literary posse, yo!

i've lately done something i've been thinking about doing for a while. as you're probably aware, i am of indo-fijian background. i always knew that there are many published writers who share my background - but the ones i knew of were either poets, academics, or writers of literary fiction and non-fiction. i don't know of any other indo-fijian popular fiction writers (if anyone out there knows of any, please don't hesitate to share this info with me!). i thought about contacting the literary academic types, but i always felt a bit hesitant, a little inadequate - you know the drift. anyway, it turns out one of the lecturers at my uni shares my heritage, so i had a chat with him. and he gave me the steam to get in touch with other writers, and voila! now i have contact with a handful of indo-fijian writers who are mostly lecturers at universities around australia.
what was i dreading? that these people (mostly older male academics) would not have the time to talk to this young(ish) [okay, that might be pushing it a bit far, but you know what i mean] pop-fiction writing upstart.
what did i get? a very encouraging response, many congratulations for having come this far with my novel, and much encouragement to keep writing.
faith restored, i look forward to future collaborations, and discussions with, my new-found peers (if i may consider myself one). it's nice to belong.