I was reminded of a writing milestone anniversary today, so I thought it would be fun to look at what was happening with my writing career if I go back in five-year intervals from 2023. (I say “writing career” rather than “writing” because while it would probably be instructive to look at examples of how my writing itself changed over that time, I don’t have the energy to do that today!)

FIVE YEARS AGO: In late 2018, I had just published my first novel, Armed in Her Fashion, with a small Canadian press, and had a starred review in Publishers Weekly. I was a member of the jury judging the Sunburst Awards. I’d had a total of about 30 stories published by then, nearly all paying publications, plus a novella in an anthology. I had one novella, Alice Payne Arrives, out from Tordotcom, and the second was in production. I had published my first interactive fiction for Choice of Games (The Road to Canterbury) and was working on my second (The Magician’s Workshop). I had just finished a massive revision of The Embroidered Book that my agent was preparing to submit. Day job status: I’d been freelancing for a few years, after leaving the newspaper. Parenting status: The child was eight years old.

TEN YEARS AGO: In late 2013, I had just given up on a novel called Hold My Body Down (a fantasy set in 19th century Ottawa). A brief period of querying agents on it actually did get some interest, but I decided the novel was not good enough and I was already working on another one I liked better (The Humours of Grub Street, a fantasy set in 18th century London, which has never been published but did land me my agent the following year.) I had also joined SFWA and Codex, on the strength of my first pro-rate short story sales. I hadn’t spent much time on short fiction before that, but in 2013 I made a deliberate switch to working on, and submitting, short fiction. I was on the board of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. I had just joined or was about to join the East Block Irregulars, the Ottawa speculative writers’ critique circle of which I am still a member. I had started to go to some conventions. Day job status: I’d just been promoted to editorial pages editor. Parenting status: The child was three years old.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: In late 2008, I was (unsuccessfully) querying a novel called The Disappearance of Walter Map, a belle-dame-sans-merci novel about a 12 century writer, which I had workshopped through a Humber College program with Paul Quarrington, who told me it “it deserves to be published.” Alas. I still have a soft spot for that novel, though I can only imagine how much work it would take to brush up. I miss Paul Quarrington a lot and everyone should read his books. I was a member of a writers’ critique circle in Ottawa (a different one, with lovely people, a mix of genres.) Day job status: I was an editorial board member and columnist. I joined Twitter that year! Sigh.

TWENTY YEARS AGO: In late 2003, I had sold a very short vignette called “Fog” to The New Quarterly, which was somewhat miraculous as I had no storytelling chops but I could sometimes manage to channel some poetry and emotion into a scene. (A few months later, I would receive this rejection from The Antigonish Review: “Try us again with a story in which something happens.” Fair enough.) I was working on a historical (non-speculative) novel set in 12th century Ireland, called The Knot, which I would later query with agents… unsuccessfully. Day job status: I was freelancing and about to land a full-time gig at the newspaper where I’d work until 2015.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO: In late 1998, I had recently finished my first full novel, More Light, which was a contemporary coming of age story set in Manitoba. It was very, very bad. I don’t remember whether I knew what an agent did; I think I sent the manuscript to a few publishers (printed out on my dot matrix, mailed with an SASE); the only one I remember was one that happened to be run by one of my professors, who had the graciousness to call me when he rejected it. I probably bought my first print copy of The Writers’ Market that year. I was in the third year of my four-year bachelor’s degree.