NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!

[Patty]

Welcome, everyone!

[Mikepink]

Thanks for the welcomes guys!

[redqueen]

Hello everyone!
I found out about this contest just yesterday and thought, "Why not?"
I enjoy reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, though I am new to the writing business. I have only gotten as far as to begin a page or two of a story before its left forgotten and later deleted. I hope to change that by finishing a story and submitting it this year.

[kyle]

Welcome, redqueen!

Melanie Rawn's advice to me was "Anyone can start a story. The hard part is finishing them." If you remember that you're the worst judge of your own work and get stories submitted every quarter, I think you'll do quite well.

Glad to have you in the forum!

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, redqueen!

[Juliana]

Hello all! My name is Juliana and I hail from Utah, where I am surrounded by amazing spec fiction writers like Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Shannon Hale, Dave Wolverton, James Dashner and our most recent local WotF winner, Brad Torgerson. (Hi Brad!)

I just finished one of Dave Wolverton's two day seminars yesterday and had a chance to get some one-on-one feedback from him. I told him that I'd set a goal in February to enter WotF every quarter until I no longer qualified, placed, or heck, at least got an honorable mention. Dave encouraged me to aim higher, and write to WIN. He told me to think about the author that I most loved/envied/hated, then grab him by the figurative shirt and challenge him to a duel. I realized he was right--I haven't been taking myself seriously enough. So here I am today, joining your community as one step in the process to COMPETE rather than just ENTER. (Which, incidentally, I still haven't done... so that would be a good first step.)

I have lots of questions to ask, but I'll skim through some of the open topics before throwing them out there. Dave gave me some great advice yesterday, so maybe I'll post some of that as well. (One little hooray moment: he read the first page from four different projects of mine and told me he'd keep reading any of them ... while that was often true of only 1/10th of the entries he received for WotF. I hope that means I'm on the right track!)

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Hi, Juliana! Glad to meet you. Utah is certainly popping up a lot in speculative fiction these days! I just happened to read Tyler Carter's illustrator bio from Volume 26. I guess it's my day to spend in Virtual Utah.

[Juliana]

Hi, Juliana! Glad to meet you. Utah is certainly popping up a lot in speculative fiction these days! I just happened to read Tyler Carter's illustrator bio from Volume 26. I guess it's my day to spend in Virtual Utah.

Better wear a coat. We're in the middle of an April snowstorm. Nice to meet you!

[soulmirror]

Definitely: Welcome to you all, Newcomers! It's great to see so many new voices joining in on the conversation -- at Contest and Forum both!

[kyle]

Hi, Juliana, and welcome!

I also had the opportunity to take a workshop with Dave Wolverton (and Algis Budrys) more years ago than I care to admit, and found him to be an amazing instructor.

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, Juliana!

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Yessssssssssss, another Utah writer joins the fray.

Welcome, Juliana!

[Jeff]

Welcome all, and good luck. If nothing else, forcing yourself to enter every quarter is great practice and great discipline.

Brad and Juliana, some day I'll get to Utah. I suppose standing on that little brass disk at the 4-corners doesn't really count?

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Hah, truth be told, I've never stood on the four corners. (grin)

[Juliana]

Neither have I. You have to suffer the culture, both good and bad, to really experience Utah.

[Patty]

What do we have regional favouritism here?

Welcome Juliana

[kyle]

What do we have regional favouritism here?

Yep. Californians rule. Just look at the percentages of winners, and you'll see more from California than from any other state.

(No, don't correct for population!)

[Juliana]

I'm crossing and double-crossing my fingers that some regional favoritism will play in my favor.

First step: write something brilliant.
Second step: wait for the Utah Magic to filter down from the heavens and into the judges' decision-making process.

[Brad R. Torgersen]

I'm crossing and double-crossing my fingers that some regional favoritism will play in my favor.

First step: write something brilliant.
Second step: wait for the Utah Magic to filter down from the heavens and into the judges' decision-making process.

Oregon and Utah tend to have a lot of winners. When I was on panels down at LTUE in provo this past February I was chiding the crowd for failing to send another Utahn for #27.

For awhile there we had a raft of Utah people showing up in the HM lists. Now, not so much?

I fear some people may simply be giving up. That's the key Juliana, if you don't give up -- and you have even a smidgen of ability -- you can win eventually. All past winners are DQd from entering ever again, so you never have to compete with anyone but your peers.

[soulmirror]

The pioneers who were still dreaming of exotic places and wonders to be discovered beyond the far horizon ... kept moving West.

The brave souls who feared neither Wildness nor Savage nature (or still had both alive in their souls) ... kept moving West.

They married the Yeti and the coyote, the desert and the mountain ... their children inherited the wanderlust of the frontier in their blood and love embrace and became writers ... to explore the inner frontiers when the outer frontiers could be pushed no farther.

Alas, O Atlantisians, alas O Dreamers ...

[mrmeadors]

Hello!

My name is Melanie, I've been writing since I can't remember when, and have been writing with hopes of a career for about nine years now. I live in central MA. You know, the place where it will NEVER get warm.... I've dabbled in just about every genre there is (I enjoy reading them all...) but I've found i enjoy writing SF and fantasy the most. I submitted one short story to WotF a LOONG time ago, a completely HORRIBLE story. Last quarter I sent in my first in 8 years, and hopefully it will have better results (at the very least, if I read the story again in a few years, I hope I won't want to hide in a cave and never come out from embarrassment!). I plan on at least trying to submit every quarter until I am ineligible (goodness, what a day-I wrote illegible there first and stared a it for a full minute, unable to think of the right word!! UGH!) Good to be here!

Melanie

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Welcome, Melanie! Always nice to see someone coming back and trying again, especially after a long break.

As in all things, it's never how many times you get rejected, but how many times you submit AFTER being rejected, that count!

Good luck.

[Alterego]

Howdy! I am new here and currently working on a story to submit. i have a question, is vulgar language allowed in the story? Or is there a ceiling? thank you! Hopefully I learn how to improve my writing through this forum.

[kyle]

Welcome, Melanie and Alterego!

Alterego, I think you can find your answer in this thread.

[Grayson Morris]

Welcome, Alterego and Melanie! Nice to see you here, too, Melanie!

[tlsmithphx]

Hi, my name is Terry. I'm from Phoenix. I don't have anything in currently, but have entered in the past. I have a hard time with short stories. They end up novella, or novels, so that's where I've been concentrating my efforts of late. I might consider IOTF, as I've also taken up painting, though my current stuff leans towards fantasy.

As for writing, I lean towards the future cultures, from the military perspective or other good guys who sometimes trip a little over the line. Mostly I write from the female perspective. Both literary tendencies probably spring from my time in the Air Force, stationed in a place where women were highly outnumbered, so you had to hold your ground.

In the service I was a radar repair/ops. I followed that up with a short gig with the feds, in an investigative unit, then went to business, ending up with a degree in accounting. Now I'm retired early and focusing on my passion for writing.

Hopefully I'll manage some short/novella, after I've wrapped up some editing issues with my other materials, and get to entering again. Otherwise, I look forward to the forum and chatting with other writers.

Terry
www.tlsmithbooks.com

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Nice to meet you, Terry! But your comment about art and how you're tending to fantasy lately confuses me. IotF certainly encourages fantasy art submissions.

[tlsmithphx]

Thanks, nice to be here.

I have a few paintings that are on the Sci-fi side, several on the fantasy side, trying to perfect my human(ish) forms, but I think I have a bit more work before they're entry worthy. I was just trying to figure out how to include one of them in my signature block, but not having much luck there. Maybe I should have stuck with the computer degree over the accounting degree.

Terry

[arcadia]

Hi Terry,

I'm a newbie on the board, too, and I just figured out how to capture an avatar for myself. Here's the thread that helped:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=627&hilit=avatar+how

Before I found that thread, I was frustrated about the limited directions on the avatar section of the profile. But, as you can see from my info on the right (where, yes, I got me an avatar), the forum thread gives useful tips!