Smelly Cats, Stalkers, and Knowing Your Role

How I found mentors and mentees throughout my career.

I never realized how all-encompassing it is to have a stalker. But, my editor at Maxim sure knew. Every day, she and the only other editor in the LA office would arrive to work around 11 am—two hours after I’d show up as the intern (I would soon learn such late arrivals were a norm in Wilshire Blvd corporate culture). The three of us sat at desks in the middle of the floor, cubicle-style, while the offices around us were filled with other professionals in media, movies, and TV. I would wait in my corner, desperate for something to do, while my editor would answer the phone and immediately hang up… over and over and over again. It was her stalker, an ex-boyfriend, on the other line (she was having trouble getting Maxim to change her number). She had a restraining order against him and said she felt safe, but was clearly annoyed and eager to share the latest fiascos of their ongoing saga.

This is how I’d spend my days as an intern: learning so much more about the ins and outs of her and her ex’s relationship than publishing a magazine. I’d wait for a lull in the conversation to pop my head up and ask if either editor needed my help with anything. They would say no, then I’d go to the restroom and make another coffee to kill time. At the end of every week, I’d have to submit a report to my professor at Emerson (it was my senior year and I was taking classes at the LA campus) on what I’d learned. You could say that was my first foray into fiction.

One day, one of the movie producers came out of his office and asked if I could go get him a sandwich at Subway down the street. At least it was something to do, and walking anywhere in LA was cool given how rare it was. Plus, he produced one of the Bring it On-adjacent cheerleading movies—the giant premiere poster was hanging in his office—and was always reading big, bulky scripts that looked exciting. I walked five blocks to get him his tuna foot long, he said thank you, and it would go down on paper as my most rewarding day at Maxim.