Computer Science pioneer and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper said, “A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”
There are a lot of ships leaving port these days. People are quitting, leaving the safety of their jobs, in record numbers. There’s even a name for the phenomenon. In the midst of the pandemic, back in 2021, Texas A&M University professor Anthony Klotz first coined the phrase the Great Resignation.
The field of education is no exception to this new mass exodus. Teachers seem to be retiring, moving to new territory, and changing professions in record numbers. It’s not hard to find a disgruntled teacher. The demands of the job are all-consuming. A college professor of mine once told our class of budding teachers that if we were doing the job the way it needed to be done, we would barely be able to squeeze in three meals a day. He might have been exaggerating some, but not by much.
Most likely there are a lot more disgruntled employees of all types out there who would opt to jump on the quitting bandwagon and get the hell out of Dodge if they weren’t so practical and such sticklers for minor details in life, like paying their bills and feeding their families. And so they remain. Fear of an unknown future keeps them in their safe port.
Readers in general, and mystery readers in particular, often ask writers about where their ideas for stories come from. My answer to that is often “What if?’
I wrote the story Murder, With Resignation in the summer of 2020, well before the term Great Resignation went viral. But the idea for the story goes back even farther, to one of the times when I confess to playing the role of disgruntled teacher myself.
About twenty-some years ago, towards the end of one particularly frustrating school year in public education, I made it be known to a number of my colleagues that I wouldn’t be returning the next year. At the time, I hadn’t yet found another job. Some of them likely thought I was just venting. That I’d be right back there with the rest of them in late August, wolfing down doughnuts and fruit at the breakfast buffet on the teachers’ opening day.
In midsummer I found another job. I dutifully resigned my position with the county school system, turning in my letter of resignation, and signing the required paperwork in person.
My wife was still a teacher with that same school system. With my new job I had the day off when she was set to go back to work for the opening day countywide meeting. I joked that it would be funny if I tagged along and enjoyed the pre-meeting refreshments. We had a good laugh about it. Wondering how long it would take for someone in authority to confront me for being there without reason. Believe me, I’d be the last person to actually do such a thing.
But my little joke got me thinking about an idea for a story. What if a teacher who’d shot off his mouth about quitting was out of touch with everyone over the summer. And all indications were that he’d moved on. And what if someone with ulterior motives sent a letter of resignation for him, setting up an instant conflict on the day of his return.
I made notes on the inspiration and filed them away with all the other ideas for stories I’d been stockpiling over the years, waiting to find the time to get around to the business of writing them. Over the years, I did get around to finishing some stories. But a lot of my ideas had to wait until I retired. Now, after finishing up a forty-year career of teaching high school mathematics, I’ve been fortunate to be able to pursue my interest in writing.
The idea for the characters of Pete Barrow and Sheriff Oscar Murphy goes back even farther than the origin of the story idea for Murder, With Resignation. I’d started writing fiction in my senior year of college, back in Pennsylvania, at Lock Haven State, under the tutelage of Professor Joe Nicholson. In the early 1980s I signed up for a class on writing short stories at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond. I enjoyed the class at VCU and wanted more. So I followed up by enrolling in another class at VCU on writing a novel. The class was taught by a great guy named Robert Hilldrup.
Beginning writers are often advised to “write what you know.” So for my mystery novel, I created the character of Pete Barrow, a high school math teacher who moonlights as a private investigator. The character of African American Sheriff Oscar Murphy followed.
Bob Hilldrup gave me a lot of praise and encouragement. The novel was off to good start, but life got in the way. We moved to another state for new teaching positions and had our first child. Teaching and family took up most of my time. I kept working on the book when I could, mostly in the summers. It took me more than ten years to finish it. But when it was done, I wasn’t satisfied with it. I put it in the proverbial box under the bed and let it rest. When I wrote again, I worked on my short fiction.
But I never gave up on those characters. And when it came time to resurrect them for the short story, Murder, With Resignation, I wanted to rethink the characters as present day, older, wiser, and experienced people, not the young people I’d created in the time of my own youth.
Murder, With Resignation is the first in a series stories I’ve written with these characters. I envision a novel or two in Pete Barrow’s future. Thanks to editor Linda Landrigan and all the folks at Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Pete Barrow finally makes his debut in the annals of P.I. fiction.
My advice to younger writers would tend to be of the ‘do as I say, not as I’ve done’ variety. Something teachers are not supposed to say! Don’t count on waiting until retirement to settle into a regular writing routine. Find your quiet place, and set up a regular routine to devote a set amount of time to your writing. It could be an hour a day, or an hour a week. Whatever you can spare. Write a paragraph or a page. Whatever you can accomplish. Real life is busy, and deserves our attention. But the personal need to spin a tale, tell a story, inform or caution, educate or entertain, can be an overwhelming force. If that’s something you need to do, stick with it!
Back in 2018 Paul McCartney released an album named Egypt Station that included a song called “Do It Now.” The song contains good advice in the lyrics:
“So do it now, do it now
While your vision is clear
Do it now
While the feeling is here
If you leave it too late
It could all disappear
So do it now
While your vision is clear“
Excellent advice for all, but especially for writers.
Trace Evidence 