Juliana beamed, because this question was positively made for her — except, oh, she couldn't actually talk about most of the answers that came to mind. Obviously she'd done a good deal of work with people who were different from her, but how could she bring it up? She could tell him she'd written some things advocating for the rights of others, but hadn't published under her own name. There were a myriad of reasons why someone might do that, so it would likely be believable. Unfortunately, the most likely follow up question was what name, and she couldn't answer that. She only had a day job in order to support her research; she had no interest in jeopardizing the credibility of her research in pursuit of a day job. Even if Minister Ross didn't seem the type to discriminate — well, he was still a man. You never could tell how they would react to some things.
"Zach," she blurted, after a second of desperate scrambling. "Er, that is, my brother — Zachariah Binns, he owns Wizzhard Books, and he's always putting on events and festivals and things. I've helped him plan some of them. They've done some staged readings of books, you know, acted out a bit, so that people who aren't literate can still enjoy them. We asked a goblin author to come and do a book signing once, and —" Juliana hesitated. "Well, sir, if you want to know about a time I've worked with someone really different from myself, honestly, it was bringing Emerett Picardy in to read a chapter of Lupine Lawlessness. It's — if you've never read it, you should consider yourself lucky. We had a whole selection of counter-arguments presented, too, but — that's the hardest I've ever had to work to stay professional," she admitted. Not that she'd always succeeded — sabotaging his book pick-up over the winter and writing a snarky letter to the Prophet for his birthday being two notable examples — but she had been much more professional than she'd wanted to.
"Zach," she blurted, after a second of desperate scrambling. "Er, that is, my brother — Zachariah Binns, he owns Wizzhard Books, and he's always putting on events and festivals and things. I've helped him plan some of them. They've done some staged readings of books, you know, acted out a bit, so that people who aren't literate can still enjoy them. We asked a goblin author to come and do a book signing once, and —" Juliana hesitated. "Well, sir, if you want to know about a time I've worked with someone really different from myself, honestly, it was bringing Emerett Picardy in to read a chapter of Lupine Lawlessness. It's — if you've never read it, you should consider yourself lucky. We had a whole selection of counter-arguments presented, too, but — that's the hardest I've ever had to work to stay professional," she admitted. Not that she'd always succeeded — sabotaging his book pick-up over the winter and writing a snarky letter to the Prophet for his birthday being two notable examples — but she had been much more professional than she'd wanted to.
Prof. Marlowe Forfang
Jules