[Belfaborac]

Fear not, I shall make no attempt to downplay Beethoven's place in classical music.

My example was really designed to show that neither all great music, nor all great books have been paid for in sweat, blood and tears, unlike the impression which Prestidigitweeze seemed to want to create. I'll grant you that Mozart was somewhat of an aberration both in ability and method and as such not a great example, but he's not the only one. Franz Schubert, for instance, was reputed to compose so rapidly at times that he would fail to recognise a piece he had written the day before as his own.

In any case, I'm firmly in the Catlady camp here: I don't give a flying _ _ _ how long a book took to write*, how hard the author worked or whether he or she had to turn tricks to survive while writing. The end result is all I care about.

(* unless, of course, I'm waiting for it to be be published. In which case an excessively long wait will pi** me off. Yes, I'm looking at you G.R.R.M.)