Writers & Illustrators of the Future Blog

The purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for winners, judges, entrants and anyone interested in sharing information regarding the contests and the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future volumes. For more information you can also go to www.writersofthefuture.com

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

WOTF Finalist Will Mitchell Has Great News!

War Of The Words shortlist announcement

by James Rundle

The War Of The Words competition has closed, the hundreds of entries have been read, and finally, Tor UK and SciFiNow are happy to announce that the shortlist has been drawn up for who will go ahead to the final stages of the contest.
Although the original plan for War Of The Words was to have a shortlist of only five, the quality that we received from all corners of the world prompted us to expand that to ten, to accurately represent the best of the many stories we’ve had the pleasure of reading. What this competition has demonstrated to us, more than anything else, is that the spirit of science fiction and fantasy is still very much alive and kicking, and the literary scene for both genres still has incredible potential to offer. It wasn’t easy to narrow our choices down to just ten, but after weeks of deliberation, it’s ready.

The shortlist for the 2009 War Of The Words competition is, in no particular order:

1. The Sun Song – Andrew Tisbert
2. The Nemesis List – RJ Frith
3. Mech – Jim Keen
4. Children Of Yaltza – Kerrie Maxwell
5. Pale Queen’s Courtyard – Marcin Wrona
6. Evacuee – Paula Hadlum
7. Thorn – Steff Green
8. The Darkness Kept – Lamar Giles
9. The Barocles Codicil – Susan Sarapuk
10. Creations – William Mitchell

The shortlisted entrants have already been notified, and we at SciFiNow and Tor UK would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations for reaching it this far, against incredible odds. We’d also like to offer our thanks to those who entered but didn’t make the shortlist – it takes great courage to put your work to an audience, and the level of quality that we encountered while reading through the entries was astounding.
The final stage of the competition is now underway, and the winner of War Of The Words will be announced on 25 November 2009 both on www.scifinow.co.uk and in the pages of the magazine.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

3rd Quarter Semi-Finalists and Finalists Announced!

The Semi-Finalists for the 3rd Quarter are:

Amanda Clark of Oregon
John Chu of Massachusetts
Alex Perdian of Washington
John Shade of Texas
T.C. McCarthy of South Carolina
John McMullen of Ontario, Canada
Chris Owens of Virginia
Harrison Paul of California
Garth Upshaw of Oregon
Rachel Zakuta of Massachusetts

Semi-finalists receive a critique from our coordinating judge,
K.D. Wentworth, which is worth its weight in GOLD.

Congratulations to you all. Now, for the finalists..........

The FINALISTS for the 3rd Quarter are:

Adam Colston of Devon, United Kingdom
Jakob Drud of Denmark
Brent Knowles of Alberta, Canada
Geir Lanesskog of Washington
Dwayne Minton of Hawaii
Robert Pritchard of California
Brad Torgersen of Utah
Tom Waters of New Mexico

Congratulations!! Now the nail biting begins. The eight finalists stories are now being judged by 4 of our judges. Names not to be divulged at this point for obvious reasons. Also, do not blab around which story belongs to which writer above. If you know the name of the story that one of the above wrote, don't blab it around. If you are wondering why, it is because this contest is anonymous. The judges do not know who wrote the stories they are reading and if they do know, they cannot judge the quarter.

So at this stage, celebrate the contestant, yell through the hilltops that you, or your friend or writing buddy is a FINALIST, but don't say for what story please.

Again, Congratulations to all of you. And everyone should be on their next story already, if not done!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Honorable Mentions - Final Group

Here are the final group of Honorable Mentions for this quarter:

BonnieJean Bavido of Oklahoma
Louise Caroline Booth of Lincolnshire, England
AnneMarie Buhl of Oregon
Christopher Cook of Utah
Robert Cutchin of New Hampshire
Blake Casselman of Utah
M.C. DeMarco of Massachusetts
Sara King of Alaska
Amanda McCarter of Oklahoma
Valerie Mullerof Virginia
Mark Patrick Morehead of Colorado
Dave Raines of Oregon
Desmond Warzel of Pennsylvania

Congratulations to you all!!

Semi-finalists and finalists will be announced tomorrow.

Best,

Joni

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Second Set of Honorable Mentions for the 3rd Quarter

OK, we have more results in now from our coordinating
judge, K.D. Wentworth.

Our second set of Honorable Mentions for the Writers
of the Future Contest are:


Tom Abbott of Utah
Dave Anderson of Oregon
Scott Andrews of Virginia
Sharon Anielski of Michigan
Eric Bakutis of Maryland
Ellen Dawn Benefield of California
Steven Boe of California
Michael Britton of Utah
Kenneth Cassell of Utah
Mortique Cellar of Japan
Joshua Cole of Colorado
Sara Cotter of Arizona
Oliver Dale of Oklahoma
T.W. Fendley of Missouri
Chris Flippo of Arkansas
John Glover of Virginia
Rob Haines of Wales, United Kingdom
Jonathan Hansen of Minnesota
Karrin Jackson of Oregon
Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon of Michigan
Amanda Ligman of Washington
Christine Lucas of the country of Greece
Michelle Pang of Ontario, Canada
Joyce Reynolds-Ward of Oregon
Joseph Romano of Pennsylvania
Hilary Smith of California
Daniel Smyth of Utah
Renee Stern of Washington
A.W. Sullivan of Kentucky
LaShawn Wanak of Wisconsin
S.E. Ward of Oklahoma
Wendy Waring of New South Wales, Australia
Michael Wawrzycki of Louisiana
Ryan Williams of Washington
Alex Wilson of North Carolina
Chad Wilson of Arizona
Cliff Winnig of California

Congratulations to you all!

I will have more Honorable Mentions shortly and will then
announce the Semi-finalists and then the Finalists.

Best, Joni

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Gary Kloster gets press coverage as Writers of the Future winner

Gary Kloster, who won 2nd place with his story, The Farthest Born (L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXV) was interviewed by the Isanti County News about his award.

The newspaper quoted Gary saying, "When writing you have to have some egotism that you can do it, but you also have to have humility that a lot of other people are doing it."

He said in the interview, that his story tells of "the difficulties of parenting over interstellar differences." He got the idea for it from biologists who were rebuilding the California Condor population which he remembered watching as a kid.

Another article appeared on him at the website of Red Rock On Air and you can read the article here.

Gary receiving his award from Josh Robert Thompson and coordinating judge K. D. Wentworth at the 25th annual awards celebration.


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