NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

[Stryker]

Welcom purellian, Congradulations. It sounds as if you are on the right track. I wish you a very prosperous 2015!
Stryker

[mrminority]

well, hi im a highschooler, i dont have a pen name so just call me minority. this seems like a neat community.

[Dustin Adams]

Welcome, folks!

KJA, nice!

And Minority, a high schooler won last year, so I say go for it!

[HamBelt]

I'm new here! I received HM last quarter, which was pretty exciting since it was only my second time entering. Just sent off my story for Q1 and hoping for the best!

[Elen Tel'Ithil]

Welcome, Purellian, Minority, and HamBelt!

[MetalOne]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time here and I suppose this info is available somewere else and I just can't find it. Anyway, I am trying to submit to the contest for the first time but it says applications are closed. I assume this is because of the holiday period.

Can someone please tell me when they would be accepting admissions again?

I've probably missed something obvious but any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Kary English]

Hi, MetalOne, and welcome!

The system closes at midnight PST when the deadline for each quarter ends, then it comes back up a few days later to open for the next quarter.

In this case, Q1 of Volume 32 closed at midnight on Dec. 31. I'd expect the system to be back up on Monday to start taking entries for Q2.

[MetalOne]

Thanks Kary, I will try again on Monday or Tuesday

[tmaulhardt]

Welcome all new persons! Especially mrminority. I am a high school teacher, and one of my students submitted her story for the first time this year and received an honorable mention! You're in the game!

[Rebecca Birch]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time here and I suppose this info is available somewere else and I just can't find it. Anyway, I am trying to submit to the contest for the first time but it says applications are closed. I assume this is because of the holiday period.

Can someone please tell me when they would be accepting admissions again?

I've probably missed something obvious but any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

I just received an email from Joni that Q2 is open. Good luck!

[bthomas7]

Hello, my name is Ben but I usually just go by B. I'm kind of new to the boards, I have a few scattered posts, and I did enter last quarter (and this one) but it has taken me this long to say hi! It's the introvert in all of us I swear. Anyways, thought I would finally say hello. I just graduated from an MFA program and I write mostly speculative fiction, but also play around with literary or general. I have a handful of pieces published in for-the-love or token markets and I keep telling myself that 2015 is when I'm going to break into the professional ones. (Power of positive thinking right?) Cheers

[dbeavers]

Hi all,

My name is Dave, and I'm a first time entrant in the Q1 contest. Heard good things about WOTF from Dustin and the story I was working on seemed to fit the profile. By day I work as an energy consultant mostly on renewable energy policy and helping communities install solar on their roofs. What ever energy I have left after keeping up with my eight year old I try to invest in writing. A very supportive wife helps. Probably the most interesting thing about me is that while a senior in high school I helped some friends steal an outhouse. We stuck it on top of the bonfire wood pile that was to be lit the next night after the Home Coming football game. The principal and local police weren't amused and made us take it back before we could burn it.

[Brydar]

I go by Brydar or Frenchy within every forum I participate. I have been writing since I was ten and am now in my fifties! I will never submit to the Illustration portion because, simply put, I am not an artist (unless you count stick figures). I am an Air Force retiree now and teach part time. This will be my first entry into the writing contest and you have no idea how hard it was to reduce my book from the 300+ pages to a novel of less than 60! The books I have written have yet to be published. I continue to write because it is an addiction, I cannot help myself as I achieve maximum verbosity! I played and still play table top games like D&D, Shadowrun, etc... and manage to come up with many ideas through gaming sessions. Guess I should stop before my intro becomes a novel in its own right.
Thank you for your patience, Brydar

[george nik.]

Welcome Ben, Dave and Brydar!

[ttovatt]

Hello all,

I'm Tamara and I'm a senior in high school still, this is my first time submitting to the contest. I don't know many other writers but for me I feel submitting to the contest for the first time is a bit nerve wracking, especially if you end up not doing well at the end of it all.

[preston]

Hello all,

I'm Tamara and I'm a senior in high school still, this is my first time submitting to the contest. I don't know many other writers but for me I feel submitting to the contest for the first time is a bit nerve wracking, especially if you end up not doing well at the end of it all.

Welcome, Tamara. How awesome that you're getting started so early. Yes, it is a bit nerve-wracking, but you finished a story and submitted, and that's the hardest part. Except for the waiting and twitching, of course. I hope you do well. Good luck!

[ttovatt]

Hello all,

I'm Tamara and I'm a senior in high school still, this is my first time submitting to the contest. I don't know many other writers but for me I feel submitting to the contest for the first time is a bit nerve wracking, especially if you end up not doing well at the end of it all.

Welcome, Tamara. How awesome that you're getting started so early. Yes, it is a bit nerve-wracking, but you finished a story and submitted, and that's the hardest part. Except for the waiting and twitching, of course. I hope you do well. Good luck!

I'm sorry, I noticed this after your reply, honestly I should have caught my wording before, I haven't submitted any writing to the contest yet, I'm actually now writing my entry still as I'm on this forum. I just wanted to fix that error since I haven't submitted just yet.

[tmaulhardt]

Welcome Ben, Dave, Brydar and Tamara!

[Dave Kilman]

Hello everyone,

I'm Dave. I had a few things published (non-pro & non-genre) in the early 90s, but then focused on family and work for the next two decades. I started getting back into the writing side of things a few years ago and currently write a review blog for Amazing Stories Magazine. I made my first entry into WotF for Q1 - V32. I have a few stories out looking for a home and just completed my first novel (several novels worked on over the years, first time I felt the work was good enough to finish). It's probably overoptimistic, but I hope to be ineligible for WotF by the end of the year.

[s_c_baker]

I'm sorry, I noticed this after your reply, honestly I should have caught my wording before, I haven't submitted any writing to the contest yet, I'm actually now writing my entry still as I'm on this forum. I just wanted to fix that error since I haven't submitted just yet.

Good luck, Tamara! That first submission is hard, that's for sure. Even if you get a rejection, though, just keep on writing and submitting--here and elsewhere. What one market doesn't want might be perfect for another market, and keeping on keeping on is the only way to get anywhere with writing in my experience.

It's probably overoptimistic, but I hope to be ineligible for WotF by the end of the year.

Good goal! Welcome aboard, Dave.

[J'nae Rae]

Hello everyone,

I entered for the first time back in November. Got my notice that my story made the first pass for QT1.

J'nae Rae Spano

[2BecomeAWriter]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this site and just want to introduce myself to you all. My name is Nigel, I'm British and living in South Africa.

I'm a web designer amongst other things but want to become an author and am looking for some useful tips and ideas from you guys.

I do hope to get to know some of you.

See you around :)

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this site and just want to introduce myself to you all. My name is Nigel, I'm British and living in South Africa.

I'm a web designer amongst other things but want to become an author and am looking for some useful tips and ideas from you guys.

I do hope to get to know some of you.

See you around :)

Welcome aboard, Nigel! If you can dodge the occasional Gator visit, this is the place to be!

[LDWriter2]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this site and just want to introduce myself to you all. My name is Nigel, I'm British and living in South Africa.

I'm a web designer amongst other things but want to become an author and am looking for some useful tips and ideas from you guys.

I do hope to get to know some of you.

See you around :)

I don't say hi to new people much anymore, but noticed your post so thought I would say hi this time.


Howdy, fellow writer.

This is a good place for learning to write.

Even though you may have to watch out for the occasional visit of Gator, an eagle, Aapirate and one other.

[Brydar]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this site and just want to introduce myself to you all. My name is Nigel, I'm British and living in South Africa.

I'm a web designer amongst other things but want to become an author and am looking for some useful tips and ideas from you guys.

I do hope to get to know some of you.

See you around :)

Greetings Nigel,

I am also a newbie and I have received many replies on this forum which have been invaluable and supportive. I am sure you also will find the authors on here to be knowledgeable and helpful concerning the writing career track. Good luck in the contest.

Chris

[tmaulhardt]

Hi Dave and Nigel. Welcome to the jungle :)

[willblathe]

Good morning, evening, day, or what-have-you. It's nice to make your acquaintance.

My name's Will Blathe, & I've been bitten pretty hard by the writing bug. I hope to do some proper forum participation here. I may even get something submitted this go round.

Thanks.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Good morning, evening, day, or what-have-you. It's nice to make your acquaintance.

My name's Will Blathe, & I've been bitten pretty hard by the writing bug. I hope to do some proper forum participation here. I may even get something submitted this go round.

Thanks.

Welcome aboard, Will! I hope you do submit something!

[orbivillein]

Hello, W & I ot F,

Once upon a time, this is me: A villein put upon blighted times lived shy of basic subsistence -- scarce air, water, food, sustaining medicine, shelter from harsh weathering, and companionable society.

This was downtown or uptown, town outskirts, urban neighborhood, waterway, or rustic frontier.

The villein was forebear, parent, and child.

Resource poverty and custodial duty required the parent person confine the forebear person alone at the far pasture -- uphill and into fierce gales both ways -- under a wattle and daub lean-to against the night and snow, flamethower sunlight, and the forebear's earnest consumption.

The forebear starved; and deprivation lengthened the forebear's natural span.

The child person cut grasses and wove a reed mat. The parent asked, "What is that for?" "Your seat beside Forebear when I'm old enough," the child said.

And that is why I write -- because of an overactive imagination. I am an editor of the driest, stale, tedious compositions imaginable. Visualize reading and revising a thousand-and-one pages of lawyers, doctors, accountants, business persons, scholars, gossipers, illiterates, and politicians discussing the merits of a sand grain crushed by a grease-starved bearing; that's what I mostly edit for grammar discrepancies and an indebted living. It's piece work and barely survival wages.

Not for the money do I write: I write for companionable sharing -- distanced and, at times, cruel as it is.

[Brydar]

Greetings to all who have joined us. I am fairly new as well but now you are "One of us... one of us... one of us..." <Drones / chants>