Neither a Borrrower nor...
Wherein our narrator learns how thoroughly he has
pissed someone off.
Yesterday I finished the composition of the AFTRS
Curriculum Assessment document. 5000 words. Yay me! I have figured out that
if I sit on the sofa, hunched downward over the computer, and go for a swim in
the middle of the day, I can type 5000 words without getting any RSI pains.
Which is a good thing, because writing the SPAA speech left me in pain for
almost two weeks.
But there was a
disturbing flurry of email. Yesterday, since I was at home and had access to my
email on a more-or-less regular basis, I decided to poke the bear. The bear in
this case being my co-writing partner Stephen, In July and August we mapped
out the structure of a book he wanted to write, and I agreed to shoulder most of
the writing responsibilities. We carefully constructed an outline, placed
everything we knew on it, then, when we agreed on that, we executed a contract.
That contract stated that I would have a first draft of the manuscript to him by
28 November. That date (the day I celebrated Thanksgiving here in Australia)
came and went, and I hadn't submitted a single
chapter.
What I had gotten - on
November 20th, was a nasty email detailing all sorts of problems, and accusing
me of "malingering". I'm not quite sure what that word means (I could look it
up, I suppose) but I believe it translates roughly as "slacking on the job". In
this context. That comment hurt, because all I've been doing since I landed in
Australia is to work as hard as I can on the projects before me. AFTRS takes
priority, and it's been getting the lion's share of my time. Plus, I wasn't
ready to write yet. I was still
thinking.
Writing is something of a subconscious process for me: I need to sit and think
for long periods of time before I can set a word to the page. I am writing
during that period of time, but there is no visible product. And that wasn't
acceptable to Stephen. Plus there was an email that never made its way to him
(the AFTRS mail system is at fault, I believe) at a critical point. Which only
further enraged him. Note the word enraged. Because as near as I can tell,
he's hopping mad.
Yesterday, after
several attempts to signal him via electronic mail, I wrote him a terse email
that said, "You
will
reply to this email. At least an ACK." I needed to poke the bear because I was
tired of sitting in limbo. I knew the results might not be very positive, but
clarity is nearly always better than limbo. Well, I got my clarity. Stephen
wrote back a few hours later, indicating that he wanted to end the writing
project, and asked how much of the advance I thought appropriate to return to
him.
No discussion, no argument, no
nothing. Just plain and simple. I wrote back immediately, indicating that I'd
be happy to submit a revised production schedule, which I could keep. Later in
the day, having heard nothing from him - after I'd finished the AFTRS document -
I submitted the revised schedule.
When
I woke up this morning, the reply was in my inbox. That's it, it's over he's
pulling the plug. And asking for his money
back.
But the contract we wrote and
executed states clearly that if he cancels the project, I get to walk away with
any advance moneys paid to me. Which is what I wrote him in my reply. He'll
take issue with this, of course, stating that I breached the contract first by
not submitting a manuscript by the specified date. But there is no clause in
the contract which treats that as a breach (at least none that I know of) so
we'll probably be at a bit of a stand-off at that point. Not a very wonderful
situation, but there it is. If we had communicated better, perhaps this
wouldn't have happened; I'm not sure but I suspect that's the case. But neither
of us made a real effort to stay in close communication as I made my way to
Australia.
So there it is. The upside
is that I now have nothing to do once December 19th rolls around, other than
putting together the final report to AFTRS, concerning the resource requirements
needed to implement the new media curriculum. I can spend my days until I leave
as a beach bum. The downside is that I've lost out on the $14K that I would
have earned for completing the manuscript. That's money which would have made
the transition to Australia a lot
smoother.
Ah well. Working with
friends is always a messy affair. And in this case, very messy. I just hope it
all settles itself in a fair & expeditious manner. But I don't really have
high hopes, because man, he is pissed.
Posted: Thu - December
11, 2003 at 08:21 AM