Writer of the Future. Who Has Been Entering Lately?

[WriterDan]

If anyone else wants to trade stories with me (or with Dan...we'll ask him), send me a message here at TWG.

Man it's good to have other authors as friends.    I'd love to swap with anyone.  Or send.  Or accept.  I'm open to help/helping in general.  My new short story is just about done.  Planning on finishing it this weekend, and should be ready to send out on Monday.  It's called Pito-1694.

[WriterDan]

Winners announced for second quarter WotF.  http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/  And unless you're female, it's a no go.  Go girls.

[Christopher]

Yep. Second quarter. I already knew that was a no go for me. Third quarter first round results should be out sometime later this month. I sent in a much better story. Here's hopin'. 

[Eric James Stone]

A friend of mine was notified today that he's a finalist for third quarter.

[Christopher]

From Kathy Wentworth today, Sept. 5th:

"I finished the Q3 first reading last night. The 8 Finalists and 10 Semifinalists have been sorted out and sent back to California.

BTW, it's official. Quarterfinalists will now be known as Honorable Mentions to cut down on confusion.

In the meantime, you still have time to enter Q4, which is a good one to win, because you can still attend next year's workshop and be in next year's anthology.

Go forth and enter!"

[Skar]

If anyone is interested in a list of 36 tips on entering WOTF, based on what K.D. Wentworth and Tim Powers said the two times I attended the workshop, PM me with your email address.

(I haven't publicly posted this list because I want to give a slight edge to writers I've had some interaction with.)

Got it. Thanks, Eric.

[Kristal]

I saw that the maximum word count was 17,000.  Does anyone know the average words most are submitted at?  How long is all of yours?

[Christopher]

My last submission was around 7K.

This next one will be about 8K.

[WriterDan]

Kristal:  My last submission was about 14K.  Not sure about this one, but it'll probably be about 10K.  Of course, I just write long stories.  I'd say that the average of stories that get published have seemed to be longer ones though.  The only one that comes to mind that I've read in the past few years that wasn't longer was Schrodinger's Hummingbird.   WotF has said that it doesn't have to be long to win, but from what I've seen, most winners have written long stories.

Chris:  So, I'm a bit confused.  Is this the setup for timing of quarters?

1st Q:  Oct-Dec
2nd Q:  Jan-Mar
3rd Q:  Apr-Jun
4th Q:  Jul-Sept

Sounds like it anyhow.  Which is good, I guess.  Turned my most recent story in on June 30th.  So, those results haven't been released yet.  Boy, and I've been all bummed since I saw that post by Joni yesterday.  I guess I can put off the blues for another bit.  So, where did you read that bit from Kathy Wentworth?   Would be interested in checking out anything she has to say. 

[Christopher]

Dan, I'm giving you the inside connection, ha ha...just because it's you  (and all the other good people here at TWG).

Kathy posts over at sff.net a lot. They have a WOTF future thread.  Here's the link.

http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=xover&group=sff.writing.writersofthefuture

As far as quarters, third quarter stories are those turned in on June 30th--the results aren't back yet, but will be shortly.

The fourth quarter stories are due by Sept. 30th. If you want to make it into next year's book, and go to next year's WOTF workshop, that's your final chance.

Q: When's WorldCon Denver? I think it is the beginning of August in '08, and the workshop is in August, isn't it? That would be cool. Two big events back to back.

NOTE: if I don't place in the contest this year, then I'm having a big barbeque in August, and STILL GOING to WorldCon (with my fellow TWGers) to peddle my newest attempt at a novel which will be done by then. It's all good  .

[WriterDan]

Thanks Chris.

[Christopher]

Hey, Dan. I just sent you an updated version of my story. I had to make a pretty big change to strengthen the ending. If you haven't started reading my story yet, read the update. If you've already read the old version, no worries. It will be interesting too see if you make the same suggestion.

[Christopher]

A friend of mine was notified today that he's a finalist for third quarter.

I've been wondering about this. Without telling me who if you shouldn't, was it someone Kathy W. knows, so she called them early? Do all the finalists get a phone call? Does it mean that, if someone hasn't already gotten a phone call they aren't a finalist? How does it work?

[agilebrit]

I got my notification in the mail the other day that my story made the quarterfinals (top 15%).  This is a story I actually sent them by accident.  I was formatting two stories for submission: this one--which was supposed to be going to F&SF--and another one, which I'd planned on entering in WotF.  WotF was so much on my brain that I formatted this one for it, printed out all twenty-seven pages of it...and then went D'OH!  But I was derned if I was going to spend the ink and paper to fix the error, so I went ahead and sent it in.

Understand, it's the stretchiest of stretches to call this thing "fantasy," which is why I was hesitant about doing so.

But, hey.  Quarterfinals.  I squee'd.

F&SF rejected the other story.  Darnit.

Now I have to figure out what I'm going to send W0tF this quarter, the end of which is sneaking up on us very quickly.   I'm scribbling something new, but whether it'll be done in time or not is an open question.  However, I've found that a deadline concentrates my mind wonderfully.   The second thing I ever sent them was banged out in less than a week, which is record time for me.  It didn't do anything, but it's sitting with a senior editor at another publication right now (after a revision). 

Oh, hi, by the way!  *waves*

[WriterDan]

I emailed Joni from WotF after getting nothing back on my 1st Q submission for forever, and she said that all of the winners get called.  Don't know about the finalists though.  All I know it that there is a 10-week deadline, and that was, for the 3rd Q, last Saturday.  So, I'm not expecting too much at this point.  But who knows.  Maybe the whole workshop and awards ceremony thing delays 3rd Q announcements on a regular basis.  Anybody know?