Our Esteemed Judges - Did You Know?

For those of you fairly new to the contests, I thought you would enjoy the full list of our judges, past and present.

Current Writer Judges:

Kevin J. Anderson
Doug Beason
Gregory Benford
Algis Budrys
Brian Herbert
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Eric Kotani
Anne McCaffrey
Larry Niven
Frederik Pohl
Jerry Pournelle
Tim Powers
Robert J. Sawyer
Orson Scott Card
K.D. Wentworth
Sean Williams
Dave Wolverton

Those whom have passed away:

Octavia Butler
Hal Clement
Frank Herbert
C.L. Moore
Andre Norton
Charles Sheffield
Theodore Sturegon
Jack Williamson
Roger Zelazny


Current Illustrator Judges

Edd Cartier
Vincent DiFate
Leo & Diane Dillon
Bob Eggleton
Frank Frazetta
Laura Brodian Freas
Stephen Hickman
Ron Lindahn
Val Lakey Lindahn
Judith Miller
Sergey Poyarkov
H.R. Van Dongen
Stephen Youll

Those whom have passed away:

Will Eisner
Frank Kelly Freas
Paul Lehr

WRITERS OF THE FUTURE EVENT 2007

Dear All,



This year's event will be held in Pasadena California on the 24th of August.

We are very excited about this event. The contestants will be staying at the Pasadena Sheridan Hotel which is where the workshop will take place the week before the event and is an ideal location. Pasadena is a great city and has much to offer us. In fact, we will have a special tour of JPL, designed just for us. The public library is the ultimate in old fashion elegance, as is much of the town itself. The writer winners will enjoy the field trip there which is part of the workshop. The illustrators will get to see the famed art museum there.



You are all invited to attend the event. If you have never been to one of our events you might consider it. Our judges, as famous as they might be, are all very wonderful people and will gladly carry on any conversation with you.



I just need an RSVP well in advance with your contact information. The event will be held across the street from the Sheridan at the Masonic Temple. It is a great hall with lots of space.

It starts at 8:00pm. RSVPs will be accepted at contests@authorservicesinc.com



See you there. -- Joni

I Want To Hear From You!

I often wonder when I post information on this blog just who I'm communicating to. I would love to get some kind of feedback as to who visits this site. I'd like to hear from you. In fact, if you'd like to send me photos as an attachment of something you think this audience would be interested in, feel free to.

In the mean time, stay tuned for two rather significant announcements this week.

There is quite a bit happening in regards to the contests.

Best regards,

Joni Labaqui - Director of the Writers of the Future Contest

Former Winners Hold a Booksiging at Booklovers Gourmet in Webster, Massachusetts

Notice to all United Kingdom Entrants

We have noticed a recent increase of entrants sending in stories directly to us.
That is fine and if you prefer to send in your entry this way, we have no problem with that.
However, we do have a PO Box in England. It will save you a bit of postage.

The address is:

PO Box 218
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 4GH

You are welcome to send your entry to that address.

Joni

Illustrator Winner Stephen Stanley Makes Contest History

Stephen Stanley, one of the three newly announced winners for the first quarter of the 2007 contest is the very first person in the history of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests to win both awards!

Stephen was published in Writers of the Future Volume XXI for his story Mars Hath No Fury Like a Pixel Double-Crossed. His story was illustrated by Alex Paramonov and you see Stephen here holding that illustration which was presented to Stephen at the workshop.

Now Stephen will be illustrating another writers story for Volume XXIV.

He was thrilled to hear the news and told me that he had been striving to win both awards since 1994 when he first entered the illustrators contest. Stephen is a member of the Wordos Writing Group of Eugene Oregon and the first member to win the illustrators contest.

There are many multi-talented artists in the world and if you happen to be someone like Stephen who has always wanted to win both contests, keep submitting. I am certain that Stephen is not the last person who will, against all odds, win both awards.

Joni

Illustrators of the Future Winners Announced!

The judging results are in and we have our winners for the 1st quarter of the 2007 contest.

They are:

Stephen Stanley from Eugene, Oregon (special notice forthcoming about Stephen)
Robert J. Hall Jr. from Gilbertsville, New York
Alexandra D. Szweryn of Brisbane Australia

Congratulations to you all!!!

They all will receive their $500.00 winning check as the first step. They will all complete with the other winners of the upcoming quarters of the 2007 contest for the Grand Prize of $5,000.00. Good luck to you all.


Joni Labaqui - Contest Director

First Place Winner Entered This Contest 22 Times

You want to become a successful writer? Like anything else, persistence is key to success. Patrick Lundrigan has entered the contest 22 times. That has paid off for him because his is our first place winner for the 1st quarter of the 2007 contest.

Patrick is an electrical engineer by day, testing the gyroscopes for the Hubble Telescope. By night, he is a writer.

We are constantly encouraging our contestants to "keep writing". This is not a trite statement. It is the most useful advice you could possibly get.

1st Quarter 2007 Writer Winners Announced!

The judges results are in and the winners for the 1st Quarter of the 2007 Writers of the Future contest (October 1st - December 31st) are:

1st Place goes to Patrick Lundrigan of Boonton, NJ for his story Hangar Queen

2nd Place goes to Laura Bradley Rede of Minneapolis, MN for her story Epiphany

3rd Place goes to David Parish-Whittaker of Encinitas, CA for his story A Warbird in the Belly of the Mouse

Congratulations to all of you.

The judges for this quarter were: Tim Powers, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Brian Herbert and Dave Wolverton.

As far as the judging is concerned this was a tough quarter because the finalist stories were all very good. Those finalists who were also judged this quarter are also to be congratulated publicly for their fine work and are expected to enter again as soon as possible.

Any one of the following writers may still have their story published in the event that we need more stories to fill out the volume next year. This we call a "published finalist". This is determined closer to the publication of the book, which will be in 2008.

The finalists for the the first quarter were:

January Mortimer of the UK for More Than a Butterfly
Z.S. Adani of Boca Raton, FL for The Burn
Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon of Allendale, MI for The Moons of Mercury
E.C. Myers of New York City for My Father's Eyes
Ayne Terceira of Gainesville, FL for Forfeits, or, How Mister Hobb Perked Up the
Christmas Festivities


Please note that the illustrator winners will be announced in the next couple of days. We are waiting on the last judge results to make the determination.

Joni Labaqui - Director of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest

WOTF Aficionados - Answer the Quiz Question Below and Win a Book!

Here is a quiz for you. If you get the answer right we will send you a copy of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future XXII, or any other volume of the anthology that you care to ask for (depending upon availability).

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE NOVEL AND THE AUTHOR OF THE STORY THAT CONTAINS THE ABOVE MAP?

for a bonus prize - what is the name of the illustrator?
(Hint - they are both winners of this contest)

Update on Two of Our Former Winners

Andrew Tisbert

Andrew Tisbert, winner in Writers of the Future Volume XX has been nominated this year for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History short fiction.

He is also still performing music.


Laura Jennings

Laura Jennings, winner in Writers of the Future Volume XXII, has now moved to Austin Texas to pursue video game development. Laura is a multi-talented individual who, after winning the Illustrator Contest is now entering in the Writers of the Future Contest and is going for being our first ever winner of both contests.

Bryan Beus Holds Gallery Exhibit in Provo Utah

Bryan Beus (WOTF 23) had an art show this past weekend in Provo, Utah. One of the many pieces of Bryan's work is below and its title is, Angel.

Ben Hardin and Eric Stone, both from Writers of the Future, showed support and came to Bryan's show.

Bryan in suit giving tour.

The people in the picture below are friends of Bryan's from the
industry. Tom, on the left, works in entertainment administration
and Carla on the right works in local theatre and media arts. Both
of them are with their spouses. In the background are a few
published illustrators, authors, and artists.

News on the Awards Ceremony for this Year

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards event will be held this year on Friday, August 24th here in Sunny Southern California.

Mark your calendars for that date and RSVP now if you like. All attendees receive a copy of the new anthology.

This event is open to the general public and reservations are required. Contact us at contests@authorservicesinc.com.


We will keep you informed of event developments.

Randall Ensley News

Randal Ensley, Illustrator in upcominng Volume 23,
featured in The Day newspaper in his hometown of Gales Ferry, CT.

The following article ran on Randall on the 24th of April of this year. Below is the first paragrah of the article. The illustration is one of his winning entries entitled Caine's Legacy.

Who: Randall Ensley, 44, of Gales Ferry.

Who should know him: Ensley, as self-described geek, is one of 12 finalists in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest. He won a week of professional workshops and guaranteed publication of a pen-and-ink drawing in the annual fiction anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, " sponsored by Galaxy Press.

Great News from Jim Hines (WOTF XV)

I just received the following from Jim Hines (WOTF XV):

Today (May 1) marks the official release of my second book with DAW. GOBLIN HERO is the sequel to my humorous sword & sorcery novel GOBLIN QUEST. I'm currently awaiting my editor's feedback on the third book in the series, GOBLIN WAR.

I'm also happy to announce that DAW will be publishing another of my books in late 2008 or early 2009. THE STEPSISTER SCHEME will be my first non-goblin book, but I'm told it's just as fun as the current series.

Anyone interested is welcome to read the first chapter of HERO, at http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/GH/

Thanks!

Jim C. Hines (WotF Volume XV)

http://www.jimchines.com

Special note:
BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard

You probably already heard about it, but just in case you didn't: Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney cited Battlefield Earth as his favorite novel.

April 30, 2007, 10:24 pm

Romney Favors Hubbard Novel

By Jim Rutenberg

“What’s your favorite novel?” is a perennial campaign question, the answer to which presumably gives insight into leadership.

A “Moby-Dick” lover may understand the perils of obsessively chasing of a goal. A fan of “To Kill a Mockingbird” may well focus on racial justice.

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist.

A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney’s favorite novels. “I’m not in favor of his religion by any means,” Mr. Romney, a Mormon, said. “But he wrote a book called ‘Battlefield Earth’ that was a very fun science-fiction book.” Asked about his favorite book, Mr. Romney cited the Bible.