Most writers live in Limboland. Limboland is that place you go to while waiting for someone (anyone!) to get back to you with a response to your work. The good thing is that it’s full of people just like you doing exactly what you’re doing…waiting for a response from a publisher or a theater. The bad thing is when the letter carrier arrives with a letter for you. Letters never bring good news with them. One letter told  Louisa  to stick to teaching. Someone called Francis’s book absurd and melodramatic. Joseph once found out publishers didn’t think his book was funny even though we all thought it was hilarious. James was told he was beyond psychiatric help and they advised Vladimir to bury his novel under a stone for a thousand years. I’m an optimist, so I told him that a thousand years is not as bad as say two thousand years. 

The saddest thing (and maybe also the happiest) happens when the phone rings or an email comes in. There is a sudden rush. Everyone runs to the phone or the computer because they think it’s for them. But, of course, it isn’t. It never is until it is. And it is sometimes. The call does come. The email does arrive that tells you to call. Good news is rare but it does happen. 

Limboland has comfortable couches, clean bathrooms, and nice mattresses. This is all thanks to the generosity of those that got the call (not all give back but some do). They teach or they do workshops or they do readings or they do something but they remember the address. How can anyone forget the address. But some do. Unfortunately some do.

If you wish to send good news the email is limboland@artists.com. I’m giving you this email just in case you forgot it and need to get in touch with me. I’m usually around and will email you right back.