty insults, just the kind that HURT.
If I hit a block, I'll ask people. I've asked a few times in my LJ entries- most recently and notably, how to rob Westminster Abbey. Heh. When I was writing DTF and the scene where Sirius's parents find out about the Prank and what Sirius did to Remus, I asked in a chat at Immeritus, because I was having trouble coming up with good insults. Usually I just need a few prompts and then I'm off.
The last thing I find I have trouble with, well, there's two. Setting. I'm TERRIBLE with setting. I think this is beause I write fanfic, and the settings have mostly been established for us. I rarely give enough detail, and that's been something that's been consistent across my writing. It wasn't so much a problem in DTF, because I used very few original settings. It is noticable in AIL a bit more, because there's new places like Caradoc's lab, Sirius's flat (Remus's flat was easy because it was based on my first apartment), and a pub called The Dragon Rider where the Order meets. The other thing I have a hard time with is getting enough action into my stories. I like stories about people and their relationships, but you need action in them as well. Not necessarily action-action, like action movies, but motion. I sometimes feel like my stories lack that. I don't feel it as much in AIL (note the as much bit!), or really any of the series, but I do REALLY feel it in some of my original stuff.
For anything original, I don't worry so much, because I have someone I could ask to beta. I don't ask her to beta my R/S stuff because while she reads HP some, she doesn't read it a lot, and I write SO freaking much. I've also now got a few people in the R/S world that I consider tough but fair critics. If I ever wanted to really give a piece a thorough grounding, I would ask them to go over it with me. The reason I don't with my bigger pieces is because I feel pretty comfortable with them as a whole, and while I love writing them, they're just huge! I feel like I should compensate if someone actually beta-ed for me. So really what I do now is post on LJ first, where people tend to be good about giving constructive feedback, then wait a week, make edits, and send to FA. :)