I have mixed opinions on whether it's a good idea to make friends with other writers

Growing up, there was plenty of stuff that I liked, but I was never a ‘fan.’ I never considered going to conventions. Never read fanfic or geeked out over stuff on Livejournal or Xanga or Twitter. Probably my first interaction with the world-of-people-who-like-books-and-also-other-media-stuff was when I went to the Clarion Writer’s Workshop nine years a…