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I don't recognize the name---though I should if he won the Campbell award. (Probably read the awards list and promptly forgot all about it.)
One of these days I really should add up all the rejections I've received and see what kind of numbers rack up. Must be in the thousands by now, especially if you include the couple of years I sent some poetry around.
Other than he's actually sold stuff, some of it lines up pretty much with what I've done. I learned recently a writer whose works I've long admired didn't sell anything until he was about my age---enhartening, to say the least. (Disenheartening is that he couldn't really make a good living at it, was at one point reduced to hunting and eating pigeons, and eventually committed suicide. I hope to avoid that fate.)
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Yes definitely want to avoid the suicide part. I have read things recently that identify how rare it is that a writer can make a full time living on writing alone. That is slightly disheartening, but I hope (eventually) to at least only have to do some part time consulting to supplement the writing income.
I do know an author who has written some books and it is definitely a part-time thing for her (though she has so many other admirable things going on I don't think she could make it full time). Although her target audience is quite narrow, I'm not surprised it hasn't turned into a full time gig.
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