A writerly meme, gleaned from a locked post elsewhere but provided here unlocked. In case you thought this was a quick or easy career path…

• Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 14
• Age when I got my hands on a typewriter and taught myself to use it: 14
• Age when I wrote my first short story: 14
• Age when I wrote my first novel: 30
• Novels written between age 30 and age 39: 4
• Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 27
• Number of rejections prior to first story sale: About 150
• Lifetime number of rejections: Over 1,100
• Age when I sold my first short story: 37
• Age when I wrote a saleable novel: 39
• Age when I sold that novel: 40
• Novels written since age 40: 8
• Age when a story was first shortlisted for the Hugo award: 39
• Age when I won the Campbell award: 40
• Age now: 44
• Age when the money coming in exceeded my statuory employment: not yet
• Number of books sold: 8 (novels), 2 (single title novellas), 5 (short story collections), 12 (anthologies edited or co-edited)
• Number of short stories sold: about 240
• Number of titles in print: 4 (novels), 4 (short story collections), 10 (anthologies)
• Number of titles in production or pre-production: 4 (novels), 2 (single title novellas), 1 (short story collection), 2 (anthologies)