It is with considerable enthusiasm that we announce Dan dos Santos as the newest judge in the Illustrators of the Future Contest.

Dan dos Santos is one of the most recognized artists in the field who helped shape the fantasy market with his colorful oil paintings of strong women. His award-winning art has graced numerous #1 New York Times bestselling books and can be seen on covers across the globe.

Every Artist Learns from Artists that Came Before Them

From book illustrations for Patrick Rothfuss to Brandon Sanderson, Diana Rowland to Mike Resnick, one would think Dan was already a part of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future. He has done multiple covers and illustrations for both judges and winners of the Contest. But aside from his amazing talent, it is his continuous effort to pass down skills to the next generation of artists that brought him on board with the Contest. As he himself stated, “Every artist learns from artists that came before them, growing, and surpassing the previous generation in both skill and timeliness.”

When we met Dan at Dragon Con in Atlanta, it was much like meeting Larry Elmore, Ciruelo, Rob Prior, or even Frank Frazetta, who are all the most humble down-to-earth people you ever met. And while every one of them stated that the others are so legendary and all seem to look up to each other, one defining quality they had in common was ensuring there will be artists for generations to come by passing along their valuable knowledge. This aligns with L. Ron Hubbard’s vision in starting the Contests for both writers and illustrators back in the 1980s.

With the Illustrators of the Future Contest, new and aspiring artists are given a level playing field where their creative efforts can be viewed by the very best. Winners also partake in a week-long workshop with Contest judges, free of charge, where they learn the craft and business of illustration, and how to make a living in the industry. “The Illustrators of the Future is an amazing compass for what the art industry holds in store for all of us,” stated Dan. And that is why we are proud to announce him as the newest judge of the Illustrators of the Future Contest!

About Dan dos Santos

Well known for his colorful oil paintings, most often depicting strong women, Dan dos Santos’ work spans a variety of genres, including novels, comics, film, and video games. He has worked for clients such as Disney, Universal Studios, Activision, Boeing Aircraft, Scholastic Books, The Greenwich Workshop, Penguin Books, Random House, UpperDeck, Hasbro, DC Comics, and many, many more. Dan has been the recipient of many awards. He is a Rhodes Family Scholarship winner, a five-time Hugo Award Nominee for Best Artist, and has received both Gold and Silver Medals from “Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art.” His illustrations have graced the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller list numerous times and his covers are seen in bookstores in dozens of countries around the world.

To find out more about Dan, go to www.dandossantos.com

The post Illustrators of the Future Welcomes Award-Winning Artist Dan dos Santos as its Newest Judge appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Looking for brand new science fiction and fantasy? You are in the right place.

These science fiction and fantasy books have been written by the Writers of the Future award-winning authors and contest judges over the last year (along with a few coming out soon). The Writers of the Future program was created by L. Ron Hubbard to provide a chance for aspiring authors and their works to be seen and acknowledged. To receive information about the program click here.

Discover the cutting edge of speculative fiction, from space opera to hard science fiction, and urban fantasy to dark fantasy fiction, in both epic books and short stories.

This impressive variety of sci-fi and fantasy novels and short stories shows why the Writers of the Future is acclaimed as the leading speculative fiction contest for new talent, helping authors and illustrators to launch careers with a success record like no other.

“A culture is as rich and as capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists. The artist is looked upon to start things. The artist injects the spirit of life into a culture. And through his creative endeavors, the writer works continually to give tomorrow a new form.

“In these modern times, there are many communication lines for works of art. Because a few works of art can be shown so easily to so many, there may even be fewer artists. The competition is very keen and even dagger sharp.

“It is with this in mind that I initiated a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” —L. Ron Hubbard, in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 1

To learn about the program and get the latest news and special offers click here.

WHY ONLY BRAND NEW SCIENCE FICTION?

We have limited this list to books that have come out since 2018, with a couple of exceptions, where the author’s most recent release was in 2017. The winning authors and judges of Writers of the Future have written thousands of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels and short stories (all genres and sub-genres of speculative fiction and beyond). If you notice we are missing any of their brand new books, please let us know (it would be impossible to find them all).

We will update this list periodically as new books become available, so check back regularly.

For more information about the contest or the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future check out these links:

About the Contest

Writer Judges

Illustrator Judges

Newsletter

Writers of the Future Titles

“L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol 34” made it to the Best New Short Stories Books

The post Brand New Science Fiction appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

New writers love writing advice and tips. They seek them everywhere, in hopes that one of the blogs, videos, essays, or forum posts has the magic piece of advice or writing tip needed to transform a novice writer into a pro—ideally a pro with six-figure book deals and movie options and legions of fans cosplaying as their characters. I am no different. I collect writing advice as ingredients to my “How to Make a Writer” potion.

The first special ingredient I added to my potion was writing advice from Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein’s Rules, as they’re known, push writers to finish their work and seek publication. Then somewhere along my search I came across a quote from Heinlein which I now know to be likely misattributed. Loosely paraphrased, it goes “all new writers have one million words of crap to write before they start writing publishable work.”

With a solid goal to aim for, I track my word counts in a spreadsheet. I thought it would be interesting to see what my word count would be at the point I made my first sale. Heinlein’s apocryphal advice was echoed by Jerry Pournelle in an interview for Writers of the Future where he said, “that in my experience, it takes somewhere around half a million to a million words” to become a competent writer and at that point, “you’ve got a chance.”

On Friday, October 18, 2019, my total word count sat at 452,748 words. I sat in the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, on my way to visit an old friend. For the coming weekend, writing was the furthest thing from my mind.

My First Professional Sale

Then my phone buzzed with an email from Flametree Publishing, a pro publisher that creates beautiful hardcover anthologies and books. The subject line read: Your “A Dying Planet” Story Submission. Great, I assumed. Another rejection. I opened it out of habit.

“I am delighted to inform you…”

Wait. Nobody had ever been delighted to send me a rejection before. I looked at the email title again. I had missed the word “Congratulations!” I read the whole first sentence. The word “publish” leapt out at me. I started shaking. I read it again. Yup, it said what I thought it did. I read it a third time. Somewhere in there I started crying. I’m sure the nice lady sitting next to me thought someone had died. I jumped up. Sat down. Stood up again. Called my parents, and my husband, and then read the email in earnest. Slowly, it dawned on me. I had done it.

I’d sold a story! To a professional market! I was going to be in a book!

When I Started Writing Fiction

When I started writing fiction in January of 2017, I had no idea what I was doing. I’d finished my Masters degree, my last baby had turned one, and I had the time, finally, to pursue that dream of being a “writer.” I eagerly sat down with my tablet, a bluetooth keyboard, and wrote while the baby napped.

Somewhere around the 30,000 word mark in the novel, I finally realized I had no idea what I was doing and started looking for that magic ingredient. One of the pieces of advice I read suggested writing short stories. I started looking for short story advice, and markets that took them. If I was going to write it, I’d follow Heinlein’s Rules and send it out somewhere.

Lucky for me, one of the first places I discovered was the Writers of the Future contest. Free to enter? Excellent. Only novice writers? Even better. So I wrote an 11,000 word monstrosity and sent it off, dreaming of a trip to Hollywood.

It was rejected. That rejection hurt, mostly because it was my first. I’d learned more about writing in the meantime, though, and I knew it was justified.

I bent to the task and kept searching for the potion ingredients I needed to achieve my dream.

Sifting through writing advice can be like a prospector with a pan of gravel, but I struck gold with The Writing Excuses podcast and the subreddit /r/writing which I now co-moderate. Of all the sources for writing knowledge I discovered, though, the single most helpful one has been the Writers of the Future Forum.

One of the most amazing things about Writers of the Future—and there are many—is their online community of writers who gather in the Forum. There, I found other new writers like me, trying to figure out how to tell a story. More, I found writers who had been around the block, earned their chops, and stuck around to share their own collection of potion ingredients with the community. I read every post. I asked questions. I swapped critiques with other forumites.

Then the true magic of writing as a community, and especially the Writers of the Future Forum, became apparent. More than once, someone reading my story took time—lots of time—to go through and tell me where my writing had succeeded, and where I’d failed. More, they told me why—sharing their personal mix of ingredients.

Proof I’m Getting Close

I sent my second story to Writers of the Future and crossed my fingers. When I received an Honorable Mention, I screamed so loud my toddler started crying. By then I knew the value of an Honorable Mention, which should be taken as a sign that you’re close, you have good ideas, don’t give up. I framed that beautiful blue certificate when it came, and wrote my next story. I’d seen how many HMs other forumites had racked up, and knew I still had work to do.

I kept at it, learning and growing with the continuous help of other writers on the Forum. Another great thing about Writers of the Future is the rolling quarterly deadline built into the contest. Every three months, I had a solid reason to write and submit a new story. When I got them back, I had stories to submit to other markets. I’ve submitted to Writers of the Future every quarter since June 2017 and have earned four Honorable Mentions. I will continue until I win or pro out.

In thanks to the many patient helpers who guided me on my journey, and because I believe everyone has a story to tell, I have a standing offer to critique any story on the forum. I read anywhere between ten and twenty stories each quarter, and I do my best to give each one the same thoughtful aid I received. I’m working on my third novel. I write stories, send them out, get the rejections, and look over the stories to see how the knowledge I’ve gained while they sat in slush can improve them. Then I boot them out the door again.

The proof is in the potion. I sold a story to a professional market! Regardless of my future successes or failures, I’ve achieved something magical. The skills I learned from Writers of the Future and the Forum helped me obtain my first professional sale.

I’ve met the kindest people through the Forum. In 2019, I added some Super Secret ingredients to my potion through a challenge by winner Wulf Moon, improving my craft tenfold. I’ve read Wulf Moon’s story, and Preston Dennett’s Topanga Canyon tale. I’m not giving up, not ever. I’m just lucky I have the Forum and the Writers of the Future Contest to guide me on the journey.

It’s helped me whip up a powerful brew.

Rebecca E. Treasure grew up reading science fiction in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She received a degree in history from the University of Arkansas and a Masters degree from the University of Denver. After graduate school, she began writing fiction. Rebecca has lived many places, including the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Tokyo, Japan. She currently resides in Texas Hill Country with her husband, where she juggles two children, a corgi, a violin studio, and writing. She only drops the children occasionally.

Her story “Whose Waters Never Fail” will appear in the forthcoming anthology from Flametree Publishing titled “A Dying Planet.” Pre-orders are available here.

For Rebecca’s thoughts on writing and more of her fiction, visit www.rebeccaetreasure.com.

The post Brewing the Potion to Become a Writer of the Future: An Alchemist’s Tale appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

With seven out of the top ten grossing movies of all time being science fiction and fantasy, it’s no wonder that Hollywood’s future is seen to reside with the writers of science fiction and fantasy, or more specifically the winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest according to David Farland, screenwriter, NYT bestselling author, and Writers of the Future Contest coordinating judge.

“The mentality is simple in Hollywood: if it makes money, you do it. And if it keeps making money, you keep doing it,” says Farland from his home in Saint George, UT. “And for reasons that are very simple, science fiction and fantasy have proven time and again to be huge moneymakers.” The top ten grossing movies of all time, of which seven are science fiction or fantasy, include:

1. “Avengers: Endgame”
2. “Avatar”
3. “Titanic”
4. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
5. “Avengers: Infinity War”
6. “The Lion King”
7. “Jurassic World”
8. “The Avengers”
9. “Furious 7”
10. “Avengers: Age of Ultron”

And while “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is rapidly closing in on this list, the total number of science fiction and fantasy in the top ten will remain at seven.

“All of the top-grossing movies of all time have one thing in common,” Farland says. “They all take the viewer to another time, another place. People crave to be transported out of the mundane world into a place that is new and wondrous, and that is what speculative fiction does best.”

Farland was the grand prize winner of the Writers of the Future Contest in 1987 and has since gone on to publish over fifty novels, with several becoming NYT bestsellers. Due to his success, he later became a contest judge, a video game designer, and a screenwriter. With all this diverse experience now to his credit, Farland observed, “L. Ron Hubbard was a very prolific fiction writer during the 30s and 40s, and wrote several works that are classics in their field. He worked as a writer for Columbia Pictures for the highly successful movie serial The Secret of Treasure Island and The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. And for Warner Bros., he worked with Norvell Page scripting The Spider Returns. So I find it very interesting that he created the Writers of the Future Contest, and that the legacy continues with writers like myself who are providing more material to feed Hollywood’s voracious appetite for science fiction and fantasy.”

Writers of the Future now in its 36^th year is the world’s largest and most recognized merit competition for writers of speculative fiction. Its over 400 winners have gone on to publish over 1,150 novels and 4,500 short stories. The L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future volumes can be found wherever books are sold. For more information go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

The post The Future of Hollywood Success Rests in the Hands of the Writers of the Future appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Craig Elliott, production designer, a master of fine art, animator for live-action films, a concept artist, and all-around master of his craft, is enthusiastically welcomed as a judge for the Illustrators of the Future Contest.

Elliott was a featured workshop instructor for the 2019 Illustrators of the Future winners in Los Angeles. It was clear that he would become a permanent installation to the annual workshops with his sound advice to the new artists and care in helping launch their careers.

In his own words, “Sometimes a little bit of just the right kind of advice from an experienced mentor can make the world of difference to someone starting on their art career.”

Elliott now joins the elite panel of contest judges past and present including legends Edd Cartier, Ciruelo, Bob Eggleton, Will Eisner, Larry Elmore, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, Paul Lehr, Moebius, Stephan Martiniere, and Shaun Tan. Click here for a full list of Contest judges.

Craig Elliott in Writers & Illustrators of the Future lounge

Craig Elliott is an artist based in Los Angeles, California and is especially known for his exceptional ability with the human figure and creative composition. His work has evolved into a unique vision informing and influencing fine art, print, animation, and commercial worlds. In the animation industry, he has worked primarily for Disney and Dreamworks, designing their animated films such as Hercules, Mulan, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet, Shark Tale, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Enchanted, Monsters vs. Aliens, and The Princess and the Frog as well as other upcoming features.

The Writers of the Future Writing Contest was created by L. Ron Hubbard to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break with the first volume releasing in 1985. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award is the genre’s most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful, and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have produced 35 anthology volumes and awarded nearly $1 Million cumulatively in cash prizes and royalties.

To find out more about Craig, go to craigelliottgallery.com

The post Illustrators of the Future Welcomes Award-Winning Artist Craig Elliott as its Newest Judge appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Illustrators of the Future 4th Quarter Winners for 2019, Volume 36

This illustration contest list is the place to be!

And the winners are:

Arthur Bowling from Maryland
Kaitlyn Goldberg from Michigan
Anh Le from Viet Nam

Finalists:

Zackery Turner from Arizona
Ronna Raz from California
Mark Harchar from Florida
Zara Alfonso from Canada
Carolina Lebar from Tennessee

Semi-Finalists:

Diana Rose Penaloza from Virginia
Maria Rosaria Monticelli from Italy
Isabella Wang from California
Snezhana Martynova from Texas
Kaitlyn Loptien from Colorado
Dylan Francisco De Castro from California
Maria Biondo from Missouri
Melissa Burns from Utah
Viktoria-Luise Reinherr from California
Colin Lammie from Minnesota
Thad Stalmack II from Michigan
Pauline Penhouet from France
David Kudlac from Slovakia
Grace Nicoletti from Virginia

Honorable Mentions:

Anike Kirsten from South Africa
Arthur Doweyko from Florida
Jamal Monroe from South Carolina
Marco Antonio Ortiz Walters from Mexico
Megan Flynn from Pennsylvania
Emma Rach-Syslak from Canada
Lidia Malina from California
Shannon Cole from Illinois
Kayla O’Neal from Louisiana
Steven Gomez from California
Cristhian Montenegro Arias from Costa Rica

The post Illustrators of the Future 4th Quarter Winners Announced for Volume 36 appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Writers of the Future 4th Quarter Standings for 2019, Volume 36

Of all the writing contests out there, this one launches careers!

And the winners are:

First Place – C. Winspear from Australia
Second Place – David A. Elsensohn from California
Third Place – Leah Ning from Virginia

Finalists:

John Biggs from Oklahoma
Rae Hallstrom from Ohio
Mariah Montoya from California
M. Elizabeth Ticknor from Michigan

Semi-Finalists:

Kate Dane from Minnesota
Katharina Gerlach from Germany
T.E. Hartley from Arizona
Kevin Kauffmann from North Carolina
Karen McSpadden from Virginia
Chad Mountain from Pennsylvania
Amanda Pampuro from Colorado
Maria Zoccola from Tennessee

Silver Honorable Mentions:

Ashlea Adams from Florida
Desmond Astaire from Illinois
Bronson D. Beatty from Utah
J.W. Benjamin from Hawaii
Daniel Berlekamp from Massachusetts
Mark Bilsborough from United Kingdom
Dan Black from Tennessee
B. Daniel Blatt from California
T.E. Bradford from New York
Lynn Buchanan from Utah
Chan Yuk Chi from Singapore
Marco Cultrera from Canada
Koji A. Dae from Bulgaria
A.V. Dutson from Utah
Justin Fike from Colorado
Richard Fox from Nevada
Jason D. Francois from United Kingdom
Michael Gardner from Australia
Nate Givens from Virginia
Austin Gragg from Missouri
Amit Gupta from Connecticut
E.G. Hamilton from Indiana
Dan Hankner from Iowa
Christopher Henckel from New Zealand
Miriah Hetherington from Washington
C.R. Hodges from Colorado
Sean Jones from Colorado
K.D. Julicher from Nevada
Michael Kingswood from California
Roger Ley from United Kingdom
Hunter Liguore from Connecticut
Corbin Maxwell from California
Machaia McClenny from Texas
Zachary Medema from Illinois
Mari Molen from California
F.A. Murphy from Ireland
Scott Nicholson from California
C.J. Peterson from Maryland
Zach Poulter from Utah
Sandra Siegienski from Oregon
Charles Thompson from South Carolina
Dan Thurot from Utah
Rebecca E. Treasure from Texas
B. Layne Weaver from Ohio
Ren Weber from California
Yves Yagolnitser from California

Honorable Mentions:

Van Alrik from Idaho
RM Ambrose from California
Travis Anderson from Washington
Yabo Anderson from Minnesota
Michael Anderson from Michigan
M.A. Anthony from Wisconsin
Alexander Apetroaie from United Kingdom
Matt Athanasiou from Illinois
Hannah Azok from Ohio
Tina Back from California
Mark Bailen from Arizona
Robyn Baker from Arizona
Raluca Balasa from Oregon
Alexandra Balasa from Texas
Tom Barbados from Japan
Jay Barnson from Utah
Rachael Bates from Kentucky
Jacob Baugher from Ohio
J.I. Baydoun from Michigan
A.I. Beierbach from Canada
Amitai Ben-Abba from California
Christopher Bennem from New York
M.K. Beutymhill from California
Richie Billing from United Kingdom
Jeff Binkley from Alabama
Charlene Blackwell from Canada
Emily Blake from Canada
James Blakey from Pennsylvania
J.D. Blythe from United Kingdom
Felipe Rodolfo Borges from Argentina
Zachary Bright from Utah
Michael Britton from Utah
Janel Brubaker from Oregon
Samuel Bumatay from Hawaii
Ted Bushman from New York
Jennifer Bushroe from Arizona
Douglas C. Atkins from Massachusetts
D.A. Campisi from California
Sebastian Cap from Colorado
James Carpenter from Oregon
Brandon Case from California
Katie Cassens from Minnesota
Anna Cates from Ohio
Dennis Chen from California
Nicky Chong from Malaysia
Lisa Christensen from Utah
Alvin Chua from California
Paul Seungoh Chung from Canada
Erica Ciko Campbell from New York
Destry Cloud from Ohio
Joe Coates from Australia
David Cochrane from Louisiana
Lee Collins from Alabama
David Coombs from Canada
Noah Copley from West Virginia
Jay Corbin from New Jersey
Chelsea Corby from Pennsylvania
Christina Cotignola from New York
Yelena Crane from Pennsylvania
Elsa Cruz from Alaska
Jerry Cunningham from Oregon
M.E. Curtis from Utah
Paulo da Silva from Germany
Cory Daignault from Minnesota
Dean N. D’Amico from New Hampshire
Emily Dauvin from Canada
Diego De la Parra from Canada
Daniel de Lill from Florida
Andrea de Wied from Texas
Michael DeCarolis from Florida
Nestor Delfino from Canada
Patrick Desrochers from Canada
Rebecca Dettman from Australia
Victoria Dixon from Kansas
Hannah Dong from Pennsylvania
Max Dorfman from New York
Max Dosser from Pennsylvania
Mira Dover from Virginia
Alexander Duhamel from Canada
Sulan Dun from California
Timothy Durocher from Michigan
Carl Duzett from Utah
Jenna Eatough from Utah
Adina Edelman from Maryland
Laura Edwards from Missouri
Janae Edwards-bernard from Illinois
Oghenechovwe Ekpeki from Nigeria
Alex Eldridge from Australia
J.W. Elliot from Massachusetts
DarAsia Elliot from Virginia
Claire Ellis from Texas
Tim Emery from United Kingdom
Will Emm from Virginia
Richard Errington from Connecticut
Ashlynn Etzler from Virginia
Robert Mitchell Evans from California
Scott Fazekas from Maryland
Timothy Fenner from Georgia
Suzanne Ferguson from Texas
Jeffrey Ferrer from California
Theresa Flannery from Idaho
Neil Wesley Flinchbaugh from Illinois
J.G. Follansbee from Washington
S.C.A. Fontaine from Spain
Andrew Forget from Colorado
CL Fors from California
Voss Foster from Washington
Samuel E. Foster from United Kingdom
Olivia Frias from California
Collin Gian from Tennessee
Melva Gifford from Utah
Peter Glazebrook from United Kingdom
Peter Glen from Australia
T.A. Goebel from Arizona
Randi Goldleif from Tennessee
Barry M. Goldsmith from Arizona
Ian Gonzales from Washington
Erin Grant from California
Joshua Grasso from Oklahoma
Jentina Grey from California
Lily Gritzmaker from Wisconsin
Arvin Gupta from Canada
Doug Hamilton from Ohio
Samantha Handler from Missouri
Charlie Harmon from Oregon
DW Harvey from California
James A. Hearn from Texas
Michelle Henrie from Utah
Molly Ann Herboth from California
Christina Herlyn from Missouri
Br. Raban Heyer, O.S.B. from Arkansas
David Hidary from New York
Brian D. Hinson from New Mexico
Tim W. Hodgson from Canada
Ryan Holmes from Florida
R.J. Howell from Illinois
Mickey Hughes from Illinois
Drake Hughes from North Carolina
Taylor Hunter from Idaho
Jay Hurteau from New Hampshire
Karen Sarita Ingram from Kansas
Ronit Jadhav from India
Ivana Jarmon from Illinois
Susan Jeffers from Maryland
Christopher Jenkins from Hawaii
Jeran Jenks from Idaho
Caitlin E. Jones from Louisiana
Kent Jones from Minnesota
Ajumobi Kadri from Georgia
J.C. Kataryna from Canada
Angela Kayd from Massachusetts
Matthew Keefer from Massachusetts
Mark Kelly from Colorado
Katie Kent from United Kingdom
D.G. Kent from Utah
Simone Kern from Texas
Brandon Ketchum from Pennsylvania
Anike Kirsten from South Africa
Richard Knuckleman from Arizona
Shawn Kobb from Virginia
Brittany Koch from Illinois
Alexis Kuper from Canada
Tempo Lahti from Finland
Andrea Lain from Utah
Jason Lairamore from Oklahoma
Alon Lankri from Israel
Colt Leasure from California
Xander S. Lee from Nebraska
Jennifer Lesh Fleck from Washington
Daxon Levine from Utah
Mike Lewis from United Kingdom
Meredith Lindgren from Colorado
Brandon M. Lindsay from Japan
Bonner Litchfield from North Carolina
Colton Long from District of Columbia
Barbara Lund from Utah
Marcia Lynx Qualey Qualey from Morocco
Sean Mabry from California
Z.B. Mamun from Florida
A. Manibus from Colorado
Roger Mannon from Colorado
Leland Marcus from Texas
Ryan Mayfield from Illinois
Christopher McManamon from California
Sean McNamara from Illinois
Assaph Mehr from Australia
Lance Menthe from California
Cassie Meyer from Kansas
J. Jennings Meyer from United Kingdom
Devin Miller from North Carolina
Murtaza Mohsin from Pakistan
Christian Monson from Spain
CJ Montgomery from Texas
G.H. Morgan from South Carolina
Daniel K. Morgan from United Kingdom
Stephen C. Morrison from North Carolina
Amelia Mueller from Texas
Cassiopeia Mulholland from Florida
Ethan Nahte’ from Arkansas
Dominique Nelson from Florida
Christy Nicholas from New York
Bonnie Nichols from Colorado
Dana Nisewarner from West Virginia
Ari Officer from Illinois
Rosie Oliver from United Kingdom
Joe Olson from Nebraska
Al Onia from Canada
Sarah Ortega from Texas
J. Ostromecki from South Carolina
Nichelle Palmer from Alaska
Billy Palmer from Florida
Simon Pan from Canada
Meghan Paral from Illinois
Hunter Patterson from California
B.A. Paul from Indiana
Joe Paul from Maryland
Kate Pavelle from Pennsylvania
Ana Peduk from Illinois
Logan Penna from Delaware
Barton Perkins from Alabama
C.J. Persson from Sweden
David Allen Pierce from New York
J.C. Pillard from Colorado
Caroline Poirier from Michigan
Sara Potter from Utah
Michael Price from Arizona
Lisa Prince from Alabama
Michael Quicho from Maryland
Brittany Rainsdon from Idaho
Claire Reck from Illinois
Kelsey Reed from Oregon
Esther Magdalena Reed from Colorado
Thomas A. Ricks IV from South Carolina
James Romag from Colorado
G.R. Rosado from California
P.T. Rowland from Florida
J.L. Royce from Wisconsin
Max Russell from Colorado
P.T. Russell from Canada
Antonia Ryder from Canada
Luke Saldanha from Italy
David Samuels from California
Jeremy Sanders from Ohio
Cody Schroeder from Missouri
David F. Schultz from Canada
Ian Schutzman from California
Ashley Elaine Scruggs from Virginia
William Shadbolt from New Jersey
M. Shaw from Colorado
Lydia Sherrer from Kentucky
Jim W. Shoemaker from Minnesota
Candi Lyn Siemens from Washington
Derek Sikkema from Florida
Michael Simon from Canada
Melissa Sisemore from Louisiana
Dinara Smidt from Kazakhstan
Timothy Smith from California
Jesse Sprague from Washington
Melka Stansah from Australia
Ayanna E. Stark from Florida
M.K. Stead from Florida
BE Stefanko from APO AE
Carolyn Stein from Tennessee
Shaun Stevenson from United Kingdom
Jarom Strong from Utah
Todd Sullivan from Georgia
Daniel Summers from Michigan
Liviu Surugiu from Romania
Timothy Sutton from Canada
Don Sweeney from Florida
Blazej Szpakowicz from Canada
Stephannie Tallent from California
Tyra Tanner from Utah
Dominic J. Teague from United Kingdom
Niz Thomas from New York
Sylvia Tor from California
Katherine Toran from Maryland
P.K. Torrens from New Zealand
Anders Torstensson from Sweden
LC Treeheart from Oregon
Hannah R. Trusty from Kentucky
Lael Tucker from New Mexico
S.C. Turner from Canada
Leslie Vedder from Colorado
Dani Veniegas from Philippines
Jonah Verhoog from Canada
Isabella Villanueva from Texas
Anna Welter from Wisconsin
Ana Wesley from California
Lawrence Whitaker from Italy
Robert Wilkins from California
Neal Williams from Colorado
Walter Williamson from New Mexico
Brad Williamson from South Korea
Jason J. Willis from Minnesota
Jesse Winer from Colorado
Nick Wisseman from Michigan
Brandy Woldstad from Wisconsin
Thomas Woodward from Minnesota
Kean Woolf from New Zealand
Hayley Woolf from New Zealand
Michael Wyant Jr. from New York
Cindy Xin from California
Megan Rika Young from Texas
Tannara Young from California
Sean Young from Nevada
RSM from Mexico

The post Writers of the Future 4th Quarter Winners Announced for Volume 36 appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Congratulations to fourth quarter winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests. Once again and for the fifth year running, both Contests have had the highest ever entries with contestants from around the world. Volume 36, releasing in April, will feature authors and artists from Australia, China, Iran, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Viet Nam.

The Writers of the Future Contest winners are:

The 4th Quarter Writers of the Future Contest winners

First Place – C. Winspear from Australia
Second Place – David A. Elsensohn from California
Third Place – Leah Ning from Virginia

For the complete list of Writer Finalists, Semi-Finalists, Silver Honorable Mentions, and Honorable Mentions, go to www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/

The Illustrators of the Future Contest winners are:

The 4th Quarter Illustrators of the Future Contest
winners

Arthur Bowling from Maryland
Kaitlyn Goldberg from Michigan
Anh Le from Viet Nam

For the complete list of Illustrator Finalists, Semi-Finalists, and Honorable Mentions, go to www.writersofthefuture.com/illustrators-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/

Winners from each Contest were chosen from a group of eight finalists and are awarded a week-long intensive workshop, an awards ceremony, and are published in the annual L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. They will also receive a cash prize for their win this quarter.

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 416 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 32 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 346 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

For more information about the contest, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

The post Writers and Illustrators of the Future Fourth Quarter Winners Announced appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Dan dos Santos is one of the most recognized artists in the field who helped shape the fantasy market with his colorful oil paintings of strong women. His award-winning art has graced numerous #1 New York Times bestselling books and can be seen on covers across the globe.

From book illustrations for Patrick Rothfuss to Brandon Sanderson, Diana Rowland to Mike Resnick, one would think Dan was already a part of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future. He has done multiple covers and illustrations for both judges and winners of the Contest. But aside from his amazing talent, it is his continuous effort to pass down skills to the next generation of artists that brought him on board with the Contest. As he himself stated, “Every artist learns from artists that came before them, growing, and surpassing the previous generation in both skill and timeliness.”

When we met Dan at Dragon Con in Atlanta, it was much like meeting Larry Elmore, Ciruelo, Rob Prior, or even Frank Frazetta, who are all the most humble down-to-earth people you ever met. And while every one of them stated that the others are so legendary and all seem to look up to each other, one defining quality they had in common was ensuring there will be artists for generations to come by passing along their valuable knowledge. This aligns with L. Ron Hubbard’s vision in starting the Contests for both writers and illustrators back in the 1980s.

With the Illustrators of the Future Contest, new and aspiring artists are given a level playing field where their creative efforts can be viewed by the very best. Winners also partake in a week-long workshop with Contest judges, free of charge, where they learn the craft and business of illustration, and how to make a living in the industry. “The Illustrators of the Future is an amazing compass for what the art industry holds in store for all of us,” stated Dan.

The Writers of the Future Writing Contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was created by L. Ron Hubbard to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break with the first volume releasing in 1985. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award is the genre’s most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful, and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have produced 35 anthology volumes and awarded nearly $1 Million cumulatively in cash prizes and royalties.

To find out more about Dan, go to www.dandossantos.com

The post Award-Winning Artist Dan dos Santos Announced as Illustrators of the Future Judge appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Dan dos Santos is one of the most recognized artists in the field who helped shape the fantasy market with his colorful oil paintings of strong women. His award-winning art has graced numerous #1 New York Times bestselling books and can be seen on covers across the globe.

From book illustrations for Patrick Rothfuss to Brandon Sanderson, Diana Rowland to Mike Resnick, one would think Dan was already a part of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future. He has done multiple covers and illustrations for both judges and winners of the Contest. But aside from his amazing talent, it is his continuous effort to pass down skills to the next generation of artists that brought him on board with the Contest. As he himself stated, “Every artist learns from artists that came before them, growing, and surpassing the previous generation in both skill and timeliness.”

When we met Dan at Dragon Con in Atlanta, it was much like meeting Larry Elmore, Ciruelo, Rob Prior, or even Frank Frazetta, who are all the most humble down-to-earth people you ever met. And while every one of them stated that the others are so legendary and all seem to look up to each other, one defining quality they had in common was ensuring there will be artists for generations to come by passing along their valuable knowledge. This aligns with L. Ron Hubbard’s vision in starting the Contests for both writers and illustrators back in the 1980s.

With the Illustrators of the Future Contest, new and aspiring artists are given a level playing field where their creative efforts can be viewed by the very best. Winners also partake in a week-long workshop with Contest judges, free of charge, where they learn the craft and business of illustration, and how to make a living in the industry. “The Illustrators of the Future is an amazing compass for what the art industry holds in store for all of us,” stated Dan.

The Writers of the Future Writing Contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was created by L. Ron Hubbard to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break with the first volume releasing in 1985. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award is the genre’s most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful, and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have produced 35 anthology volumes and awarded nearly $1 Million cumulatively in cash prizes and royalties.

To find out more about Dan, go to www.dandossantos.com

The post Award-Winning Artist Dan dos Santos Announced as Illustrators of the Future Judge appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Twelve winning writers and twelve winning illustrators from around the globe will be flown to Hollywood, California this coming April for a weeklong workshop culminating in a gala awards ceremony and the release of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36 featuring their work.

The 12 Writer Winners of this year’s contest include:

• Zach Be of Wheaton, MD (Second Quarter Winner)
• J. Bergmann of Madison, WI (First Quarter Winner)
• Tim Boiteau of Bloomfield Hills, MI (Second Quarter Winner)
• Andy Dibble of Madison, WI (First Quarter Winner)
• David Elsenhohn of Los Angeles, CA (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Michael Gardner of Amaroo, ACT, Australia (Third Quarter Winner)
• L. George of Pontypool, Torfaen, UK (Second Quarter Winner)
• Storm Humbert of Westland, MI (Third Quarter Winner)
• Katherine Livingston of Lawton, OK (Second Quarter Winner)
• Leah Ning of Herndon, VA (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Winspear of Blacktown, NSW, Australia (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Sonny Zae of Plano, TX (First Quarter Winner)

The 12 Illustrator Winners of this year’s contest include:

• Brock Aguirre of Sammamish, WA (First Quarter Winner)
• Aidin Andrews of Bellingham, WA (Third Quarter Winner)
• Daniel Bitton of Hollywood, FL (First Quarter Winner)
• Arthur Bowling of Columbia, MD (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Irmak (Max) Cavun of Bursa, Turkey (Third Quarter Winner)
• Kaitlyn Goldberg of Grand Rapids, MI (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Ben Hill of Mims, FL (First Quarter Winner)
• John Dale Javier of La Plata, MD (Second Quarter Winner)
• Heather Laurence of Sault Saint Marie, MI (Second Quarter Winner)
• Anh Le of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Mason Matak of Tehran, Iran (Third Quarter Winner)
• Phoebe Rothfeld of Chico, CA (Second Quarter Winner)

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequel series), Eric Flint (1632), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides, which Pirates of the Caribbean IV was based on), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archive) and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award-winning artists Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal magazine and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 36-year history, over 774 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson. “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers—long before there ever was such a show.”

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1984 to provide “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” Based on its success, its sister contest, Illustrators of the Future was created five years later to provide that same opportunity for the aspiring artist.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 428 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 33 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 358 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony online, go to www.writersofthefuture.com

The post Announcing Winners to be Published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future 36 appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

“It’s a given that when you’ve had a successful career, you pay back. But in this field, it’s almost impossible because, by the time you’ve been a remarkable success, everybody who helped you is either rich, or dead or both. So you pay forward.” —Mike Resnick, 2018

And Mike Resnick demonstrated just how seriously he took this philosophy to heart in how he operated as a writer, editor, and friend to so many.

I was introduced to Mike by Kevin J. Anderson who recommended him as a Contest judge. This was back in August 2009 with just enough time to invite him to attend that year’s awards ceremony, which back then was held in the fall.

Mike agreed and so became a Writers of the Future Writing Contest judge in 2009.  In subsequent years, he proved himself a willing mentor to each new group of winners, many of whom became “Mike’s Writers Children.”

Two years later, Mike stated in an email, “I’ve been ‘adopting’ a beginner or two almost every year since about 1990. I collaborate with them, get them into print, vet their early stories before they submit them, and recommend markets to them (and them to editors). I imagine I’ll choose one or two each year I’m a judge; it’s my way of paying the field back, so you can understand how pleased I am to be working with an organization devoted to that cause.”

That same year he provided an article for L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 27 entitled, “Making It.” In it, he shared what he saw a commonality amongst writers. First, a love of writing. Second, a constant study of the field. Third, talent. And fourth, perhaps the most essential quality which he defined as a fire in the belly. (You can read the article in its entirety at the end of this post.) Over the course of our relationship, he personally took twenty-five winners under his wing to publish while co-authoring novels with fourteen winners.

In 2013, Mike sent an email announcing that he was editing a new magazine called “Galaxy’s Edge” while proudly listing eleven finalists from the Contest he would be publishing in the first five issues, as well as the three finalists in his Stellar Guild line of books. He ended his email, “So I’ve found a bunch of talent here, and I hope you’ll keep asking me back. I pledge to continue doing my best for them.”

In 2017, while accepting the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award, he stated that since the 1990s he had done everything he could to help “Mike’s Writer Children” and how proud he was of what he had written—but these books were in the past. He was expecting to be proud of numerous books under contract which for all practical purposes, are the present. He closed his acceptance speech, “And this is the Writers of the Future. By definition, they should be less concerned with the past and the present than they are with other things. And because of that, I, on behalf of my writer children, and I hope 20 years from now, their writer children, proudly accept the Writers of the Future Lifetime Achievement Award.”

I already miss Mike but his legacy lives on through his writer children who now pay forward helping writers become authors.

—John Goodwin, President Galaxy Press

PreviousNext

Making It

by Mike Resnick

Writers of the Future has been turning out writers—by which I mean successful, best-selling, award-winning writers—for over a quarter of a century now. They’ve done it long enough and frequently enough that there’s no longer any doubt that this program is not a fluke, that they really do know how to pick and train talent.

So let’s examine it from the other side. Yes, they know their stuff. They build writers. But can they build you into one?

That leads to a plethora of questions. How do you make it as a writer? Do you start with short stories and build a reputation (and can you build one in these days of only a tiny handful of print magazines)? Do you start in an easier field (and is there any easy field)? Do you begin with novels? Nonfiction? Do you attend workshops and conventions, and start networking with other writers, or are they wastes of that rarest of a writer’s commodities: time?

My answer isn’t likely to thrill anyone, because what I’m going to do is quote Rudyard Kipling: There are nine and sixty ways, of constructing tribal lays, and each and every one of them is right.

Well, I’ll qualify it to this extent: every approach is right for those who have proved it is right for them.

Eric Flint, a Writers of the Future winner, didn’t start writing until his late 40s. Within two years he was living on the best-seller list, where you can still find him. Kevin J. Anderson, a long-time lecturer and judge at Writers of the Future, made the best-seller list originally by writing some outstanding Star Wars books, but he took that enormous audience with him and has been a best-seller ever since. Patrick Rothfuss won the contest and found himself on the Hugo ballot and the best-seller list half a dozen years later with The Name of the Wind. Tim Powers and I, lecturers and judges here, don’t live on the best-seller list—but we were the 2011 and 2012 Worldcon Guests of Honor.

People and careers differ. I sold my first article at the age of fifteen, my first story at seventeen, my first novel at twenty. I had all the mechanical skills, but I lacked the maturity and ambition to apply myself and write anything award-worthy or even memorable, and it was another eighteen years and a couple of hundred forgettable books written under pseudonyms before I moved over to science fiction and wrote anything of value, anything I was anxious to sign my name to. That was a few best-sellers and more than 100 awards and nominations ago, which just shows that we don’t all develop at the same pace or in the same way.

And that holds for the Writers of the Future winners and finalists too. Look down the list at Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Nick DiChario, and Dave Wolverton, and Karen Joy Fowler, and Robert Reed, and Jay Lake, and Tobias S. Buckell, and Stephen Baxter, and Amy Sterling Casil, and K. D. Wentworth, and R. Garcia y Robertson, and Dean Wesley Smith and all the others. Each got to where he or she is by a different route, some faster than others.

But they have certain things in common. We all do.

First, there’s a love of writing. A lot of writers hate writing and love having written. Not the ones who make it. They love words, they love pushing nouns up against verbs and seeing the results, they love creating their very own worlds and then inviting you into them.

Second, there’s the constant study of the field. There are certain categories of fiction that require almost no preparation. Others, like the detective story, ask you to create a hero and then run him through his paces book after book after book. Not science fiction. With all time and space at the author’s disposal, about the only thing he can’t do is tell the same story over and over. He can experiment, he can innovate, he can and must create; what he cannot do is repeat, not only himself but what has gone before, which is why he must be well-read in the field and stay abreast of what’s going on.

Third, there’s talent, and the ability to get the reader emotionally involved with the characters and the stories. The successful author must make the reader (I’ll write it in caps so no one can miss it) FEEL, must make him love or hate or fear or laugh, or, in short, react. If he makes him think, as our progenitors Hugo Gernsback (creator of the field) and John Campell (the first great editor) believed was science fiction’s mission, so much the better and the author has written a better story for it. But if the reader can’t respond emotionally, then the author has written a fictionalized polemic or scientific cross-word puzzle.

And there’s one more essential quality, which I will define as a fire in the belly, by which I mean an unwillingness to get discouraged or accept rejection. (A beginner asked me recently if I still get rejected. The answer was yes, every year or two it still happens. She then asked me my reaction. I said it hadn’t changed in half a century. It was, spoken so softly only I can hear it: “To hell with you, fella [or lady]. I’m taking it to your competitor, he’ll buy it, and when it wins the Hugo or the Nebula or sells to Hollywood I’ll get richer and more famous, so will my editor, and you, pal, are going to be standing on the unemployment line when word gets out.”)

Has it ever happened? I did win an award with a rejected story some years back. I don’t think anyone ever got fired for rejecting me. But the point is that you—like every writer I named—have to believe in yourself more than you believe in an editor whose tastes and priorities are different. (By the same token, never look at a story and say, “Oh, there’s no sense sending this one to Editor A. It’s just not his kind of story.” Maybe it isn’t, but it’s not your function to do his job for him. Let him decide whether or not to buy it—and remember: he can’t buy what he never sees.)

Is there more?

Sure. In this business, there’s always more.

I mentioned networking before. The writer with the hunger in the belly gets involved in that early on. He exchanges market information with his peers—and most anthologies are by invitation only, which means he finds out who the editors are and makes sure they know who he is. He learns of new markets, and in this day of the Internet, they change almost weekly. True, there are only four print magazines, where in 1954 there were fifty-six . . . but as I write these words (and it’s likely to change by the weekend) there are eighteen electronic science fiction magazines paying what SFWA—the Science Fiction Writers of America—considers to be a professional rate. And if you don’t network, you don’t learn about them. You network to find out which conventions you should go to, which ones have the editors you want to meet and the writers you want to befriend.

From the outside it may seem like the publishing world is imploding, as bookstore chains are in big trouble, and publishers are losing more writers every month to the Internet, where they have discovered that 70% is a nicer royalty rate than 6% or 10%. But from the inside, there have rarely been so many opportunities. There’s traditional publishing, of course. And there are more small and medium presses every year, a handful of which pay rates comparable to the New York houses. And there’s self-publishing on the web. And there’s podcasting. And there’s suddenly tons of money to be made in audio sales. And as quickly as the writer learns what he has to know about all these outlets, of course there will be more. And there’ll be improvements and innovations on what we have right now: e-books with animated covers and background music and hypertext, video podcasts and more.

Who will take advantage of all these opportunities? The same writers who have those four traits I mentioned before: a love of writing, a passionate interest in the field, talent and (perhaps most important, as I’ve seen many talented beginners just fade away) that blazing fire in the belly.

The Writers of the Future contestants in this book have all had ample opportunity to get down on themselves, to give up and walk away. Not one of them has quit. Every one of them loves writing, constantly studies the field they’re writing in, has enough talent to appear in this book and has that fire in the belly that all but guarantees this is far from the last you’re going to hear from each of them.

This article by Mike Resnick was originally published in Writers of the Future Volume 27.

The post Our Writers of the Future Writer’s Dad: Helping Writers Become Authors appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

World-renowned artist Echo Chernik has painted the cover art for L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36 releasing April 2020.

Echo Chernik had wanted to create a cover for the Writers and Illustrators of the Future anthology because of what she had observed the Contests doing for aspiring artists and authors. In describing her art, Chernik stated, “The ‘Uncertain Egg’ is a piece about undiscovered potential. It’s about hope, dreams, and the unknown.” Regarding the impact of the Contests themselves, she went on, “The illustration is also about being supported, and encouraged—and given the wings to fly. L. Ron Hubbard dreamed of helping undiscovered talent soar and succeed, and we strive to continue that legacy by providing support, encouragement, publicity, and education to the burgeoning talent that is upcoming.”

The upcoming volume 36 also contains a short story by New York Times bestselling science fiction author and Writers of the Future Contest judge Jody Lynn Nye, entitled “The Phoenix’s Peace” which was inspired by Chernik’s cover art. She told us, “My story complements Echo’s vision, in that the main character, a young priestess who, like our writers and illustrators, has to learn as she goes forward in her chosen career, making use of what she is given by those who have devoted their lives to the same art. She is able to face a crisis and rise beside the phoenix, thanks to mentors who help her nurture her own innate talent.”

Echo Chernik has more than twenty years of experience as a professional commercial artist in the advertising field, and five years as an instructor of graphics and digital illustration at Pratt Institute, Westchester Community College, Marymount Manhattan, and Skidmore CCI. She specializes in art nouveau-influenced poster design, advertisements, package design, and book covers. She has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 2016.

Writers of the Future is a contest initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 as a means of providing a helping hand to aspiring writers. Due to the immense success of the writing contest, a sister competition, Illustrators of the Future, was created.

The annual Contests draw entrants from around the globe and are free to enter. Winners retain full rights to their work and each is given cash awards. Grand prize winners receive an additional $5,000. The Contest flies out all winners to Los Angeles for an expense-paid, week-long workshop of writing tips and how-to advice given by Contest judges and culminates in a black-tie gala awards event.

For more information, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

To preorder your copy, go to bit.ly/WOTF36.

The post L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36 Cover Art Announced appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

The L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards ceremony, celebrating its 36^th anniversary of the internationally-acclaimed Writers of the Future Contest and its companion Illustrators of the Future Contest, will be broadcast on Friday, April 3, 7:30 p.m. (Pacific), to a worldwide audience via Internet, it was announced today. Streaming will be live from www.writersofthefuture.com  where a countdown to the event can currently be seen.

Themed around the book cover art entitled “The Uncertain Egg” painted by award-winning artist Echo Chernik, the evening will open with a performance by the award-winning singer-songwriter from Dominica, Michele Henderson.

“Our annual gala ceremony for new writers and illustrators of science fiction and fantasy is such a moving experience that we want all speculative fiction fans everywhere and the friends and families of this year’s winners to witness it,” said Joni Labaqui, the Contests’ director.

The evening ceremony will be held before a packed hall of invited guests, celebrities, and many of speculative fiction’s most popular writers and illustrators at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood.

As the top names in the science fiction and fantasy world, Contest judges will be on hand to present the annual awards to this year’s writer and illustrator winners as well as the grand prize winner for each contest. Writer judges who will be attending include Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, Gregory Benford, David Farland, Eric Flint, Brian Herbert, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Nancy Kress, Katherine Kurtz, Todd McCaffrey, Rebecca Moesta, Larry Niven, Jody Lynn Nye, Nnedi Okorafor, Tim Powers, Robert J. Sawyer, and Dean Wesley Smith. Illustrator judges include Echo and Lazarus Chernik, Ciruelo, Craig Elliott, Val Lakey Lindahn, Mike Perkins, Sergey Poyarkov, Rob Prior, and Dan dos Santos.

Every quarter, three writers and three illustrators are selected by a panel of leading authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy. With no entry fee and judging done on an anonymous basis, the criterion is strictly merit. Beside first time publication, benefits include over $30,000 in cash prizes and royalties, a week-long workshop with top professionals of the genre as well as book signings, radio, and TV interviews organized by the Contest administrators to assist the winners in launching their careers.

For more information on the writing contest and illustration contest, go to www.writersofthefuture.com  where you can also see last year’s awards ceremony.

Please note, this is a live broadcast, so check your time zone for when it will show in your location.

The post International Writers of the Future 36 Anniversary Set for Live Worldwide Broadcast appeared first on Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Most fiction writers hope that in some way their writing is participation in a broad cultural community of readers and writers. Many writers seek local community through their writing. Writing groups, critique groups, and writers organizations all reflect this sense of belonging, or the desire to belong, and most writers have heard the axiom that success happens in clusters.

Fiction writers, who as individuals often avoid being around other people, will gather with other writers to examine, support, and pursue publication hopes and dreams. I suspect this has been true since the first story shaman spit pigment over their hand onto a cave wall to sign their epic graphic novel about pointy-stick hunters vanquishing mammoths.

In my personal pursuit of craft and community, I have participated in many organizations and groups. One that stands out for me is the Wordos group in Eugene, Oregon. I joined this success cluster in 1998 after three people I respected contacted me in one day and recommended that I join. The group had been around for a while, and at that time many aspiring and professional writers sat at the table every Tuesday night. The story analysis was strong, and the professionalism in process was apparent the first night I attended.

What I did not know then was that the Writers of the Future Writing Contest had already played a role in the lives of many members and would play a role in the lives of many more members, including myself.

In truth, until I started research for this article, I didn’t know how many. I only knew about the ten or so that pop up in the group’s oral folklore. Now, I know that 21 writers from the precursor group and the group as it exists today have been published in the WotF anthologies. Several have won Silver or Golden Pens. Many more have placed in their quarters, and a new cluster of writers coming up have managed honorable mention, silver honorable mention, or finalist slots in just the last year.

Of this long list of writers, eight won, placed, or were published in the anthology before the group became known by its current name, the Wordos. Another 13 who have been, or are currently, active members since the group took on its current name have won, placed, or published.

This is an amazing track record for a group from Eugene, Oregon—a track record that instantly raises the questions of how and why such a group could spawn so many award-winning, published, and still publishing professionals.

To really understand the nature of this successful creative cluster, we need to go back in time. I personally believe the tribal values of a group that has a history of success include the baseline assumption that members who work hard will succeed. That assumption pervades every activity and every member. It isn’t forced by goals or idealized cheerleading, nor is it questioned. The evidence of success is part of the core beliefs and the history of the group. Craft and market knowledge are passed along from alums and sitting elders to new writers as a right of membership.

While any group of writers can, and should, meet to support one another in professional aspirations, for a group to spawn dozens of career storytellers is quite unusual.

And yes, I say dozens.

Keep in mind that there are two ways to win Writers of the Future. One is to win. The other is to have enough professional sales to become ineligible. This article only talks about writers who won, placed, or published in the Writers of the Future Contest. Many others sold stories while trying to win and, consequently, became ineligible by becoming professionals.

It All Started with Hugo Gernsback

The Wordos tradition of successes began long before the Wordos was officially named in the mid-nineties. In fact, the traditions and some of the roots of the professional processes of the group can be traced all the way back to The Science Fiction League, which was founded by Hugo Gernsback in the 1930s. As is the nature of writing groups that live long enough, they spawn new writing groups. Whether because folks decide to move away, people get embroiled in political differences, righteousness starts petty infighting, or writers act out because of an ego-driven sense that individuals own groups, one group spins off another. That group spins off others. And, as Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, “So it goes.”

The Gernsback group spawned another group, which spawned another, The Greater New York Science Fiction Club. I leave it to others to argue the lineage and sequence of mutations that led to the eventual founding of the Futurians, but that is where the lineage becomes interesting to my experiences and this article.

Many Golden Age science fiction luminaries were members of the Futurians, including Judith Merril, Fredrik Pohl, Virginia Kidd, Isaac Asimov, Donald Wollheim, Elise Wollheim, James Blish, and many others. I’m sorry if I left your favorites out. However, this is about the Wordos, and that story begins with two Futurians, Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm.

I was lucky enough to have known both Damon and Kate. For a time, I even met with other writers at their house for a critique group that I like to describe as going over to gramma and grampa’s for cookies and tea before being tossed into a wood chipper. They are sorely missed by many.

The pair of them were renowned for many things, including many stories, novels, magazines, anthologies, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and founding of the Clarion program. Both were accomplished authors and editors, and they drew aspiring writers from all over the country to their doorstep. Among the writers who came to them for education and guidance were Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman, all current judges for WotF were part of that group. Dave Wolverton (a.k.a., David Farland), another current WotF judge joined and participated in that group for a time. One of my mentors, New York Times best-selling author Steve Perry, used to tell me stories of going to Damon and Kate’s house to learn. Many writers, all of whom could not be listed here, benefited from Damon and Kate and their move to Oregon.

The Wordos: A Story that Begins with Two Futurians, Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm

These people all grew out of the tradition of writing success that Damon and Kate brought to Eugene, Oregon. Eventually, Kris Rusch and Dean Smith formed a writer’s group. That group later took on the name, the Wordos. Sometime after that, Kris and Dean moved away. Others stayed. Nina Kiriki Hoffman was part of that original group and is still a member of the Wordos. It’s important, I think, to point out that the actual progression of events and mutations of the group from that band of writers surrounding Damon and Kate in the 80s to the current incarnation of the Wordos that meets at the Tsunami Bookstore every Tuesday night at 7:00 varies based on who you ask. However, the group does appear to have been a continuous entity for at least 30 years.

By the mid-nineties when the group name, Wordos, was chosen and formalized, the people clustered around Damon and Kate had already established a solid relationship with the Writers of the Future Writing Contest by winning and/or placing stories in the anthologies. These people also worked hard studying craft and sharing knowledge. They simply assumed they would succeed if they worked hard. Being part of a community that, in its various incarnations, stretched all the way back to Gernsback, they assumed that the knowledge they were gaining was solid and workable—and it was.

The First Writers of the Future Winners

In the first quarter of the first year of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, Nina Kiriki Hoffman won third place. Dean Wesley Smith was a published finalist in the anthology. The tradition of the group’s tribal value of success was continued and connected to Writers of the Future. When I joined in 98, this statement was common and part of many discussions, “The best story on your desk at the end of the quarter goes to Writers of the Future until you win or are ineligible.” The statement assumed that you wrote, revised, and mailed multiple stories every quarter. Consequently, you always had at least one that could be sent to the Contest every quarter. I submitted a total of 12 times. I submitted 8 in a row before I won. The most recent Wordo, who was, incidentally, at the table the first night I attended and who has worked diligently for years to achieve a win, is Wulf Moon. He won first place for 2019 and holds, I believe, the Wordos record for honorable mentions and finalist wins.

Wordo Writers of the Future Winner Roster

The following list of Wordos and precursor Wordos demonstrates how powerful the combined belief in success through hard work, attention to craft, and commitment to sending out stories can be when those values are part of an assumed foundation of a success cluster’s activities. My apologies to anyone I left off this list and to anyone who is offended by being associated with this amazing group of writers.

Luck and skill to all who write and send.

1985 Vol. 1:

Nina Kiriki Hoffman, “A Step into Darkness” 3^rd Place, Q1

Dean Wesley Smith, “One Last Dance” Published Finalist

1986 Vol. 2:

Marina Fitch, “They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships” 3^rd Place, Q3

1987 Vol. 3:

Lori Ann White, “Old Mickey Flip Had a Marvelous Ship” 3^rd Place, Q2

Dave Wolverton, “On My Way to Paradise” 1^st Place, Q4 and Golden Pen Winner

1989 Vol. 5:

J. Steven York, “Starbird” 3^rd Place, Q3

Gary W. Shockley, “The Disambiguation of Captain Shroud” 1^st Place, Q2 and Golden Pen Winner

1990 Vol. 6:

Bruce Holland Rogers, “A Branch in the Wind” 1^st Place, Q3

1992 Vol. 8:

Mark Budz, “Pale Marionettes” 2^nd Place, Q3

2001 Vol. 17:

Eric M. Witchey, “Dreams and Bones” 2^nd Place, Q3

2002 Vol. 18:

Leon J. West, “Memoria Technica” 2^nd Place, Q4

2003 Vol. 19:

Jay Lake, “Into the Gardens of Sweet Night” 1^st Place, Q4

2004 Vol. 20:

Ken Brady: “Asleep in the Forest of the Tall Cats” Published Finalist

2005 Vol. 21:

Stephen R. Stanley, “Mars Hath No Fury Like a Pixel Double-Crossed” 1^st Place, Q3

2006 Vol. 22:

Blake Hutchins, “The Sword from the Sea” 1^st Place, Q2

2007 Vol. 23:

Damon Kaswell, “Our Last Words” 3^rd Place, Q2

John Burridge, “Mask Glass Magic” 3^rd Place, Q4

2008 Vol. 24:

Stephen R. Stanley, Illustrator of the Future Winner, Q1

2009 Vol. 25:

Grá Linnaea, “Life in Steam” 3^rd Place, Q3

2010 Vol. 26:

Lael Salaets, “The Black Side of Memory” 3^rd Place, Q4

2013 Vol. 29:

Jacob A. Boyd, “Lost Pine” 3^rd Place Q3

2019 Vol. 35:

Wulf Moon, “Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler” 2^nd Place, Q4

2019 Semifinalists and Honorable Mentions from 2019

Here are a few people who are currently sitting at, or have recently sat at, the Wordos table who we’ll likely see in upcoming volumes if they don’t sell into ineligibility first.

Tim Asay “Dust Bunnies” Honorable Mention, Q1

Alexis Lanham Humphry (A. Lanham Humphry) “Mama, Millie, the Moon, and Me” Honorable Mention, Q2

Sandra Siegienski:

“Encounter the Weaver” Honorable Mention, Q2

“Shadows of the Face” Semifinalist, Q3

“Blood Sacrifice” Silver Honorable Mention, Q4

L. C. Treeheart (a.k.a., Louanne Guzman) “Smogfang and the Tongue of Dog” Honorable Mention, Q3

Drew Norton, Honorable Mention, Q4

Eric Witchey has made a living as a freelance writer and communication consultant for over 25 years. In addition to producing many corporate non-fiction titles, he has sold more than 140 short stories and several novels. His stories have appeared in ten genres and on five continents. He has received recognition from New Century Writers, Writers of the Future, Writer’s Digest, The Eric Hoffer Prose Award program, Short Story America, The Irish Aeon Awards, and other organizations. His How-To articles have appeared in The Writer Magazine, Writer’s Digest Magazine, and other print and online magazines. When not teaching or writing, he spends his time fly fishing or restoring antique, model locomotives.

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L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future 36 releasing in April will feature for the first time, winners from Turkey and Iran, making a total of 37 countries with winners of the Illustrators of the Future illustration contest.

Irmak (Max) Çavun from Turkey and Mohamad Hossein (Mason) Matak from Iran, are both aspiring artists and two of the twelve winners of the Illustrators of the Future competition which has seen entrants from 177 countries. As contest winners, they were each commissioned to illustrate one of the twelve winning stories being published in the upcoming science fiction and fantasy anthology.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests are open to aspiring artists from around the world. Every quarter, three writers and three illustrators are selected by a panel of leading authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy. With no entry fee and judging done on an anonymous basis, the criterion is strictly merit—the judges only see the art or story with no names attached.

Max Çavun is a senior in high school in Bursa, Turkey. Since there were no influential artists near her, Max’s inspiration was based solely on her imagination. With the art challenges she faces, Max works hard with the hopes of one day becoming an important figure within the art society. Max will fly to Hollywood for a week-long workshop with top industry professionals culminating in a festive black-tie gala awards ceremony.

Mason Matak earned his Masters of Arts degree in illustration in Tehran. He is unable to attend the awards event but has prepared a video that will be played in his stead. He says, “I dream and paint. I imagine and paint. Finally, I paint my life.” Mason hopes someday to work in a country that understands the value of his art.

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1984 to provide “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” Based on its success, its sister illustration contest, Illustrators of the Future, was created five years later to provide that same opportunity for the aspiring artist.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 428 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 33 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 358 past winners of the Illustration Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony live online on April 3, 2020, 7:00 p.m. PST go to www.writersofthefuture.com

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Tom Doherty, president and publisher of Tor Books, was announced as the keynote speaker for the L. Ron Hubbard 36^th Annual Achievement Awards and the release of Writers of the Future Volume 36 taking place Friday, April 3, at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood, by John Goodwin, president Galaxy Press, publisher of the anthology series.

Few casual readers may know of Tor Books, but almost anyone who has ever read a science fiction or fantasy book will have held one of Tor’s innumerable novels, which have been published since its inception in 1980. It was Tom Doherty who founded Tor Books which has become one of the most impressive powerhouses of speculative fiction in the modern world.

Doherty has deep roots when it comes to books, having been a book salesman through the 1950s and 60s until he became the publisher at Tempo Books in 1972. A few years later, he also joined Grosset & Dunlap as the publisher of their science fiction imprint, Ace Books. After all that time in the trenches of the publishing industry, Tom launched out on his own to create Tor Books and realize his vision for science fiction and fantasy stories that would go on to inspire countless millions.

He is both president and publisher of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, which is associated with the Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen imprints. His dedication to the industry has certainly shone through with the quality of the tales these imprints tell and the amazing authors they bring to the world.

Doherty has been long lauded for his contributions to publishing and speculative fiction. In 2005, he received the Lifetime Achievement World Fantasy Award at the World Fantasy Convention. In 2015, while attending the Writers of the Future award ceremony he was presented the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts, where he stated, “Thank you again to the Writers of the Future and its late founder, L. Ron Hubbard for having the vision and the foresight to make dreams come true. Together we build new tomorrows.”

Writers of the Future is a contest initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1984 as a means of providing a helping hand to aspiring writers on how to become an author. Due to the immense success of the writing contest, a sister competition, Illustrators of the Future, was created.

The annual Contests draw entrants from around the globe and are free to enter. Winners retain full rights to their work and each is given cash awards. Grand prize winners receive an additional $5,000. The Contest flies out all winners to Los Angeles for an expense-paid, week-long workshop of writing tips and how-to advice given by Contest judges and culminates in a black-tie gala awards event.

For more information, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

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Organizers of the annual L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Achievement Awards announced that award-winning singer-songwriter hailing from Dominica, Michele Henderson, will be opening the evening’s ceremony at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood on Friday, April 3.

Henderson has had a very distinguished musical career in both jazz and calypso. She has shared billing with Green Day and the Foo Fighters at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, headlined jazz festivals in Trinidad and Virgin Gorda, and has shared the stage with Taylor Dayne, Chick Corea, and Doug E. Fresh.

She is the mother of two, director of two local businesses, board member of Crime Stoppers Dominica, spokesperson for the Home at Heart Foundation, and an officially appointed Goodwill Ambassador to Dominica.

When asked to perform after showing her the cover of Writers of the Future Volume 36, Henderson immediately responded, “I am so very excited and honored to have been invited to participate in the Gala and Award ceremony.” Already being familiar with the Contests and Mr. Hubbard’s contributions to the arts, she continued, “As an artist myself I am well aware of the value of art; its incredible worth to society.  Art is the highest level of communication there is on this planet.  It’s the language every human being can understand and communicate with. Without it, life is dull and meaningless.  L. Ron Hubbard knew this and made it a priority to recognize and reward artists and their work. His efforts inspire us to continue being the light of the world.” She concluded, “I am just thrilled to have the opportunity to help continue this work.”

As the top names in the science fiction and fantasy world, Contest judges will be on hand to present the annual awards to this year’s writer and illustrator winners as well as the grand prize winner for each contest.

Those attending will include Writers of the Future Contest judges Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, Gregory Benford, David Farland, Eric Flint, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Nancy Kress, Todd McCaffrey, Rebecca Moesta, Larry Niven, Jody Lynn Nye, Nnedi Okorafor, Tim Powers, and Robert J. Sawyer. An equally impressive roster of Illustrators of the Future Contest judges including Echo and Lazarus Chernik, Ciruelo, Craig Elliott, Val Lakey Lindahn, Sergey Poyarkov, Rob Prior, and Dan dos Santos will also be on hand.

Writers of the Future is a writing contest initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1984 as a means of providing a helping hand to aspiring writers on how to become an author. Due to the immense success of the writing contest, a sister competition, Illustrators of the Future, was created.

The annual illustrator and short story contests draw entrants from around the globe and are free to enter. Winners retain full rights to their work and each is given cash awards. Grand prize winners receive an additional $5,000. The Contest flies out all winners to Los Angeles for an expense-paid, week-long workshop of writing tips and how-to advice given by Contest judges and culminates in a black-tie gala awards event.

For more information, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

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Spring will forever be a nostalgic season for me.

This time last year I was fidgeting. I was fidgeting because I had this huge nervous ball of energy that I didn’t know what to do with. I was fidgeting because I was about to head to the Writers of the Future writing workshop.

I can’t help but envy the new class of Writers of the Future. Next month, they’ll be walking the red carpet and accepting one of the heaviest and pointiest awards I’ve ever held. One of them will get to hold a heavier version still. All of them will face the flash of cameras, lights, and glitz that only Hollywood could pull off!

But that’s not the main benefit they’ll get from Writers of the Future. There is a moment where a person who writes goes from “writer” to “Author” and it’s not when they’re having the makeup done or the pictures taken. I think the moment of transformation is at about book 50 in the stack of unsigned copies meant to be engraved with the signatures of the newly minted winners, when their hands are cramping but the stream of books keeps coming. Or maybe it comes with that first check for something they’ve written. Or when someone shakes their hand and says, “I’m going to win this contest someday!”

There is also a moment where the winners stop being individual writers from across the planet, and morph into part of the writing community at large. The instructors welcome the winners as equals, offering their knowledge like open books in human form. Bonds are galvanized over sleepless, story-filled nights. Futures are mapped out, conventions are planned for, connections are made and made strong.

For me, I joined a found family. I learned how to network, to publish, and, yes, even how to write! But most of all, I internalized what it is to be an author.

2020 is the year of hindsight, and I look back fondly on springtime last year. I wish the best for the Writers of the Future this year and welcome them to the group!

Carrie Callahan was raised in the seedier parts of Florida, feeding her sense of the strange and magical. She writes Dirt Spec, which is speculative fiction about those of the under classes like the ex-con living out in the Kuiper belt, or the aging waitress who makes ends meet by selling potions on the side.

Carrie has a B.A. in English from the University of Cincinnati and is currently studying for her MFA at the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. Carrie is also the recipient of the Writers of the Future Award, and you can find her award-winning short story, “Dirt Road Magic,” in the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 35.

Carrie lives in Bourbon Country, Kentucky with her husband and their Yorkie, Chestnut. You can find her online at carriecallahan.com or on Twitter or Instagram @ReeCallahan. Earth is her hometown!

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If you want to know how to become an author, you’ve probably asked yourself the following questions:

• How can I develop my craft?
• Will writing short stories make me a better writer?
• Are writing competitions worth my time?

Here are the answers.

Writing competitions help you build good habits

By now, you’ve probably heard of Heinlein’s rules. The Writers of the Future Contest is especially good for helping you master Heinlein’s first two, namely 1) You must write, and 2) You must finish what you start.

It’s easy for new writers to fall into the trap of starting stories but never finishing them, or to get stuck rewriting the same story over and over. With its quarterly deadlines, WOTF encourages writers to finish and submit a new short story every three months. If you commit to entering all four quarters, you’ll also be building the discipline and productivity necessary to succeed as a professional writer.

Writing contests can be good for morale

Nobody likes rejection letters, and new writers get a lot of them. Even established authors still get rejected. Writing contests, however, are a little different. Some contests offer feedback on your work, while others have tiers of awards even if you don’t win the top prize. Earning an Honorable Mention or Semi-finalist can help keep you going when it feels like all you’re getting are rejections. When you move from one tier to another, you know your writing has improved.

Writing competitions give you a chance to experiment

Writing contests are great for experimentation. Maybe the contest calls for a romance story but you don’t write romance, or the story has to include a werewolf but you only write hard sci-fi. Maybe the contest is for flash fiction, but you always write long. Stretch yourself, and give it a try. If you want to become an author, this is how you grow.

Athletes know that if they want to get better, they need to practice a wide range of techniques and activities. Writing is the same way. If you only write what you’re already good at, you’ll limit your development as a writer. In order to develop your craft, you’ll need to try new things, so look for themed competitions that give you a chance to flex new muscles as a writer.

Writing contests help you target your practice

It’s fine to write for yourself. It’s also fine to write a rough draft that you know isn’t perfect. If you’re aiming at winning contests, however, you’ll need to focus on honing your skills. Perfect your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. Before you write each story, identify the writing skills you’ll be practicing in that story and write them down.

Perhaps you want to write an adventure story with tight pacing and a POV you’ve never tried before. Or maybe you want to work on intricate plotting and snappy dialogue. Either way, you’ll get the greatest benefit if you identify your practice areas beforehand so you can give them extra attention while you’re writing.

When you’re done, give the story one last round of polish and send it off.

Then start the next one.

Kary English grew up in the snowy Midwest where she avoided siblings and frostbite by reading book after book in a warm corner behind a recliner chair. She blames her one and only high school detention on Douglas Adams, whose Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy caused her to laugh out loud while reading it behind her geometry textbook.

Today, Kary still spends most of her time with her head in the clouds and her nose in a book. To the great relief of her parents, she seems to be making a living at it. Her fiction includes several short stories and a fantasy saga about a little girl and an orange kitten. Kary’s highest aspiration is to make her own work detention-worthy.

Kary is a Hugo and Campbell nominee and Writers of the Future winner whose fiction has appeared in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 31, the Grantville Gazette, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy’s Edge.

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