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"No man, unless he be a blockhead, writes, except for money" --Samuel Johnson
At least, attributed to Johnson by Prof. Walter S. Campbell ("Stanley Vestal"), founder of the professional writing courses at the University of Oklahoma, where Tony Hillerman among others got started. The list of graduates is long and great. Campbell died on Christmas Day of 1987 but the courses continue to this day and are still turning out excellent writers. They don't guarantee success, but they do instill a professional viewpoint. He told me back in 1949 that he didn't attempt to guarantee success (I never did learn to do acceptable fiction) but he could and would cut 10 years off of the apprenticeship most writers face. He was right!
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