NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

[R2Shelby2]

Hi everyone. I'm Shelby.

I've been lurking around the forums for a while, but I think it's the excitement and warm-fuzzies over all the forum finalists that's finally pulled me out into the open. I've received two HMs so far (V30 Q1 and Q3), and I'm still waiting to hear back about V31Q2.

I am in my early/mid-twenties, was a teacher but hated it, and am moving to LA early next year. Also, I have a pet frog named Gummy.

Nice to meet you!

[tmaulhardt]

Welcome Matthew, David, Casey and Shelby! And anyone I may have missed. You'll find lots of great information and cool people in this forum. Enjoy!

[Kary English]

Hi everyone. I'm Shelby.

I've been lurking around the forums for a while, but I think it's the excitement and warm-fuzzies over all the forum finalists that's finally pulled me out into the open. I've received two HMs so far (V30 Q1 and Q3), and I'm still waiting to hear back about V31Q2.

I am in my early/mid-twenties, was a teacher but hated it, and am moving to LA early next year. Also, I have a pet frog named Gummy.

Nice to meet you!

Welcome!!

HMs are great! They put you in the top 100 or so entries out of more than a thousand. :) And sometimes, HM means there were only two stories between you and a finalist spot. Definitely keep entering.

If you're still waiting for your Q2 results, it's OK to email Joni at this point.

[KbRy]

Welcome everyone!

[DebnDan]

Hi everyone,

I've been writing as a hobby for years for relaxation and whatnot. But nothing worthy of publication, just odd stories for my kids as entertainment. But wrote a piece at the end of may, start of june that my family wanted me to do something with. That's when I came across this contest.

Had read the WOTF books when I was a teenager (back in the 80's) but didn't realize it was a contest. So I figured I'd give it a shot. I've submitted stories to other places before, though re-reading them I see why I've only piled up rejections from sci-fi & fantasy magazines.

So, even if this, too, gets me nowhere, may just keep entering anyhow, as, again, I write to relax.

Other than writing, I also enjoy my family, gardening, and my work, which is as an electrician/millwright which allows me to implement technology in industry and take things apart or rebuild them. Like writing, I find it relaxing to see how things move and work. Whether it's fitting words together on a page to form sentences, paragraphs, or stories, or fitting parts inside a gearbox, machine, or other complex system, the act of setting something in motion is what drives me.

Hope my intro isn't too odd or longwinded.

[preston]

Welcome, DebnDan. Sounds like you'll fit in nicely here. Good luck in the contest!

[Wesley]

Hi everyone,

My name is Wesley Starkness and I've submitted one (inadequate) story so far. I look forward to meeting and learning from writers and artists!

Unabridged:
My writing began in childhood, during long hours spent posing my action figures in epic battle scenes where Good and Evil vied for control of the universe. I'm a cynic, so it was usually a draw.

When the plots of my action figure theater shows became too complicated to keep track of, I started writing them down on tiny note cards. Each guy (I called my toys 'guys') had a unique name, a team affiliation, a backstory and a secret desire. Some guys had busy schedules and played multiple characters in different storylines. At one point in his career, my most Age of Apocalypse Wolverine action figure played a disillusioned bar-tender, an overwhelmed single father, a paranoid sea captain (he looked like a pirate), a retired undercover cop who'd unknowingly slip back into his old alias, and sometimes just Wolverine.

The notecards became over-crowded and the graphite smudged each time I added a new detail to a character's backstory, so a word processor was the obvious next step.

[tmaulhardt]

Welcome to the group Wesley! I'll have to give the action figure scenario a try for working out story problems. :) What a great way to walk into writing.

[Wesley]

Thanks Terry! Nice to meet you!

[Ishmael]

Hello everyone and greetings.

Goodness, I am beginning to feel like a veteran around here and I feel as though I am only just getting started. I see from the date of my registration that I am not, though you might be excused for thinking that my performance record is a bit on the patchy to feeble side.

Anyhow, a special hello to DebnDan, who sounds the sort of person who would appreciate my major achievement of the last couple of years, namely dismantling the front end of my tractor so as to replace the water pump AND putting it back together again in such a manner that it still works!

Oh, and getting published. And I owed my first publication to a tip that I got on this Forum and the second to writing skills improved greatly by the selfless advice that is dished out for free around here.

Ladies and gentlemen, you came to the right place. Welcome.

[storysinger]

Welcome DebnDan and Wesley and any one else I've missed.
I look forward to reading your posts.

[jMiriah]

Hello,

My name is Miriah and I entered the contest for the first time (Q3) in June. I'm impressed with the activity here in the forums, and how kind and supportive everyone here is.

About me... I guess most people would consider me middle-aged. I started writing about three-and-a-half years ago, with *blush* fan fiction and a writing RPG. I started taking classes/workshops a year later, because I was hooked. I slushed for Strange Horizons for eleven months. I've had two flash pieces published, and a short story in an anthology.

I live in the Seattle area, and I have two middle-schoolers at home. I tend to be more of a lurker, but I look forward to following the forum conversations. ^_^

[Rebecca Birch]

Hello,

My name is Miriah and I entered the contest for the first time (Q3) in June. I'm impressed with the activity here in the forums, and how kind and supportive everyone here is.

About me... I guess most people would consider me middle-aged. I started writing about three-and-a-half years ago, with *blush* fan fiction and a writing RPG. I started taking classes/workshops a year later, because I was hooked. I slushed for Strange Horizons for eleven months. I've had two flash pieces published, and a short story in an anthology.

I live in the Seattle area, and I have two middle-schoolers at home. I tend to be more of a lurker, but I look forward to following the forum conversations. ^_^

Miriah! So glad to see you here!

Welcome, and welcome also to all the new folks. It's wonderful to have so many new faces.

[jMiriah]

Thank you, Rebecca, it's good to be here!
~Miriah

[freshstartco]

Hi everyone, just sent in a short story. Don't know if it's good enough but it's a great feeling to enter the comp. I got a reply about writing more FROM jONI , I guess that's the standard reply right? Doesn't mean - don't give up your daytime job!

[Kary English]

Congrats on subbing, FreshStart! :)

BTW, every time I see your name, I want tacos. Why, you ask? Because when you first joined, I parsed your name as Fresh Star T(a)co.

[guthington]

Hey, I entered my first WOTF entry for quarter three. I've enjoyed reading your posts. Not sure what I'm doing exactly, but I feel compelled to write science fiction. Luck to everyone!

[storysinger]

Welcome jMiriah, freshstartco, and guthington. Good luck with the contest.

[reigheena]

Wow, its been 2 1/2 years since I last submitted to this contest. I was honorable mention, but in the time since, I've been focusing on writing novels. Lately, though, I've been on a short story kick. So we'll see how I do.

I've always written fantasy, and have been especially interested in exploring cultures outside of medieval Europe lately.

Good luck to everyone.

[Dustin Adams]

Welcome, and welcome back!

Good luck in Q4.

[Randy W]

Hi,

My Fourth Quarter entry marks my first time entering. At 55 I suppose I'm a late bloomer as a beginning writer. I can only imagine that working through those first million words of crap might seem less daunting as a youngster than it does as a senior. I may not have that much time left.

This is my first attempt at short fiction. I have one unspeakably awful mainstream novel behind me - unpublished of course. I am also sitting on a thousand page boat anchor of a science fiction novel. It has received its first rejection already. I'd like to think that the rejection might have been due to some combination of my lack of credentials and the manuscript's size, but I have other suspicions. This gives me a good reason to sit on it for now. Eventually I'll take a fresh look at the thing in order to determine whether it really is ready for publication. A bit of distance can be a good thing. Any way, in the meantime I thought to try my hand at the short story. So, here I am.

Randy

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Welcome aboard, Randy! And I think 55 is a fine age to start. Jack McDevitt started at 48, and he's doing just fine. I (re)started at 47, and I took third place in Q1 (3.5 years later) and have just sold my fourth story to Analog. Just between you and me, I think life experience counts towards the million words.

[Kary English]

Welcome, Randy!

I'll turn 48 about a week after the V31 awards ceremony, and I won't be the only one in an older demographic. I agree with Martin that life experience counts for something.

Cheers,

Kary

[E.CaimanSands]

I started seriously at about 40 and am rapidly approaching 44. I don't think I could have started any sooner.

What do you mean, 40? We're 66 million years old, plus--

Speak for yourself, scaly one.

[scott.parkin]

Adding to the chorus, I'm fifty (though I have been entering the contest since v4 back in the late 1980s). I can't claim to have started late, but I can suggest that simple chronological enhancement has given me some tools of experience and perspective that may not be as easily available to younger writers.

Still, some of us can't help but feel more like a writer from the recent past than a writer of the future---which is okay, too. Welcome aboard!

[storysinger]

You know if you only count leap years your numbers are lower.
Using that method I'll be fifteen next time around.
Sounds better than those big numbers.
Welcome Randy. May you feel forever young.

[preston]

49 is not that old, is it? Ow, my back!

[LaurieG]

Hello Randy, and welcome. I agree with Martin and Kary and the others-- life experience counts towards your millon word apprenticeship. Old farts rock!

And I believe Carl Frederick was in his mid 60's when he won.

[Randy W]

Wow. Thanks everyone for all the words of encouragement. I particularly like the thought that life experience could shave off some of those million words. I'll add another thought. Not only have those of us in our forties and fifties lived more but we've also likely read more. (Slides a second counter to the far end of the abacus)

Randy

[DeLaMer]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, not so much the contest; have entered a couple of times and just subbed a story to Q4. I've been writing for years and love it, but only recently have I thought that some of it might be worth reading by other humans. I love all the sci-fi (but especially space opera and cyberpunk), dark fantasy, horror…I'm up for reading and writing anything with a speculative element really!