I expected jet lag to wake me up at about 9 a.m., since I’d been sleeping until noon in Boston. Instead, I woke up at about noon. Now there is Christmas music on the stereo (since the day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas season begins for me), and in a little while I will clean this place up so I can think about decorating it, and in the meantime I will do a meme that practically every writer on my friends list is doing. I think it originated somewhere in the vicinity of autopope, but I could be wrong.

* Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: Certainly by 9 or so. Maybe sooner; I have a crap memory for my childhood. I remember a turning point at that age, though.
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter and taught myself to use it: Typewriter? I was using a computer by the age of 9, and never looked back.
* Age when I wrote my first short story: This is tough because I have to decide what to count as a short story. I know I wrote something for school when I was in second grade, and other things after that which I completed at a word count that would probably qualify them. I was 18 when I first wrote something I recognized as a short story.
* Age when I wrote my first novel: mostly 18; it was completed shortly after my 19th birthday.
* Novels written between age 30 and age 39: 0. This is where I grin and say “ask me again in twelve years,” and other writers of my acquaintance throw things at me. ^_^
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 20.
* Number of rejections prior to first story sale: Eg. Counting this up is slightly inconvenient. Call it 150 or so.
* Lifetime number of rejections: Over 700.
* Age when I sold my first short story: 23.
* Age when I wrote a saleable novel: 19. I believe that first one was saleable, even before I rewrote it; I’ve said before that completing things was the last basic skill I acquired. But if that one doesn’t count, I also finished Doppelganger that year.
* Age when I sold that novel: 24. Submissions are sloooooooow.
* Novels written since age 40: Ask me again in — <ducks>
* Total novels written: 10.
* Age now: 28.
* Age when the money coming in exceeded my statuory employment: 27. This was one of a number of factors contributing to the decision to leave graduate school. They say don’t quit your day job until [insert equation here], but when your day job is providing you with an annual income in the four-digit range, the equation changes.
* Number of books sold: 4.
* Number of short stories sold: 24.
* Number of titles in print: 3.
* Number of titles in production or pre-production: 1. Though I’m working to get myself on a schedule of more than one book a year.