Win the Writers of the Future volume of your choice by answering the following questions correctly.

What is the name of (exactly) and how many stories into volume XXIII is Andrea Kail's story that is currently on this years Preliminary Nebula Ballot for best Novelette? Good luck.

The Privileged Few -- You... Read On!

Dear All,

I was going through the contest files tonight and came across something I HAD to share with you. What you are about to read has never been published before. For those of you who have been following or entering the contest for a long time, you are probably aware of the "predictions" that we have asked our judges, contestants and other famous people to do throughout the years.

Back in 1987 we asked our judges and winners of that year to make predictions for the year 2012. That is not too far away and quite frankly, none of them were totally on the mark. However, there was one that I want to share with you in full. It is quite touching and I would like your thoughts on it. I'll post all of them (your thoughts). Tell others to read it too.

It is from my friend and former WOTF judge, the late, great, Jack Williamson. Here goes:

GREETINGS TO 2012:

If we had a time-phone, now in 1987, we would beg you to forgive us. We have burdened you with impossible debts, wasted and polluted the planet that should have been your rich heritage, left you instead a dreadful legacy of ignorance, want, and war.

Yet, in spite of that, we have a proud faith in you. Faith that you have saved yourselves, that you are giving birth to no more children than you can love and nurture, that you have cleansed and healed your injured planet, ended hunger, conquered crime, learned to live in peace.

Looking toward a better future for you than we can see for ourselves, we trust that you will use your computers and all your new electronic media to inform and liberate, not to dominate and oppress, trust that you will employ the new arts of genetic engineering to advance the human species and make your children better than yourselves. We know that you will be inventing new sciences that would dazzle us, opening brave new frontiers, climbing on toward the stars.

We live again through you.

Sincerely,

Jack Williamson

Tip from WOTF Contest Coordinating Judge K.D. Wentworth

Dear All,

Here is a tip from K.D. Wentworth on your chances of winning this contest:

Learn professional manuscript format and use it when submitting your story to the contest.

More Honorable Mentions for the 4th Quarter

Dear All,

Here are more of the Honorable Mentions for the 4th Quarter.


Brennan Harvey (California)
Tom Humphrey - (Texas)
John Loonam - (North Carolina)
Stephanie Peaden (Florida)
Pam L. Wallace (California)
Brant Williams (Washington)


K.D.'s tip for you all will follow tomorrow.

Famous Line from Tim Powers at the Writers of the Future Workshop

I promised you all tips this weekend. Here is the first.

Here is a famous line from Tim Powers from the workshop. He tells this one every year.


"When you are writing a story leave out the parts that readers skip over!"


Tomorrows famous quote comes from K.D. Wentworth. -- Best, Joni

More Honorable Mentions from the 4th Quarter

Below are more of the Honorable Mentions from the 4th Quarter:

Z.S. Adani (Florida)
J. Addison Bates (Puerto Rico)
Benjamin Kane Ethridge (California)
Davina Behin Jones (California)
John Shade (Texas)


Congratulations to you all!

As a note, the judges are quite happy with the quality of stories in the contest these days.

Keep up the good work and keep those entries coming.

Note: I will be posting on Saturday and Sunday this week with tips from the
judges, so stay tuned. Best, Joni

And the 4th Quarter 2007 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest Honorable Mentions Are.......

The names below are the Honorable Mentions for the 4th Quarter of the 2007 contest, in alphabetical order. (this is our first such post and we will do this every quarter now)

Lorraine Anderson (Michigan)
Paul Comstock (Idaho)
Robert Cutchin (New Hampshire)
Jason Fischer (Australia)
Laurie Gailunas (Michigan)
Abby Goldsmith (California)
Elana Gomel (California)
Nancy Greene (Virginia)
Tom Humphrey (Texas)
Eryn Huntington (Washington)
Simon Johansson (Sweden)
Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (Michigan)
Michael Keyton (United Kingdom)
Geir Lanesskog (Washington)
Jordan Lapp (Canada)
Gra Linnaea (Oregon)
Corbin Maxwell (California)
Muri McCage (Tennessee)
Meghan Muriel (California)
Lindlae Parish (Florida)
Jim Phillips (Minnesota)
Ben Ranson (California)
Scott Rolsen (Colorado)
Charles C. Spray, M.D. (Oregon)
Pat Stansberry (Ohio)
Chris Tuthill (Maine)
Nancy Wahler (Tennessee)
John Walters (Greece)
Matt Weber (New Jersey)
Alex Wilson (North Carolina)
Nick Wood (United Kingdom)

If your name was not on this list and you were an Honorable Mention, that means I have not heard back from you with your permission to publish your name. Do write to me at contests@authorservicesinc.com, let me know and I'll post your name in the second list.

CONGRATUATIONS TO ALL OF YOU!!!! Best, Joni

Our Volume 18 Grand Prize Winner in the Amazon.com Contest - Help Him Out. You could be in his shoes in the future!

Dear All,

I got the following message today and had to post it for you all:

Grand Prize winner from WOTF Vol. 18, Dylan Otto Krider, has had his novel TAKING OVER selected as a semi-finalist for the highly publicized Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Only the top five percent of the 5,000 entrants were selected to compete in the Mystery, Thriller & Suspense category. From here, the public gets to have a say in which manuscripts move on to the final round by reviewing a short 8 page novel excerpt ( you can download and comment on the excerpt here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00122GTOQ ). Based on those comments, the winner will receive a contract from Penguin books and be highly promoted by Amazon.

With the money backing this contest, having one of your WOTF authors move on to the next round would certainly raise the profile of Hubbard’s writing program even higher than it already is, so considering all the help you’ve done for my career in the past, I wanted to let you know about it. You can learn more at www.amazon.com/abna .

Dylan Otto Krider
www.dylanottokrider.com

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU DYLAN!! (all of us at the contest)

Note from Joni - the first set of Honorable Mentions will appear tomorrow for sure. (I'm still getting feedback and would like to make the list complete in one shot, although if I haven't heard back from everyone by the end of tonight I'll publish 2 lists)

Note to All

Just a side note - I'll be posting the Honorable Mentions from the 4th quarter tomorrow or the day after once I get in all the approvals from the Honorables that I have their permission to promote their name on the blog. Best, Joni

Jeff Carlson (WOTF XIII) Is On A Roll!!!

Jeff Carlson (WOTF XXIII) made three short fiction sales in the opening days of 2008. His story "Long Eyes" will appear in the new Fast Forward 2 anthology from Pyr Books, and two old stories entitled "Pressure" and "Interrupt" were solicited for translation into Hebrew in the Israeli sci fi magazine Mercury . Jeff has also just sold audio rights to his debut novel Plague Year. This summer, Recorded Books will release Plague Year unabridged on CD and cassette. The book will also be available as a digital download from Audible.com, the same audio books company that released L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future XXIII.

Tips for Contestants

Writer Tip:

Are you running short of story ideas?

Here is a tip -- pick up a household item, something mundane. Now decide you are going to get a story idea from the item and get your imagination going from there. If you've never done this you would be surprised what can happen.

K.D. Reports that we have many good writers entering now and choosing the winners comes down to uniqueness of the story.

Illustrator Tip:

If you are having difficulty with an idea or the perspective for your art, go out and take a walk until you feel better, break away from the art for a bit. This can help you to re-focus.

Tomorrow:

I will publish the Semi-finalists and Honorable Mentions from the 4th Quarter.
Until then..... Joni

Hope You are Having a Good Year! We are starting off with a Bang! Big News for the Contest with the Nebula Award Preliminaries

WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST WINNERS EARN
RECOGNITION IN 2008 NEBULA AWARD PRELIMINARIES

The former Writers of the Future winners listed below each received at least 10 nominations from fellow literary professionals to be considered for this year’s Nebula Award:

• Andrea Kail (WOTF 23) with her story, “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossum” for best novelette. (www.writersofthefuture.com)

. Jim. C. Hines with his story "Sister of the Hedge for best novelette.

• Jay Lake (WOTF 19) for his novel Mainspring (Tor) (www.jlake.com)

• Tobias S. Buckell (WOTF 16) for his novel Ragamuffin (Tor) (www.tobiasbuckell.com)

• David Levine (WOTF 18) for his short story “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” (www.spiritone.com/~dlevine/sf/)

In addition to the winning former Contest writers, Writers of the Future contest judge Robert J. Sawyer, was also nominated for his novel Rollback. (Tor) (www.sfwriter.com)

The Writers of the Future contest was established in 1983 by International best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard. Entries are received throughout the year and are judged by leading literary professionals. The L. Ron Hubbard Presents Illustrators of the Future, begun in 1988, similarly honors artists who illustrate the winning short stories. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have recognized and published 500-plus authors and illustrators, produced 23 anthology volumes, and awarded a cumulative $500,000 in cash prizes.