Growing a thick skin

The idea of having to develop a thick skin when I started out writing at the tender age of yoof was something I never considered. Well, who does? Back then all I’d ever had to contend with was the slings and arrows of playground-style assaults from my peers. Adulthood, however, opens up a whole range of possibilities for hurtful barbs, most of them non-physical unless you’re supremely unlucky or take on a dangerous occupation involving machinery, dangerous chemicals or wild animals with sharp bits.

It was when I submitted my first few short stories