NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

Hi, JT, and welcome!

Hello all I am Tom Wells and my user name, "wellsdesigned," is a nod to my current paid career as an Architect. I have had parallel interests in writing and architecture since junior high, but I have put my emphasis on the architecture aspect largely because architecture school is a young people domain with projects that can keep students awake for 24 hour + design crunches. I'm glad I stayed focused enough to eventually become a successful licensed architect, but I have never left writing entirely out of my interests (and in case you are wondering, I am old enough to count an Osborne dual floppy drive computer as my first word processor, predating the rise of Microsoft---ooh, story idea). For the past few years writing science fiction has been pulling me more in this direction. I have sporadically submitted for publication and 3 times to WotF before my first HM in Q4 (plus my publication rejections are starting to come back with brief critiques rather than form letters).

With the encouragement of my family and friends who have been my only readers, I am ramping up my efforts to become published. I have a lot of stories waiting to escape and even if my efforts to be published don't pan out, they will exist as long as someone keeps hangs on to my files.

JT and Tom, welcome aboard, sirs!

Welcome, Tom!

Welcome to all the new faces! (Mine is a relatively fresh one as well.) I look forward to obsessing over results with you in quarters to come!

Hi everybody

I'm Jeppe from Copenhagen, Denmark. New to forum and contest. 1 entry = 1 ejection, but a new one in the system. Better story next time I guess.

Hi, Jeppe, and welcome!

Uhrm. Hi. I'm new. Obviously
I'm feeling secretive today, so I chose to be 'Rubeline'. I'm considering it along with an ancestor's last name as a pen name- does it sound believable? I made it up, but my sister seems to think she heard it somewhere before. I hate when I make up names that already exist.

I think I started my first contest entry sometime in 2010, but mostly I looked around on the forum so I could nitpick it, which is why I haven't even finished it yet. You know, I've never heard of formatting manuscripts before finding this contest. Probably never would have, either, since when I started my first novel project somewhere at around 10-12 I had decided to go self-publishing if I ever finished a book. ...Good thing I never finished that "novel", either. It was horrible

...I'm starting to ramble, though. Hopefully I'll actually finish something and submit it this year! Maybe even this month (or at least before my birthday in July), though I can be a bit of a procrastinator. Maybe you experienced writers can slap some sense into me

Uh. I guess that's it, then. I'm going to go hide in a corner and hope I'm not devoured by hungry forum folk

Nah don't worry Rubeline, we don't feast on fresh meat

Welcome, Rubeline!

As someone who publishes under a pen name of sorts (my legal name first and middle, sans the surname), my experience is that it does generate a certain amount of confusion with editors and such. So unless you feel strongly about it, I'd suggest publishing under your real name, especially for short story markets. Novelists often get a pen name for marketing reasons, such as when they write a book in a different genre from their other works, but there's no real marketing advantage to pen names in short fiction, and it can sometimes be a bit of a hassle.

Though you don't really have to worry about that until you start cranking out finished stories -- as my friend from Louisiana says, get 'er done! One great thing about this contest is that it gives us quarterly deadlines to aim for, and lots of folks here on the forum try to submit something every single quarter 'til they win or pro out. Remember: writers write. Application of butt-in-chair, fingers-on-keyboard is the #1 thing you need to do to become a successful writer.

Glad to know I won't be torn limb from limb and devoured, Snow! I actually joined a fan forum once, where there were two or three "newbie-eaters" who would post action-comments on newbie threads. I think it had over a hundred members online ato nce, and even more total. Scared the heck out of me, all those people online at once...

And yeah, I really don't really know about pen names- the extremely shy, sensitive, stage-frightened half of me says NO BODY MUST KNOW WHO I AM! But the greedy part of my that wants fame and fortune dissagrees quite strongly. But as for the quarterly deadlines, I'm rather confused on those. I've been looking everywhere I can find and haven't found the specific deadlines- all I know is when the quarters start and that there's a new one every three months or something, and I think the last one ends on Sept. 30th. I have difficulty meeting deadlines when I don't know what they are xD Part of the reason I joined the forum was to ask that question, too.

Everyone's pretty nice here, and extremely helpful. I blame Mr. Brad Torgersen and his niceness.

I wouldn't know much about deadlines, cry pardon, I don't really mind them at all. I just write the story I want, and submit it when it's done, damn when it's sent in. Might not sound very passionate or tactical, but to each their own.

Snow's method works as long as you don't accidentally submit twice in the same quarter.

Deadlines are the day before the next quarter starts. That's an easy way to keep track of it.

Ah. Thanks for clearing the deadlines up for me! That definitely helps. I'm looking forward to taking over the world through everyone's niceness here and-- Er. I mean. Sitting quietly in a corner staying out of everyone's way... Yeah, that's it. Sitting. In a corner. Quietly. Nothing about world domination at all. Nope. Nothing to see there. *cough*

You can have the world. I'm unaffected in my own little one. Safe and sound. No one can come in!

Hi, Rubeline, and welcome!

Hey All Those Out There!!

I'm DarklyRomantic and I haven't even pushed or looked at the sumbit button yet. I have started but it's all new to me. I loved writing ever since I was young and even though a whole lot of people would say I am still young, me being only 16, I see myself as a future writer in making. I love hearing about people who make it out in the world with nothing but their pen and paper(or some would prefer there laptop). I came across this website today and it probably won't be the last time I look at it. I just wanted to get that out there

Welcome, Rubeline and DarklyRomantic!

Indeed, welcome!

And Jeppe! Welcome, Jeppe.

Welcome! (Heyyyy ... what am I, a doormat?) But Welcome indeed to all you new folks! It's a great thing, to have so many new writers and illustrators coming to the forums that it's a challenge trying to keep up with all the welcoming!

New people, new ideas, new stories & art, new juice! Share all ya got, don't hang back -- it makes for an interesting forum -- and an interesting anthology! Welcome!

Welcome, DarklyRomantic! You're never too young to get a good start on a writing career. (I believe I was about 14 the first time I entered.)

Haha thank you, Kyle! Very much true....

Hello, my name is Michael and I am a college student.

I am an avid reader of science fiction (considering I just finished up Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov) and love to write it.

I submitted a story a while ago and am working on further entries / publication options.

Welcome, Michael!

Hello, my name is Michael and I am a college student.

I am an avid reader of science fiction (considering I just finished up Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov) and love to write it.

I submitted a story a while ago and am working on further entries / publication options.

Welcome, Michael!

Hello, Michael! Welcome, and good luck!

Hello,

I've read WotF since I was a kid, and last quarter was my first attempt at the contest. I hope to do more writing and enter again (and again, and again...).

See you all in the forums!

JSC

Welcome, and good luck, JS_Coyote!

(I was wondering if this forum had such a thread!)

My name is Eric and I read and write a good helping of SF, Fantasy, and Poetry. Last year I entered WotF and got my rejection a little bit later! I've submitted to a few magazines and have been collecting a growing number of rejections. I plan on submitting to WotF in the next few months again! Happy to be here and join in on the great discussions that are floating around this forum!