9. His First Commercially Published Story Was At Age 15
Sometimes perusing the biographies of your favourite artists can be cause for reassurance. Discovering that it took the likes of Raymond Carver decades to break through into the writing world, before that working endless crummy minimum-wage jobs, is exactly the boost you need when your confidence is flagging and that dream profession seems impossible. Then there are those annoying over-achievers who hit the ground running and don't appear to have ever stopped, with no build up to their amazing careers. Terry Practhett was one of those annoying over-achievers. Whilst his first published work was technically a short story, The Hades Business, he had published in his school magazine age 13, the first commercially published story of his came just two years later. As in, he got paid for it, and it was read by a wider audience than just schoolboys and their nosy parents. Which just seems like showing off, really.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
