My name is Quentin Long. Like many of you reading these words, I fancy myself a writer... but after collecting a few dozen rejection slips from various publishers, not one of which ever contained any serious indication of why I was receiving it rather than a check, I set aside my hopes of ever getting my stories published. Now, I don't blame the publishers and editors for their failure to provide constructive criticism -- not with the sheer volume of unsolicited manuscripts they must receive in a typical month! -- but even so, it seemed to me that getting from "Your manuscript does not suit our present needs" to "We'll take it" just wasn't possible in the absence of that kind of feedback.

That was then... and this is now. Say "Hello" to the Internet! Old-style publishers haven't gone anywhere, but in addition, the would-be author who'd like to give his work some exposure has many, many other options available. So many, in fact, that it isn't necessarily easy to decide which path you should follow.

That's where this website -- Quentin's List -- comes in. My goal is to make the site a clearinghouse of information for writers; helpful advice, pointers to tools & other useful items, and God knows what-all else. Of course, I don't pretend that any one person -- not even me -- can possibly know everything there is to know about writing. That's why every page of this site has an email link, the better for you to let me know about nifty stuff I'm not aware of, or give me the straight dope when I've made a mistake, or whatever else you might feel like writing to me about.

With any luck, we may just get some kind of community going here. Welcome aboard!