Best of success to you all in this last quarter of Volume 39! Just by getting stories in, all of you are winners! But I do love seeing Forumites getting that ticket to Hollywood. 
May the Force be with you!
And for those of you burning the midnight oil tonight, you can do this!
All the beast!
Wulf Moon
Click here to JOIN THE WULF PACK!
"Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler" won Best SFF Story of 2019! Read it in Writers of the Future, Vol. 35. Order HERE!
Need writing help? My award-winning SUPER SECRETS articles are FREE in DreamForge.
IT’S HERE! Many have been begged me to publish the Super Secrets of Writing. How to Write a Howling Good Story is now a #1 BESTSELLING BOOK! Get yours at your favorite retailer HERE!
I got my story in too. This one was a bit tougher because I wound up writing the whole thing, blank page to final draft, in a week--I figured out the solution to a key issue with my plot idea at FanX and began writing just after the convention ended--but I'm glad I was able to get it done.
I'm IN!
<looks at clock>
5 hours to spare...Luxury!
This is a new one written this week, and it shaped up better than I expected. I almost ditched it for an ancient story but relented.
~ J V Ashley
I’m in. 
Small steps add up to miles.
5 R, 5 RWC, 6 HM, 1 SHM
"Amore For Life" in After the Gold Rush Third Flatiron Anthology
"Freedom’s Song” in Troubadour and Space Princesses LTUE Anthology
"Experimenting with the Dance of Death" in Love is Complicated LUW Romance Anthology.
I'm in using a previous SHM that I updated (hopefully edited it in the right direction). The new story I have been working on got bogged down with life. You know that thing that keeps getting in the way of fun stuff. Yep, life. On the bright side, I have more time to make the story I was working on better.
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right."~ Henry Ford
2025 V42: RWC, ? (HM Resubmit), Editing, ideas swirling about
2024 V41: RWC (HM Resubmit), HM, RWC, Finalist (RWC Resubmit)
2023 V40: HM, HM, R, HM
2022 V39: SHM, HM, Semi-finalist, HM (HM Resubmit)
2021 V38: ---HM (R Resubmit)
2020 V37: -R--
I'm in. Nearly left my name on the manuscript, the byline no less, but I caught it just before I submitted. Good luck to all and no matter what--write on, write on, write on!
2012 Q4: R
2016 Q3: SHM
2019 Q2: HM, Q3: HM
2020 Q2: HM, Q4: SHM
2021 Q1: HM, Q2: SF, Q3: SHM, Q4: SHM
2022 Q1: SHM, Q2 RWC, Q4 RWC
2023 Q1: RWC Q2: SHM Q3:Nope Q4: WIP
A Writing Excuses listener, perchance?
I have just finished my last revision of my Q4, with a huge thanks to everyone who critiqued this piece in the last week (and everyone who's ever critiqued any piece for me, of course).
We need a WOTF banner emoticon with "I've Submitted!" written on it. For now, this will do:
(pretend he's smiling)
Best of luck to everyone.
VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com
Kindle Vella - Ashes to Ashes, Earth to Kaybee
I decided to work on the story that I've felt like I didn't have time to revise (for the last 4 quarters)...and I almost ran out of time, but I didn't, and I'm in for Q4! 60th time is the charm? 
Beth Powers
-----
Silver HM x 6
HM x 22
Entries x 70
-----
Collected Stories:
Sorcery & Widgets
Runes & Rivets
@bethpowers, a wise woman once told me that there are two paths to success: luck, and resilience.
It sounds like you're kicking ass at walking the latter. Keeping fingers crossed for you.
VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com
Kindle Vella - Ashes to Ashes, Earth to Kaybee
I submitted Wednesday. First time in a looooonng time. Been working on longer fiction more recently. Good luck to all, hope to see you in Hollywood!
In with something too experimental for this contest, but hey, I submitted.
V39/Q1: HM
V39/Q3: SHM
Good job for entering, everyone! I will cheer you all on to the finish line no matter how long it takes!
*When one door closes, another one opens. Here’s to a new chapter! Onward!*
I got mine in too with minutes on the clock, what a rush. ?
Managed to produce a completey new story (I did have an outline but nothing written yet) only after the results from last quarter came in, so only 4 days, you know how that goes. 
No chance for any edit pass, I barely got the formatting done in time. Always frustrating to see there were still a handful of super cringy typos and mistakes in there after hitting that submit button, but I don't think that's going to affect the outcome too much, right? I mean when the total amount of slipups is under 10 in the whole story, not when there are 10 typos in every paragraph, obviously.
Anyway, happy for everyone that submitted in time, producing something new every quarter is always good and probably a challenge for most people that don't write professionally.
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I just needed a dancing banana fix.
Best of luck, everyone.
F x 3
I submitted for the first time in two quarters - a bit short I suspect at barely 1,800 words - but glad to get something written for first time in months. Now to sit back and wait for the results 
(and begin a new story for Q1 Vol 40 of course 
)
Good luck to everyone who submitted!
3rd Place Vol 41 Q3 ("The Stench of Freedom")
Submission record: R x 2 / HM x 7 / SHM x 2 / W x 1
Stories published in Daily Science Fiction, Every Day Fiction, 365tomorrows, and Gwyllion Magazine.
Find out more on my website (www.joelcscoberg.com) or sign up to my newsletter for updates on my writing journey.
@ease I've always been a fan of the Coleman Cox quote, "I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have."
Sure, some seem to get lucky by happenstance, but I think "lucky" people more often have worked hard so that when the time was right, they could take advantage of the opportunity that landed in their lap.
Vol 37 Q4-SHM
Vol 38 Q1-HM Q2-DNP Q3-DNP Q4-HM
Vol 39 Q1-HM Q2-HM Q3- DNP Q4- HM
Vol 40 Q1- DNP Q2- HM Q3- Subbed
Data point:
I spent a good two years studying for my Customs broker license:
The Bar Exam: 65-68% pass rate
The American Board of Internal Medicine: 89%
CPA Exam Pass Rates: between 45%-50%Customs Broker Exam: less than 20%
After I passed, it took me another eight months or so to get the license in hand (AKA validated).
Approximately four weeks later the Customs broker I was working for passed away. I was able to use my license to keep the company open long enough to "close down" at which time I was able to salvage around 10% of the clientele, which has paid the bills for the past twelve years.
That was luck, yeah. The timing was nuts.
But the prior two years of intense studying wasn't luck...
Career: 1x Win -- 2x NW-F -- 2x S-F -- 9x S-HM -- 11x HM -- 7x R
Like me: facebook/AuthorTJKnight
*Overshare warning* Hi everyone! First entry here on the forums, but I've been a firm ghost on 39 Q2 and Q3 haha. Now that I feel as though I've poked my head out from under my turtle shell, I finally want to join all the fun and say hi! About a year ago I started querying for my completed novel and after a vicious round of rejections (I did get one full request but it was ultimately rejected), I decided to enter this competition. Admittedly, it was a ditch effort so see if maybe I'm just not cut out for fiction.
It was the best decision I've made in my entire writing career.
I've learned SO much from these forums alone. Just the forums!
A very brief story about the past 6 months - my dad's parents tried to die from heart attacks, but didn't, but my mom's mom got diagnosed with end stage bone cancer. So basically in the same month I almost lost all my remaining grandparents. It was the same month that I received my final rejections on my manuscript. I had zero hope for my Q2 entry placing.
I went up to visit my grandmother. She's the reason I'm writing. She's a published kids author and used to write down the stories I made up as a kid. I came home feeling absolutely hopeless. A week later, I got an HM for my entry. The same week, my brother's wife left him. She was my friend from high school.
On a whim I'd entered Q3 with a story I wrote in 24 hours, honestly with the sole intention to make myself laugh. I went back to visit my grandmother two weeks ago and held her hand as she died. I promised her I wouldn't stop writing. I came home, saw the results would come out within the next few days and shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it. The next day I was doing laundry and absolutely sobbed when I saw I got a SHM.
So naturally I entered Q4. Literally the day before the deadline I was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. I still got it in with three hours to spare. No matter how I place, I'm so proud that I fricken did it! I got that sucker in!
But through and through, I've loved reading through these forums. I've learned so much about style. I love seeing the repeat members win! I love reading people's sigs and seeing their perseverance through rejection to go on and place big! This competition is amazing. I cannot express how grateful I am to have this motivation in my life right now. And this exercise in short story writing has really helped me see how god awful wordy my manuscript was haha -- taking this appendectomy recovery time to go through, trim some fat and get some dang queries out with some beautiful WoTF credentials to my name now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!
V39 - Q2 HM, Q3 SHM, Q4 HM
V40 - Q1 SHM, Q2 HM. Q3 SHM Q4 HM
V41 - Q1 Crafting
Your kind words are so appreciated. I would like to extend a welcome to the forum moment for you. Enjoy.
Today's science fiction is tomorrow's reality-D.R.Sweeney
HM x5
Published Poetry
2012 Stars in Our Hearts
Silver Ships
There's coffee in that doggie mug, right? Or tea. Tea is okay, too. 
Sounds like you went through a rough patch there. 🙁
Glad to here about your SHM though. Every time I've written on the fly and subbed I've gotten straight Rs. Seems like you've got the raw talent. Let's go Q1!
Career: 1x Win -- 2x NW-F -- 2x S-F -- 9x S-HM -- 11x HM -- 7x R
Like me: facebook/AuthorTJKnight
*Overshare warning* Hi everyone! First entry here on the forums, but I've been a firm ghost on 39 Q2 and Q3 haha. Now that I feel as though I've poked my head out from under my turtle shell, I finally want to join all the fun and say hi! About a year ago I started querying for my completed novel and after a vicious round of rejections (I did get one full request but it was ultimately rejected), I decided to enter this competition. Admittedly, it was a ditch effort so see if maybe I'm just not cut out for fiction.
It was the best decision I've made in my entire writing career.
I've learned SO much from these forums alone. Just the forums!
A very brief story about the past 6 months - my dad's parents tried to die from heart attacks, but didn't, but my mom's mom got diagnosed with end stage bone cancer. So basically in the same month I almost lost all my remaining grandparents. It was the same month that I received my final rejections on my manuscript. I had zero hope for my Q2 entry placing.
I went up to visit my grandmother. She's the reason I'm writing. She's a published kids author and used to write down the stories I made up as a kid. I came home feeling absolutely hopeless. A week later, I got an HM for my entry. The same week, my brother's wife left him. She was my friend from high school.
On a whim I'd entered Q3 with a story I wrote in 24 hours, honestly with the sole intention to make myself laugh. I went back to visit my grandmother two weeks ago and held her hand as she died. I promised her I wouldn't stop writing. I came home, saw the results would come out within the next few days and shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it. The next day I was doing laundry and absolutely sobbed when I saw I got a SHM.
So naturally I entered Q4. Literally the day before the deadline I was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. I still got it in with three hours to spare. No matter how I place, I'm so proud that I fricken did it! I got that sucker in!
But through and through, I've loved reading through these forums. I've learned so much about style. I love seeing the repeat members win! I love reading people's sigs and seeing their perseverance through rejection to go on and place big! This competition is amazing. I cannot express how grateful I am to have this motivation in my life right now. And this exercise in short story writing has really helped me see how god awful wordy my manuscript was haha -- taking this appendectomy recovery time to go through, trim some fat and get some dang queries out with some beautiful WoTF credentials to my name now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!
Sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure and emotional rollercoaster for your writing! Keep it up and don’t lose heart. You’ve proven once again that writers write. No matter what life throws at you, keep doing what you love.
Best of success on your Q4!
Death and the Taxman, my WotF V39 winning story is now a novel! (Click Here >).
Death and the Dragon launches on Kickstarter August 27th. (Click Here >)
Subscribe to The Lost Bard's Letter at www.davidhankins.com and receive an exclusive novelette!
New Releases:
"The Missing Music in Milo Piper's Head" in Third Flatiron's Offshoots: Humanity Twigged
"To Catch a Foo Fighter" in DreamForge Magazine
"Milo Piper's Breakout Single that Ended the Rat War" in LTUE's Troubadours and Space Princesses anthology
"The Rise and Fall of Frankie's Patisserie" in Murderbugs anthology
"Felix and the Flamingo" in Escape Pod
"The Devil's Foot Locker" in Amazing Stories
*Overshare warning* Hi everyone! First entry here on the forums, but I've been a firm ghost on 39 Q2 and Q3 haha. Now that I feel as though I've poked my head out from under my turtle shell, I finally want to join all the fun and say hi! About a year ago I started querying for my completed novel and after a vicious round of rejections (I did get one full request but it was ultimately rejected), I decided to enter this competition. Admittedly, it was a ditch effort so see if maybe I'm just not cut out for fiction.
It was the best decision I've made in my entire writing career.
I've learned SO much from these forums alone. Just the forums!
A very brief story about the past 6 months - my dad's parents tried to die from heart attacks, but didn't, but my mom's mom got diagnosed with end stage bone cancer. So basically in the same month I almost lost all my remaining grandparents. It was the same month that I received my final rejections on my manuscript. I had zero hope for my Q2 entry placing.
I went up to visit my grandmother. She's the reason I'm writing. She's a published kids author and used to write down the stories I made up as a kid. I came home feeling absolutely hopeless. A week later, I got an HM for my entry. The same week, my brother's wife left him. She was my friend from high school.
On a whim I'd entered Q3 with a story I wrote in 24 hours, honestly with the sole intention to make myself laugh. I went back to visit my grandmother two weeks ago and held her hand as she died. I promised her I wouldn't stop writing. I came home, saw the results would come out within the next few days and shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it. The next day I was doing laundry and absolutely sobbed when I saw I got a SHM.
So naturally I entered Q4. Literally the day before the deadline I was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. I still got it in with three hours to spare. No matter how I place, I'm so proud that I fricken did it! I got that sucker in!
But through and through, I've loved reading through these forums. I've learned so much about style. I love seeing the repeat members win! I love reading people's sigs and seeing their perseverance through rejection to go on and place big! This competition is amazing. I cannot express how grateful I am to have this motivation in my life right now. And this exercise in short story writing has really helped me see how god awful wordy my manuscript was haha -- taking this appendectomy recovery time to go through, trim some fat and get some dang queries out with some beautiful WoTF credentials to my name now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!
I agree with David. That is quite a roller coaster but hopefully, your journey here with WotF will continue to go up and up. The people here are pretty amazing. They’ve been super helpful and I’ve learned a lot from all of them. Good luck to you in Q4! We’ve got this! ?
*When one door closes, another one opens. Here’s to a new chapter! Onward!*
Not sure if I posted? I'm in for Q4, anywho. I'm always in. But wanted to post that up.
I even submitted before the very last day. Go me.
"If writing is easy, you're doing it wrong." -Bryan Hutchinson
V36-37: R x6
V38: R, HM, R, HM
V39: HM, HM, HM, HM
V40: HM, HM, SHM, HM
V41: RWC, P
There's coffee in that doggie mug, right? Or tea. Tea is okay, too.
Sounds like you went through a rough patch there. 🙁
Glad to here about your SHM though. Every time I've written on the fly and subbed I've gotten straight Rs. Seems like you've got the raw talent. Let's go Q1!
Coffee, naturally. Tea is simply to hydrate away the jitters, don't you know.
Thank you all for your kind words. Best of luck to everyone for Q4!
V39 - Q2 HM, Q3 SHM, Q4 HM
V40 - Q1 SHM, Q2 HM. Q3 SHM Q4 HM
V41 - Q1 Crafting
Good luck to all submitters!
Vol. 36: 3rd -- R, 4th -- R
Vol. 37: R, HM, HM, SHM
Vol. 38: HM, HM, HM, HM
Vol. 39: SHM, RWC, RWC, HM
Vol. 40: HM, R, RWC, R
Vol. 41: R, HM, HM, HM
Vol. 42: R, 2nd qtr. pending, 3rd qtr. WIP
Amateur published stories:
"The Army Ration That Saved the Earth" in For Glory and Honor, LTUE 2026 anthology
"The Tell-Tale Cricket" in The Murderbugs Anthololgy
"Follow the Pretrons" in Martian Magazine, and a Critters Award
"Eyes and Hands" in Galaxy's Edge Magazine
"The Last Dance" in Parliament of Wizards, LTUE anthology
"My Ten Cents" in Sci Fi Lampoon
Professional Publication:
"Invasion" in Daily Science Fiction
Just realised, with horror, i forgot to include header with story title and page numbers.
Can someone in a position of authority please reassure me that my silly mistake won't get me a DQ?
This story is definitely going to win.
Trust me... it's beautiful...
But with much love to everyone and best of luck! xx
Now i'm off to binge watch some boba fett... if only jon favreau had written episodes 7-9 they wouldn't have been such a tragedy and a travesty and an insult to George... imho...
"It doesn't sell but it's mine!" George Peppard in The Subterraneans (1960)
V38 Q3 SHM
V38 Q4 SHM
V39 Q1 RWC (same story as V38Q3)
V39 Q2 HM (same story as V38Q4)
V39 Q3 RWC
V39 Q4 This one is going to win! Trust me! It's amazing! - Ok, so it only got an SHM. Poodoo! It was a brilliant YA story!!!
V40 Q1 SHM; will these torments never end?!! It was a great story!
V40 Q2 SHM Now this is getting silly. I write a definite YA winning story and it only gets SHM. Perhaps I should edit my online history...
V40 Q3 I'm guessing either SHM or RWC...
Have decided am going for the record number of RWCs! 2 out of 3 so far...
Follow me at:
Smashwords – About Evelyn K. Brunswick, author of 'Rejected Messages'
...and find out what we ETIs actually think of you humans...
@ease in my experience there's no such thing as luck...
social networking, however, now that works...
resilience, though, definitely...
good luck dude...
"It doesn't sell but it's mine!" George Peppard in The Subterraneans (1960)
V38 Q3 SHM
V38 Q4 SHM
V39 Q1 RWC (same story as V38Q3)
V39 Q2 HM (same story as V38Q4)
V39 Q3 RWC
V39 Q4 This one is going to win! Trust me! It's amazing! - Ok, so it only got an SHM. Poodoo! It was a brilliant YA story!!!
V40 Q1 SHM; will these torments never end?!! It was a great story!
V40 Q2 SHM Now this is getting silly. I write a definite YA winning story and it only gets SHM. Perhaps I should edit my online history...
V40 Q3 I'm guessing either SHM or RWC...
Have decided am going for the record number of RWCs! 2 out of 3 so far...
Follow me at:
Smashwords – About Evelyn K. Brunswick, author of 'Rejected Messages'
...and find out what we ETIs actually think of you humans...
@drewbikscube in that case you're going to challenge me for the 'most number of RWCs' competition...
am still wondering what that word 'devotional' means in the last RWC thing. I think i might write a story based around that word devotional. it's a beautiful word. so i am wondering why it results in a RWC. I would have thought that a competition associated with L-Ron and therefore scientology would welcome devotional stories... Likewise the RWC about 'stories about aliens here amongst us' (unless done in a new way) - surely our 'souls' are not uniquely human?
speaking as an Atlantean, that is...
Sorry for my ramble. good luck my friend (not that there's any such thing as luck, in my experience)
"It doesn't sell but it's mine!" George Peppard in The Subterraneans (1960)
V38 Q3 SHM
V38 Q4 SHM
V39 Q1 RWC (same story as V38Q3)
V39 Q2 HM (same story as V38Q4)
V39 Q3 RWC
V39 Q4 This one is going to win! Trust me! It's amazing! - Ok, so it only got an SHM. Poodoo! It was a brilliant YA story!!!
V40 Q1 SHM; will these torments never end?!! It was a great story!
V40 Q2 SHM Now this is getting silly. I write a definite YA winning story and it only gets SHM. Perhaps I should edit my online history...
V40 Q3 I'm guessing either SHM or RWC...
Have decided am going for the record number of RWCs! 2 out of 3 so far...
Follow me at:
Smashwords – About Evelyn K. Brunswick, author of 'Rejected Messages'
...and find out what we ETIs actually think of you humans...
You are now reading something from the undisputed queen of oversharing. Imho, all the best stories are oversharing. That's what makes them deep. Like my Q4 entry made me cry when i wrote it. Or think about that ending of Bladerunner - that's oversharing. Or Gattaca 'didn't leave enough for the swim back' - now there's a mantra for life if ever there was one.
Here's my oversharing - i hate my biological parents. i was brought up by my maternal grandparents - i didn't realise that from my point of view they were my real parents until after they died. happy ending - have successfully disowned my biological parents. happy memories of my grandparents and an amazing dream just after he died of being in a safety bubble with him in the midst of a stormy sea, which couldn't hurt us.
existence is like that.
all those people you love - you will see them again. i firmly believe in 'soul families' (like with Dunbar's number) - we have a small group soul of maybe 150 people, and we keep reincarnating with them life after life. the social relationship might change, but the affection never leaves.
life is a neverending story...
i wish you all the best...
"It doesn't sell but it's mine!" George Peppard in The Subterraneans (1960)
V38 Q3 SHM
V38 Q4 SHM
V39 Q1 RWC (same story as V38Q3)
V39 Q2 HM (same story as V38Q4)
V39 Q3 RWC
V39 Q4 This one is going to win! Trust me! It's amazing! - Ok, so it only got an SHM. Poodoo! It was a brilliant YA story!!!
V40 Q1 SHM; will these torments never end?!! It was a great story!
V40 Q2 SHM Now this is getting silly. I write a definite YA winning story and it only gets SHM. Perhaps I should edit my online history...
V40 Q3 I'm guessing either SHM or RWC...
Have decided am going for the record number of RWCs! 2 out of 3 so far...
Follow me at:
Smashwords – About Evelyn K. Brunswick, author of 'Rejected Messages'
...and find out what we ETIs actually think of you humans...
XD
Dear fellow Jon Favreau fan.
If your lack of header don’t DQ you, if you were the only one who forgot, your post definitely can.
I reported this post and for the sake of anonymity I will proxy:
”Just realised, with horror, i forgot to include header with story title and page numbers.
Can someone in a position of authority please reassure me that my silly mistake won't get me a DQ?”
Plz do not make reactions on this post 😀
