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They Key to Believingchapter 15
The publishing BattleSteve rolled over in bed, kissing Sloane for a minute straight, before he looked at the clock. “You’re late for work, Angel,” he said. “Isn’t it the weekend?” she asked. “No, honey, it’s Thursday. I got my story in yesterday.” “I’ll call in an tell them I’ll be late.” “You know, I still feel bad that you’re not making it to Mr. Donovan’s funeral today.” “It’s on the other side of the country, and I couldn’t afford the airfare to go over there for 45 minutes. I don’t even know, if we could afford the ticket for me, if I’d have time to see him before he’s buried.” And as she heard herself say these words to Steve in bed, Sloane sprung up from her dream, panting. Still having bad dreams, she held the blankets up to her chest. Steve felt her move in bed and sat up to see if something was wrong. “Sloane?” she heard Steve call out as he put his hands on her shoulders. His springing up after her forced her to remember that she wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry, Steve, I had a bad dream.” She tried to run her hands through her hair to tuck hair behind her ears. “Are you okay? What was it about?” “Oh, it was...” She didn’t want to say a word about it to Steve, because she had no idea what she could say. “I ... I don’t really remember...” was all she could get out of her mouth, but Steve felt Sloane still shaking the bed as she tried to calm down. “You’ve only been asleep for less than an hour, you must have dropped right into dream sleep. Are you feeling okay?” “I suppose, I --” “Come here,” Steve said as he guided her head to his chest to try to make her relax. “What do you need from me?” “I ... I really have no idea...” “Do you want some space, because I’m here for you if you want me here.” Sloane had to decide in seconds what she wanted from him and what she needed right then and there. Her mind started running through thoughts: * She knew it wasn’t a Thursday, * She knew, or at least hoped, that Carter wasn’t dead, * She dreamt Steve called her ’angel’ just like how Carter did, * She needed to be held, * She needed to know if Carter was okay, * She needed Steve to start kissing her, * She needed to try to calm down, * She needed to work on a cure for AIDS, * She needed sleep, She knew there was more, but all she could do was lean on Steve’s shoulder and let him hold her. His hands almost fiercely grabbed her, as if he wanted to be sure he would never have to let her go. She finally looked up at him and he saw her eyes in the low light from her windows. He reached his head down and started to kiss her. And she kissed back.
When she woke up hours later, she grabbed her head. She had to make another mental checklist of what had happened that night. She started by clawing at her pajamas to verify that she was not naked; she remembered kissing Steve for a while after her dream, but she thought she just fell asleep in his arms. Looking over, she noted that Steve was not in bed, so she suddenly had a minor panic attack: where did he go? Did he leave without saying good-bye? Is he in the washroom? She got out of bed, saw her sweat pants folded up on her nightstand, and saw his clothes missing. She walked outside. Hearing Steve in the kitchen cooking, she walked in and saw that he had cleaned too. “What are you doing?” “Good morning.” “Well, good morning to you, Steve. Did I make too much of a fool of myself last night?” “Do you ever?” “What time is it?” she asked, trying not to react to his question. “Ten after nine. Why?” “I have to call to tell them that I’m sick and not going to work today...” Sloane turned and walked toward the phone so she could make a call. Kyle called her over the phone an hour after she called in sick. She told Julie to tell Kyle that she’d be able to get back on base with him when she returned on Wednesday, but Kyle wanted to make sure she was feeling okay, and was tempted to bounce ideas off of her that he was thinking about Monday night. She talked things over with Kyle a little; Kyle told her that a call from Shelly Stempel was forwarded to him because she was not in today. According to Ms. Stempel, it seemed The Battle from the Inside would have to go through a round of Quentin editorial scans again, now that Mr. Donovan’s team was no longer working on the book. For the next month she would only have the deal with Shelly Stempel trying to change the book around, but all she could think about right now was checking on Carter’s progress. Managing to get a flight to New York for the weekend, she took half of the next Monday off before she left to visit him. Only some people could manage to juggle more problems. Not knowing how they would have to say good-bye to each other that Tuesday, they seemed to slide into a long hug. Two days later, the day before she would have the chance to leave to check on Carter’s progress, Steve and Sloane met again, and she did her best to make it clear that she couldn’t let their relationship go any father than where it had already gone. Steve tried to think of the right response. “Do you hate me because of what had happened?” “No, Steve, it’s not that at all. With some of the things I told you about before, I seem to be having problems now with the production of The Battle from the Inside. And I couldn’t throw you into that mix right now, it just wouldn’t be right.” “Why, you don’t think I could handle it?” “Steve, you know it’s not that. Really, though, I’m even flattered that you’re pressing me this much on it... Shouldn’t you be more content with no strings attached from a girl?” “I think that would only happen if we made love.” This one took her aback; she had to think of the right response. “Sure, but this way you don’t deal with a girl that complains that she wants a more serious relationship with you, that she wants more of you around now that you’ve actually slept with her.” “You’re not the average girl, though, are you?” Having to smile, she finally said, “You keep catching me, don’t you... You’re getting to know me too well.” “And I thought I didn’t know you enough.” Hearing Steve say those words to her reminded her of Carter, and she though, no, Steve didn’t know her enough. Even though Carter barely saw her, she felt like they lived with each other and they knew what the other one was always thinking. They said good-bye to each other the last time this week, and as they were hugging, Steve couldn’t stop himself from saying, “You know, how I feel about you is different.” His kissed her forehead and continued, “When I kiss you like this, I don’t mean it as some sort of ’lust’ thing, I just want to do it as some sort of sign of ... I don’t know ... admiration, I guess.” They pulled away from each other as they were about to leave. “You’re such a smart cookie, girl,” he said, watching her smile. “Why do you even tolerate me?” “It’s not that and you know it...” were the last words out of his mouth as they left. Having other things on her mind, she couldn’t worry about Steve, or even The Battle from the Inside. Now she head to get ready to fly to New York.
Walking into his home was one of the hardest things for her to do, when she finally made it in from the airport and the taxi to see Carter. Things had changed now; he wasn’t a friend that she’d see every once in a while, he wasn’t a friend who gave her a book contract for AIDS research, he wasn’t someone she fell in love with and couldn’t tell, he wasn’t her soul mate that loved her as much as she loved him. All she could think was that he was the man that she made sick, because of her research. No, she didn’t do this to him, it was the U.S. government. She had to keep telling herself that, to make herself sane, to give herself something she could fight. How could she fight the U.S. government? There had to be a way, she had to find a way ... that was all she could think. Carter thought what happened to him was a random act. Sloane didn’t. Suddenly everything was somehow coming back to haunt her; she thought her wires had been tapped. “This was their way of threatening me to leave the government alone,” was all she thought. But that wouldn’t stop her. “If they thought doing this would stop me from looking, then they don’t know me at all,” she continued thinking during the flight to see Carter. She needed them to give her the cure, for him, because she didn’t think she could do it in enough time to save him. Ever since this attack on Carter following her hacking onto the CIA database and her press statement about not letting the government get in anyone’s way, Sloane kept thinking about the government’s ability to tap into her phones, watch her via cameras in her home, even photograph or videotape her voice or image to track everything she is doing. She started to keep windows closed all the time. She seldom talked on the phone already, but she made a conscious effort to not make calls at home, and to only make extremely short and vague calls while she was at work. Her own privacy in jeopardy raced through her head as she walked into his building. When she got to his door, she imagined what Carter might now be like. She imagined him thinner, gaunt, sad and sallow. After reading over so many test cases of AIDS patients, she had only seen poorly dressed men with extremely short hair, all in blank rooms. This couldn’t be the case with Carter. She was sure of it. She knew his clothes. She knew his home. It would be impossible for him to lose that much weight in less than a week. “All he had to do was keep was a positive attitude,” she thought as she rang his doorbell. Expecting to see a nurse, Carter opened the door for her. He looked fantastic. He had just been released from the hospital the morning before, and he was dressed in khaki pants with a button-down white shirt, looking relaxed and comfortable. Her first impulse was to say ’you look phenomenal’, but she stopped herself long enough to first say, “I love you, Carter Donovan.” Carter smiled. As he opened the door wider to let her in, he said, “And I love you, angel.” “The hospital wouldn’t tell me how you were doing. And you look phenomenal. How are you doing?” “I feel awake, I went through your book to tell me how to eat and what supplements to take, and --” “But what are your stats?” “Oh... Well, I guess it was a really good thing that you were called, because my T-cell count was still at normal levels. Right now my T-cell count is just over four hundred.” “Just over four hundred? That’s completely normal! Usually AIDS patients in good health have a count of between two hundred and three hundred! This is amazing! So,” she asked the bottom line question she really needed the answer to, “have they been able to detect any HIV in your body?” “Well, they can still see it in my bloodstream, but,” Her face immediately started to fall; she was hoping the overdose of drugs would be enough for him. “But the doctors and nurses are amazed at my condition, and I think it is entirely due to what you did.” “Don’t give me that much credit. You were in great shape to begin with. And besides, do they know if it has blown from HIV to AIDS yet, I mean, is your immune system down?” “Well, they had to medicate me from something I got in the hospital, but I suppose that--” “That you have AIDS and not just HIV.” Her face dropped again. She did her best to remember all of the good news in all of this, holding her spirits up she listened to the bad news she kept hearing. She finally spoke again. “So what do you need from me? “I need to have my arms around you, if that’s okay,” he said as he walked toward her. “I don’t know if that is safe enough...” “You know that you can only transmit this through blood or sex, so as long as you don’t bleed all over me, we should be just fine,” she said, starting to laugh, as she threw her arms up to hug him. In his arms, she mustered the energy to say, “And you know, as long as your gums aren’t bleeding, you could kiss me.” “But we’d be exchanging body fluids...” “Research states that individuals would have to exchange six gallons of saliva before AIDS could be transmitted, so the only way you could hurt me is to drool for a few weeks and force me to drink it all...” she said as she pulled back long enough to look at him. “Wait, though,” Carter said as he pulled away. “Are you sure you’d want to do that?” Sloane thought for a flash about spending the rest of her life with a man who had AIDS, then she corrected herself; she should be thinking about spending the rest of her life with Carter. “I’m sure. Why?” “Because,” he said, “because I’d like to make this like a special occasion,” he finished as he pulled candles from the bookshelf and lit them both while they were still in his hands. He walked over to her and gave her one of them to hold. “Are we the candleholders today, Carter?” “Right now we are, yes.” He looked at her. “I love you.” Smiling, she responded by saying she loved him too as they kissed.
The rest of her weekend was spent in his high-rise, working out possible solutions for helping him be physically strong through whatever AIDS might do to him. Taking all the right steps would also help the drugs work more effectively, she thought. She asked him to get records of chapters from The Battle from the Inside for her to go over, and she made a point to ask for two copies of the book as it stood to be overnighted to his home for her to go over them while she was there. Sloane also thought this would be a good way for Carter to keep records of all of the changes Shelly Stempel was making to The Battle from the Inside, but she wouldn’t tell Carter that yet. Knowing some of the avenues, she looked into clinics for acupuncture and acupressure for Carter to go to for sessions for AIDS patients. She also had a vague memory of reading e-mails about garlic, tomatoes and soy, so she made sure Carter had protein-filled meals while she was there, one of Italian food where garlic and tomatoes would prevail, and one of Asian food, where Soy and garlic could both be used. “You’re going to make me reek of garlic!” Carter said on the second day. “It’s good for you, and it tastes good too, doesn’t it? And what, you’re worried about offending people when you have to go out to deal with them all? You’re not even working right now.” “Hopefully I can work some of the garlic smell out of me when I shower after working out,” Carter answered, knowing that working out to build muscle mass was also a good idea. She also thought that if giving Carter that much medication helped his condition remain so good at this point, could taking more of the medications that quickly killed the virus altogether? They didn’t know that it might have actually killed the virus and been a cure if he were immediately injected. But this idea was too late to help Carter. When Sloane was about to leave she reminded him that she would look for a master in his area that could help them with information on meditation and yoga. She also tried to make her temporary leaving sound trivial. “I finally get my own bed to sleep in...” “What, I’m sorry I don’t have an extra bed in my home!” “I’m just teasing you and you know it. If I had to sleep on nails I’d be here.” They saved one last good-bye kiss for her leaving to go back to her impending book troubles at her office in Seattle.
The next few weeks were filled with her attempts to keep The Battle from the Inside going to print on schedule, when the schedule kept being pushed farther and farther back. Getting a swami or a Chinese master to instruct Carter on forms of meditation, yoga or possibly Tai Chi, was bound to be an excellent idea for helping keep his condition strong. Sloane searched for a swami in New York that could help her find an instructor for Carter while she was visiting on a weekend to help his condition. Someone would meet with her three weekends after she visited Carter the first time. She scribbled down in her note pad for their meeting:
All she was otherwise able to do was visit on the weekends, giving him instructions like a drill sergeant, about having to eat more yogurt, or stretch more when he wakes up in the mornings, but not to overextend himself and make him more susceptible to illness. At the third weekend visit, the week before she was meeting with the Swami, she still couldn’t see a change in Carter’s physical external condition. “You know Carter, they really shouldn’t be holding you here.” “I know, and I am getting half salary pay for just sitting here ... but it’s driving me crazy, sitting around here and seeing how they are destroying The Battle from the Inside.” “At least you have a copy of the original in your files here.” “It’s a good thing you had an extra copy overnighted to me when you were first here.” “You know, I even asked them to send a copy to myself when this all started, so I have a copy of your files too.” “Why?” “Because I didn’t trust Stempel from the start...” “You know I want to be back working. I think I would have the greatest joy if my first assignment when I got back was to finish The Battle from the Inside.” “Hmm...” “What does that mean?” “Well...” “You want to try to get me back somehow?” “Who knows what I can come up with?” “You’ve got gears spinning in your brain right now ... I don’t know if I should trust you then, or love you more....” “Do I have to guess the answer to that myself?” “You know I love you, angel, and thanks for the effort. Maybe we can get the book out together after all.” When she was about to visit with Carter and the Swami three weeks later, all she could think of was all of the work she had to do to try to keep The Battle from the Inside alive. The amount of work and the number of memos alone was baffling. Dealing with inaccuracies and things that were inadequate, she shrugged her shoulders with disbelief. Quentin assumed everything would run smoothly with the transition of the book to Shelly Stempel, but after finding herself trying to put out fires that never should have been started, Sloane wondered if writing everything down in triplicate made any difference at all. All she could guess was that she was starting to sound like a wind bag trying to let off steam at every opportunity, but all she knew was that the book had been ready to go to press when Madison was working on the book when it was spearheaded by Carter. Now Shelly seemed to be dragging her feet. It almost seemed to her like Shelly was making sure this book did not print. Organized into piles, she didn’t bother sorting memos, but was still stunned by the amount of fruitless work she had to go through to defend her work and the book. She had memos to Tyler, Carter, Colin, Howard and Kyle. And she wondered what more she could be doing - other than producing the book herself - to get this book out on to the market. Starting at the top of the first stack, she got the general idea of what he had written to Tyler. To: Mr. Tyler Gillian, Pubic Relations Manager, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager, Madison Pharmaceuticals cc: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Kyle Mackenzie, Research Associate Manager, Madison Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Howard Shindo, Research Associate Manager, Madison Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Ellen Thomas, Research Associate, Madison Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Carter Donovan, New Client Recruitment Vice President, Quentin Publishing, Ms. Shelly Stempel, New Client Editorial Department Chairperson, Quentin Publishing, Mr. Bryce Farrell, Marketing Chairman, Quentin Publishing Mr. Gillian: re: book flow of information The book will go out for another round of changes Thursday evening, on schedule, after a series of late nights on the part of myself as well as Kyle, Ellen, Howard and other members of our staff (Kyle also worked both Friday and Saturday of our four-day holiday weekend). Despite this, about 25 pages of this month’s issue had to be redesigned on very short notice, for a number of reasons. I believe we can work together with Quentin to make sure that some of these problems won’t happen again. Problems included: * A lack of communication between the editorial staff and the design staff. Disagreements would cause sections to be revamped. Often no suggestions were made, and stories would be returned from editorial to production with comments like “this is not what I had in mind.” One suggestion because of the tight schedule was to mail part of the book to the printer with a delay-hole; that is not economically feasible. * As the Director and Research Manager, I hope that as our new staff gets accustomed to their positions I will be able to take more of a Director’s role and not have to play such an integral part of the actual production and correction of pages. * Once again we were waiting on sections. Quentin extends their own deadlines, and as a result we have to catch up by working inexcusably long hours. We shouldn’t be expected to do so much extra work because everyone else is late. * The day before the book is supposed to go out we receive large segments of the book to change. This created many hours of work for us, and many hours later of redesigning for Quentin. We also need to set a cap on the number of rounds of editorial revisions the book gets before it is sent to press. I’m sure that there are other measures we could also take to make the production of this book run smoothly - if anyone has any ideas, questions or comments, please let me know. Also contact me if there is anything else I can do to help in that respect. - Ms. S. Emerson Glancing through the remainder of the memos to Tyler alone. At each memo she would scan it over to see what the problems were that afternoon. * Time has been consumed by doing arbitrary editorial design changes, which are unnecessary. Quentin’s editorial is going beyond their jurisdiction in demanding these changes; they have been working inefficiently. * been consumed by doing arbitrary editorial design changes, which are unnecessary. Copies should come in clean to production; it is drastically rewritten after it is designed. Stress & friction has continually escalated because of this conflict. * There have been a larger number of corrections per page in the book since Mr. Donovan left this project. * The book is late because of being needlessly reworked. It affects our mailing date and our image as a company. This also didn’t happen in the first period of my working on the book, while Mr. Donovan was heading the project. Since he left, my hands have been tied behind my back. If I don’t do Shelly’s changes, which are demands from her and not suggestions or requests, the end result is repeated demands, yelling and badmouthing about me behind my back. If I do them, the book, honestly, turns out worse. And usually it has to change again, because even she notices that the result is bad with her suggestions. The changes, which she improperly labeled as “corrections,” were another full round of changes that were not editorial in nature. She wanted a regular list changed to a bulleted line of items (which is what she originally asked for and it had changed once already, meaning she changed her mind back to what it originally was at Quentin). None of her changes had editorial concerns. She even said once to eliminate white space at the top of the page because “she doesn’t like it.” The book is suffering because of all of these problems Shelly Stempel has caused. Shelly is repeatedly rude, demanding and unprofessional at best. Please let me know what steps will be taken to correct this costly, long-running problem. Each note she read, while still skipping a few each time, made her more and more angry. Moving over to the stack of memos to Carter, she wondered if her only reason for writing these memos to him was to keep him aware of the fiasco their book had become. To: Mr. Carter Donovan, Quentin Publishing From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Madison Pharmaceuticals Note: please keep on file and forward to all who are necessary for record keeping at Quentin Mr. Donovan: I know we’ve gone over this before, but I just want to let you know when problems come up. Today Shelly Stempel, in front of myself, Kyle and Howard, badgered me with questions focusing on two minor problems. Stempel insisted on work being done that jeopardized the integrity of the book. Her tone was more than condescending, it was flat out rude. If I were her secretary I would have been offended by the remarks that she “professionally” made to virtual strangers. The demands she posed were trivial and out of her jurisdiction, and they were made to not a low-ranking member of the staff, but to her only connection to getting this book completed through Quentin, in front of the staff. Behavior like that is unprofessional and intolerable. We have discussed and agreed that her behavior and attitude is a problem at Madison. - S. Emerson To: Mr. Carter Donovan, Quentin Publishing From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Madison Pharmaceuticals Note: please keep on file and forward to all who are necessary for record keeping at Quentin Mr. Donovan: I have written repeated memos, had regular meetings and expressed an urgent concern about not only the meddling, but also the incompetence of Shelly Stempel that has proven to be detrimental to this book and to the production work of Madison Pharmaceuticals. I have demonstrated over and over again that I am a good, quick worker, even when regularly faced with late, incomplete and inconsistent work from her. I have documented repeatedly that her interference in our work has hurt our morale, has cost hours upon hours of time and additional money to both you and us, and has ultimately sacrificed the integrity of the book. I have outlined what a problem this is. Her changes are entirely subjective, and they are exactly the kinds of remarks she is supposed to be refraining from. I’ve had to replace one staff member from working on this book that quit because of her; I’ve had to remove one staff member from working on this book because they cannot stand working with her. The challenge of working well under difficult circumstances is not the problem; the challenge of “working well when inexperienced people are actively trying to stop you from doing a good job” is the problem. I can’t tell people they should work on this when it is getting to the point where I can’t even think of any reasons why I should continue to. Something, apparently something drastic, must be done immediately. I genuinely do not know how much longer I can work with the current circumstances. Please let me know as soon as possible if we can implement these changes and if you have any other ideas on how to solve this problem. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Mr. Carter Donovan, Quentin Publishing From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Madison Pharmaceuticals Please keep; forward to all necessary for record-keeping at Quentin Mr. Donovan: I would appreciate it if you would do your best to keep Shelly Stempel informed of all the notes I have had to forward to you. I am in no way trying to report problems to someone else; I have repeatedly communicated with her about these difficulties, and they have gotten us nowhere. I greatly appreciate your help in this, and if you need anything at all from me, please let me know. - Ms. S. Emerson
To: Mr. Carter Donovan, Quentin Publishing From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Madison Pharmaceuticals Please keep; forward to all necessary for record-keeping at Quentin Mr. Donovan: Personally, I would not recommend using the suggestions Stempel had for the book. I see a number of problems with it: 1. The image she chose for the cover will look weak, and “bitmapped”, as you noted 2. This will hold back the correction time of the book 3. She is making it less readable to the average reader 4. These seem to be attempts to make the book her creation, which is inappropriate You said you’d look for other options, which is a good idea. I understand that you are looking for time to relax, but you seem to be the only one at Quentin I feel comfortable talking to about our concerns. Let me know if you come up with anything, and thanks. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Mr. Carter Donovan, Quentin Publishing From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Madison Pharmaceuticals Note: please keep on file and forward to all who are necessary for record keeping at Quentin Mr. Donovan: I came across the drafts since Stempel took over this book in a pile at Kyle’s desk. I thumbed through them, and there were a lot of drafts and corrections I never saw - and a lot of the pages included unapproved changes made by Shelly Stempel. I won’t go into whether the changes were valid. The point is, there were a large number of changes made by Stempel. The changes were quite detailed, and she stepped over her bounds regularly in making these changes. To Kyle, they weren’t comments to be considered, they were edicts; he was to follow Stempel’s commands begrudgingly, but he did follow them. If I had seen these rounds of changes, I would have treated the comments differently. I have attached copies of some of the pages I am referring to. This problem is widespread. Just thought I’d keep you informed of what is going on. What are we going to do about this? - Ms. S. Emerson To: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager Mr. Madison: Since some recent changes at Quentin Publishing and our inability to work directly with Mr. Donovan, Madison has been working with Shelly Stempel, along with some of the editors that started working on our book with us before Mr. Donovan took some time off from his work. In light of all of this, our situations have changed drastically - and with that comes an adjustment period until things flow smoothly again. However, we have been working for a long time on a project that should have already been completed, and I still see a great number of problems that I have only been partially successful at solving. Most stem from Quentin proofreading problems, such as: Shelly Stempel has consistently delayed our copy getting to press. We had a deadline for the book. We did not receive the majority of edited work until two weeks after it was due to the printer, knowing that it had to go through us again first. I received material late and worked all night on a few occasions for this book so Quentin would have more time; Shelly would not look at any text until the entire chapter was edited again, which also held up production of the book. She sends biweekly memos stating the editorial is on schedule and we will get changes on time, but in actuality we get changes for only a small fraction of the book on time. I have informed Mr. Donovan and two other reps from Quentin Publishing of these problems, and they have all said that they were not aware that the copy was coming to me so late and that I should not be receiving it so late. I have no physical verification of whether anyone at Quentin is doing anything about this; the problem still hasn’t changed. Also, not only do we need material earlier, but we also need all of the material. For example, the day the chapters were supposed to be completed, I received additional changes for more than one chapter. This created many hours of work for us. * Ms. Stempel and the current workflow as it is now set up at Quentin without Mr. Donovan supervising, makes sure that the copy goes through many rounds of corrections, further holding up production. When Mr. Donovan ran the book, the book got one round of corrections - one editor writes it, and two editors correct it once. When changes are corrected the book would then be finished. With this new hierarchy of workflow at Quentin, a number of editors see copy more than once before it goes to us for approval. Even after their preliminary editing, after we look it over, it goes through another round of corrections. * Ms. Stempel continually oversteps her boundaries by attempting to redefine the book. She tries to direct it differently than how Mr. Donovan and myself personally agreed on, yet often communicates her ideas poorly. Disagreements over the end product will cause sections to be revamped. Ms. Stempel usually tries to go around me and have Kyle or Howard do work when I am the one who has final say and I am the one she should be talking to. Although she acknowledges that I am the contact person for this book, she regularly attempts to go around me or undermine my decisions. Ms. Stempel’s implying that I am not doing my job is an insult. I have made great improvements on the book in addition to doing other work at this company. Yet she is out and out rude to us. It is one thing to be concerned about how the book turns out; it is another to do everything to get your way, and then be obnoxious if you don’t get it. I have tried being diplomatic with her; I have bent over backwards to accommodate her since she started with our book. I wanted to keep you informed of the situation. Hopefully they can work something out internally; we haven’t so far. Other people at Quentin, including Mr. Donovan, have noted to me that Ms. Stempel is difficult to work with and that it stems from her personality. - Ms. S. Emerson p.s.: I am attaching memos I have written to Mr. Carter Donovan about matters with Ms. Shelly Stempel, and I have repeatedly made an effort to communicate with her about these issues. I am trying to cover all bases at our end with resolving any potential problems with the book production. If you need anything, please let us know. She knew at this point that her staff was putting in too many hours for the book, but she also knew that she would have to be making regular weekly flights to New York to see Carter. “There had to be a way to get more money in to her staff,” she thought. Being stretched too thin while working, she knew that now she had to cash in on all of her hard work and overtime so she could afford seeing Carter across the country. She had to do everything she could to help save his life, and if nothing else, she wanted to be by his side. To: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager note: Overtime Memo Mr. Madison: Over a three-month period, including regular hours and overtime, I have worked approximately 925 hours. At the very reasonable and often considered low freelance wage of $50/hour, I would make $41,250, which is closer to my salary for the year and not for the past few months of work. In some industries and some professions, overtime is supposed to be compensated for by being able to take time off. Usually, however, we only take time off at a ratio of 1:4 or 1:3; If I work 60 hours of overtime in a given month, seldom do I have the opportunity, much less the permission, to take nearly four days off, which would be a 1:2 ratio, much less a week and a half off at a 1:1 ratio. Yet this is supposed to be my compensation for losing half of my spare time. I have had to repeatedly relinquish social and family obligations, as well as eliminate basic money-saving and necessary household chores in my life like grocery shopping because I have simply had no time to do the things that I should be doing. The sheer amount of time I have worked has also made me physically sick, and with more work always piling on, I do not have the chance to take the time off I need to get some rest and recover from illness. We have not been able to take any comp time for our hours worked (other than a day or two around the Christmas holiday). I propose a method of compensation that can be used when it is not possible to take time off because of scheduling concerns. Considering how much money a designer could be making with their spare time, when there is no benefit to putting in all this extra work, it will continue to become more and more difficult to keep a production staff without valuing the extra work they put in. Knowing how much I have given to this company, I feel I have not taken comp time off or been paid adequately for hours worked. Consider that during holidays, when most take vacation days and have paid holidays, our department still had to put in an average of 70 hours of overtime. For additional projects I have taken on in the past, I have had to argue about even being paid for them. I have had to fight for these additional payments to be settled in advance so that I wasn’t paid unfairly after the fact. And for all other payments suggested for work done, they have been consistently about half of what national standards would suggest. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager note: Market Value and Hiring Memo Mr. Madison: Market Value of Current and New Employees Attached Surveys Price Our Company Far Below Market Averages for Pay. The attached form outlines salary averages, and they list them at being between $10,000 and $20,000 higher than our own. The average bonus for work annually was nearly $6,000, and salary increases came at an average of over 11 percent. The surveys attached outline that the average salary for work in our field is for doing a portion of the work that we in fact do. Kyle, Howard, or other staff members here, have been aware of these figures. A potential New Hire: Our first interview was an excellent candidate for the job, but seemed disappointed when we offered the available salary for work. Our most recent interview was less qualified and asked for a starting salary currently above my salary. Laura, another good candidate for the job, verified with us that we’d have to give her a larger dollar amount to pull her away from her current job. So far, all of them are looking for a consistently higher salary. The market is calling for higher salaries in general. Also, all of the people that are now applying already have good-paying jobs, so we have to be able to lure them away with a competitive salary. Currently we’re not doing that. Bonuses: Industry magazine estimates that people with the background and stature, as well as the ability, of Kyle, Howard and myself, receive bonuses on average of over $8,000 for the work. For a staff that has been overworked and is looking for some sign of gratitude, no bonus and a lunch instead of a party is insulting. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager cc: Howard S., Kyle M. Mr. Madison: I have had a number of concerns about payment for work done, additional work done, overtime work and salary increases. Some of these concerns are outlined below. Payment for doing the work of people who recently left If you hired someone to do the job of people who recently left at the same price as her salary, Madison would still save money because there would be no benefits to pay the freelancer. You know the numbers, Kyle, and any additional payments we are getting for compensation for lack-of-researchers to produce results at this end, well, any additional numbers are abysmal. They do not keep in consideration the benefits that would be paid out to new employees, and the way that any additional payments were being distributed to us is unfair at best. Letting you know, so you can know I am working on coming up with a solution to this as soon as I can. Payment for production If one person were to do the work of getting that book together, about $36,000 in salary would be dedicated to the production of that book. If the current staff is supposed to be doing this in addition to their regular jobs, then $36,000 should be split between the people working on it. Currently our estimates are below that figure. I have documentation of these salary estimates and am forwarding them throughout the hierarchy of people that need to analyze this data. If we hired a temp to do this work, our bills would easily climb above $40,000. Prompt payment and agreements in advance for work done For additional projects I have taken on in the past, I have had to argue about even being paid for them. I have had to fight for these additional payments to be settled in advance so that I wasn’t paid unfairly after the fact. And other than the hourly rate for projects that we have taken on, all other payments suggested have been consistently about half of what they should have been. We have consistently worked far more overtime than one should, and consistently we have produced quality work. I have wondered when we’d get paid for the work we have done. I look around and see the sales staff making three to four times my salary, all while working a normal workweek (when not traveling around the globe). In short, I feel we don’t receive adequate compensation in most every front at this company. Please let me know when we can discuss what we can do about this. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Howard Shindo From: Sloane Emerson cc: Kyle M., Colin M. Howard - I wanted to send you these notes, because I wanted you to know that you are entitled to benefits that other people get. According to national averages, averages for companies that produce at a slower rate and less efficiently, well, national averages give financial compensation for work given by the average employee, in the form of time off, bonuses or incentives, or pay raises. I have been talking to Kyle about so many things as of late, and I want you to know that I personally value you both for the amount of work that you do here at Madison. I wrote memos to Kyle and cc’d you in them, but they could have been written directly to you as well. My point? I really want your opinions on these issues, I feel we deserve more, and I feel that we have every reason to ask for more. I have been researching these standards and looking into the returns and the profits that Madison has been getting as a direct result of our work. I feel that we are entitled to more adequate pay cycles for the work we do, and I wanted your opinions on this. I plan to talk to Colin more extensively about this in upcoming dates, because I believe Colin and I have a respect for each other and are very willing to hear each other out. So please, if you would like to be hands-on in any of this interaction with Colin, or if you have anything to add, please let me know. And thanks. The Human Resources Department has a record of my taking two vacation days off in February and two vacation days off in March. I would like to be compensated for pay for the overtime I have put in, considering that I have not been able to take any vacation days off this year. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Howard Shindo From: Sloane Emerson cc: Kyle M., Colin M. Howard - This current project has not in the past been in the hands of our staff, but in the hands of Quentin. And overall the book has struggled because of it. Consider, for example, the overwhelming success of our research recently. There is no editorial/corporate intervention in this. We are able to do their job, and the results speak for themselves. It is my understanding that Colin is not pleased with the production of this project (although he has not told me, the Director at Madison). Apparently, however, Colin has decided to change his mind on the views of this project, without telling me. It would be helpful to find out exactly what he is currently looking for, so that we may be able to actually enact some of the changes he now wants. I have a concern that his changes may only be temporary and following them may make us look inconsistent. This may be an option if we have support from Colin on it and he is prepared to make sure Quentin does not interfere with our work here. Currently we do not have this. Let me know if there is a time when we should meet to discuss what should be done about this. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Howard Shindo From: Sloane Emerson cc: Kyle M., Colin M. Howard - I will forward this to Mr. Donovan at Quentin, but I do not know whom else to confer with about this. just so you know. And thank you. I was talking to Ellen from Quentin today, and she said the reason that there are often so many changes to editorial after production has designed pages is because Shelly doesn’t even read copy before handing it over to production at Quentin. For example, Shelly said certain stories were done and ready for production Friday, but I was told that Shelly didn’t even edit them and didn’t plan to. Ellen said she has had chapters edited and done for weeks that Shelly hasn’t looked at, so it’s not because of time constraints. She’s having Beth edit her stuff today, because she doesn’t want to give me chapters that no one else has looked at. Are you aware that Shelly is doing this? It would probably save both editorial and production at Quentin a lot of re-work time if Shelly edited stories before they got to us to check over. I can talk to Shelly on the matter, because she has taken over this as if it were her own book, which it is not. Can you say something to Bryce or another person at Quentin about it? - Ms. S. Emerson To: Howard Shindo From: Sloane Emerson cc: Kyle M., Colin M. re: forwarded file from computer department memos Howard - Okay, this is the third time I have had to ask in written form for you to get files for me ... Thank you in advance. Did I mention that I’m still waiting on the other files, which I asked for a while ago? Thanks a lot - P.S. Do I really have to ask this many times? - Ms. S. Emerson To: Howard Shindo From: Sloane Emerson cc: Kyle M., Colin M. re: inaccuracies Howard - Because of the high number of inaccuracies and falsehoods in the most recent memo, I feel I have to make a few corrections in some of the fallacies they made. * According to the memo, “The book is late because there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of work for one production person.” Correct. However, that is Quentin’s problem; unless a new production team is going to be added to their staff, the only other solution I can see is giving their own staff an appropriate amount of time to get the work done. * According to the memo, “According to Howard and Kyle, Ms. Emerson’s role on this is merely as an advisor.” False. I am the Director; I am Ellen’s supervisor in this book, as I also am of Howard and Kyle and the rest of the staff at Madison, and I have the final say in the end product of this book, in the same way that Shelly and Bryce are supervisors. They are referring to me as merely an advisor? To downplay my role in this book is offensive to myself and to this book as a whole. * According to the memo, “Ms. Emerson did not meet with anyone on the editorial staff to discuss design, production or status of production after our initial planning meeting.” False. We actually had four meetings about the process of this book, two with members of Quentin. If you have had questions, you have all been more than free to ask me, but seldom do. If you’d like mid-meeting meetings, let me know; we can arrange them. * According to the memo, “Time and time again, Quentin has addressed concern over Ms. Emerson’s role on the book, yet nothing has been done.” No one has addressed concern to me - about my book, that I alone have spearheaded and managed. How can Quentin call for more communication when they don’t even talk to me about these issues in the first place? * According to the memo, “We worry that splitting staff results in Ellen not getting help when she needs it.” Ellen, Howard, Kyle and myself put in over 120 hours overtime in the past ten days to make sure things were done. Three people in one department worked 120 hours overtime each to get as much done as possible. What does Quentin want us to do, work more overtime? Our overtime compensation is paltry and seldom used; simply put, there is too much work to be done. Overtime compensation is no incentive to work an extra 6-8 hours a day and full days on both days of the weekends for half of your career. I find it offensive that Quentin seems to think that our jobs are easy, or we’re not doing our jobs. What they don’t realize is that it’s not easy to do the job of a staff nearly twice our size. I could continue through the rest of the memo, outlining inaccuracies and personal jabs. In our previous memo we tried to outline what went wrong - on all fronts - in getting the book out. And I worked on integrase inhibitors, vaccines for AIDS, strain theories for a cure, vitamin supplements to accompany the book as well as the actual book. There were additional projects for everyone on staff, including Internet work and press conferences and meetings with other dignitaries so that we could continue our work in these aspects. Quentin never questioned the status of the book. And too many editorial changes were made to physically be able to do with the time allowed. I have been very professional on this project and at this company. I have had to revamp the book because of Ms. Stempel, and have worked on it longer than half the staff - and suddenly I’m to blame for all of the problems. In all honesty, the problems only started after the staff changes and Mr. Donovan’s leaving. I have felt as if I have had to defend my job here to Ms. Stempel, when I have bent over backwards to make sure this book was written well, looked good, saved money, and was on time. I think my track record here shows what we could be capable of. It is insulting that I have to defend myself for doing a good job. Yes, if Quentin has a question or a concern, please ask. That is what I’m here for. However, I lose patience when I have to field repeated, documented cut-downs and jabs of whether or not I should be working here, when I am only excelling at my work. If anyone has any additional ideas on how we need to interact more, please get back to me with them. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Kyle Mackenzie From: Sloane Emerson cc: Howard S., Colin M. Kyle - On my desk, I saw work that is supposed to be done by Tuesday night. I can say with certainty that I will not be able to get to it today; the book is supposed to go out today, and my computer seems to be the only one fast enough to do these changes - both you and Howard have repeatedly complained of problems and have had to give work to me that your computers couldn’t do). I’m having Howard work on some of the inhibitor research, but because of problems with him doing the corrections last month, I need you to check before they even get to me. I plan on staying late today to get the book done, but problems usually occur with that book: I’m anticipating needing all day today for the book. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that this book takes up about 80 percent of my time here, even if it shouldn’t. I have tried repeatedly to remedy this problem, but nothing has worked. Until a solution is reached, I’m going to have to devote this amount of time to the book. Hopefully you guys can pick up the slack. Thank you so much. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Kyle Mackenzie From: Sloane Emerson cc: Howard S., Colin M. Kyle - * Howard has asked repeatedly for bookwork. * Howard has attempted repeatedly to get archived work, due to computer problems. * I can remember a number of other times when both myself and Howard have asked for archived materials, and would have to ask repeatedly until it made us late. * I have asked repeatedly about getting bonus checks, and about having meetings concerning those bonuses. * I have repeatedly asked to have someone fix the matter concerning losing three vacation days, I have made written notices with requested deadlines; no one has met them. * Often when people ask for assistance, people here can be not only terse, but also flat-out rude. Some people have expressed concern about being under-represented in the company. I have tried to be a lifeline to Colin; people need to feel comfortable coming to any of us with complaints and concerns, because I feel that you and Howard are both vital to the production and research of this team. People wonder if we are more interested in saving Madison a few dollars than saving the sanity of the staff. Yes, Colin understands numbers, but he also understands that he needed three people to replace the last employee that left, for example, and is probably spending much more money than before to do the same job. No one is good at spreading themselves as thin as the three of us. The only way Tyler got an assistant was after a colleague of his threatened Colin. He knows we will keep trying to do it all, but it’s costing not only the three of us, but also the entire department. - Ms. S. Emerson To: Kyle Mackenzie From: Sloane Emerson cc: Howard S., Colin M. Kyle - Wanted to give you a copy of this, because I am going into meetings with Colin about these issues. Any input you have on them would be extremely helpful. Thanks. There are a number of things that I have asked for assistance on, and people have claimed to work on in recent months that have not been completed. Some of them include: Calibrating equipment with our calibration hardware. We have discussed this for over two months, and we are prepared to either outsource getting this done ourselves, or learning how to do it ourselves. Moving memory from one of the computers to my computer (you said the other machine doesn’t need that memory, and we agreed). We have discussed doing this for over a month and a half. Colin had an idea for an incentive program for our department with trade dollars in the form of travel. This was discussed in the past, but I don’t think anyone has had a single conversation with him concerning it. I would like to know if the possibility for this program still exists, or if we could be reimbursed for our additional work in different ways. I have pushed for a decision in hiring a new person for research; interviewing has been slow, Colin has waited on calling people and then scheduled additional and possibly unnecessary interviews when no one from our department have even seen any of the interviews. We have gone months now short-handed. Please let me know the status of all of these things by the end of the week. I’ve brought up all of these things repeatedly and have been put off by assorted people in person because everyone is busy, but these things need to be taken care of. I’d like an update from you on all of these things by the end of the week. Thank you. - Ms. S. Emerson Looking around her, she noted the piles of what had rapidly became wastes of paper. She then got to her Internet connection so that she could get phone numbers of other publishing companies to harbor quotes and interests. There was a lot of interest. This was the beginning of a new Sloane Emerson. She saw how much she would have to fight to battle the AIDS virus. This was a battle where she was not going to let anyone step on her again. When she wanted something, she would use whatever resources she had to get it. She started with a written and rewritten memo to all concerned. To: Mr. Colin Madison, CEO, Madison Pharmaceuticals From: Ms. Sloane Emerson, Research Manager, Madison Pharmaceuticals cc: from Quentin: Mr. David French, CEO, Quentin Publishing Company, Mr. Carter Donovan, Ms. Shelly Stempel, Mr. Bryce Farrell. From Madison: Mr. Kyle Mackenzie, Mr. Howard Shindo, Ms. Ellen Thomas, Research Associate Mr. Madison: Because you are so aware of production problems with The Battle from the Inside, and because you have expressed concern to me about getting the book to press efficiently, I have tried to work with the new editorial department to solve their problems with the production of an otherwise completed book before Ms. Shelly Stempel got on board for this book at Quentin Publishing. My attempts with Quentin Publishing have been to no avail; it seems that the more I try to speed things along with them, the more heels apparently are dragged there, stopping us from creating an otherwise successful product. There is only so much we can take, especially when our vitamin supplement line is already in production and we cannot wait for months with a product we have created and needs to sell in conjunction with the book. Attached please find quotes from ten other national book-publishing agencies. Each of these companies attached have expressed interest in producing and marketing this book for us. There is a good chance that the book can succeed in printing without difficulty if we make the decision to move to another publishing company. The staff at Quentin knows our opinion of the book production both before and after Mr. Carter Donovan worked with The Battle from the Inside (which Ms. Stempel even suggested changing the name of, after going through three rounds of editorial corrections and changing the design twice). Both Madison and Mr. Donovan possess copies of the book, as it was, before the new staff made all of their changes to The Battle from the Inside. I believe we could go to press still with the book, as it was ready to go to press before, if Mr. Donovan was working on the book again. I honestly believe we could work with Quentin Publishing Company if they allowed Mr. Donovan to return to his post with our book and complete the project. From what I can tell, Mr. Donovan has produced alarmingly successful books without the assistance of the replacement editorial department, and I know the abilities Quentin Publishing Company has in marketing our book so more people can have access to it. I look forward to hearing your opinion on this, because we could send the manuscript to a new publishing company in a week’s time if you would like to move ahead with an altered plan. Also, if Quentin Publishing Company would like to reinstate Mr. Carter Donovan on The Battle from the Inside, we could move forward immediately with this book and soon have it on the shelves, helping people everywhere. Thank you very much. - Ms. S. Emerson enclosed: quotes from ten additional publishing companies Sloane loved the fact that she was beginning to take charge of something again, but she hoped that this note would be enough - at least for this battle.
Click here for Chapter 16 of The Key To Believing
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