Only I know what i have accomplished in my 73 years: I have gone from a teenager who could barely write a declarative sentence to an accomplished novel writer.  I can say I did this with considerably more discouragement than encouragement.  I came from a broken family where not education, but food and rent were the daily concerns.  High School, Marine Corps and Actor dropout I have been, but never a writer dropout.  Imagination has more than made up for what I lack in mainstream execution, therefore the reader gains.  I write to create as much as I do to please you. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the er of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short am and again..." T. Roosevelt