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Welcome, David and Fobok! David's an interesting alias, but I've never met anyone with the name Fobok before!

P.S. This must be that tone issue everyone's been talking about.

Ah! I missed one. Welcome, David.

My name is James McRae and I make my living as a philosophy professor at Westminster College in Missouri. When it comes to fiction, I'm an absolute beginner. I've written only two short stories and submitted both to WotF. My first was a quarter-finalist in the fourth quarter of 2004, while my second was a finalist for the most recent volume (Q4, 2010). I'm hopeful that I can continue to improve my writing and submit another story sometime in the next year (I'm a co-editor for two philosophy books with early 2012 publishing deadlines, so almost all my writing time is being absorbed by those projects at the moment). I found these forums to be very helpful when I was preparing my manuscript for submission last year: many thanks to everyone for sharing your wisdom.

Welcome James. That's already quite an impressive CV you have there.

I was a fairly good student of political philosophy in my day, though not so clever I remember much of it now. But it sure helps to have that kind of brain I reckon if you're writing SF. It is the literature of ideas after all. And hopefully, a philosopher is more used to using words in a logical, intelligible, and even entertaining fashion than most of the super-sharp scientists out there!

Welcome, James! It sounds like you're off to a great start with your writing, so best of luck with it as you continue to improve.

Welcome, James! Very impressive beginning, I would say. I'm always happy to see more writers from the Southern U.S. join the fray.

Welcome, James! Congratulations on making finalist in Q4 2010. It's worth noting that the winning stories from that quarter were exceptionally strong.

Many thanks for the warm welcome, E.CaimanSands, Kyle, Amanda, and Vanaaron!

E.CaimanSands, it's nice to see some other people here with a philosophy background. I suppose science fiction is a natural fit, since most people consider philosophy to be "highly speculative" anyway. I've only written two stories, but both have come as a direct result of my philosophy research. My finalist entry from last year was based on an argument I had with John Searle about personhood and artificial intelligence. Now every time I go to a conference or read an article, I think, How can I get a story out of this?

Kyle, many thanks for your kind words. I'm in the process of poring over the most recent WotF volume to figure out what my story was missing. I'm hoping I can articulate a few critical elements that I can focus upon while writing my next contest entry.

Amanda, I was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, so I'm also happy to see Southern writers represented in the contest. I'm still trying to figure out how I can incorporate fried chicken and waffles into a science fiction story (perhaps cloned chicken and sentient waffles...).

Vanaaron, I remember reading the press release for the Q4 2010 winners where K.D. Wentworth said, "The finalist stories were exceptionally good this quarter." I immediately thought, Why did I have to make finalist in that quarter? I'm hoping that my next entry will have the serendipity to compete with stories written mainly by remedial English 101 students and typewriter-owning monkeys.

I'm hoping that my next entry will have the serendipity to compete with stories written mainly by remedial English 101 students and typewriter-owning monkeys.

Oh, I'm sure you were competing with plenty of those anyways, though these days most of the monkeys own word processors with spellcheck...

Amanda, I was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, so I'm also happy to see Southern writers represented in the contest. I'm still trying to figure out how I can incorporate fried chicken and waffles into a science fiction story (perhaps cloned chicken and sentient waffles...).

A sentient waffle. I think I must be one of those.

Vanaaron, I remember reading the press release for the Q4 2010 winners where K.D. Wentworth said, "The finalist stories were exceptionally good this quarter." I immediately thought, Why did I have to make finalist in that quarter? I'm hoping that my next entry will have the serendipity to compete with stories written mainly by remedial English 101 students and typewriter-owning monkeys.

Kit Reed wrote a fine little story called "Monkey Do" about a typewriting monkey a while back. It appeared in Asimov's, http://www.tangentonline.com/print--monthly-reviewsmenu-259/asimovs-reviewsmenu-55/1340-asimovs-june-2010

Vanaaron, I remember reading the press release for the Q4 2010 winners where K.D. Wentworth said, "The finalist stories were exceptionally good this quarter." I immediately thought, Why did I have to make finalist in that quarter? I'm hoping that my next entry will have the serendipity to compete with stories written mainly by remedial English 101 students and typewriter-owning monkeys.

While I freely admit that Q4 was especially strong last year, I like to think that the winners most every quarter are fairly good.

Vanaaron: I agree (and I hope I gave no offense). It's safe to say that all of the winning stories were stronger than mine. I'm partway through the newest volume and all the stories I've read so far have been splendid: this is possibly the best WotF anthology I've read to date. I take it you're the author of "The Dualist"? If so, I'm sorry to say that I haven't gotten that far yet, but I look forward to reading your work. I'm going through the stories out of order. I started with the three that beat me (including the published finalist from my quarter) and I'm currently reading R.P.L. Johnson's gold-winner. After that, I'll go in numerical order. As I mentioned above, I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong so I can make some improvements before I send in my next entry.

No offense at all -- I was just kidding with you. Yes, "The Dualist" is mine, but I rather doubt it would have been a winner in the 4th Quarter. "Maddy Dune," "Unreachable Voices," "Medic!" and "The Sundial" are some of the highlights of this year's collection. Good luck with your next entry!

Vanaaron, I remember reading the press release for the Q4 2010 winners where K.D. Wentworth said, "The finalist stories were exceptionally good this quarter." I immediately thought, Why did I have to make finalist in that quarter? I'm hoping that my next entry will have the serendipity to compete with stories written mainly by remedial English 101 students and typewriter-owning monkeys.

Welcome!

Oh, man, I know what you mean. I was a finalist in Q2 last year, and at the time KD said it was the hardest quarter to judge to date (of course, I'm sure each is harder than the next). After hearing that I had a moment where I thought, "Awesome! I'm up there with all...the..." and then it hit me. I was up against the most fantastic stories to date. My next thought was, "Aw, sh*t."

Yeah, come to think about it, Q2 wasn't bad either.

Hello, I'm Michael Smith. I live in North Carolina where I teach information systems and operations management at the college level. I graduated from the Literary Boot Camp in 2011.
I read widely but am partial to hard SF and works with a historical or social angle. My goal in writing is to write stuff I'd like to read, which is a pretty high bar since I was spoiled by Tolkien and LeGuin early in my life as a reader. The first book that I remember buying is "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson for 95 cents in a department store in Atlanta. I still have it.

Hello, I'm Michael Smith. I live in North Carolina where I teach information systems and operations management at the college level. I graduated from the Literary Boot Camp in 2011.
I read widely but am partial to hard SF and works with a historical or social angle. My goal in writing is to write stuff I'd like to read, which is a pretty high bar since I was spoiled by Tolkien and LeGuin early in my life as a reader. The first book that I remember buying is "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson for 95 cents in a department store in Atlanta. I still have it.

Welcome, Michael!

Welcome, Michael! I hail from North Carolina as well (I live in the Netherlands now). Nice to have you here!

Welcome Michael!

Mmmm, chicken and waffles, a dish I can never enjoy as the grease of the fried chicken makes me sick. You could always do some sort of alien spawn that breeds in the grease and takes control of its host....

Hi there!

Welcome, Michael!

Welcome aboard, Michael!

Welcome, Michael!

I also remember The High Crusade fondly.

Hello,

I've been arguing with myself for about a year now on whether or not to enter this contest (I find it much easier to read the books instead and think "maybe I should do this"), but--like a lot of people--I get pretty intimidated. One moment I'm in love with my writing, the next minute I think it's complete garbage, only to wake up and become engrossed once again. I'm a tireless critiquer, and one of my issues is figuring out when is "that point" to stop rewriting/fixing and just submit something.

I've finished several novel-length works, a handful or two of short stories, some poetry (not my strong suit, I don't think) and I write for a local newspaper (LEAST, least favorite type of writing). Oh, I'm also 19 and am working on my B.A. in English/Creative Writing. I'd like to be a creative writing prof.
I think I'll enter, though. I should be satisfied (a rare occurrence) with the entry story by Sept. 30 haha, so we'll see. If not, there's the next go.

I'm also hoping to make some writer buddies, as I don't know anyone else who writes. Can get a wee bit lonely at times--even for me, ha.

Best,
Blair

Welcome, Blair! Sounds like you're off to a good start with all the writing you've done already.

FWIW, my rule of when it's "good enough" is the Syd Field rule: when you're making tiny changes ("yet" instead of "but") or picking nits, it's time to declare it done.

Best of luck to you!

Welcome, Blair - I'm relatively new to the forum, and they have made me very welcome, so you're at the right place.

There is a myriad of information here too to get you going.

Regards,

David

Hello to you both, Blair and David! You are most certainly "in the right place!"

Welcome Blair, and David too!

Thanks everyone I'm really excited--Those responses already have made me feel very welcomed. It's nice to be a part of a community.

@ Kyle Those are the types of things that I've mainly been fretting over with my two latest projects, haha so it's probably time I've wished them good luck in the world. Then there are the couple other projects form a few years ago that I just want to complete rewrite using the same concept. I think since we're always growing, whenever we read something we've written in the past, we see 1000 ways to improve it. Thanks for the advice and welcome.

Hi. My name's Jao. Harion, my username, is actually my son's name. I'm not new here actually. Registered 2 or maybe 3 years ago. This is just the first time I've sent in an entry. Been procrastinating ever since I discovered WOTF.

I work as a ghostwriter, btw. So more or less, I do earn a living as a writer already. I'd like to be a full time fiction writer though, instead of being a hack writer. My sickness though is that I can never finish anything. I have like 10 story ideas all began and none of them's been finished yet. I kind of lose steam once I stop writing, and it's very hard to get going again once I stand up from my chair.

The entry I sent in, I wrote in one night. 'Twas the only way I finished anything really.