The would-be author asked me how to publish her book.  I should have replied, do you know your market?  Instead, I gave her the name of someone who might help. Why point to the pitfalls ahead?  The woman had completed a book. She deserved kudos instead of advice. I wasn’t the one

A poet I know sent me her latest verse.  The subject was homelessness.  I replied to her with a compliment and a link to one of my blogs on the topic. Days later, she sent me four lines that I thought were lovely. About to send her a second compliment, I paused.  A distant memory f