Great sentiment Chuck. Well said. However, there is something to be said for writing for the shear joy of writing. I did that for years, have whole notebooks full of tripe that I would never dream of publishing, but still enjoyed writing. I still look at them now and then to glean kernels for further development. I have technically been published. I had a technical paper published in the proceedings of an obscure journal two years ago. No money involved, but I must admit it was a real rush. I am currently writing the Wings3D User Manual, which should become public in the next week or two. It will be an OpenSource publication, so again, no money involved but at least it will be seen by the public at large and hopefully by more than my technical article. But basically I write for the joy of writing. I do hope to publish (for actual money) someday, and towards that end I have my sister editing a novel for me now. Its sequel is complete as well, but until I get the first one out the door I am letting it sit. Dialyn - they will make a happy bonfire one day Oh, I hope not! Even if you never publish, they would be cherished by your friends and family even after you are gone. My mother-in-law used to write little moral tales for my kids. She is gone now, but we still hold onto the stories she wrote. We also have the letters my dad wrote to my mom when he was overseas during WWII and they are precious to us. The written word can last forever as tjames alludes to. Tjames, I hate to show my ignorance but I miss your reference to Ooii. It is a beautiful metaphor however. jon

 
~jon
My Blog - Mad Utopia Writing in a new era.