"3. English is my second language, and I live in India, so naturally feel and nuances of language are absent."

Before I answer this one, I have to push aside some personal prejudices. Namely, my love of what Indians do with English. Read their authors. Eat at their restaurants. Drink deep. Then go home and decompress for a few days. They'll pop your fuses.

Writing in a second language. I accept that as a valid drawback. I've been saying for many years that I admire anyone who writes in a second language. I've spent over 30 years trying to write in my first language, and I may never "master" this. Can anyone except Shakespeare claim to master it? Without lying, I mean. But how much of this is "language" and how much is "writing?" I don't know, and we can't ask Shakespeare.

(Well, we can, but I don't believe he'll answer. If you do, that's definitely beyond scope of this article.)

As an editor, I've worked with a wide variety of second-language authors. Turkish, German, Dutch, ethnic Chinese from all over globe. They do things with English that I would never think to do. Often, they make me wonder I didn't think to do them.

Let me turn this around. Who decided only Americans, Aussies and Brits could decide how English is written? Why is every list of "100 greatest authors" populated with only dead white guys? I mean, I know some live white guys who write pretty well. One day Canada or New Zealand might even produce an English speaker.

Okay, I'll be serious. Briefly. I realize that many of my sentiments absolutely will not get you published in Western mainstream. But you need to ask yourself how important that is to you.

I've spent much of 2004 writing "Madness And Bombast" columns for my newsletter that are 100% unpublishable by any mainstream standards. I've enjoyed writing every word. It beats swimming with salmon. Over 1500 subscribers have read those words. Why did you they that? Is it because they know mainstream isn't only stream?