One of my readers said recently that I should surround myself with better writers and recommended that I contact (as in send samples to) established writers. Ah, I wish that I could. I have enough trouble surrounding myself with a stable (as in long-lived) group of writers of any kind. If you were an established writer, would you want to receive unsolicited chapters from an unknown author? The advice seemed especially far fetched. Anyway, my actual, real, writers group is on the verge of breaking up. Writing is a lot of work, especially for someone trying to make a living. I admire anyone who can work at a regular job and still find time to write.
Published by jameslgillaspy
I've published two novels and I am working on a third. We live in Portland, Oregon now, a city I can recommend for writers. The Fall and Winter weather is so uniformly dreary that the distractions are few. Other than writing, my hobbies are sport fencing (epee) and ballroom dancing with my wife. And I spend a lot of time taking care of our four cats (I hope you also figured out that I have cats, if you read my novel.) View all posts by jameslgillaspy
James L Gillaspy 
Hi James:
I have all the same questions you do. Although, luckily, here in NYC, my writer’s group seems stable, but things can always change quickly.
But maybe we can look to surround ourselves with midlist writers.
I’d ask you to at least take a look at my own Amazon novella: The Dolphin of Europa, by Ken Kraus (at least the preview pages.)
and see if you’d want to correspond.
I’ve downloaded and read through parts of yours, and like the idea of the kid who can save the race.
KEN KRAUS
Hi Jim:
Just checking in with you to see if you’ve looked at “Dolphin” yet, per my last comment and your offer to read it. Also, I did start previewing Arwen’s book, looks interesting.
KEN
I did read “Dolphin of Europa” and my comments are on the way by email. Recently, Amazon has been touchy about self-published authors posting reviews for each other.