the writing life: a snapshot
Nov. 30th, 2008 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanCurrent Status as of this morning:
HARD MAGIC revisions: underway
"Strong Earth": underway, if sticky
VINEART 1 polish: pending (Kiki? were you the one who wanted to read this? sing out, if so...)
PACK OF LIES: pending, very very impatiently
-------------------------------------
And a look back, taken from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rolanni, constructed by autopope, and turned into the wild with permission to use. All ages approximate, because I swear I don't remember ages, just events....
* Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 8-ish. Although I knew I was going to be an editor, too. Focused, moi?
* Age when I "wrote" my first story: 4, according to family legend (and my teacher at the time was unnerved because it had a beginning, a middle, and an ending, something preschoolers weren't supposed to quite grok. My parents, again according to legend, laughed and sighed simultaneously, knowing What Was To Come.
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: hrmmm.... I was using my mom's by the time I was 10 or so... I never got my own, although I think I had 80% ownership by the time I moved on to a computer...
* Age when I wrote my first novel: 12 or so. I still remember it. It was much to cringe over.
* Novels written between age 4 and age 34: er.... six? Maybe seven. How do we count the co-written ones?
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 25 (it sold)
* Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: See above. Don't hate me, I've gotten plenty since then.
* Age when I sold my first short story: 25
* Age when I first came close to selling a novel: Near-misses, like near-convictions, don't count. Especially since it eventually sold.
* Age when I killed my first market: 31
* Age when I was first told I had no talent (by an editor): 30
* Age I was first told I had no talent (by a reader): 28
* Age when I first sold a non-fiction book: 33
* Age when I first sold a poem: 36
* Age when I next wrote a saleable novel: Original, not tie-in? 34
* Age when that novel was published: 36
* Age when the second saleable novel finally sold: 34 (multi-book deal)
* Age when a work was first shortlisted for a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy or Stoker award: Hah. And again I say, hah.
* Age when the second saleable novel came out: 37
* Age when the third saleable novel came out: 38
* Age when the fourth saleable novel came out: 39
* Age when I first won a Hugo award: See above re: awards. If they'd had the long-form editorial Hugo back then I might have had a shot. Not that I'm bitter.. oh wait, yeah, I am.
* Age when I finally shut down the day-job and became a full-time novelist: 36
* Age when the money coming in matched/exceeded my previous employment: 40 [note: past results are no guarantee of future income. The life of a freelancer is variable. Oh yeah]
* Age when I returned to the day-job because of economic implosion: not yet, but the resume remains polished.
* Age now: 41
* Number of books sold: 17 (novels), 1 (short story collection), edited anthology: 2
* Number of titles in print: 13 (one way or another)
* Number of titles fallen out of print: 3 tie-ins, 1 YA, 1 original (although they swear it's temporary)
*Consider this an LJ-meme: if you write professionally, feel free to post your own equivalent of this list. (Obviously you'll need to customize it to track your career path -- but you get the idea.)*
HARD MAGIC revisions: underway
"Strong Earth": underway, if sticky
VINEART 1 polish: pending (Kiki? were you the one who wanted to read this? sing out, if so...)
PACK OF LIES: pending, very very impatiently
-------------------------------------
And a look back, taken from
rolanni, constructed by autopope, and turned into the wild with permission to use. All ages approximate, because I swear I don't remember ages, just events....* Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 8-ish. Although I knew I was going to be an editor, too. Focused, moi?
* Age when I "wrote" my first story: 4, according to family legend (and my teacher at the time was unnerved because it had a beginning, a middle, and an ending, something preschoolers weren't supposed to quite grok. My parents, again according to legend, laughed and sighed simultaneously, knowing What Was To Come.
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: hrmmm.... I was using my mom's by the time I was 10 or so... I never got my own, although I think I had 80% ownership by the time I moved on to a computer...
* Age when I wrote my first novel: 12 or so. I still remember it. It was much to cringe over.
* Novels written between age 4 and age 34: er.... six? Maybe seven. How do we count the co-written ones?
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 25 (it sold)
* Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: See above. Don't hate me, I've gotten plenty since then.
* Age when I sold my first short story: 25
* Age when I first came close to selling a novel: Near-misses, like near-convictions, don't count. Especially since it eventually sold.
* Age when I killed my first market: 31
* Age when I was first told I had no talent (by an editor): 30
* Age I was first told I had no talent (by a reader): 28
* Age when I first sold a non-fiction book: 33
* Age when I first sold a poem: 36
* Age when I next wrote a saleable novel: Original, not tie-in? 34
* Age when that novel was published: 36
* Age when the second saleable novel finally sold: 34 (multi-book deal)
* Age when a work was first shortlisted for a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy or Stoker award: Hah. And again I say, hah.
* Age when the second saleable novel came out: 37
* Age when the third saleable novel came out: 38
* Age when the fourth saleable novel came out: 39
* Age when I first won a Hugo award: See above re: awards. If they'd had the long-form editorial Hugo back then I might have had a shot. Not that I'm bitter.. oh wait, yeah, I am.
* Age when I finally shut down the day-job and became a full-time novelist: 36
* Age when the money coming in matched/exceeded my previous employment: 40 [note: past results are no guarantee of future income. The life of a freelancer is variable. Oh yeah]
* Age when I returned to the day-job because of economic implosion: not yet, but the resume remains polished.
* Age now: 41
* Number of books sold: 17 (novels), 1 (short story collection), edited anthology: 2
* Number of titles in print: 13 (one way or another)
* Number of titles fallen out of print: 3 tie-ins, 1 YA, 1 original (although they swear it's temporary)
*Consider this an LJ-meme: if you write professionally, feel free to post your own equivalent of this list. (Obviously you'll need to customize it to track your career path -- but you get the idea.)*
