NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome to the boards, Eric and JS_Coyote! Nice to have you here.

[kyle]

Welcome, Eric!

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

[sagegale]

Comforting to have a spot of all us newbies to gather and test the waters of writing. For me just the decision to go ahead and actually finish and submit something was a subconscious decision to take writing seriously. I've spent the last 30 years working in various fields and am currently faced with the challenge of reinventing a career. The fact that many people scoff at the idea of being able to write for enjoyment and profit no longer fazes me. I just want to exercise my creative writing skills and see what happens. Sci-fi was my favorite genre so it seemed natural for me to start in this direction. I look forward to reading and writing more!!!!!!!!!

[kyle]

Welcome, sagegale! It's nice to have a writer on the board who knows how to spell "faze."

[Adventrous Adam]

Adam here, I just came in from a long ride on my horse, my right wrist is tired from defeating the beast in the hills. I just thought I would stop in and say hello.

[Adventrous Adam]

Adam here again, I'm 29 and I've been writing for about five years; I enjoy it immensly. I desperatly want to make a career out of writting fiction. I've submitted two novellas and I wish I could win; only then would I get my name out there. Hey Brad whats the trick.

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, sagegale and Adam! Nice to have you here.

[vanaaron]

Hey, folks, this is Aaron, 3rd Place winner for Q2 Vol. 27. I've been lurking here a while, but a comment on the Q4 Vol. 27 thread drew me out of the woodwork, so I thought I'd introduce myself here.

I'm a lawyer in Denver, husband, father of three, and lifelong SF/F reader and collector. I've taken stabs at writing over the years, but only in the past few years produced anything I wasn't embarrassed to show anyone else. My only published story to date was in a British anthology called Glorifying Terrorism, but I have another story forthcoming at the webzine Linger Fiction.

I confess I knew very little about the Contest when I entered, and it's been eye-opening to come here and see how many people put so much energy into it. It's been similarly amazing to find some of the old anthologies (by "find" I mean compulsively scour every used bookshop in town; so far I have 18 of the 26 volumes) and read so much excellent work by authors who have gone on to tremendous careers. If I had known as much about the Contest a year ago, I likely would have been too intimdated to enter.

[kyle]

Welcome Adam and Aaron!

[writer123]

Hi Everyone -

I'm Larry Ivkovich and was a finalist in the 2nd quarter last year and have a story in for the 1st quarter this year.

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, Aaron and Larry!

[Jeff]

Welcome everybody (since I'm way behind in my welcoming and I'd probably miss somebody if I tried listing all of you).

Have fun, scan through the history of the forum for nuggets of wisdom. Ask questions.

And if you're still pretty raw in the writing skills, get involved in one of the free on-line critique groups and get feedback on what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. Writers are usually the worst judges of their own works.

[kyle]

Welcome, Larry!

[Bard Constantine]

Hello everyone...

This is the first time on the boards, and my second time entering the contest. Hope to get to know the fine people here in the time to come...

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Welcome, and good luck with your entries.

[kyle]

Hello and welcome, Bard Constantine!

[ToriBird]

Hello there everyone! I'm Tori and am a 16 yearold sophmore in high school. I have recently become obsessed with science fiction and it has become my new forte in writing. I had a tendency to start a story and never get passed the first paragraph before I got into scifi, but now I have an entire book series mapped out in my head! It just comes down to writing the first two chapters, then it will flow well. I have yet to send anything in to the contest, but I'm currently working on my first entry.

The type of writing I do is rather weird (my teacher says I am a vey quirky writer), though I suppose thats because I haven't fully develouped my writing style yet. As for what I adore writing, I so far am in absolute love with writing scifi romances, its just so interesting! In the library at my school there is only one book I could find that was a scifi romance, and it was quite lovely, though much to quick a read for my tastes. I'm rambling now huh? Oh well I guess, this is introducing myself and what would be there to introduce if I didn't ramble a bit? I started writing things when I was around eight years old, and looking back on what I wrote then, I tend to laugh at how terrible it was. Well, some of the ideas were good, but child made of course. I do love to meet new people, and even more so writers, so I hope I can get along with all of you, as well as get to know all of you.

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, Bard Constantine and ToriBird!

Tori, have you ever read any Robin McKinley? She's fantasy rather than sci fi, but you might like her style. She's one of my favorites. Try The Hero and the Crown and Rose Daughter for starters. She even recently wrote a book blurbed as a "horror sci fi romance" (it's called Sunshine).

[Jackie B.]

Welcome everyone! So great to see so many new "faces" on the board. Enjoy!

[ToriBird]

Welcome, Bard Constantine and ToriBird!

Tori, have you ever read any Robin McKinley? She's fantasy rather than sci fi, but you might like her style. She's one of my favorites. Try The Hero and the Crown and Rose Daughter for starters. She even recently wrote a book blurbed as a "horror sci fi romance" (it's called Sunshine).

I haven't yet, but I'll look her up today at my school's library. If not there I'll have to check the public library once my swim season ends. Thank you though Brad, It'll give me something intresting to read when I can

[Jeff]

Welcome Tori and Bard Constantine, enjoy the forum. Hopefully you'll get something good out of it, and make some friends.

And Tori, I've been writing for about twenty years, and every time I look back a few years I can see how much better I've gotten. It never stops if you never stop. So don't give up. Write that book. Mess around with stories. Have fun. Because if it isn't fun, why bother?

I've never read Lois Bujold. Isn't she considered science fiction romance? Catherine Asarro as well. And of course, all the old Pern books by Anne McCaffrey had a strong vein of romance running through them. I missed that while reading them as a boy because I was like "Cool, dragons". Then later I looked back and smacked myself in the head. I missed it completely.

[soulmirror]

Welcome, ToriBird ! (And if that's not a great name, I don't know what could be better!) Keep writing, when it's fun or even when the enthusiasm wanes a little, it's still an adventure where your only limits are your own Imagination! And WotF is a great place to give it all ya got!

[kyle]

Welcome, Tori!

[ToriBird]

Ah, I feel so welcomed!
I found a Robin McKinley book and some Anne McCaffrey and I checked them out from the libraray. So my weekend will be filled with reading those and working on my entry Thanks for the different authors to look up!

[MJNL]

Hi! Welcome, welcome!

What, you'll be reading instead of watching the super-bowl? *gasp*

[ToriBird]

Well, I was invited to a Superbowl party tomorrow, but I think my mom is taking me to find a ballroom dress tomorrow. Otherwise I'd be at someones house with about half the swim team, eating and cringing when they scream at the tv.

[Gorandius]

Hello to all,

Well, I guess I'll start of rather cliche. I've always been interested in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres for as long as I can remember, that's for certain. Mostly in the form of video games or movies, but I will forever enjoy reading and/or writing a good story of the sort.

Though, when I read my first H.P. Lovecraft story, "At The Mountains Of Madness", there happened a snowball effect in my mind. Ever since then, most of the stories or poems I've written have had some eerie or bizarre element of horror incorporated into them. Whether it be the protagonist, antagonist, environment or otherwise, my writing style has formed the foundations I intend to utilize in most of my works. Dark, bizarre and unnerving. When it comes to my view on horror, I do not focus on the horribly overused 'gore', 'serial killer' or 'torture-porn'. One or two of my stories start of that way, but I twist those cliches until they are overshadowed by the rest of the story.

I have finished writing the story I intend to submit soon, but I am currently editing the h*** out of it.

[Patty]

editing is good, Goriandus.

Welcome everyone!

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, Goriandus!