dduane:

Thanks so much for letting me know. 🙂

It just seems to me as if it would be a betrayal of where I came from, in terms of my own history as a writer, to deny the essential usefulness of fanfic as a gateway. But it seems equally wrong to attempt to deny its absolute validity as a source of pleasure whether someone’s considering a writing career or not.

Thoth knows there are people of the Everything Must Be Monetized To Be Valid stripe who will ever-so-condescendingly allow that fanfic might just be okay if it “gets you somewhere” in the professional sense. This, to put it as gently as possible, is poorly-reasoned profiteering elitist capitalist crap, and it makes me want to walk around kicking things.

In any case: I’m glad my position on this works for you. 🙂 So thanks again.