A few years ago, before I’d completed my first novel, Later With Myself, I was fortunate enough to have coffee with a traditionally-published novelist. A real, honest-to-goodness author who’d managed to land an agent through a Connection (see “The Elusive Elements of Success,” below) via her writers’ group. These were the first words out of her mouth—even before “Double decaf latte, please”: “You should know, I have a personal policy never to review aspiring writers’ manus...


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