Find New Friends

I need to write, and it's disappointing when no one wants to read.

When I was with Dana in Chicago, she asked me about trying to get my writing published, and I said, "Even my close friends don't want to read what I write.  I gave them something that had been published in an anthology, and I pretty much presented it as a plea.  Would they do me the favor of reading it?  One friend took a year to get around to it.  Another friend never did."

"I was afraid that would be how my friends would treat me if I had any," Dana said.

Then she added, "People who aren't your friends would treat you better."

Now, reading the thirty-five-page guide to submissions for Modern Love, which came out in its latest form around Thanksgiving of last year, I see that the editor, the one who reads the 100+ submissions that come in every month, is advising writers to follow the advice of his friend and former writing teachers Ron Carlson:  "If your friends don't like your writing, find new friends."