Not Help; Just a Favor

Alicia’s “preaching” post reminds me of the recent email I received from a 31-year-old South Carolina man. He thanked me for writing The Secret of Gumbo Grove. He’d read it when he was 15 years old, the first book he’d ever read. I’ll call him Bill.
“Oh, what a day it was when the last page to a world that I never knew existed came to an end,” Bill said in his email. “It was liberating and disappointing at the same time. When would I do this again?”
Not for another ten years.
What??? Had my book turned him off for a decade? No. “Today I have well over five hundred books under my belt. Thank you for writing a book that showcased my sweet state all those years ago.”
Long story short: now Bill’s writing, too. He says he’s “an unpublished writer who has not a clue of how to be a published author. But this story -- if placed in the right hands -- I have all the confidence in the world would prove to be a classic.”
He didn’t ask for help -- just a favor --for a name and address of an editor. Instead I’ll list a few web sites -- homework!
http://thestorytellersinkpot.com of course.
http://www.ncwriters.org This is the North Carolina Writers Network. Among other resources, it has a critiquing and editing service.
http://www.writing-world.com As mentioned previously, Writing-World offers tempting topics as What is a Writer?; A Beginner's Guide to Writing Terminology; Learning the Craft; What Kind of Writer Do You Want to Be? etc.
http://institutechildrenslit.net/Writers-First-Aidblog/ If Bill’s really serious, he’ll go here to give his writing a shot in the arm.