This guy is AWESOME, Connie. I'm trying so hard to not LOL at my desk. Totally cheered me up.

My work here is done.

He's especially venomous in the blogging threads, where he rips into people who lack his reverence for the sacred art putting words on paper.

Has he ever been published?

You know, I periodically run into the Writer (say it with awe) mystique. Used to work with a woman who called herself a writer ... I saw what she produced for business writing. She could not write a simple declarative sentence. (I understand she wrote a romance novel and it was rejected with a note that it was the worst thing the reader - editor? hazardous waste manager? - had ever read.)

Me, I write an article that goes in our monthly publication. It's not deathless prose, it gets me no notice (it's published without a byline), but it's decent work. The grammar and spelling are (mostly) correct, it makes sense, people actually read it. But I don't consider myself a writer (much less a Writer).

I don't think so, though perhaps in some small press magazine. I would think he'd be touting his credentials.

I'm sure his website, which he helpfully gives in the writing class thread, would tell you.

Whenever someone breathlessly declares "I am a Writer" (capitalization assumed), I think of Evie in The Mummy drawing herself up proudly and declaring "I am a librarian!"

Hee. I was just doing that outside as I was banging my head against a wall over work stress. In exactly that Evie tone.

Look for CliffBurns. He's in several places. You'll know him when you read him.

I haven't clicked on the link, but I swear, I KNOW that name from somewhere. As if I've run into him somewhere along the line before.

I'm almost a'skeered to click.

I love this line: I'm saying that for writers, ANY artist, encouragement shouldn't even be a factor.

Seriously, I'd die without hairpats.