Volume 25 Winner Gary Kloster sells his workshop story!

Dear All,

You may or may not know that when our winners come to the workshop
just before the awards ceremony, they are required to write a story
in 24 hours. The following message came in from Gary:

"Just to let you know-

The 24 hour story I did during the workshop has sold to Fantasy
magazine. I worked it over after I got home (in between working on a
new novel), and sent it in. So my first pro sale was to the contest,
and my third came out of the workshop."The name of the story:
"And the Blood of Dead Gods Will Mark the Score".

Congratulations Gary!!!

We'll keep you posted when the story is published.

Joni

Semi-Finalists and Finalists for the Illustrators of the Future 4th Quarter Announced

The results are in for the 4th quarter Illustrator
semi-finalists and finalists. Drumroll....

SEMI-FINALISTS:

Alessandra Briggs of Rhode Island
Nichole Fieger of New York
Lisa Grabenstetter of Maryland
Veronica Liwski of Nevada
Jamie Marcelle of Illinois
William Muchiri Mbuba of Kenya
Christopher Reach of New Jersey
Jeremy Sickels of Pennsylvania
Matthew Yale of Minnesota

All semi-finalists will receive a
critique from our coordinating judge,
Ron Lindahn

Congratulations to you all.

Now for the finalists:

FINALISTS:

April Aldridge of Florida
Aaron Capizzi of California
Alice Jingxuan Hu of Illinois
Steven "Ven" Locklear of Oregon
Nathan Mayfield of Ohio
M.O. Muriel of New York
Noah Norton of Wisconsin
Olivia Pelaez of New Jersey
James F. Smith of Florida

The finalist art will be sent to 4 of
our judges who will determine the 3
winners for this quarter.

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK!!!

Launching Pad Indeed

Dear All,

I've witnessed the contest from the begining, 25 years ago, and I must say
we have come a long way. It used to take years for careers to form for our
contest winners. That has all changed as the contest has grown. I got the
following e-mail today from our 3rd quarter, 3rd place winner this year,
Brad Torgersen:

Dear Joni,

I got a nice letter from Dr. Schmidt at ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION
letting me know he was buying my Q1 Finalist story, "Outbound."

Happy news, happy news!

Brad


CONGRATULATIONS Brad!!!! -- Joni

A Final Honorable Mention List!!

Dear All,

There were 21 more Honorable Mentions in the last box! I'm going to list them here and then update the list below in the 2nd Honorable Mention list.

Paul Abbamondi of New Jersey
Russell Adams of New Jersey
Brenda Anderson of Australia
Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon of Michigan
Christian Carvajal of Washington
Ryan Paul DeCaria of Utah
Katrina S. Forest of Pennsylvania
Candace Hunter of Oregon
Geir Lanesskog of Washington
William Ledbetter of Texas
Gregg Marchese of Oregon
Kenneth W. Meade of Georgia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia of Canada
Holly Mui of Missouri
Lori Phillips of Wisconsin
Shawna Reppert of Oregon
Zachary Ricks of Texas
Julie Sea-Borne of England
Jerry Seeger of California
Jeremy Sim of California
Kathy Watts of California

Congratulations to all of you! Your
certificate is on the way.

Semi-Finalists and Finalists announced for the 4th Quarter

Drumroll...............

Semi-Finalists:

M. Alan Ford of California
Laurie Gailunas of Michigan
Sarah Grey of Arizona
Erica Hildebrand of Pennsylvania
Edward A. Liebing of Utah
David Moore of California
Chris Owens of Virginia
Gwendolyn Clare Williams of North Carolina
Cliff Winnig of California

Congratulations to you all! You will receive a full critique from
our coordinating judge, K.D. Wentworth.


Finalists:

John Arkwright of Georgia
Andrew Baines of Texas
Scott W. Baker of Tennessee
Kevin Kenan of Oregon
Jeffrey D. Lyman of New York
Lael Salaets of Oregon
Meagan Spooner of Virginia
Laurie Tom of California

The above 8 writers stories will be sent to 4 of our judges. Of the 8,
3 will be winners. GOOD LUCK!!!! I will post the news as soon as I
have it.

Joni Labaqui

Second Set of Honorable Mentions Announced!

Well, per the forum, many of you saw the press release before
I had a chance to update this blog. So, down to business.
Here is the second set of the Honorable Mentions for the
4th Quarter, in alphabetical order (by last name):

Paul Abbamondi from New Jersey
Russell Adams from New Jersey
Rigel Ailur from Pennsylvania
Brenda Anderson of Australia
Dave Anderson from Oregon
Brenna Asplund from Utah
Wayne Austin from South Australia
Aaron Bilodeau from Indiana
Louise Caroline Booth from England
Christian Carvajal from Washington
AnneMarie Buhl from Oregon
Avery Cahill from Florida
John Chu from Massachusetts
Renee Collins from Colorado
L. J. Daly from Pennsylvania
Ryan Paul DeCaria from Utah
M.C. DeMarco from Massachusetts
Christine M. Doering from New York
James Fitzsimmons from California
Katrina S. Forest from Pennsylvania
Rob Haines from Wales, United Kingdom
Brennan Harvey from California
Andrew Heard from Washington
Louise Herring-Jones from Alabama
Candace Hunter from Oregon
Erik Alexander Hill from California
Adam Israel from Ontario, Canada
Patty Jansen from New South Wales, Australia
Kristin Janz from Masachusetts
K.G. Jewell from Texas
Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon from Michigan
Christopher Kastensmidt from Brazil
Geir Lanesskog from Washington
William Ledbetter from Texas
Corry L. Lee from Washington
Christine Lucas from Greece
Gregg Marchese from Oregon
Kenneth W. Meade from Georgia
Jared Millet from Alabama
Jeremiah Monk from Illinois
Marjorie Montague from Oklahoma
Silvia Moreno-Garcia from Canada
Holly Mui from Missouri
Valerie Muller from Virginia
Rick Novy from Arizona
Kat Otis from Virginia
Michael Parker from New York
J.M. Peltier from Utah
Lori Phillips from Wisconsin
Shawna Reppert from Oregon
Zachary Ricks from Texas
Tom Rodgers from Texas
Julie Sea-Borne from England
Jerry Seeger from California
Mark Silcox from Oklahoma
Jeremy Sim from California
David Sklar from New Jersey
Daniel A. Smyth from Utah
Chris Tissell from Oregon
Pam L. Wallace from California
Tom L. Waters from New Mexico
Kathy Watts from California
William Wood from Virginia

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!

Your certificates are already on the way to you.

I'm looking forward to your nextstory! (unless you've already sent it in)

Semi-finalists and Finalists announced tomorrow on this blog - before
a press release is sent!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE AND HERE WE GO WITH THE START OF 4TH QUARTER RESULTS

Dear All,

Sorry I've been gone for so long but the holidays were big around
here this year.

I'm now going to announce the first batch of Honorable Mentions for
the 4th quarter. Do not fret if you have not heard from me and your
name is not on here. There are more results to come.

The FIRST set of Honorable Mentions for the 4th quarter are:

Z.S. Adani of Florida
Hilary B. Bisenieks of Pennsylvania
Tracy Canfield of Indiana
Ami Chopine of Utah
Jared Collins of New York
Marie Croke of Maryland
Daemon Crowe of Massachusetts
Scott Davis of Massachusetts
David D'Amico of Massachusetts
Dave Dunn of Florida
Anthony George of Colorado
Ken Hoover of New Mexico
Vincent Jorgensen of California
Cheryl McCreary of The Path Home
Scott Mikula of Washington
David Miles of Cape Town, South Africa
Lawrence Martin Nysschens of California
Damien Navillus of Arkansas
J.H. Norris of Louisiana
Simon Parfitt of Doncaster, England
Scotland Peters of California
Lon Prater of Ohio
Rebecca Roland of New Mexico
Lisa L. Satterlund of Washington
Eric Stever of Nevada
Elizabeth Stock of Massachusetts
Nick Tchan of New South Wales, Australia
Ken Thomas of Hamburg, Germany
Gerald Warfield of Texas
Mark D. West of North Carolina
Bruce J. Willoughby of Kentucky
Jessica Wilson of Maryland

Congratulations to all!!!!!!!! I'll post the
next set as soon as possible but in the mean
time I'll pepper you with good news!!!!!

Joni