It’s the day after President’s Day, the strange little wannabee holiday that fills in the space between Dr. King Day and Memorial Day. It’s a good time to reflect on leadership and what it means, and that’s the kind of mail I’ve been getting lately.

Thank you for your piece on George Washington Carver. You made me want to look up more background information on him, and he really was a great scientist.

You are most welcome. I wanted to say more, but I thought his spirit was the most important thing to comment on. I should have included a link any one of the fine biographies that are available, as they all list his many achievements. But you can find them on your own. What matters to me is that we still have a lot to learn from him. His approach to life and learning was a constant ballet of curiosity and amazement. That’s good science, good art, and a good life all at once. Leading by example is one of the most powerful ways to lead.

I liked your blog on Latin America. Since I noticed that you only respond to e-mails with a question in them, I’ll ask one now: is Latin America going to start beating us out?

I led with the non-question about Dr. Carver just to confound you, so not everything has to be in the form of a question. This isn’t Jeopardy. But that routine has gotten pretty old lately, hasn’t it? Now I’m asking the questions �

In all seriousness, I do think that this is Latin America’s big moment. It may seem strange to say it this way, but these nations did not succeed in staying together because their populations were relatively small and isolated. Mexico was once everything from Oregon to Panama, and Gran Colombia was once everything south of that to Peru and the Portuguese territory of Brasil. They split into tiny pieces largely because communication was difficult and the population centers had little in common.

One hundred years on, the problems became growing population centers with pervasive poverty, corruption, incompetence, and interference from the USofA. People had settled the continent, but the patterns were erratic and unconnected. That is changing, meaning that the time of Bol�var is at hand. Can they work their way out of the situation? I think there is every reason to be hopeful given the tremendous resources that they have and the new spirit of cooperation. Two hundred years after independence, they finally have all the elements in place to control their own destinies. Perhaps they will even lead us yet. Britain never thought we’d run the world when they were done with it, after all.

I don’t see how a writer can be so hard on writers in general. You must have gotten too many rejection letters to be so bitter.

Not at all. I haven’t sent out queries to publishers or agents for two simple reasons: I know perfectly well that I don’t understand the industry, and I really don’t have anything finished to shop around.

I never set out to be a “writer”. I wrote “Downriver” because I felt like it, and I can still show anyone the quote I got to have 12 copies of it printed at Kinko’s for my family. It turned out that it cost about as much to get it printed nicely at AuthorHouse, so I did that instead. Some other people read it and liked it, so I started actively pitching it. During this process I learned that I made many mistakes, including going with a less well regarded “vanity” press and not even trying to shop it around to publishers.

I decided I should learn more about the industry to find out what it takes to do things right the next time, should I get around to it. It seemed reasonable to learn this stuff before I wrote anything new, since it might improve my writing or influence what I write in some other way. I’m not looking for checklists of “tips”, I’m looking to understand how some writers are chosen and others are not.

During this process, it has become clear to me that most of the industry that I have encountered is never going to like me, or more importantly what I have to say, no matter what I do. I will never be one of the “cool kids”. That shouldn’t bother me, but I do think that there is an important role for literature in our world – a role that has gone utterly neglected in what appears to be a race to be more cool than the last author. I always lose that fight, but more importantly our world loses. There has to be another way, and I’ve decided that I’m as good a person to figure that other way out as anyone. That’s a fight I’m willing to lead, if my leadership is helpful.

That’s the mailbag for the week. Please keep your letters coming, even if they aren’t in the form of a question. Call me bitter, call me angry, call me a complete idiot if you like; it’s all good. Send them to wabbitoid47 at yahoo.com and I promise you a response of some kind. Thanks for reading!