It was 1978. I was thirteen years old and my mother gave me Clifford Simak’s book, Mastodonia. So began my love affair with speculative fiction. Within a few years, I read everything from Poul Anderson to Roger Zelazny and had amassed hundreds of books and magazines. I was obsessed. I had found my calling. I was going to be a science fiction writer.
A Mountain of Rejection Slips
It took a few years to gather the courage to write a story, and another few to start sending them out. From 1986 to 1992, I wrote 47 stories, submitting them to any place I could find, including and especially to the Writers of the Future. The result was a mountain of rejection slips. Sometimes the editors provided encouraging messages, but they still rejected my stories! I entered the WOTF eleven times and received—no surprise—eleven rejections.
Becoming a science fiction writer was much harder than it looked. After six years of trying to get published, I made a huge mistake. I gave up. It was too hard. I was done. My love affair with speculative fiction was over. I sold all my books and magazines. The only ones I saved were my Writers of the Future books. I just couldn’t part with them. I wept as I boxed them up and put them in the closet, where they would remain for the next seventeen years.
Return to the Urge to Write
Fast-forward to 2009. My boss walks into my office and asks, “Do you like science fiction?”
“I used to,” I said.
“Read this,” he handed me E. E. Doc Smith’s Lensman series. He was my boss, so I obeyed.
And I was back in love! I bought back all my books. I dug out my WOTF books and re-read them. Then I got all the remaining volumes and read those.
Then it happened: I started to feel that urge again, that compulsion to start writing my own stories. But I was terrified. I had been down that road before, and it was littered with broken dreams. I wasn’t sure if I could do it.
So I made a vow. I would try submitting again, but only to the WOTF contest. If I earned an Honorable Mention, then maybe I would try submitting elsewhere. I re-read all the WOTF books again, and then I submitted a story. Of course, I received a rejection, then another, and another, and so on.
An Anonymous Guy from Topanga Canyon
Then it happened, entry number sixteen, an Honorable Mention! I did it! My head nearly hit the ceiling. Still, I was too scared to submit anywhere else. I kept entering the WOTF and soon earned another HM. When I had earned three, I began submitting to the magazines.
To my delight, I not only began receiving personal rejections; within one year, I sold my first story! Then I sold another. And another!
Still, my primary focus was with the WOTF contest. I never missed a quarter. I was earning more honorable mentions, but that was it. The higher levels of the contest seemed out of reach. Whenever I felt my confidence waver, I would look at the WOTF books and tell myself, you could win this contest. Don’t give up.
Then one day I was lurking the WOTF forum and noticed a mention of a cautionary tale about why you should never give up. It was from a workshop by Dean Wesley Smith. I knew about Dean. He had a story in Volume 1, and later became one of the judges. In his workshop, Dean talked about an anonymous guy from Topanga Canyon, a promising new writer who the magazine editors were talking about. They wondered who would be the first to publish one of his stories. Even book editors were showing interest. Then suddenly, he disappeared. Gone and never to be seen again. His name, to protect his identity, was Topanga Canyon.
When I read that, I felt a cold chill. I was from Topanga. That was me. I knew it in my bones. Before I gave up, Dean was editing Pulphouse and had written me personal rejections. I still remember them: “You’re close.” “Keep trying.”
I sent Dean an email. He confirmed my secret identity.
I felt waves of sheer delight with an undercurrent of utter devastation. Editors were talking about me! And I gave up.
The Magic Number—#47
This discovery inspired me, even more, to keep entering, which I did, every quarter, eventually earning twelve honorable mentions. On December 28, 2017, three days before the Q1 deadline, for the 47th time, I submitted yet another story to the contest. I had just received four rejections in a row, so my hopes were not high. I had entered every single quarter for the last eight years. Why should this one be any different? At best I hoped to add to my sizable collection of HMs.
Then the impossible happened. To my utter shock, my story was a finalist. The next few weeks were pure torture. I was at work when the phone call came that I had won second place. It was easily one of the happiest days of my life. I could feel that thirteen-year-old boy inside of me jumping up and down. I won! I actually won! I’ll get a monetary prize, a beautiful trophy, a week-long workshop, and best of all, my story is going to appear in Volume 35. At last!
All I can tell you is, if you have a dream, never give up. Not ever!
Preston Dennett
Preston Dennett has worked as a carpet cleaner, fast-food worker, data entry clerk, bookkeeper, landscaper, singer, actor, writer, radio host, television consultant, teacher, UFO researcher, ghost hunter and more. He has written 22 non-fiction books and more than 100 articles about UFOs and the paranormal. But his true love has always been speculative fiction. After a long hiatus, he started writing again in 2009. He has sold 37 stories to various venues including Allegory, Andromeda Spaceways, Bards & Sages, Black Treacle, Cast of Wonders, the Colored Lens, Grievous Angel, Kzine, Perihelion, Sci Phi Journal, Stupefying Stories, T. Gene Davis’ Speculative Blog, and more, including several anthologies. He earned twelve honorable mentions in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest before winning 2nd place for Quarter 1, 2018, (Volume 35), his third professional sale. He currently resides in southern California where he spends his days looking for new ways to pay his bills and his nights exploring the farthest edges of the universe.
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This latest anthology in the Writers of the Future series offers a full spectrum of artistic style. Publishers Weekly summed it up in their starred review:
“The 34th collection of Finalists for the Writers of the Future competition features expertly crafted and edited stories and art, running the gamut from humorous to bone-chilling.”
In 1983 L. Ron Hubbard created and endowed the Writers Contest, followed five years later with a companion Illustrator Contest, as a means to discover and nurture new talent in science fiction and fantasy. Illustrator winners are selected by a blue-ribbon panel of judges including Echo Chernik, Ciruelo, Bob Eggleton, Larry Elmore, Val Lakey, Gary Meyer, Sergey Poyarkov, Rob Prior and Shaun Tan.
Submissions for the Illustrators of the Future Contest have come in from over 170 countries. And here is a glimpse of the new artists you will meet in volume 34.
Kyna Tek
Illustrator of “A Smokeless and Scorching Fire”
Kyna Tek was this year’s annual Golden Brush Award winner and commented after the event, “When I saw everyone else’s illustrations in this contest I never imagined I had a chance. Thank you for this moment. I’m never going to forget it. I will cherish it forever.”
Kyna was born in 1980 at an unnamed refugee camp in Thailand along the Cambodia and Thailand border. His family eventually immigrated to Tempe, Arizona where he grew up a typical ’80s kid playing video games, watching movies, and reading comics.
It wasn’t until he attended college that he discovered his passion for drawing and painting. He immersed himself in studies of the arts and his skills grew exponentially.
After graduating from college he has continued honing his craft and discovering where he fits in the illustration world. He enjoys pursuing his ever-continuing education through self-study and creating inspired illustrations in the fantasy and science fiction genre.
Anthony Moravian
Illustrator of “Miss Smokey”
Anthony Moravian is an illustrator who uses classical techniques to create realistic fantasy themes. He specializes in charcoal drawings and oil paintings. Anthony was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and began drawing at the age of three.
Ever since Anthony was a child, he would draw from the collection of comics he had in his basement. He admired the creativity in fantasy and science fiction stories, and he works to capture some of their creativity in his paintings. He really began taking an interest in drawing fantasy art when he began playing fantasy-based video games.
Anthony graduated magna cum laude from the Associate’s program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Upon recommendation from a professor, he worked sketch nights and events at the New York Society of Illustrators. It was there he began to take a great interest in realistic painting.
As a result, he began to work to capture some qualities that were often featured in classical realistic paintings while maintaining his interest in fantasy concepts. He currently lives and works in New York as a freelance illustrator.
Anthony had the honor of being an Illustrator Contest published finalist for Writers of the Future volume 33, and his art can be seen in that volume as well as volume 34.
Reyna Rochin
Illustrator of “Odd and Ugly”
Reyna Nicole Rochin was born December 30, 1990 in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. Like most artists, she had crayons and paper in her hands since the day she could.
Growing up, there weren’t many other artists around her. She spent her childhood playing in the backyard, taking trips to the California beaches, and simply just trying to get through life in good grades.
Out of high school, she received a scholarship to play volleyball at San Francisco State University, which is where life took her next. With her sports background and a degree in Fine Arts emphasizing in drawing and painting, she had no clue what to do—so she took up a career in personal training.
A few years later, painting still captured her interests in her off hours. She eventually made the decision to return to school and was accepted to the Savannah College of Art & Design for MFA in Illustration.
Today, she spends her time working hard at school in Atlanta, power lifting and reading when she gets the chance.
Adar Darnov
Illustrator of “Turnabout”
Adar Darnov was born in 1993 in Teaneck, New Jersey. His family moved to Mt. Kisco, New York where growing up he always engaged in creative activities. Just like many other creative boys, he built cities out of toys and drew his favorite TV characters.
He continued on this path taking many art classes eventually enrolling for his undergraduate degree in illustration at School of Visual Arts in New York City. After visiting with some childhood friends who were playing Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, Adar remembered how much he loved fantasy art when he was younger. This caused him to pursue fantasy illustration in earnest, especially leaning toward a realistic style.
Jazmen Richardson
Illustrator of “A Bitter Thing”
Jazmen Richardson was born in 1998 in Auburn, New York. Living in the middle of nowhere most her life, her imagination was able to roam through the fields surrounding her home.
Jazmen has been drawing and creating stories since she could walk and hold a pencil. Whether they made sense to the viewer or not at the time, each story’s characters were as real to her as another family member.
Though her family is full of creative hearts, she is the first to pursue it as a career.
After graduating a year early from high school to pursue an artistic mentorship, Jazmen was able to attend Ringling College of Art and Design of Sarasota, Florida to study illustration and the business of art and design.
She has been working in digital art for two years now, and is moving toward a specialty in oil painting.
Jazmen concurrently works convention-like events striving to make connections with other artists and improve herself and her work. She may be quiet, but there is nothing more gratifying than meeting new faces and experiencing stories other than her own.
Sidney Lugo
Illustrator of “The Howler on the Sales Floor”
Sidney Lugo was born in 1994 in Guarico, Venezuela. “Sid” to her friends, she grew up most of her life in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to Boston at age nineteen to study Interactive Design.
Her childhood memories serve as inspiration for many of her drawings. She developed an interest in fantasy and sci-fi from a young age.
Sid spent a lot of time looking at French comic books and stories, especially those from the comic anthology Métal Hurlant. These kinds of surreal sci-fi and fantasy stories stimulated her imagination and inspired her path as an artist.
Outside of her studies, she continued to learn and pursue her interest for art. She continues to learn and improve her skills in order to work as a storyboard artist and work on her own comic book.
Sid is currently a graphic design working as a freelancer for private clients.
Quintin Gleim
Illustrator of “Mara’s Shadow”
Growing up in the forests of southern Ohio, Quintin was transfixed by stories of fantasy and science fiction from early childhood. Starting out primarily as a digital artist he made the switch to oil painting after attending Illuxcon in 2016 and has been captivated by traditional mediums ever since.
Currently he is hard at work creating images for his illustrated novel set in a post-apocalyptic American West, populated by fantasy creatures, dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.
Quintin received a BFA from Shawnee State University in 2017 and currently studies at the Columbus College of Art and Design in pursuit of an MFA.
Alana Fletcher
Illustrator of “Flee, My Pretty One”
Alana Fletcher was born in 1996 in Middletown, NY. She was introduced to the arts at a young age while growing up in Michigan. She took figure-drawing classes at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and continued to develop her work within online communities. She began painting with a mouse in Photoshop, but eventually obtained a Wacom tablet to continue to expand her capabilities.
Alana is now attending Ferris State University for Game Design and Digital Animation in Grand Rapids. She concurrently works as a freelance illustrator and concept artist.
Duncan Halleck
Illustrator of “All Light and Darkness”
Duncan Halleck is an illustrator and concept artist working in the entertainment industry and specializing in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. He began his journey as an artist at a young age, copying cartoon characters and superheroes from books he found around the house and spending hours studying movie stills from The Lord of the Rings. As he grew older, he developed a deep passion for science fiction and fantasy literature and devoured the works of authors such as Ray Bradbury, Ian M. Banks, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Always an avid doodler, his love for the arts never ceased throughout his school career, his notebooks attesting to his ceaseless drive to create and explore new ideas.
After graduating high school, several yearlong stints in cities across the US and a close brush with architecture school, Duncan settled down in Belgium with his wife and aged English Pointer.
Shortly after the birth of his first daughter and a time as a landscape painter, Duncan decided to pursue a full-time career in digital art and illustration and began in earnest to study the fundamentals of art and improve his skills as an image-maker. His passion for the fantastic carries through to this day and finds an outlet in the alien landscapes and future metropoli that populate his hard drive. Currently, he freelances for small publishers and developers out of Brussels, where he can be found hiding from the rain with a cup of tea, a good book, and a photon blaster.
Bruce Brenneise
Illustrator of “The Face in the Box”
Bruce Brenneise grew up in the countryside by Lake Michigan; nature and fantasy were two of his main interests from childhood. He continued to not-so-secretly focus on magic, monsters, and myths while studying scientific illustration at the University of Michigan. Pursuit of diverse environments and experiences led him around the world in search of artistic inspiration: a field sketching trip to Southern Africa, months amid ancient ruins of Anatolia, not to mention six years working and traveling throughout China and other parts of East Asia. The landscapes he has explored and the vistas one can only find in fiction are at the heart of Bruce’s current work as an illustrator and independent artist.
He currently lives with his wife and carnivorous plants in Seattle.
Maksym Polishchuk
Illustrator of “What Lies Beneath”
Maksym “Max” Polishchuk was born in 1999 in Lviv, an ancient Ukrainian city located at the crossroads of Western and Eastern Europe. Lviv, with its diverse culture and rich history, ultimately became one of the primary sources of Maksym’s inspiration, who was always fascinated by the history concealed behind each ancient structure.
Such fascination with history, coupled with the discovery of texts of Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, is what ultimately ignited Maksym’s interest in illustration. Art was the only way of transforming the stories and worlds he saw in his imagination into something more tangible. In order to help him achieve his dreams, his mother sent him to an art studio, which he attended almost daily over the span of six years, and which helped him nurture his talents and skills.
Maksym moved to the US just before his freshman year of high school. Even though his world was transformed completely, the one thing that remained constant was art. Today, Maksym studies political science and international relations at Loyola University Chicago in hopes of creating a better world that is not limited solely by the boundaries of the canvas.
Brenda Rodriguez
Illustrator of “The Minarets of An-Zabat”
Brenda Rodriguez was born in Mexico, but moved to the US before her first birthday and has been here ever since. She started drawing as a child and has never stopped loving it. Brenda attributes her passion for character creation to her interest in video games. Her favorites include The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy. She recalls being inspired by them at a young age as a child, and on throughout her life thereafter. To this day, she can thank Nintendo and Square Enix for fueling her aspiration of getting into the entertainment industry as a character artist.
Brenda graduated in spring of 2017 with a degree in Computer Graphics Technology from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. She is now working as a freelance artist and polishing her portfolio to officially break into the industry.
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Eneasz Brodski has a definite opinion about the importance of human values vs. soulless monstrosities. And so this is his tale of how his story “Flee, My Pretty One” published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 34 came to be. Check out the video interview below and Eneasz’s article that follows.
“Flee, My Pretty One”
This was originally written quite a while ago, for an open anthology call on the theme of “Start A Revolution.” I’ve been rabidly anti-corporation for most of my life. They’re soulless, profit-maximizing monstrosities, who know nothing of human values. Optimizers unfettered by concern for us. Stross calls them invaders from Mars. Many people have pointed out that they resemble the problem of unfriendly AI in their lack of human values + ability to alter their environment to fit their utility functions (including, infamously and recently, Ted Chaing). I agree, and I would love (or rather, once would have loved) to see a revolution bringing these forces to heel.
I call them Dragons. For two reasons. The first is that dragons are already known for their rapacious love of treasure, and their willingness to do anything to horde it. They are powerful, and non-human, so they make a good metaphor.
The second is that I’m racist against dragons. If that’s a thing? I realized this back when I was playing Shadowrun. During the course of a campaign, I realized that no matter what he did, I would never trust Dunkelzahn. He could be a saint for centuries, doing only good works, and die sacrificing himself to save me personally, and I still would say “Good riddance. You can’t trust a f**king dragon. He was obviously motivated by some evil plot, he held hatred for us all in his heart, and it will come to light eventually.” I’d be horrified if my offspring dated a dragon. Etc. I don’t care what they do, I know they’re evil.
Artist Alana Fletcher with Eneasz and the artwork for his story
And like, if you’re going to be racist, I think it’s probably best to be racist against a fictional giant lizard species, so you aren’t hurting anyone. And as long as I’m at it, I can maybe use that racism in my stories, so anyone who’s similar to me can get that same visceral revulsion.
Anyway, yes, the story is about starting a revolution against corporations, except that corporations are actual non-human persons(?) in the story. This makes it more satisfying to attack them, since violence against a person is always more meaningful than violence against “the system.” And giving your villains a voice and agency is more exciting.
Except, of course, violence is bad. And the real world is messy and fuzzy, so trying to apply sufficient violence to the correct target is never as clean as Hollywood and/or activists make it seem. So it all keeps spiraling into ever more chaos until everything is shit around you. And thus was born “Flee, My Pretty One.”
Of note: This story had a lot of near-misses when it was seeking publication, with editors saying “This is good, but it’s not quite right for us.” Then Trump was elected. And the next place I submitted to said, “Wow, this is great, you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the society.” And I nodded and said, “Oh yes, yup, that’s exactly what I was doing.”
I’ve been pissed at the system my entire life, regardless of the political party in charge. Because it’s not about the political parties, for the most part. It’s about the entrenched powers that stay entrenched from one election to the next, regardless of whether the Reds or the Blues are nominally in charge that moment. I guess most people aren’t that upset with the system itself. So, on the one hand, it’s interesting to see so much of the population suddenly as riled up as I’ve always been. It helped get this story published, at least. But I’m dismayed that what they’re angry at is still the politicians. I figure this means that once the politician in charge is swapped out, society will return to how it was, and nothing will have changed.
>:(
Eneasz Brodski lives in Denver, Colorado. He is active in the Bayesian Rationalist community, an eclectic collection of misfits who believe humans can do better. Through the powers of science and technology, he hopes all humans currently living can someday celebrate their 5,000th birthday.
Eneasz has a number of meaningful relationships, of many varieties. He was raised in an apocalyptic Christian sect, and while he has left that behind, that childhood colors much of his writing to this day. He’s been writing since he could hold a pencil, but has only begun professional efforts in the past few years. He just finished his first novel and hopes to see it in print soon.
When he’s not writing, podcasting, or blogging, he can often be found gothing it up at a local goth club. He’s willing to strike up a conversation with anyone in dark clothes and eyeliner.
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Hands down, the best and most useful part of winning the Writers of the Future contest and being published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 30 was the people. I’ve often compared it to reaching the end of the Yellow Brick Road and instead of yelling, “Ignore the man behind the curtain,” the wizard reaches out a hand and says, “Here, let me help you.” The workshop to which winners are treated is full of wizards, from childhood heroes of literature and art to instructors and invited guests who all give generously of their time and experience to help the next generation and the genre.
The Popcorn Speech
One such wizard is Kevin J. Anderson, who when time allows, gives what he calls “the popcorn speech.” It’s nothing revolutionary — just the idea that success comes from consistent effort, not a single shining moment of razor-honed brilliance. You can make yourself crazy trying to pop that one perfect kernel or you can relax and make some popcorn, leaving the duds in the bottom of the bag. Writing, he says, is like that: put enough work out there, and if you’ve any talent at all, something will stick.
The Nuclear Reactor Theory of Success
There is a closely-related idea that I call the Nuclear Reactor Theory of Success. This isn’t revolutionary either. It starts with networking 101: you meet someone and they introduce you to someone and so on. Eventually, the growing chain of introductions leads to an opportunity, and that leads to a slew of new introductions and the cycle repeats. Pretty soon you have a burgeoning network of contacts and opportunities, compounding like neutrons in a nuclear chain reaction.
And that’s where the magic happens. As the popcorn flies and your chain reaction grows, it starts to radiate its own luck.
Many aspiring writers harbor the misconception that “if you write it, they will come.” They think, or at least hope, that if they can just “break in” or “break out” or break something, somewhere, the world will be their oyster; the fans and the money will come rolling in and they’ll be recognized as the next Leo Tolstoy cum J.K. Rolling.
Yeah……..no. It doesn’t work that way. In fact with rare exception, it has never worked that way, not even for Tolstoy or Rolling.
This mentality ignores the cold reality that writing is a business, and businesses take time and capital to develop their brand, whatever else they may get right. It’s a myth and a prescription for misery to count on one unlikely shortcut to bypass that reality. Those who believe it are apt to hold back, waiting for the big break or big win that may never come. Or they may labor forever, polishing the life out of their One Great Creation instead of getting their work and their name out into the world, soliciting feedback, and growing as artists and people. And then when a break does finally come their way, they are likely to hang on it, Madam Bovary style, instead of sticking the feather in their cap and moving on, taking the next (sometimes frightening) step down their personal road. Worse, when the untrod path grows moss, they may grow cynical, blaming “gatekeepers” for their lack of professional attainment while driving away the very people and institutions who might have helped them.
When I won Writers of the Future, I knew exactly one writer (me) and I had maybe a dozen posts on my nascent blog, so I decided to interview my fellow winners—mostly just to scare up some content. Since then it’s become a tradition, and I’ve made friends and contacts in each subsequent WotF class. During the workshop, I camped out at the bar, listening to Mike Resnick and Eric Flint triple and quintuple my knowledge by the minute, sharing their advice and a career’s worth of hard knocks.
Mike gave me hell for not belonging to my local writers′ guild, so when I got home, I joined. That led to a bunch of appearance opportunities — but more importantly, to friendships that have paid unexpected dividends — from sharing the costs at local cons to getting a hug from “The Trouble with Tribbles” author, David Gerrold. It also led to my first gig as editor, helping with a locally-produced anthology.
With my fellow WotF winners and local guilders, I now had a posse to run with at conventions, so I could leave my inner wallflower at home and hang with the cool kids. But more than that, I had colleagues — colleagues who share tips and opportunities, make introductions, collaborate, critique each other’s work, and prod each other onward and upward.
That’s how I heard the popcorn speech — another WotF alum and I found Kevin in the hotel bar at WorldCon and he and Todd McCaffrey strong-armed — I mean persuaded me — to attend his Superstars workshop. I heard Kevin′s talk there, but I also met a whole new group of colleagues. This included the impressively mohawked Quincy J. Allen, who introduced me to a publishing tool that I now use to produce custom signed ebooks. Those help entice new subscribers onto my newsletter mailing list and let me give readers I may never get a chance to meet in person just a little something extra.
This is also how I learned about Taos Toolbox, a writing workshop taught by Walter Jon Williams and another WotF wizard, Nancy Kress. Since my WotF win, I′ve continued to hone my craft and was looking for a quality workshop to help up my novel-writing game. At Taos, I met a family of prairie dogs, George R.R. Martin, and Avatar scriptwriter, Steven Gould. I also made friends with a whole new group of awesome up and comers to share and grow together with.
Another writer friend told me about the Jim Baen Memorial Award — a competition focused on near future space sci-fi and tailor-made for my literary tastes. My first entry made the finals. Then it sold to Analog Science Fiction & Fact — a dream of mine since I was eight! I went on to final twice more before placing, and now I’m going to the International Space Development Conference to be honored alongside Amazon and Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos! More important, I’ll meet a whole new group of contacts — aerospace geeks, engineers, entrepreneurs and space exploration advocates. Who knows where that might lead?
The chain reaction grows…
Last year, I hit up a few of my WotF friends to put together an anthology; nothing big, just an ebook for cross promotion and lead generation for our respective newsletters. It was a smash success — so much so we decided to take it to the next level. By the time you read this, “The Future is Nigh – A Treasury of Short Fiction by Award-Winning Authors” will be available in print and on Kindle.
So here I am, four years on, an Analog regular, a multi-award winning author, and now a publisher! My stories have gotten Hugo and Nebula buzz. I just found out I took first place in the annual Analab reader poll for my story, “For All Mankind” about two women who save the world in an Apollo-era spacecraft! I’ve gotten a back-stage tour of the Kansas Cosmosphere with a group of writer friends, been invited inside the Orion space capsule, and received an email from Spider Robinson saying “Go Cat, Go!”
What’s next? I’m working on a novel…and a few other things… We’ll see.
None of this might have happened without the Writers of the Future win, but none of it happened because of that win. It happened because I viewed the win not as a finish line but as a rung up life’s ladder. Because together with allies made at the WotF workshop and since, I keep climbing those rungs wherever they lead. Of course, I’m no networking mercenary and you shouldn′t be either. These are wonderful people, and knowing them is its own reward. But if my Reactor Theory can nudge you beyond the introversion so common among writers, then put the spurs to ′er.
Life′s a journey. Go boldly.
Stuart
In addition to winning the Writers of the Future contest, C Stuart Hardwick is a Jim Baen Award winner, a James White Semifinalist, and an Analog Analab Reader Poll winner. His work has appeared in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Forbes.com and Mental Floss, among others. A southerner from South Dakota, he grew up writing radio plays and has been known to wear a cape.
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“All Light and Darkness” began as a final project for my college Creative Writing class. It was not speculative fiction originally and lacked much of the refinement the published version has (hopefully). However, the voice and format were there, as well as the plot.
When I first decided to pursue the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, I recalled this piece, originally titled “Stay” and rewrote it to fit a science fiction world I’d begun building for a potential series. This world was conceived during a six-month period where I wanted to start a novel. I began that novel and soon found myself overwhelmed by my ambition and inability to meet my own expectations. That’s when I decided to turn to short story writing to improve my technique.
Originally, I treated short stories as a means to world-build, develop voice, invent characters and conflicts, and get my name out there in preparation for novel writing. However, to my surprise, I discovered a real passion for short story writing.
Short story writing demands development of plot and depth in a very small word count. It demands precision and eloquence, and I think it allows a flexibility of format and voice that novels don’t. A writer can use a very strange format or voice in a short story that readers would grow tired of in a novel. Not only that, but short stories seem to demand meaning–a reason to be read. I like to write poignant stories with layers of meaning in them, and I like those reflections to be the centerpieces of the stories and not a tangent. I write to inspire and change, and entertaining readers is the means by which I attempt that.
Novel writing requires more subtlety with themes and presents numerous thoughts and ideas throughout the story, and it demands much greater attention to entertainment.
I have fifteen drafts of “All Light and Darkness” saved to my computer and a few other drafts in hard copy. Any time I made a major change to my manuscript, particularly if I removed any content, I made a new file. I submitted to the competition for the first time at around Draft 8. The story was over 16,000 words long, and I expected a win–thought I was the best thing since Bradbury.
I received a flat rejection.
For those of you unfamiliar with the competition, a rejection means that, in all likelihood, the story wasn’t read all the way through. David Farland tried a draft or two then said, nope.
I told myself I must have been rejected because of word count. Anyone could see it was a massive piece, and I thought there was no way it would have been rejected if it’d been read all the way through. So, I cut it down to 14,000 words and submitted again.
Again, a flat rejection.
My ego in shambles, I decided I should probably learn how to do this short story thing correctly. I started stalking the Writers of the Future forum, signed up for David Farland’s “Story Doctor” weekly writing tips, and scoured the internet for short story advice. Then I hitched up my pants and submitted what was then “Stay” to Critters.org.
In the meantime, I wrote a new story and submitted it to the competition. Another rejection.
The Critters Community did a fantastic job on “Stay.” Not only did I get some very positive feedback, I also received respectful, but firm, recommendations on changes. I accepted many of those recommendations, and thus began the heartbreaking process of their execution. They say if you don’t bleed over your words, you’re not doing it right. Well, I bled.
I went through each critique line by line and wrote up a list of the suggestions I agreed with or wanted to try out. The list filled a whole page of college ruled paper. Sometimes you have to swallow your preconceptions, try out the changes, let it sit, and then decide whether they’re a win.
In the end, I changed the entire first scene, beefed up the climax, cut out a middle scene, and deleted the last 1000 words. Oh, and gave my character a new power. And got rid of a cast of minor characters. And toned down my purple prose…. And changed the title.
I didn’t take every recommendation, but man, those people really knew what they were talking about. After I made the edits (the hardest was removing that middle scene and deleting the last 1000 words), I was so excited by the final product that I submitted three days early. It just felt right. It was about 11,000 words long and had a different focus from the previous versions. I expected at least a semi-finalist slot.
Draft seventeen won second place.
What I’ve discovered is that I’m too much of a perfectionist writer. Not that I plan to submit any piece I don’t feel I’ve done my utmost on, but I need to do it more efficiently. I do a first draft then print it and do a second, send it to one or two first readers, do another draft, read it out loud, do another draft, send it in for a group critique, do another draft, read it out loud again, do another draft and then finalize my manuscript for submission. Not only that, but I’m an edit-as-I-write writer too. It’s a long, grueling process. From the time I first retrieved “Stay” from the proverbial trunk, it took me a year to turn it into “All Light and Darkness.”
I’m hoping that in time, I can do a first draft followed by a proofread, send it to a critique group, write a second draft, read it out loud, make hopefully only minor corrections, finalize the manuscript and send it out. I want to take that year and whittle it down to a month. There will hopefully be several other stories written in the world of “All Light and Darkness”–not to mention a few novels–so I don’t have a year to write each one. Regardless, if I learn as much with each new story as I did with “All Light and Darkness,” then maybe someday I will become a Bradbury.
So, onward! Onward to the next draft, the next critique, the next rejection, the next submission… and always, onward to the next story!
Writer and Artist Collaboration
Duncan Halleck is an illustrator and concept artist working in the entertainment industry, specializing in science fiction and fantasy. In the following video, Duncan explains how he painted his image for “All Light and Darkness.”
https://i0.wp.com/www.writersofthefuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AmyHenrieGillett_DSC0453.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1500750Joni/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-Artwork_Version-B.jpgJoni2018-05-15 16:10:532018-05-15 16:10:53A Little Light in a World of Darkness
When Galaxy Press sent me a request to add a fantasy fiction story to Volume 34 of the Writers of the Future anthologies, I was excited. They asked if I had any tales in my archive that would fit into the theme of wizardry and magic. They would take that story and have one of the Illustrator winners create a piece of art to go with it. I was going to look through my backlist (I’ve published well over 150 short stories), but I said I could write one. I opened the jpg file that accompanied the e-mail. It was the artwork for the cover, a painting by Ciruelo called “Dragon Caller.” I was enchanted by it. (Appropriate, no?) It’s so full of beautiful fantasy detail, and I felt I knew that wizard. I had to have that one as my art. I let Galaxy Press know that I was going to write a story to fit. The result is “Illusion.”
My writing style is usually gently humorous. I’ve been working on a new fantasy series centering on a young female magician who comes to work as personal amanuensis to a court magician with a legendary reputation – but he’s been living on that reputation for a long time. I thought that this fellow in the painting would make a great employer to my young woman. Because Ciruelo is from South America, I used Spanish names and titles for my characters. In my outline, the wizard had no name, so I called him Angelo.
Ciruelo’s painting gave me the opportunity to explore Angelo’s backstory and learn more about him. Other magicians in his position are of the change-the-world, transform-your-enemies-into-sheep, blast-down-walls variety. Angelo’s talents lie in illusion. He’s world-class, genuinely creative, and loves both his job and his ruler, the Regente Zoraida, but he is full of self-doubt as to whether all that is good enough. Yet, the realm of Enth fully believes in the image of an all-powerful wizard that he has created. When a genuine crisis strikes, he must step up and save it, using the only talent that he has. I really loved working the landscape into my story, and the image depicted is actually the very last scene. This story will be an important basis to the books I’m writing.
There’s a curious postscript to this event. Every so often, you’ll get a sign that what you’re doing is the thing you are supposed to be doing, as if fate wants to show its approval. I heard from Ciruelo shortly after the book was published. Halfway through reading “Illusion,” he wrote to me. He wanted to know why I named my – our – wizard Angelo. I explained that I wanted a name that spoke of power and authority, maybe with a touch of divinity, since he dealt with high magic. Ciruelo wondered if I had read his biography and wanted to compliment him. His son’s name is Angelo.
No, I hadn’t read it.
Cue the heavenly trumpets, or at least the bellow of a visiting dragon.
If you enjoy “Illusion,” you might want to check out some of my own titles. The Imperium series from Baen Books features Lord Thomas Kinago, a feckless young nobleman in the future who wants to be useful in a time when the nobility has no other function than to provide the gene pool from which the next emperor or empress will be chosen. He is devoted to the emperor, a cousin of his (Thomas has lots of cousins), but is determined to do everything his own way. He’s so wealthy, he doesn’t have hobbies – he has enthusiasms. The title of each book is the enthusiasm of the moment. View from the Imperium concerns photography. Fortunes of the Imperium sees Thomas investigating the effects superstitions have on people, while on a diplomatic mission to a former enemy power. In Rhythm of the Imperium, he tackles interpretive dance.
I’ve also taken over Robert Asprin’s Myth-Adventures series, the pun-laden humorous fantasy epic. Bob wrote the first twelve books, beginning with the wonderful Another Fine Myth. We wrote the next six and a collection of short stories together. Since his passing, I have written two more novels, with a third on the way. The latest book, Myth-Fits (Ace Books) is the twentieth novel. Skeeve and M.Y.T.H., Inc. have accepted an assignment to find a marvelous object, the Loving Cup, in a resort dimension that promises to fulfill every whim of a vacationer but seems strangely to be running out of magik.
Moon Beam is science fiction for young adults by me and Travis S. Taylor, a fellow author and actual rocket scientist. I’m also about to release a collection of my young adult science fiction and fantasy short stories entitled Daring, from Cat & Dragon Press.
Hope you enjoy them all!
Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories. Since 1987 she has published over 40 books and more than 120 short stories.
Over the last twenty or so years, Jody Lynn Nye has taught numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. She also runs the two-day writers workshop at Dragon Con.
Jody Lynn Nye became a Writers of the Future judge in 2016.
There is no doubt the influence of William Shakespeare on the English language and literature and that now includes science fiction.
Case in point is N.R.M. Roshak’s story “A Bitter Thing,” which takes its title from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”:
“O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.”
And in her story, the other man is an alien.
Roshak grew up reading her father’s extensive science fiction and fantasy collection from Asimov to Zelazny, but it was her degree in philosophy and math that put her on the route to speculative fiction.
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
In an interview with her hometown paper, the Centretown Buzz (Ottawa, Canada), Roshak explains how she came up with the idea for her story.
“I loved science, but even more, I loved imagining myself into alien points of view: what would it be like to be human-but-not or human-but-other? I had planned to study science at university until I read Thomas Nagel’s famous paper, ‘What Is It Like to Be a Bat?’ which argues that we can never know what it’s like to be a bat, only what it’s like to be a human having bat experiences. To a long-time imaginer of self-as-other, this was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I plunged into the argument, only realizing once I held a philosophy and math degree that I greatly prefer imagining to arguing.”
To which she adds, “I may never know what it is like to be a bat, a telepath, or an alien; but there’s much to be learned in the imagining, to explore what it means to be human by imagining what it is to be partly or wholly inhuman.”
Her Journey With the Contest
Roshak first learned of the Contest from a fellow member of her writing group—Ken Liu, international bestselling author and a 2003 Writers of the Future winner published in volume 19. In fact, as the only members of their writing group, Roshak and Liu shared a special comaraderie as she explains in this interview talking about her story.
As a winner of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers Contest, she has since attended both the Annual Celebration and the exclusive Writers Workshop. Now she is hitting the airwaves talking about her Hollywood experience including writing tips from the Workshop and the 3 rules of being a writer.
https://i2.wp.com/www.writersofthefuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RobertJSawyer_NRMRoshak_07C0575.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=16671000Joni/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-Artwork_Version-B.jpgJoni2018-05-02 21:26:202018-05-02 21:26:20"As You Like It" Alien Style
Vida Cruz, a resident of Manila, is the first Filipino writer winner in the 34-year history of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. Not only that, she also took first place in the 2nd quarter with her Filipino style fantastic fiction story, “Odd and Ugly,” beating out thousands of other entries from across the world.
Booklist describes her story as “a deeply atmospheric and moving Beauty and the Beast tale incorporating Philippine myth,” while Publishers Weekly called it a “breathtakingly beautiful ode to transformation which stirs the imagination with Filipino folklore.”
Vida first started writing when she was 8 years old. But her career began in earnest as a journalist for GMA News Online followed by writing for Drink Editorial and Design Inc. and 51Talk Philippines. To realize her dream of being a writer, it’s taken much hard work, ignoring the naysayers, and perseverance—but it has all paid off. For Vida, the future indeed looks bright.
As a role model for aspiring writers, her advice is simple. “This isn’t an easy road and there will be a lot of times when you will be disappointed. But you should keep at it because every word you write is an investment.”
Beauty & the Beast Recast
The Beast in Vida’s story is a kapre, a fabled Filipino tree giant—a cigar-smoking beast of a nature spirit with a fraught history tied to African slavery. “I’ve had the image of a kapre and a girl looking at each other in my head for a long time, but I couldn’t get their story to work.” Then something clicked, and the story wrote itself in one week as Vida describes in this video interview.
The artist for her story is Illustrator Contest winner Reyna Rochin. Reyna talks about her visually rich depiction of the story (which has already sold at an art gallery as a painting) and how the Filipino culture has influenced her life.
Filipino Fact or Fantastical?
In her award-winning short story, Vida shares an element of Philippine culture and mythology. The center of the piece is a kind-hearted kapre who falls in love with Maria, a human woman. Sound fantastical? But what if the kapre really lived? There are some who believe these tree spirits are more than just folklore and with good reason.
For the backstory of the kapre, watch the video produced by the Aswang Project on the origin of the cigar smoking giant from the Philippines.
Darci Stone is the author of “Mara’s Shadow” and winner of the Writers of the Future Contest 2018 grand prize Golden Pen Award.
Darci Stone and Eric James Stone being interviewed at the 2018 Writers of the Future Awards Event.
Award-winning authors are no stranger in her household as she is married to 2005 Writers of the Future Contest and Nebula award winner Eric James Stone. It was Eric who introduced her to the world of writing and encouraged her to enter the Contest. As Darci confesses, “I do want to thank my husband for badgering me, repeatedly, to submit my story. If I remember correctly, he was the one that actually uploaded the file and hit send.”
Being married to a published and award-winning author certainly helps if you want to be a writer, but it’s not feasible for most aspiring authors.
In that regard, L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests are unique–all entries are anonymous and so ethnicity, color and gender play no part in the judge’s selection of who wins. There is only one criterion for getting a chance at winning and, as Darci discovered, you have to hit send.
Since learning last year that she was a finalist with a chance at winning the grand prize, Darci has been vocal in her encouragement of others, especially women, to pursue their goals. To the audience and viewers watching the awards ceremony, she stated simply, “I want to encourage all women listening tonight to pursue your own dreams. Never limit yourself because of other people’s expectations.”
“Mara’s Shadow” was Darci’s first submission to the Contest, and the only story she has written. As her husband put it, “As a writer, she’s never received a reject.” On that count, Darci admits, “If you read the first draft of my story you would be shocked that I’m a winner because it was terrible. And I’m not just saying that to be modest. It was really bad.” She went on to thank everyone who read her story and gave her the feedback and insight she used to make it a better story. The rest is history.
In her story, which takes place in Vietnam, Darci pulled elements from her own life to weave into the plot. That includes a female scientist as the protagonist and a moth as the villain of the piece. It’s a rather odd combination but not without reason as she explains in this interview.
From aspiring writer to writing contest winner to—let’s find out!
It has been nearly two years since Matt Dovey was announced as the Golden Pen Award winner in the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future writing contest. As a contest for aspiring writers, we thought we would find out how winning the writing contest has affected Matt. So we asked him.
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As I write this, it’s coming on two years since I attended the 32nd workshop week in LA, which also marks two years since my first publication—WotF was my first sale, but I was published for the first time just a month beforehand, in Flash Fiction Online.
Matt Dovey above, accepting the Golden Pen Award from David Farland and Orson Scott Card
It’s honestly strange to realise it’s only been two years. It feels a lifetime ago, as if everything before were a different person, as if LA were a wormhole I travelled through to an alternate life where—suddenly, amazingly—I’m actually a writer.
This is, of course, nonsense. The only act necessary to be a writer is writing, and if you have the courage to sit before the blank screen and summon whole worlds and people and hopes and dreams from nothing more than the spider silk of your imagination, mere publication is an incidental fact in the definition. If you’re reading this, chances are you write and are still chasing that first sale. So I’m telling you now, definitively and authoritatively: you are a writer. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
But, of course, we’re all only human, and we all seek that validation from others, so it’s hard not to feel like you need the Badge of Approval that comes with publication to confirm that yes, really, it’s true: you are a writer. And for all my high-falutin’ talk above, it’s absolutely a trap I fell into myself. Honestly, most writers I know do. We seem to need more validation than most.
But having had that validation from WotF, my whole outlook on writing has changed. It’s gone from a strange little habit I indulge after work to a fundamental aspect of who I am; my day job is the incidental fact, now, the necessary evil to support my writing. I don’t just write when I feel like it, or when an idea occurs: it’s a given that I’ll be sitting down at my keyboard each evening and working, even if sometimes that “working” is just talking to friends in the community (essential lesson, learned the hard way and given freely here: self-care is as important as word count).
And you know what really gave me that feeling of validation? It wasn’t winning the super-fancy trophy (though that sure is nice! And really, really heavy in your luggage); it wasn’t meeting legendary pros like Tim Powers, Nancy Kress, Todd McCaffrey, so many others; it wasn’t even seeing my name in print, my story in the book, my words in physical form.
It was the friends around me, the people in my class who were going through that indescribably surreal week with me. The friends who, it turned out, had the same weird habits and thought patterns and fears and aspirations as I had, the ones I’d thought only I had because writing, inevitably, is a lonely hobby, sat silent at the keyboard with only your own thoughts.
I found out I was a writer that week in LA because I found out I was just like other writers.
And so the last couple of years have been good to me. I’ve got 15 pro sales to my name now, plus semi-pros and reprints and narrations. I’m volunteering as a slush reader over at PodCastle and doing my bit to contribute back to the community there and in other ways. I have strangers send me fan mail and people reviewing my work and stories appearing in Year’s Best anthologies.
But whilst I wouldn’t have managed any of that if I hadn’t done the work, equally I wouldn’t have managed any of that if I didn’t have the friends I have now. I’m still close to all my WotF class; we support each other, not just with feedback but with commiseration and celebration and reminders that, for all the bad days when the rejections pile up and the new draft just isn’t working out, there are good days, too, and reasons to celebrate each other even if it doesn’t always feel like there are reasons to celebrate personally.
You’ll get nowhere in writing if you don’t have friends to walk the path with. And in the same way you don’t need anyone else’s validation to be a writer, you don’t need anyone else’s permission to join in with the community. Find us on Twitter, or on forums (the WotF forums are a great place to start), or at conventions. It’s the best thing you can do, for your career and yourself, I promise.
Just join in.
Matt Dovey
Matt Dovey is very tall, very English, and most likely drinking a cup of tea right now. His surname rhymes with “Dopey”, but any other similarities to the dwarf are purely coincidental. He lives in a quiet market town in rural England with his wife and three children, and despite being a writer he still can’t express the delight he finds in this wonderful arrangement. He has fiction out and forthcoming all over the place; you can keep up with it atmattdovey.com, or follow along on Facebook and Twitter both as @mattdoveywriter.
https://i1.wp.com/www.writersofthefuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Matt-Dovey-cuppaTea_0390.jpg?fit=750%2C501&ssl=1501750Joni/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo-Artwork_Version-B.jpgJoni2018-03-14 16:10:402018-03-14 16:10:40Matt Dovey: Two Years Later
