Friday, December 5, 2008

Tag from CJ

Tagged from Cate's blog: the who the hell are you and what are you doing here post...

I feel kind of silly doing this since I've only been at this a short time (especially compared with the rest of the folks on the left nav of this page), but I feel guilty reading everyone else's stat sheets without sharing...so, without further ado:
  • Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 24...I had a blast writing papers in college on my rusty little typewriter and got great feedback (the one kind of cinched it for me was a history prof who was impressed with my essay on pre-war German culture; he asked me where I went to H.S., and when I told him I dropped out in my sophomore year and got my G.E.D. years later, I guess he was so taken with my untrained writing style over the semester that he let me skip the final exam with a 4.0 and the reward-for-writing synapse formed instantly...I continued on to an MBA and became a banker, which is about as far from a creative writer as you can get)
  • Age when I wrote my first story: I started about a dozen, but didn't actually knuckle down to finish one for another 11 years: 35...I had zero confidence in my ability to write and got caught up in my day job and raising kids for the next decade.
  • Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 35 became my do-it-now-or-forget-it-forever age for writing.
  • Age when I sold my first short story: 35 (Billy Don't Like Clowns to Niteblade)
  • Total number of submissions: 14
  • Total acceptances: 2
  • Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: zero...the first story I wrote was the first story I submitted, and also my first acceptance. Sounds way cooler than it is...I was extremely lucky.
  • Number of short stories/novelettes/novellas sold for cash money: One...Billy sold for $1, which I donated to Ralan anyway (that was one of Niteblade's payment options).
  • Poems sold: zip...I enjoy story-style poetry like Sherman Alexie's early work, but poetry, for the most part, is beyond my understanding
  • Age when I started writing my first novel: 30
  • Age when I started writing my first completed novel: Haven't finished one yet
  • Age I finished that novel: Well, since I'll be 36 in less than a week, I'm going to be optimistic and say 36.
  • Age I started my second novel: NA
  • Age I finished my second novel: NA
  • Age when I sold a first novel: NA
  • Total number of novels written: Finished? Nada.
  • Books sold: 0
  • Books in the process of querying: 0
  • Short stories in the slush: 2 shorts and 1 screenplay
  • Short stories written this year: 8 stories and 1 screenplay
  • Age when I became a full-time novelist: (shakes magic 8-ball): "Reply Hazy, Try Again Later"
  • Age now: 35

4 comments:

Fox Lee said...

Have you noticed that a lot of us decided to throw caution to the wind and become writers about the same time? I guess it gets us out of grad school ; )

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Yeah, I guess our mid-life crises come earlier every generation...

;-)

Aaron Polson said...

I can't live without the magic eight ball.

Cate Gardner said...

Love the Magic 8 ball. :)