Thanks so much for your suggestions — I really appreciate your encouragement and taking the time to offer solid advice.

One of my stories was published in a publication (Climate Conscious), which I’m really fortunate about. I did ask to be added as a writer to a few other pubs and am still waiting to hear back (I can’t imagine how busy these editors are). Also, I seem to have entered the Medium sphere at a really inopportune time as many larger publications aren’t currently accepting submissions; the platform is super saturated; and I only found out about the upcoming changes in the ToS, thanks to you, and I’m feeling a little deflated about that, too.

I’ll check out Writers Blokke - thank you!

As for Tenderly, I did submit an unpublished draft and it was rejected (I’ll probably end up self-publishing it). I did ask what I could do different to get published and haven’t heard back but I suspect my writing is a little too ~passionate~ and anti-woke (read: controversial & unapologetic) that might turn off certain pubs. Totally fine, but I’m not one to debase my writing in favor of fluffy, palatable content (as you can probably tell…) In my years of writing, that’s still the biggest problem I face, and if I’m being honest, I’m surprised at some of the stories that do get published here — stories that are clearly cut-and-paste-Frankensteined articles, riddled with grammar mistakes, incorrect spelling, and no real thought put into the work. There’s no love for the craft. It can be really discouraging — and honestly, makes me a little angry as someone who puts so much heart & thought into my work. But of course, I’ll never stop writing because it’s something that I genuinely love to do.

I came to Medium because it was ad-free, easy to use, and so many people boasted about its approach to quality>quantity, though based on stories I’ve read, perhaps at this point, priorities have shifted a bit (though I feel a little blasphemous for saying that…)

And, yes! The good ol’ misogynistic woke crowd is here, too. That’s partly why I semi-abandoned my Twitter account (some of my favorite commentators have been banned from there and here, too). If you want to link me back to Twitter, feel free — I’m just rarely on it because it conflicts with my values. My Twitter handle is: @r_telbis

Thanks again —I feel reassured that there are like-minded writers on here. It’s really heartening & it fuels me to keep going. :)