When you were a young teen, what did you imagine you would be doing by the age you are now at? And have you ended up matching any of it?

🚀 As a young teen I wanted so much to be an author of paperback science-fiction. As I got older more and more adults discouraged me as attempting to make a career out of it. By the time I was doing my O Levels, 16+, and CSEs at school (now GCSEs) I was at a loss as what job I was going to do when I left school.
✍️ If only Creative Writing courses and degrees were available then! (If they were, nobody pointed me in that direction, but I don’t think they became a ‘thing’ until many years later.)
📚 Anyhow I wrote about 22 unpublished novels, plus a plethora of short stories and some Roleplaying games and FightingFantasy-style game-books over the years without seeing anything published other than a few niche magazine articles here and there.
🐺 But eventually WildWolf accepted an ebook anthology of short fiction, so I did finally get *something* published in the end!
✍️ If only Creative Writing courses and degrees were available then! (If they were, nobody pointed me in that direction, but I don’t think they became a ‘thing’ until many years later.)
📚 Anyhow I wrote about 22 unpublished novels, plus a plethora of short stories and some Roleplaying games and FightingFantasy-style game-books over the years without seeing anything published other than a few niche magazine articles here and there.
🐺 But eventually WildWolf accepted an ebook anthology of short fiction, so I did finally get *something* published in the end!