Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

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When I came back from Vietnam and told my father I wanted to be a writer he said to me, “That’s a hobby for rich white boys.”

A few decades later as I worked on my MFA in fiction writing, after winning a fellowship that paid for everything, I realized that the writing program was not so much about teaching me how to write but was really about teaching me how to teach; so that I could make money at a real job.

To actually make money writing short stories or novels, you not only have to be talented but also very lucky.  And if you are not making money at writing, few people take you being a writer seriously.

That’s just the way it is.  In other words, you better go into writing just for the sheer pleasure of writing.  If you actually make money at it, that’s just icing on the cake.

Woman, Wife And Lover