Condon, Steven E.: - Steven E. Condon has been writing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for many years, during which time he has read many books about the art of writing, and he has taken numerous courses, both in person courses and video courses. But most of all he has been writing because, although practice may not make perfect, it sure as heck helps a lot if the other priming of the pump has been done. During this writing career, he has written 2.3 million words, which is almost 4 times the length of Tolstoy's "War and Peace," or if you prefer, about 4 times the length of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit."The best writing course he has ever taken is one of the Great Courses series, written by novelist and writing instructor James Hynes, a course entitled "Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques," a twelve hour video course that he took three times during the three years he was writing his latest novel, "Love's Gamble Lost," each time learning valuable tips and techniques from this excellent course.