In my main stream novel, ‘A Mouth Full of Shell,’ Dr. Betsy Craig thinks she’s on tenure track at a small university in the German-speaking area of Pennsylvania. Now, all of a sudden, the Promotion and Retention Committee is denying her tenure, stating that her morals are unbecoming for a professor.

At the same time, she is meeting and connecting with important people in her field of broadcast communication, and they are treating her with respect. When she asks them if she’s behaving improperly, they look at her like she’s “grown green skin.”

What is going on? No matter how she tries, she can’t get to the bottom of that question. It seems she’s done something terribly immoral, though no one will tell her what.

Having been raised with the idea that women have to take whatever is dished out to them, she assumes she’ll just have to find a job elsewhere, perhaps as an itinerant temporary professor at a string of universities, since her reputation is being ruined by gossip.

Finally her boy friend, Dr. Todd Baker, head of the English Department, a mysterious Army officer, a German orchestra conductor, a public radio station manager, and several older female colleagues provide the guidance she needs to find out what is going on. When she does, fury drives her to combat the problem. Her female colleagues offer support and serve as role models.

Does she beat it? To find out read ‘A Mouth Full of Shell.’ I’ll bet you’ll see some familiar office politics going on.

Posted on March 21st, 2007 by Connie Gotsch
Filed under: General