02/05/99    SFWoE wishes to give our contestants (and anyone else who is interested) a chance to learn a little about the writers they are competing against and especially a chance to get to know the contest winners. We, therefore, asked each of the 1998 Top Ten to send us some biographical information. In their own words, here are the 1998 contest Top Ten.

First Place: Paul Blake.   I am a Londoner, born and bred in London's East End, and I suppose I'm a city boy at heart -- although I spent part of my childhood and adolescence in more rural surroundings I was drawn inexorably back here. I love the stimulation and variety that results from so many human stories, in so many languages and accents, all crammed into one small space. I try to have as wide a range of interests as possible (calligraphy, linguistics, cooking, and now thanks to the Internet, something called generative music) and like to think of myself as a Renaissance man (captious critics may prefer the word "dilettante") but the one interest I have followed consistently since I was about seven years old has been a fascination with language, and as a natural offshoot of that, writing. Even my day job reflects that -- although I qualified as a pharmacist (with a particular interest in plant-derived medicines) I am now Assistant Editor of Martindale, an international reference work on drugs and medicaments.

     My output is largely science fiction and fantasy, with bias towards the latter, although curiously I prefer to read the former. Or perhaps it's not so strange: mass-market fantasy, despite some towering giants and, I think, a trend towards general improvement, is still very much in the pulp stage whereas SF has matured to a higher standard. But for me, brought up on the Doctor Dolittle books and The Wind in the Willows, and as a teenager, Le Guin's Earthsea tales, I think fantasy is the native language of story.

     As I have continued to write I have discovered a few things about my creative process: for example, that my normal pattern is to start with an image or a particularly vivid phrase, write a few paragraphs, and then stall; the idea then goes underground and gestates, until suddenly I will realize what that story is about, and be able to write it. So now I don't worry about it so much -- I just move on to the next thing and bide my time. The Neslav Lezac stories, of which "Watching the Angels" is the second, grew out of a voice, a wry, Eastern European sort of voice, that comes and drops these explosive little phrases like "My grandfather was a terrible embarrassment to the family because of his habit of seeing angels." And certain themes recur in my writing: in particular, the primacy of memory in making us what we are and a certain fascination with variant modes of thought.
(SFWoE Note:   You may read more about our First Place winner in "An Interview with Paul Blake," which will be placed online as soon as we are able to complete an interview in London. Paul's First Place story. "Watching the Angels" will be published in the August 1999 issue of Altair.)

Second Place: Kain Massin.   I've been writing since I was quite young. It was a pleasant surprise for me, since English was my second language, and I was happy to be able to compete with those for whom it is natural. I worked hard at writing the best essays I could in school, and took a perverse pleasure in having them read to the class.

     There was a long hiatus, from the time I decided to study science at University until ten years ago, when I purchased my first computer and returned to writing. Even so, my efforts were spasmodic (I had become a high school teacher -- specializing in Biology, preferring to teach Physics, but actually teaching Mathematics -- and I don't have much spare time for creative writing) until last year. It was then that I joined the Blackwood SF & F Writers' Circle. There's a lot of talent in that little group, and being with them is quite inspiring.

     I write as the story strikes me, so I don't have any set method or formula. However, many of my stories -- whether science fiction or fantasy -- do require the reader to see that, in any conflict, there are two sides to the story. Being an educator, I also try to use the stories as a forum for disseminating information, and there was an aspect of that inherent in "Unconfirmed Sighting." However, for the most part, stories grow in me when I see something unusual and ask: "What If?"

     I live in Adelaide, South Australia, with my wonderful wife and daughter -- both of whom have been very understanding whenever I've disappeared into the study and got lost in other worlds. I still don't have much time for writing, but I have managed to write more in the last year than I did in the previous five. My heartfelt thanks to my family for being so understanding and supportive. (I also have two cats and a dog. They, however, are mostly concerned with food and walks. Oh, OK: the cats are also concerned with being superior and aloof.)
(SFWoE Note:   Kain's statement about there being a lot of talent in the Blackwood SF & F Writers' Circle is an Aussie understatement if there ever was one. That "little group" submitted 32 manuscripts to the 1998 contest, and our nominating committee swears there was not a weak story in the bunch. SFWoE will be placing a review of Kain's Second Place story online.)

Third Place: Angella Taylor Lofthouse.   I am twenty-seven years old and live in Springville, Utah with my husband, Tracy, and my three adorable sons: Ryan, Rusty, and Sam (when I write a childbirth scene as I did in "Casualties of War," I know whereof I speak!). I am a stay-home mom, and with three boys chasing around, there's always plenty to do.

     I graduated from Brigham Young University in 1992 with a degree in English, and began writing fiction in 1994. I have one novel completed, which I'm trying to find a home for, and I'm working on another novel now. I enjoy writing short stories, too. Aside from writing and raising kids, I also enjoy singing, playing the guitar, reading, eating ice cream, watching Star Trek, and doing service work for my church.

     This is the third time that I've entered the SFWoE contest, and I'm just thrilled to have placed third. This is my first real success as a writer, and I couldn't be happier. Thanks!
(SFWoE Note:   Thank you, Angella, for introducing the SFWoE Staff to "Baby Kady." Our contestants (and others) may learn more about Angella's 1998 Third Place story by reading the review of "Casualties of War" in this newsletter.)

First Honor: Terence Moll.   I stumbled upon Patrick Moore's novels in a small South African library when I was eight, and have been reading science fiction obsessively (and indiscriminately) ever since. Ten years later I discovered my other intellectual passion, economics, and after studying and working in Cape Town (which I regard as home) and England, ended up as a financial economist, now living in Prague with my Czech wife and daughter.

     I have been writing fiction as a creative outlet for many years -- though mainly on holidays, because of work pressures. About half of my efforts are mainstream, including a thriller-in-progress, to be finished when/if time permits. Most of my science fiction stories look at how people might behave and adapt in different social, technological or environmental contexts. They're really about conflict, whether external or internal, and the subtle ways in which it can be resolved (or otherwise).

     "The Freedom Not to Choose" is one of a series of stories set in a highly stratified, semi-democratic post-feudal society (sorry folks: the jargon is an occupational hazard) on a nameless planet. While they're somewhat old-fashioned, I'm told, that's the kind of thing I like to read.
(SFWoE Note:   In his judge's report, Edward Bryant wrote that Mr. Moll's story covered a great deal of territory. It appears the same can be said about the author.)

Second Honor: A. Tubbesing.   In my leisure time (which I have entirely too much of) I bike, kayak, camp, and practice self-defense. I like my TV unplugged. If it's on I'll watch it like everybody else, and life is short. I write, paint, draw (but not enough).

     Dependents/significant others are limited to three cats, two dogs, which I walk in the fields and woods behind my house (a wooden cave with furniture on two acres in northern Ohio).

     I work in Cleveland in the printing industry. I snuck into it from the design and typography angle. For three 13-hour days I mouse around on our 20 Macs (or one PC), then I have four days off. The printing field is in a state of barely controlled chaos as it becomes more and more digitized, which I like.

     My humor is of the graveyard variety, full of irony and non-sequiturs -- when I do it right. I was raised among the works of Bradbury and Kipling, the cartoons of Herriman and Addams. It was a great childhood.
(SFWoE Note:   In his judge's report, Edward Bryant wrote that Mr. Tubbesing's contest entry, "Two Round Stones," is a clever alien point-of-view story that reminded him a bit of Theodore Sturgeon's classic "It." To the SFWoE Staff that sounds as if Tubbesing is on the right track and we wonder what he could produce if he put more of his leisure time into writing.)

Sixth Place: Marc Drummond.   I seem to be on the younger end of the authorial spectrum here, at the ripening age of twenty, but I still have a number of years of writing under my belt. I grew up in the lovely community of Hastings, Minnesota, right where the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers converge. Hastings has a small town feel, even with nearly 20,000 people, with the advantage of a close proximity to the Twin Cities. The superb teachers I had in Hastings gave me the encouragement and drive to say, "Yes, I am going to one day be a professional science fiction and fantasy writer." I first began writing seriously about six years ago, when I joined a writing group at the Just Thinking... Bookstore in Hastings. The owner, Dorothy Sandahl, has been a great support for budding writers in the community by providing a friendly environment for writers' groups to flourish. Over the years, I eventually helped organize and lead various writing groups there. I also benefited from having a wonderful mother who, while she might not love science fiction and fantasy, always gave my stories a fair read and provided helpful commentary.

     Then, a few years ago, I trekked off to Albion College in Michigan. Within my first year there, I discovered that writing was what I had to do. When a story piques the brain, whether with a character, a setting, an idea, or a plot, it nags at the mind during the wee hours of the morn until it gets written and rewritten and re-rewritten. Many of my professors, David Wright and Paul Loukides especially, have greatly helped me improve my writing style. In fact, "Steel Gold" developed in a creative writing course with Professor Loukides last spring. I visited my grandparents in Arizona with my family, and the setting of the Superstition Mountains, and a restaurant called the Superstition Saloon in Tortilla Flat in particular, gnawed at my brain till I had to write the story "Steel Gold." I reworked the story considerably this past summer with a writing group in the Twin Cities that was an offshoot from the Loft -- the experience of working with ten or so other writers who all wrote some form of science fiction and fantasy greatly helped my focus.

     So now, I am studying for the year in Aberdeen, Scotland. I've met a great bunch of people at the Aberdeen University Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. I'm writing regular stories for a couple local AUSFFS fanzines. They take place in a world I've been working on for the past six or seven years. There's a novel in that world, begging for me to write it, but I do not think I am ready to capitulate to its demands quite yet. I have some other stories, quite loud and insistent, who demand to be written. One of my other stories ("Farewell, Obesity" -- my other SFWoE entry) is being published on the webzine "Dark Planet," which can be found at www.sfsite.com/darkplanet (it is in the middle of an update at the moment I am writing this). Since I have not yet been paid for any of my stories (not even contributor copies of the fanzines), I will shortly be sending in another story for SFWoE.

     Besides writing, I occupy myself with fencing, highland dancing, haggis eating, film viewing, and the far too occasional pint at the local pub. I have to say, in all fairness, that SFWoE is probably one of the best contests out there for upcoming SF/F writers. Send in your stories today!
(SFWoE Note:   Thanks for the testimonial. Marc is working through the SFF Society in Aberdeen to develop more contestants from Scotland for our annual contest. And, Marc, submit your 1999 contest entry early in case you sell one of your stories.)

Seventh Place: John McCabe.   My writing "career" began in 1993, when I decided (perhaps erroneously, as it turned out) that I could create stories at least as entertaining as certain of those I was reading in various science fiction publications. Since that time, however, I have discovered that the act of writing itself is what lures me back to the keyboard day after day, just as much as does my original goal of seeing my stories and books in print.

     A longtime interest in Russian language and culture has greatly influenced my choice of subject matter, both in stories and in my recently-completed novel, a science fiction/espionage tale set in a Russia of the near future. In addition, I have long been interested in the idea of what it is that makes us human, and how successful we will be in retaining those qualities in the face of an increasingly random and disconnected society.

     I am constantly amazed by the beauty and insight I find in great fiction. Like all struggling writers, I hope someday to find that source of beauty and insight that I want to believe exists in me. Thanks to all involved in the SFWoE contest for serving as inspiration and incentive for the past six years.
(SFWoE Note:   John McCabe's interest in Russian language and culture clearly influenced his contest entry, "Plot of Knives." A near-future story of conspiracy and murder in Moscow.)

Eight Place: Randy D. Ashburn.   I live in a small town in southeastern Ohio with my wife (Darlene) and sons, Geoffrey (4) and Thomas (3). I'm an attorney and administrative law judge (workers' compensation cases), which gave me lots of background for the petty bureaucrat that was my protagonist in "Rolling the Stone." Prior to accepting this appointment, I spent five years representing death row inmates in their appeals, which also worked its way into my story in the theme of the mindless futility of vengeance (a` la a tried and true SF vehicle like temporal paradoxes).

     I used to write when I was a teenager, but "Rolling the Stone" was the first piece of fiction that I've done in 15 years. Since I wrote this piece in August '98, I've finished six more short stories, mostly dark SF and horror. Unfortunately, none of them have been sold yet, but I am acquiring a really great collection of rejection slips!
(SFWoE Note:   Placing eighth in our contest with the first story written after a 15-year layoff speaks highly for Randy's writing ability. Of course, working five years with death row inmates one must pick up some fantastic stories.)

Ninth Place: R. Wayne Davis.   I have a master's degree in creative writing (with honors) from the University of Kansas, Center for the Study of Science Fiction. James Gunn -- science fiction instructor, critic, and writer -- considered my work a cross between Harlan Ellison's and Stephen King's. Though I don't care much for Ellison as a human being, I do consider King a decent person; and, of course, the complement Gunn paid me is memorable. I also have an "almost master's degree" in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania (one class short). Though I still love folklore, I bailed on the PhD program because I couldn't stand the death blows academia (at least at Penn) were attempting to deliver it.

     Two of my stories placed first and second in "The Undiscovered Country Short Story Contest, judged by Connie Willis. I have just finished writing a dark/traditional fantasy novel entitled "A Kingdom Not His Own" and have high hopes for it. When I'm not studying or working, I'm developing an original superhero story and my first Christmas story. Maybe I can present them to the 1999 SFWoE contest in October.

     Otherwise, I miss my girlfriend, whom I left in Pennsylvania so I could attend Colorado State University. Where I'm currently taking pre-med classes and preparing to apply for naturopathy school. Wish me luck!
(SFWoE Note:   R. Wanye Davis has been submitting highly-competitive stories to our contest for many years, placing as high as Second Honor, with a haunting tale entitled: "Another Customer for the Autumn Cafe.")

Tenth Place: Robert N. Stephenson.   Like Kain Massin, I live in Adeliade South Australia and only a few streets away from him at that. I started writing at the early age of 10, but gave it up by age 15 when I turned to drugs and crime. I was so heavy into drugs that I forgot who I was by the time I turned 20. I spent a good two years in courts and rehab centers trying to remember my name. From 21 to 27, I was an alcoholic (one vice for another). Finally, I saw the error of my ways (God) and cleaned up myself.

     Since then I have married, have two beautiful children, a nice house, and a car that isn't "hot." I have also published a book of poetry, written and produced two successful stage plays, sold some short stories recently (no more entries to SFWoE from me I'm afraid), and own and run Altair Magazine.

     My story that finished tenth is an odd one for me, but it does explore my theme of one against the odds. Write what you know, they often say. (By the way, I'm really not a very good writer, but I love it all just the same.)
(SFWoE Note:   Rob Stephenson is as modest as he is open about himself. He holds the record for placing more entries in the top twenty-five stories than any other writer in the eighteen years of our contest. He publishes one fine international magazine of speculative fiction, which is an undertaking that also explores the theme of one against the odds.) 

08/26/99   Paul Blake is pointing his finger at someone.

     No, it's not bad manners. It's not an accusation. But it is to single her out -- in a very positive light.

     "She definitely has a lot to answer for," Paul says as he laughingly confesses that he "came late" to science fiction. "I always read fast and read a lot, but when I was fourteen a teacher gave me a book by Poul Anderson. It completely captivated me; after that you couldn't keep me out of the library's science fiction section."

     Although the book and the teacher are now fond memories, starting in September 1999, Paul will be hanging out in the SF section even more regularly. Only this time it will be to autograph copies of Altair, the magazine featuring his 1998 SFWoE contest winning short story, "Watching The Angels."

     Like many writers, Paul is still not quite sure where this story came from or why it insisted on being told as though it was a translation. "I speak Russian and read a lot of Czech and Yugoslav writers," he says. "When this story popped into my head, I could hear the voice of the narrator and it was definitely eastern European."

     Paul ran with the idea, meticulously crafting a story with odd twists of phrasing, sometimes even a slight awkwardness of wording, as if the narrator struggles with certain aspects of translation. The effect is subtle but creates an unmistakable image of both characters and setting. "I suppose it could be called Eastern European Magic Realism," Paul says, somehow getting it out all in one breath.

     Whatever style Paul decided to call it, his enthusiasm for the project is growing. Two more stories in the same setting, although with different characters, are already complete and a fourth is almost finished. "I'm still debating which one of three possible endings I want to use for that one," he says.

     With his passion for writing stories which can be interpreted many ways, it's hardly surprising. He enjoys the satisfaction of leaving his readers with a question in their minds after they've read the last line. "For example," he says, "maybe the explanation of what happened to the narrator in 'Watching The Angels' is strictly medical. Perhaps he had a seizure and there's nothing supernatural going on at all. On the other hand, maybe a religious interpretation is the right one." Paul grins and allows a long pause before adding, "or maybe it's something else entirely."

     Looking to the future, Paul confesses he does have a problem when he thinks about plans for his writing career. "I think one of the great strengths of science fiction [and fantasy] is the short story, and I really don't want to write a novel. Sure I've got the traditional novel I wrote when I was 20 sitting under my bed," he says. "But I don't feel compelled to finish it. Most of my E.E. stories [Eastern European stories] are odd lengths -- between twelve and thirteen thousand words. They're too long for a short story and not long enough for a novella, so I'd like to put several of them together as a collection and approach a publisher that way."

     Does the teacher from his childhood know where her casual suggestion lead? Paul's not sure, but if he ever runs into her again, he'll have an autographed copy of Altair ready to pass along with his thanks.

(SFWoE Note:   Altair Publishing's Senior Editor, Mr. Robert Stephenson, stated recently, "Altair Issue #4 has work by Stanislaw Lem, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Ian Watson, Arthur C. Clarke, and bucket loads of others. The surprise is that the strongest story in the issue is Paul Blake's 'Watching The Angels.'" The SFWoE Staff agrees with Mr. Stephenson and highly recommends that our contestants get a copy of Altair (Issue #4) and treat themselves to a good read (to contact Altair Publishing, see the Altair article above). Paul Blake writes with a captivating rhythm that draws the reader into his story. Just about everyone who we know that has read his story admits they have read it several times and get more enjoyment with each reading. In the meantime, we invite you to read author Dilip Agarwal's review (below) of Paul's winning story.

     SFWoE thanks Susan M. Boyce for this interesting "snapshot" of our 1998 first place author. Susan is the Editor/Publisher of Travel Impulse (a very helpful travel magazine), which keeps her very busy. However, she makes time to do interviews for several magazines, because she enjoys people. She told SFWoE that she thoroughly enjoyed her chat with Paul Blake. "He's one of those people who always has a twinkle in his eye." Susan is also a highly competitive SF/F writer, having placed several times on the SFWoE Top Ten List.) 

02/25/99   Paul Blake's first place winning story, "Watching The Angels," begins immediately with its two central premises. The first is that the protagonist, Slavushka, has a grandfather with the "unfortunate habit of seeing angels." The second is that the background of this story is so vibrant and distinctly drawn as to be a character in its own right.

     After raising the story's conceit in the first line, that Grandfather Zlatin sees angels, Mr. Blake immediately diverts away to draw out the background of this story. A background where God is "merely a blood-soaked tribal totem left behind in Man's advancement into the New System."  A "New System" never directly identified as Soviet Communism, but populated by places such as "Recny Pelhovicy", "Sobor", and "Staromost" and people called "Alexiony Milovic Zlatin", "Konstantin", and "Tihomir Kass". This is not, then, a specific Eastern Bloc country but a country of the mind conjured out of that era. And an era that was considered devoid of romance or imagination under the bleak exterior of collectivism, censorship, and bureaucracy.

     But this world is also a place where grandfathers can see angels. Here, Mr. Blake plays with his readers' preoccupation with the word itself. Jim Houston, the mainstream writer, once remarked that where you read the word "angel" in the opening of a story you have to read on to find out what happens. So it is, with Mr. Blake's story.

     Mr. Blake makes his environment both three dimensional and memorable. Tea with his grandfather includes "jam made from blueberries or cherries or perhaps richly scented rose petals." When Slavushka is rescued from drowning, Blake describes the experiences as "something strong and supple seized me, pulling my head up into the clear, breathable light of day, held me up against a powerful, living warmth that threshed and strove against the cold clutch of the river."

     In this vividly described world, Slavushka's grandfather claims to have seen an angel. During a war that may or may not have been the Second World War, Zlatin held a town called Sobor against the Germans. "When we took Sobor, an angel stood on the spire of St. Vaslav's cathedral and shielded it from the German artillery."

     The key question is of course, what does an angel look like. Unfortunately Zlatin is unable to describe such a sight. He tells his grandson "If I were as clever with words as St. John of the Golden Mouth, I could not begin to tell you one tenth of all that they are. You just have to see for yourself."

     It is the traumatic incident of Slavushka's near-drowning and his grandfather's subsequent heart attack that leads Slavushka to see his first angel. To begin with the angel remains ungraspable. "I cannot describe to you, anymore than you could describe a rainbow to a man blind from birth. It looked a little like a man, and a little like a tiger, but mostly like things that have no words."

     To begin with we are given reaction rather than description to establish the angel's presence. Upon seeing them, the narrator "fell to the ground, biting my lips till the blood ran." While we never really "see" these angels, Mr. Blake does define them further as the story closes. Slavushka sees them, "turning circles of fire through the night sky, outshining the stars." Ultimately he understands that the angels "take no interest in us" and described or not they remain for him "so beautiful that...once you have seen them, nothing else is ever quite right again."

     Slavushka is left with mixed emotions about his visions of angels. They are beautiful and to see them is a miracle. But in the face of such how do you go on, day after day, comparing all human art and all natural beauty as it pales in comparison? Slavushka takes solace in the angels silence, and finds refuge in human music, the sound of laughter, and in the spoken word, all of which have no angelic comparison. With this conclusion the story's title, "Watching The Angels" is brought into precise focus. Slavushka only watches his angels and this is his refuge from their perfection.

     "Watching The Angels" is a story that many science fiction readers may find only marginally placed within the genre and could be described as "slipstream." It is a story whose strength is its tone and mood rather than the events it describes. Most science fiction readers will agree, however, that it proves to be a strong story when they see it published in Altair.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Dilip Agarwal for this interesting review of Paul Blake's 1998 winning story. Dilip, the winning author of the 1994 and 1997 SFWoE Contests, has published science fiction reviews in The New York Review of Science Fiction and Critical Wave. He also wrote for SFWoE a review of John McCabe's 1997 story "The Shadow Bar.") 

06/27/99   Kain Massin's "Unconfirmed Sighting" begins with a second person description that could have come from the back of a manual on how to deal with UFO sightings. The story expands into what might be called police procedural and then, carrying the reader along with it, transmutes itself into a first person narrative that could feature as a mainstream story in Reader's Digest. At this point the science fiction in the story might be just that quirky element of science fiction that mainstream occasionally weaves in for amusement.

     In "Unconfirmed Sighting," the Fullers, a young couple with a child, have sighted a UFO. Two parties have taken an interest, and neither of these are the police, or are what they seem.

     The narrator, styling herself "Dr. Mary Newman," is from SASDA, the officious sounding "South Australian Scientific Determinations Agency." Dr. Newman is in conflict with her opponent, also visiting the Fullers, who is known familiarly to her as "Todd." He is from a local UFO center out to prove the sighting through scientific, or quasi-scientific research. Dr. Newman, on the other hand, is there to debunk the Fullers' sighting. "Unconfirmed Sighting" places the Fullers, as civilians, in a battle between the "commonsense" Dr. Newman, and the more extreme Todd.

     All of which could make for solid mainstream fiction.

     However, Kain Massin is not finished weaving in the convolutions and surprises that earned him second place in the 1998 SFWoE Contest in what judge and writer Ed Bryant describes as a "wheels-within-wheels treatment of both the visible and the normally unseen maneuverings around UFO sightings." By the end of this particular story the reader is left in no doubt that this is firmly science fiction.

     Ed Bryant also states that Mr. Massin's subject matter is familiar to us from both within the genre (Whitley Strieber) and without ("The X-Files"). This is not the first time that Mr. Bryant has placed stories in SFWoE's top ten which have drawn on X-Files scenarios. Mr. Massin's achievement is to reinvigorate a familiar television theme with freshness and originality.

     The opening attracts the reader with a number of devices. It begins with a line of dialogue, moves into second person, then back to first person, then positions the reader from the viewpoint of a debunker of UFO sightings. At this point it reminded me of Lucius Shepard's short story, The Ends of the Earth. In this story, Mr. Shepard presents us with another view on a similar argument:  the possibility of the supernatural.

     "Those whose office it is to debunk the supernatural are fond of pointing out that incidents of paranormal activity most often take place in backwaters and rarely in the presence of credible witnesses."

     Mr. Massin's story appears to be about a resident of that "office" and her attempts to inject doubt and discredit to the witnesses. Also, while the event did not take place in a backwater, it occurred among "a menagerie of domesticated animals on ten hectares in the Adelaide Hills." For those of us in the northern hemisphere, this is a foreign land, and forms part of the freshness and originality that Mr. Massin injects into a familiar theme.

     It is also a mark of freshness that Mr. Massin begins by positioning us from the point of view of the skeptic. Dr. Newman is familiar in destroying sightings. She treats the Fullers as witnesses to be gently dismantled with scientific evidence, doubt, and manipulation. "The witnesses," Dr. Newman tells us, "feel more confident when you point a Geiger-counter around, or spin a compass in a few directions. They particularly like you to photograph the scene."

     Dr. Newman also knows Todd, and knows how to undermine him. And this is her apparent objective. The Fullers are civilians, caught in a battle between Todd and Dr. Newman:  science and shamanism, in the semi-urban Australian setting.

     Their battle is slight and subtle, filled with an arsenal of "curt nods" and "a moment's awkward silence", but no less dramatic for that. By the end of the exchange, the Fullers are convinced that they have been mistaken and that their UFO sighting is in fact the sighting of Australian military helicopters. They are appeased and Todd is left with shreds of belief in the UFO sighting. This might be all there is to this story, and we would be left with a slice-of-life of two Australians with an unusual vocation. But, as Ed Bryant said, this is a story with wheels-within-wheels. And the real heart of the story comes with the revelatory scene between Dr. Newman and Todd in a local bar.

     In one light Dr. Newman is a fond professional rival, in another she might be a guardian angel sent to save Todd from himself. But those would be different stories. The protagonist has been steadily eroding Todd's confidence and his drinking is approaching fatal proportions. Dr. Newman does rescue Todd, and reinvigorates his confidence in both himself and in his calling, but she does that through powers not of this world. Dr. Newman is an alien sent to protect humanity from other, more predatory aliens. As she protects the whole species from invasion, she has found time to protect one particular member of the species from his own sense of failure.

     Todd is saved by the very thing, an alien, that he has given up hope of ever finding.

     At this point Mr. Massin reveals the science fictional element of his story. Fittingly, the second place story can be seen as a companion piece to the third place story. "Casualties of War" by Angella Taylor Lofthouse is also about the struggle to save one life by an alien. The difference there is that her alien is a human being on an extraterrestrial's world, while Dr. Newman proves to be a powerful alien making her home here on Earth. Ed Bryant described Ms. Lofthouse's story as a "heart-felt examination of culture clash." Mr. Massin presents us with a more humorous angle on what is perhaps the same subject.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE is happy to report that Kain Massin has sold "Unconfirmed Sighting" to Harbinger Magazine published in Australia. The story is to be published in a month or so; therefore, Kain is busy placing the finishing touches on his 1999 SFWoE contest entries, which must be postmarked prior to receiving payment for his first sale to be eligible for our contest.) 

06/05/99   At 2700 words, Angella Taylor Lofthouse's story, "Casualties Of War," moves without the encumbrance of dialogue, description, or backstory you would expect in a science fiction story. The writer's pared-down style challenges her to construct her world, her characters, and ultimately her story with the bare minimum of words.

     Arguably science fiction is the most demanding of genres, requiring its writers to conjure whole worlds from scratch while simultaneously convincing the reader that he or she is not being overloaded with expositional lumps. To be sure, there are none in Ms. Lofthouse's story. That is not to say that it is deficient in building its world, but with three principal characters and its point of conflict to convey, world building is not its focus.

     As writer and judge Ed Bryant said, "The author adroitly sketches a future interstellar diplomatic crisis that means little in terms of the galaxy, but everything for the few individuals involved."

     "Casualties Of War", establishes itself quickly and draws steadily to its conclusion. The war, as Bryant describes, is an interstellar crisis, and in this case, of the diplomatic, rather than military variety. The story opens on a line of dialogue, "Take me to Earth when you leave," and this acts as the hook to draw the reader in. This line is crucial. It establishes the relationship between the principal characters, Joshua, the diplomat from Earth, and Ruthin Matike, child bride of a cold and prominent royal on the planet Sinicia. Initially, this line stands alone. Is it a command, a plea, or a derisive response?

     Before we learn this, we learn that Ruthin is pregnant, a desperate stranger approaching the Earthman.

     The story then develops into a moral quandary. Joshua is being begged by Ruthin to help her escape her fate. He is a diplomat struggling to establish relations between Earth and Senicia, Ruthin is a stranger in pain, a youth of seventeen locked into loveless marriage. She has broken the codes of her culture -- and expects her baby to be a girl when she is required to sire her husband a boy. Why this is a crime, and how this has come about are questions left tantalizingly hanging given the sparseness of the story -- but are not necessarily weak points in the plot as the issues resonate. They are examples of Joshua's confusion and inner doubt, and as he wrestles with them, we glimpse the wider implications of his role. He is a diplomat, and he is the alien in this story. Far from home and required to operate with respect and sensitivity to the host culture, he also expects himself to behave as a moral and responsible human being. Yet can he expect Lord Matike to behave as one, when he and all the other Senicians are, by definition Senicians, and not human beings?

     This is a story of its time, and reflects the complexities of our own times. As with much science fiction, it is a reflection of its own era. Heinlein wrote stories in the 40s and 50s of competent men waging wars against insectlike hostile aliens, reflections of the conflicts around the globe that America was embroiled in. Similarly Joanna Russ, in the 70s, wrote stories set in Whileaway, populated by colonies of women reproducing by parthenogenesis. In this vein, Ms. Lofthouse presents us with a slice of future life reflecting some of our own troubles at the end of the millennium.

     Joshua is "weary of the battle. Tired of fighting the war." Yet the war is one he reached "the day he'd become a trade negotiator." This is economics imagined in the language of combat. And it is combat, one of the most vicious where populations are exhausted through slow starvation and civil unrest rather than by bombings and battlefield weapons.

     He is also haunted by his own personal demons. These act as illumination rounds, detonating with staccato force to offer flashes of world building detail: "the demons in his head shouted . . . with his mother's voice." A mother lost to him, "with empty eyes, and lost . . . in a chemical haze."

     Joshua's feelings of responsibility, unexpanded upon by Ms. Lofthouse, take on a universality that draws him into the conflict at the heart of the story. Ruthin falls on his mercy, perceiving him to be her sole hope, the one contradictory force on her planet, a man who will not punish her for giving birth to a daughter. When her daughter comes Joshua's dilemma is sharpened. The Earth embassy could be expelled for defying local custom, yet both mother and daughter could be put to death for this birth. Joshua's superior, Ambassador Crenshaw, sums this up bluntly by stating, "I don't like it anymore than you do. But we're the beggars at the rich man's gate here. How many millions of babies will die back home without this treaty?"

     Again with dialogue, and again with a minimum of words, another teasing detail is revealed. Earth has expanded to visit other worlds. But this is an Earth extrapolated from the 1990s, traveling to trade, to negotiate rather than confront. An Earth precariously balanced and at the mercy of the stronger aliens. Heinlein's competent warrior men have been dead and buried, superseded by the pragmatists and bureaucrats who steer a middle path with reason, acquiescence and, when necessary, obsequiousness. In slightly jarring language, Crenshaw instructs Joshua that he "better have a butt-kissing apology ready."

     Crenshaw understands the dilemma and measures it simply. Two lives, Ruthin's and her daughter's, against millions on Earth. One set or the other will become the casualties in this undeclared war.

     A 70s take on Joshua's dilemma, such as appeared in the New Wave science fiction published by Michael Moorcock and others, might have brought the story to a close here, leaving the reader to ponder this dilemma without resolution by the writer. Alternatively, another moral question could have been developed if Ms. Lofthouse had made the aliens more physically alien and less humanoid. In Some Strange Desire, Ian McDonald posits what the fate of aliens would be if discovered living among humanity: "We are not human. And, as non-humans, we are therefore the same as animals -- less than animals; most animals enjoy some protection under the law, but not us. They could do what they liked to us, they could strip us of all our possessions, jail us indefinitely, use us to experiment on, gas us, hunt us down one by one for sport, burn us in the street, and in the eyes of the law it would be no different from killing rats." This is not the focus of Angella Lofthouse's story, but is another aspect the story could support. It is also perhaps the way Lord Matike sees the Earthmen. They are viewed with distaste by the rulers of Senicia, who would think nothing of severing vital trade links because of one diplomatic incident.

     But even though this story is only 2700 words, Ms. Lofthouse is not finished by establishing the conflict. She brings the story to a conclusion. Joshua must decide if he is going to sacrifice the young Ruthin and her child in order to save his fellow humans.

     If we know what the competent man of the 50s pulps would have done, we perhaps can also guess what the pragmatic and more complex protagonist of today would do. Joshua finds a middle path between, using his own fighting skills, of treaties and law and compromise. Ruthin is sacrificed, but her baby, born within Joshua's ambassadorial compound, is an American citizen. Joshua loses his prized diplomatic career, Ruthin returns to her vindictive and violent husband, but her baby daughter, Kady, is safe to return to Earth with Joshua.

     The ending is therefore not a perfect solution, and one earlier generations of science fiction writers might object to, but it is also an ending that is a reflection of our own era and concerns. Angella Taylor Lofthouse's story is, as Ed Bryant writes, a "heart-felt examination of culture clash."

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Dilip Agarwal for this detailed review of Angella Lofthouse's 1998 Third Place story. If after reading Dilip's review the reader would like to learn more about this published author, be sure to read in this newsletter "An Interview with Dilip Agarwal.") 

03/17/98   SFWoE wishes to give our contestants (and anyone else who is interested) a chance to learn a little about the writers they are competing against and especially a chance to get to know the contest winners. We, therefore, asked each of the 1997 Top Ten to send us some biographical information. In their own words, here are the 1997 contest Top Ten.

First Place: Dilip Agarwal.   I live in London where I work as a Publicity Officer for my local council. While earning a degree at the University of Exeter, I spent a year living in Santa Cruz, California. Before returning to England, I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop. I have been submitting stories for publication since 1992, and have published science fiction reviews in The New York Review of Science Fiction and Critical Wave.

     I have entered the annual SFWoE SF/F Short Story Contest four times since 1993 and it has proved to be a significant contest for me. The advice and guidance I received from the contest administrator, Gil Reis, and the judge, Ed Bryant, have been invaluable in the development of my writing career and ability.

     Most of my writing relates to two principal themes. One is that of an alternative history where imperial powers are locked into an imperial cold war in a twentieth century populated by vampires. The other is a near future history of the twenty-first century where DNA research has created a servant race called the Salusa, who have genius level IQs. "Iron Omdurman" is part of this series.
(SFWoE Note: You may read more about our First Place winner in "An Interview with Dilip Agarwal" and you should read R. G. Riel's review of his First Place story, which will be published in the August issue of Altair.)

Second Place: Matthew S. Rotundo.   I knew at a very early age that I wanted to be a writer. I've been writing seriously for approximately eight years. In that time, I have turned out several short stories -- including "Alan Smithee Lives In Hell" -- and two novels, "The Lonely Stars" and "The Watermasters," which I am currently shopping around.

     My lovely wife Tracy and I live in Omaha, Nebraska. When I'm not writing, my passion is football! (I'm from Nebraska, folks. What did you expect?) I'd like to take this opportunity to offer a brief word to any Michigan fans who might be reading this: I'll take the '97 Huskers against the '97 Wolverines anytime, anywhere.

     As readers of "Alan Smithee Lives In Hell" will undoubtedly deduce, I am also an avid movie buff. One note of interest on my Second Place story: Alan Smithee actually is credited with directing each of the films mentioned in the narrative.
(SFWoE Note:   A word of explanation for our readers who have not read Mr. Rotundo's winning story. In his story, Alan Smithee is a movie director who takes credit for movies that turn out badly before they even get off the production lot; thus, allowing the actual directors to keep their good names from being tarnished when the movies flop at the box office. SFWoE has placed William D. Gagliani's review of this story online.)

Third Place: John McCabe.   My wife, our two dogs, and I make our home in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. In order to support my writing habit, I teach mathematics and Russian at an area high school. In my spare time, I write and try to solve life's great riddles, among which are the commercial fiction market and the Utah Jazz's inability to win an NBA championship.

     I am putting the finishing touches on my first novel, a story of espionage and alien invasion set in near-future Russia. While working on my novel, I continuing to crank out the occasional short story. I was very pleased to learn that I was again able to place in the top ten. Hats off to everyone associated with SFWoE, staff and contest participants alike, for working to promote the craft of science fiction writing.
(SFWoE Note:   John McCabe finished in First Place in our 1995 contest and in Third Place in 1996. Over the years, John has been a strong supporter of SFWoE. Judge Edward Bryant said that John McCabe demonstrates magazine-level prose.)

First Honor: Dilip Agarwal.   Dilip Agarwal has a knack for placing two of his well-written stories on the SFWoE Top Ten List. In our 1994 contest he was able to place a story in both First and Third Place.

Second Honor: Kate Golding.    I have been an aspiring writer for about half of my thirty years. In between producing reams of unread fiction, I have obtained a Bachelor of Science, a Graduate Diploma in Education, and a lot of experience at being unemployed. I am starting an information technology degree in 1998 in the hope of getting a qualification for which someone will employ me. In the meantime, I leave scorch marks on my word processor as I try to keep up with all of my ideas. "Judgement Day" is my first success as a writer.
(SFWoE Note: Our contest judge, Edward Bryant, wrote that Australian Kate Golding's prose possesses a fine sense of alienness.)

Sixth Place: Rob Bleckly.   I have been writing since age sixteen, yet never once considered it to be a serious business. It was just an itch I had to scratch while I was busy having a life. Besides, I failed year ten twice, because I couldn't pass the compulsory subject "English". Yes, I live in Australia (South Australia in fact, as have all my ancestors back to 1858) and yes, English is my native tongue. As you Americans say -- go figure. So instead I became a technician, got married, had two lovely children (lovely because they are both writers), had a 3-year sojourn with Radio Australia in Darwin, a semi tropical paradise which bored me after two years, so I bought a 100-acre bush block in Tasmania as my holiday place.

     At age forty, while I was in technical administration, I went back to Uni and earned a BSc in Computing Science (ten years part time), got divorced, remarried -- after a fashion, traveled (spent a month in Fort Collins, Colorado -- just like Adelaide really -- only higher), was made redundant, and became unemployed. I then opened a bookshop, started a writers group that in turned spawned Altair, and got divorced again.

     Somewhere in that last series, I picked up a copy of Aurealis and it struck me that the writing I had been doing on the side all along was what I should have done as a serious business in the first place. So now I'm trying to convert a 2-drawer filing cabinet, roughly thirty years worth of unfinished prose, into publishable stories.
(SFWoE Note:   Rob Bleckly is an editor on the Altair Editorial Staff. Far be it for the SFWoE Staff to give advice to an editor on how to improve his chances of getting published, but based on the biographical information above, perhaps he should write adventure stories. Oh, and Rob, hold off on the romance novel -- we're not sure you've got the formula worked out yet.)

Seventh Place: Michael Morgan.   Michael Morgan, born Charles Morgan but then renamed by a stroppy colonial sister, started life in the Pakistan Himalayas. I continued through Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Australia, working as an exploration geologist and writing mining-systems software. The love of big ideas has carried me along fast enough to prevent an actual sinking, and I regard humour as an absolute necessity. Yes, absolute, definitely.
(SFWoE Note:   Michael Morgan's Seventh Place story was loaded with humor as were his two other entries. You may read one of his tales, Eat Your Greens, in the first issue of Altair. Rob Riel, who has read the published story, reported that, "His story is grand, really grand. Just as wild and 'manic' as his SFWoE entries. I really like his style.")

Eighth Place: Jim Hayes.   I'm a retired postal employee, living in a small town in the historic Gold Rush country of central California with my wife Jan and a few old cats (some very old). I've been telling myself stories all my life and gradually learning to write them. My primary writing interest is fantasy, but my reading covers the whole range of fantasy and science fiction.
(SFWoE Note:   Jim Hayes was the last of the 1997 Top Ten to get his biographical information to us. He reports that he is not on the Internet and, therefore, relies on snail-mail, which is understandable -- being a faithful retired postal employee.)

Ninth Place: Trenton Tuttle.   I am currently residing in Tucson, AZ under the ever vigilant eyes of the State. I am in prison and, therefore, I do not have access to a word processor. All my stories must be handwritten, the tedious, but sure way. I must say, however, that finishing works done in long form are most satisfying. This contest was my first serious attempt at recognition for my stories. I'm honored to have placed 9th upon the SFWoE Top Ten List.

     I think in terms of what could be and wholly believe in the surreal. Fantasy is my life-long love affair, and dreams are my gateway to reality. Books are my passion, and I hope to join the ranks of time's elite storytellers.
SFWoE Note:   Tuttle's 9th place story is of imprisonment, escape, and revenge without the use of violence. He truly put in to practice the often heard advice to an aspiring writer: "Write what you know.")

Tenth Place: Robert H. Beer.   I live and write in Fergus, Ontario Canada with a very understanding wife and two little distractions, plus two cats which provide a certain balance. I have been writing SF short stories for over ten years, and have had work accepted for the anthology North of Infinity, due out from Mosaic Press, and for the March 1998 edition of Eternity Online. Also, I have been a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest. For several years, I have been entering the SFWoE contest and I feel that SFWoE should qualify as a charitable organization, for all its wonderful work for new writers.
(SFWoE Note:   When Robert H. Beer's story is published in March, SFWoE will lose one of its better writers, but that's what it is all about! Good luck, Robert, with your writing career. For more background information on Robert H. Beer, you may visit his web page in Canada by using the SFWoE transporter.)

08/01/98   In 1994, Dilip Agarwal grabbed my mind and dragged me into the "City of Palaces." He led me up Canal East Road through jostling throngs of Calcuttans to Syambazar Crossing. Dilip introduced me to Harry Lyle, Amvir, Ammie, Billy Fish, and a few other characters I would like to forget. I ran with them down Mukerji Road, lined with temples and ugly brown stations of the British Railway. I cringed when I came face to face with fat Chowringhee Lal, a babu who controlled a hundred street urchins. In Big Joes cellar pub, a hangout for Sikh assassins and Sudder Street whores, we drank Fisher beer and dreamed of ways to spend the money from our "Big Score." I ducked just in time when I heard the sharp metallic action of the breech bolt on Harry's nine millimeter Uziel SMG that spouted white fire. And when the British troops closed in on us, I too fled to Sumatra. There, in the terraced bars of Medan, I spent my days with Dilip. We sipped lassi, talked of old Calcutta, and idly compared Holland's tough Ambonese troops, as they square-bashed and marched, to the superior British-trained Gurkhas. As I slipped from Agarwal's grip, I truly found myself longing to return to the city of palaces, Calcutta, where I have never been.

     I first met Dilip Agarwal in October of 1995. He stepped out of the crisp autumn air, which fell with the night on Leicester Square, into the cozy lobby of my London hotel. Dilip, a handsome lad still in his twenties, greeted me with a handshake and "Welcome to London." His English accent was softer than I expected due, perhaps, to the time he has spent living in the States. Politely, he presented my wife a modest box of chocolates, which turned out to be Yun-Yun's favorite English sweet. She suggested Chinese. He agreed and we headed for the nearby Soho District. We talked as we walked the maze of narrow streets. By the time we reached the restaurant, it seemed as if we were close friends even though I am his senior by 30 plus years.

A SFWoE Bit: --- SFWoE's P.O. Box --- In the beginning, when SFWoE was created, the creators decided to obtain a postal box. SFWoE's postal box number would never change. The P.O. Box Number 12293 (Zip Code 76116) would become as familiar to science fiction writers all over Earth as their own names. Newborn writers would be taught the SFWoE P.O. Box Number along with basic grammar in the better schools of fiction writing. SFWoE would , therefore, save money, since its letterhead, calling card, and ad copy would never have to be changed. All went as the creators had planned, until one day late in November of 1987 when SFWoE's P.O. Box disappeared! Systematically, members of the SFWoE Staff combed the Fort Worth streets. Every lead (including the false leads provided by the U.S. Postal Service) was thoroughly checked out. An exhausted searcher, late on the second day, reported finding a new post office standing in what had been a vacant lot. Further investigation revealed that SFWoE's P.O. Box was embedded in one of the building's inner walls. Our box had been cleverly disguised by adding a "1" after the first "2" in the box number (121293), and by adopting a new ZIP Code (76121) that was different from the ZIP Code prominently displayed on the outside of the post office in which SFWoE's box was hiding. The SFWoE Staff is now keeping a close eye on their P.O. Box. Therefore, regardless of the address that is printed on the thousands of sheets of SFWoE stationary still on hand, writers may reach our elusive P.O. Box by addressing all correspondence to: SFWoE P.O. Box 121293 Fort Worth, TX 76121

By chance Dilip was in Seattle when I was in Vancouver, BC for the 1995 Christmas holidays. We met just south of the border in Bellingham were we dined at a new restaurant by the bay. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, fellow writer Terri Trimble. We talked of SFWoE, the Baha'i Faith, books, authors, editors, stories of his and stories of mine, and of future plots, but never of the weather. There was no need for small talk.      Pushing my empty plate aside, I asked Dilip when and how he had become interested in writing science fiction.      "I have always been interested in science fiction," he replied. "One of my earliest memories is of watching reviews of Logan's Run, a movie which I was too young to watch."      "That is one of my favorites too," I said, "especially since the scene when Logan finally reaches the surface was filmed in Fort Worth's Waterpark where I often go to write my stories."      "I am still interested in science fiction," Dilip continued, "because I still find it both a visceral and a mental challenge. What I like about science fiction is what I've always liked about it. I find it aesthetically exciting to imagine what the future will look like. As well as imagining how we will behave in the near future. As we get closer to the millennium we begin to encounter significant dates for science fiction. For example; Howard Waldrop's The Texas Israeli War: 1999 or the year Escape From New York was set in, 1997. I recently saw The Wrath of Khan movie and was amused to see that the year Khan left Earth was 1996.      "During the Gulf War, I had the slightly unreal experience of seeing science fiction come alive. A lot of military science fiction/cyberpunk is set in a future after America has been to war in the middle east. David Gerrold and Mick Farren both touched on this in the 1980s. And when I lived in America -- there it was, happening right before me."      I agreed with Dilip that it was like science fiction, informing him it had recently been revealed that the pilots of those first strike, "invisible" planes were actually already back at their home base watching CNN's telecast and wondering what Iraq was shooting at in the skies over Baghdad.      Dilip had mention living in America, and after reading his 1995 winning story, 'City of Palaces,' I was sure he had also lived in India -- so I asked him next, "Where were you born and where have you lived outside of London?"      "I was born and brought up in Hounslow, a suburb of London. Hounslow is near Heathrow and, although part of London, it is remote enough from the more affluent or popular areas to be a 'poor relation' in one sense, or to have an insular culture of its own.      "I was able, as a student at Exeter University, to live abroad in the United States in 1990 and 1991. This was at Santa Cruz, California. And from there I was fortunate enough to qualify for Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, Washington."      I was quite surprised that he indeed had not lived in India, and I told him, "It is hard for me to believe that you are able to write such detail about India having never lived there."      "I write about India for two reasons," he replied. "One is that I am increasingly frustrated to see India and Indians entering the American mainstream culture as absurd or sinister characters. This is prevalent in current science fiction with at least two writers I can think of.      "The other reason is more positive in that I think India has a story to tell -- more than one person can tell. There is a vast history to share. My stories involving India sometimes write themselves. I also enjoy finding out more about different parts of India by researching a specific area or city or period for a story. "City of Palaces" taught me the history of Calcutta, that it was once a capital city, that American troops were stationed there during the Second World War and it was bombed by the Japanese, and that one Kali worshipper was responsible for over 700 religious murders."

     I then asked, "I know you tend to write in two principal themes: One is that of the future where DNA research has created a servant race called the Salusa and the other of an alternative history where imperial powers are at war with each other with a few vampires thrown in here and there. Would you comment on that, please?"

     "I write Salusa stories because I want to write about the future under two specific criteria. One is a future after the information and technological revolution that cyberpunks predict has happened. So we see the 20th Century evolve into a technological society that is at least partly familiar. The other is the more established science fiction trope, the alien invasion. I was having a lot of trouble with this in the first instance, and finally realized I couldn't buy it myself. If aliens did arrive on earth, they wouldn't behave the way the Salusa were behaving. They wouldn't come all that way and attack us, only to break off the battle. What I think is more likely is that they'd come in peace, be completely incomprehensible, or annihilate us. So instead of aliens from space, I created home grown aliens. Genetic experiments in intelligence, which are so smart they become a threat and their actions then increasingly become incomprehensible.

     "I have also always been interested in the Victorian Era, the 19th Century, and the British Empire. The alternative world stories are an opportunity to combine all of these elements." Dilip paused for a few seconds and then added, "I began writing about vampires by accident."

     Next, I asked, "How did you prepare to become a writer?"

     "I was told by Jim Houston at his UCSC writer's work shop to have a daily writing routine. I still have never been able to meet that," Dilip admitted. "Even before I was working full time. Right now I try to dedicate one day to always writing, Sunday, and then whatever additional time during the week I can manage."

     After a moment of though he added, "I benefited massively from meeting Pat Murphy at UCSC and learning from her about the two clarion workshops, both of which I applied to. I also gained in numerous ways from attending Jim Houston's writing class and Clarion West."

     I asked Dilip what writers, stories, or novels had influenced him the most and he replied, "The books I always refer to when writing are, in science fiction, William Gibson's Neuromancer, Count Zero, and the Burning Chrome collection. Most of those I read as a teenager and it has been constantly exciting and amazing to go back to them and reread his descriptions to learn new things. It is trite to say it now, but I think those books contain some of the most lyrical and visionary writing ever written. I also read and reread Lucius Shepard's writings, and his writing on writing. In particular, his short stories in The Ends of the Earth. I am fortunate enough to have been taught by him individually and in a class and to have had him read some of my manuscripts. Pat Murphy is another writer who I find invaluable and who got me started by reading my entry to Clarion West. I have also gained from the professional critiquing of Ellen Datlow, who has been patient to the point of reading my manuscripts as I got them closer to being right. I also regularly read and reread Joe Haldeman, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, early Keith Laumer, Ian McDonald, P. K. Dick, and Fred Pohl."

     "It is of interest to me," I told Dilip, "that you study George R. R. Martin's writings since I sold my first story after Martin was kind enough to read one of my manuscripts and point out ways to improve it."

     "That's good to know. I think Martin has made a real contribution to the genre. And has burst back onto the scene with A Game of Thrones. Outside of the genre, I have drawn upon early Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, John Le Carre, Ron Hansen, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Mitchell Smith's novels: Day Dreams and Stone City."

     At this point, we became aware that the three of us were the only diners still in the restaurant and were amazed at how fast time had passed. We promised to keep in touch, and they went south to Seattle and I north to Canada.

     Two years later, when author Edward Bryant, SFWoE Contest Judge, informed me that Dilip Agarwal's "Iron Omdurman" had won our 1997 contest, Dilip was again in Seattle. I phoned Dilip and informed him that he had won our contest again. He was very pleased, of course, but he did not seemed too surprised about winning. I asked him why.

     Dilip explained, "The advantages I had in entering the SFWoE contest in 1997 were that I'd already entered and won once before in 1994, so I had some idea of the demands, and more importantly that I entered in 1995 and didn't come in first. (Dilip placed second in 1995.) That forced a lot of complacency out of me. Also, I had been working on the idea of inter-linked 'Salusa' stories for three years and when I began preparing for the 1997 SFWoE contest I knew the level I had to write to and what I wanted to write. My entry became a matter of narrowing the story down to the maximum word length rather than working out what the story was to be about."

     Dilip did not mention it, but he did not enter our 1996 contest. I suspected this was because he had put a lot of time and effort into his 1997 contest entry. I then asked him what his writing goals were now that he would be published in Altair Magazine.

     "A big goal was to win the 1997 SFWoE contest," he replied, "especially as it was tied this time to being published in Altair. This has been a big break for me. At the moment, I am looking at earning other short story sales and earning a SFWA membership. I hope to be able to expand both short story ideas, the Salusa and the alternative world, into novels. I already have some ideas for what form both books would take."

     After wishing him well with his writing career and hanging up the phone, I realized that SFWoE would not be receiving contest entries from Dilip Agarwal any longer. Dilip had raised our contest to a new level, as he moved from seventh place with his first entry in 1993 to first place in 1997 with the opportunity to have his story published in Altair.

     Because he has never met Dilip, author Edward Bryant was in error when he wrote in the 1997 SFWoE contest judge's report, "Agarwal possesses a genuine gift for evoking past eras." Once you meet him it is clear Agarwal's gift is his ability to listen. He listens with thoughtful attention. He absorbs every word he hears and every fact he reads. That is his gift. Being able to evoke past eras with the written word is only one manifestation of this gift. Make no mistake, this young writer is serious about his writing. If one were to limit me to but one word to describe Dilip, it would be "deep," as in a still water pool.

     Dilip Agarwal's "Iron Omdurman" is scheduled for publication in Altair this August. When you read it, and you should, be forewarned; for Dilip may grab you and thrust you into the wet heat of a future Khartoum, controlled by the DNA altered Salusa. They want your body. He will introduce you to Tom and Rudy Raab, an Afrikaner you will come to wish you had never met. Oh, and there is Asha, a Bombay beauty, who Tom bought for a pillar-of-fire. Her dark chocolate eyes will captivate you, but keep your senses. For you must never let Dilip entice you to enter the Iron Omdurman, a foul Salusa prison with iron bars and no rules.

03/25/98   "Iron Omdurman" -- The Winner! And for good reason. This is a top story, one which proves the essential blurriness of any dichotomy betwixt 'professional' and 'amateur' in the SFnal world. Dilip Agarwal leaps from the amateur ranks with this tale, a reward long overdue for exemplary service to the imagination. Lovers of fine language, wild imagery, and astonishing speculations would do well to satisfy their curiosity with a copy of the next Altair, in which "Iron Omdurman" will appear.

     "Omdurman" actually exists today, though I would not abridge even so much of your reading pleasure by dropping clues about what it is, or where to look for it. Leave that to Agarwal, who's done it best. But don't expect him to tell you of it. Instead, he will show you, through the telling detail of setting, the small motions of powerfully drawn characters, the special image which conveys mood and tension as well as a sense of place. There is a mastery of craft here which aspiring writers would do well to note . . . and imitate.

     In this indefinite but not too distant dystopia, Tom has a problem. Rudy Raab, middleman between the Salusa and the death squads, is using him. Don't think that Tom understands exactly how he is used, though. Rudy doesn't quite know either, perhaps. And don't jump to any conclusions about the meaning of 'Salusa', or who is on what side when Tom and Rudy meet Bishop, the brutal and mysterious 'player' in a dangerous wartime game. Agarwal has not dressed an old SF plot in fresh geography and better language. This is original speculative fiction, and once trapped in the world of "Iron Omdurman", you're exploring new ground. Expect to be surprised.

     Also of note is the fine, evocative language used to tell this tale. Not just any word will suffice to erect an image. And each image does double or triple duty; creating a place, imbuing it with mood, advancing the action. "The rain falls down onto the gleaming monorails and watchtowers that ring the city. I imagine it hitting like a thousand. pencils, spanging on one particular flat roof beyond the great river." Can you hear the roaring noise, feel your mind's eye move from the city's skyline, across the river, towards that one flat roof, menacing and important? Agarwal never lets poetics take over; the motion never stops to indulge mere description. But neither does he let slip an opportunity to be vivid, powerful, exciting. This story reeks of the sweat expended in precision, an attribute which lifts a good plot and good ideas beyond the common.

     "Iron Omdurman" is not perfect. Not much is. A very few of the images are slightly out of focus, and the setting is so complex and finely wrought that a minor inconsistency or two has crept in. No matter. The same could be said of the latest cover story in Analog, or any tale stared at long and hard enough. But Altair's readers won't be poring over Agarwal's winner for defects. That's not how we read good fiction. They will be sucked into an effective, intriguing tale which suggests new possibilities for the future. They will be entertained. I was.

     Getting published is a long, hard slog, as most participants in the SFWoE contest will know first-hand. You're in competition with the experts for a limited number of pages, in a limited number of magazines, and actually have to outdo the 'big names' if a busy editor is to sit up and get excited about a newbie fresh out of the slushpile.

     Don't worry; it can be done. One of the things which impressed me about the submissions I read this year before sending them on to SFWoE Administor Gil Reis and the SFWoE Nominating Committee was this: maybe 15 % were quite publishable as is, or very, very close. Like any editor, SFWoE Contest Judge Edward Bryant had to pick and choose from a number of worthy submissions. "Iron Omdurman" is the tale he holds up to us as an example, and as you'd expect from someone of his experience, it's a good one. Read it, and learn. But read others as well, write as often as you can, keep submitting your work, and eventually some editor or contest judge will choose your story as an exemplar of good fiction. That's the recipe; it worked for Edward Bryant years ago, it worked for Dilip Agarwal in 1997, and it can work for you in 1998. So get your submissions in, and best wishes for every success to all of you.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks our Down Under Representative R. G. Riel for providing us with this intriguing review. We must note here that he knows of what he writes; for the 'recipe' of which he speaks of also worked for him. After placing second in our 1996 contest, Riel, who writes both prose and poetry, caused several busy editors to sit up and get excited about a few of his 'fresh out of the slushpile' stories.)

02/19/98   In Matthew S. Rotundo's "Alan Smithee Lives in Hell," hotshot director Colin Maguire learns firsthand what it means to invoke the Alan Smithee. As film buffs know, Smithee is the name used by directors when their work has been corrupted and they want to tell the world that someone else mucked it up. In this tight little parable, Maguire is forced to let Smithee take the dubious credit for Hyperspace, a film ruined by an intrusive producer interested only in blockbuster status and the bottom line.

     But Alan Smithee is not just Director's Guild paperwork -- and Maguire doesn't just have to sign on the dotted line. For, when Smithee comes to claim his new "creation," he is a shadowy figure who wants more than money -- he wants a piece of Maguire himself.

     Matthew Rotundo holds a tight rein on this celluloid Faust variation, refusing to let it swoop over the top. Using wit and whimsy rather than gore, Rotundo leads his protagonist to a satisfyingly ironic climax in which Maguire manages to outwit the Smithee-thing by using the king of all Hollywood talents: the pitch. If you've seen Robert Altman's The Player, you'll appreciate the scene in which Maguire must pitch for stakes greater than his next movie. Though much is telegraphed by the title, the author hides a comic ace up his directorial sleeve.

     Atmospheric and funny, "Alan Smithee Lives in Hell" helps create a new layer of Hollywood mythology.

(SFWoE Note:    We thank William D. Gagliani for providing SFWoE with the above review. Gagliani, who holds an MA degree from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee where he taught Creative Writing and Composition for five semesters, has had book reviews published in The Milwaukee Journal, The Scream Factory and several other publications. He placed his well-crafted stories 7th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd (twice) on the SFWoE Top Ten List before he sold "Icewall," which was published in Robert Bloch's Psychos, edited by Robert Bloch (Pocket Books and CD Publications). The anthology is available now in bookstores and at Amazon.com and B&N.com.)

06/22/98   With "The Shadow Bar", John McCabe secures his position in the top rank of SFWoE contest prize winners for a third consecutive year. Mr. McCabe is the winner of the 1995 contest, with "Hole in the Sky." He placed in the following year with "The Subhuman" and now does so again with "The Shadow Bar."

     "The Shadow Bar" is a dense, tightly written work succinctly combining a broad thematic range with multiple subgenres. Beginning as part detective story, part psychological drama, "The Shadow Bar" deviates to encompass territory currently popularized by Gibson and his contemporaries; virtual reality.

     At five thousand words, this is McCabe's shortest entry, and he uses his brevity as a tool rather than a hindrance. The opening is so streamlined that we leap straight into the story. McCabe enfolds us within the details of the procedural details of a murder investigation. Our protagonist, Terry Marten, is a Salt Lake City homicide detective investigating the savage murder of Susan Timmens. An open and shut case for Marten and his mismatched partner -- the self indulgent, thrill-seeking Detective Kerr.

     The murder itself doesn't need to be seen. By weaving it into the fabric of the opening, McCabe is able to swiftly move his narrative forward. With the opening, we now have a murder suspect, Thomas Hatch, a victim and our protagonist, all struggling to understand the unseen crime. "The Shadow Bar" sits comfortably at this point with the hardest of the hard-boiled, and McCabe wields language that could come from Chandler or Hammett:

"The suspect stared wide-eyed at the detectives, as though in shock. Maybe he is in shock, Marten thought. 'Name.'
'My name?'
Kerr snorted. 'No, mine.'"

     What elevates the story, first from one genre and then into another, is McCabe's skillful manipulation of both the story's commonplace elements and the emotional backdrop of his characters. Initially the science fictional world view is submerged, and like an iceberg only its tip is present at the opening segments of the narrative. The suspect is a man of "twenty-three, or twenty-four," and his date of birth, he tells the police is "April twenty first, nineteen eighty." The science fictional element is a hidden mass that provides the logic and drive behind both the story's plot and the motivations and desires of the characters, elevating them above cliché.

     Science fiction, and indeed some of the key tenets of the genre -- how technology will change our lives, what it is to be human, and scenarios around how we will face the unknown, have all featured prominently in McCabe's writing. Here he melds these themes together in one tightly written story without sacrificing the daily background of his protagonist's life. Marten has a failed encounter with Greta, a police receptionist, and we discover that this is one of a series of attempts at a relationship that fail under the stress of Marten's work routines. These routines are then thrown into chaos as the story develops.

     While attempting to investigate the murder, Marten is catapulted first into a virtual reality game. The game should be, "about an international jewel thief and an Interpol investigator assigned to track her down." But Marten's recollection is of a place called the Shadow Bar. At first, McCabe tantalizes us, keeping the Shadow Bar hidden from view. Virtual reality for his protagonist is an intoxicating rush. The language is reduced to a cyberpunk minimum that still retains its power to evoke:

"Whirling...
Flickering sepia images. Close file march of a thousand armies.
Then...
The turn of centuries. Rictus and summoning hand.
Then...
Revelation."

     Still without yet reaching the Shadow Bar for ourselves, we learn that for Marten, the bar is, "dark and smoky, with a huge mirror covering the entire wall in front of me. I can hear honky-tonk music, but there's nobody in the place except me and the bartender." Once McCabe has begun to establish the eerie and unnatural loneliness of his bar, "the bartender starts reeling off names. Caesar. Wallenstein. Tiberius... All victims of assassination. With each name, the mirror brings up a different image. Rome, before Christ. Post-Napoleonic Prussia... Then the mirror is -- I'm not sure, collapsing on me, or maybe I'm falling into it."

     McCabe relinquishes details carefully, showing reactions -- the human side to this new virtual reality technology -- and not the thing itself. When Marten exits the Shadow Bar, the world he returns to is not quite the same. At first ever so slightly, as Kerr now lights his cigarettes using matches, without his favorite lighter. Small discrepancies which nag at Marten until he reenters the Shadow Bar's reality once more.

     Here he finds an old man seated next to him, a Svengalian figure, smiling mockingly. "What's your theory?" he asks Marten, which coyly could be directed through Marten and at the reader. And mockery soon turns to menace as the old figure promises Marten that, "I can change your life in an instant."

     To tell more would be revealing too much of this intriguing story. McCabe's voice invokes images and moments that will linger in the reader's mind. While "The Shadow Bar" is reminiscent both of the TWILIGHT ZONE's eerier moments and newer works such as Dark City, McCabe establishes his own voice throughout this story.

     For those of us fortunate to have been able to read his earlier entries to SFWoE contests, McCabe has proved himself a prose stylist of great command as in his first place winning story of 1995, "Hole in the Sky":

"'My cousin has a big mouth,' he said. His voice was deep, almost musical. 'It gets him in trouble sometimes, especially when he drinks.'
Tanya eyes him warily. 'He should be more careful.'
The large man laughed, revealing a mouthful of gold teeth. 'I'll be sure to tell him that.'
'Do that,' Tanya answered. She took a step back and glanced in Veren's direction, but his chair was empty. Before she had time to react, a bright pain exploded in her jaw. She wheeled drunkenly about, then fell in a slow pirouette to the floor."

     As with "Hole in The Sky," "The Shadow Bar" is a tightly constructed, fast-paced story, which will reward the careful reader with its skillful depiction of character and its narrative power. Should he wish to enter this year's SFWoE contest, I am sure Mr. McCabe will prove himself to offer yet another innovative and challenging story.

(SFWoE Note:   We thank Dilip Agarwal, the 1997 SFWoE SF/F Short Story Contest Winner, for writing this interesting review. If you would like to read more of what Dilip has written, be sure to read his SFWoE 1997 First Place Story, "Iron Omdurman," in the August issue of Altair.)

04/15/97   SFWoE wishes to give our contestants (and anyone else who is interested) a chance to learn a little about the writers they are competing against and especially a chance to get to know the contest winners. We, therefore, asked each of the 1996 winners to send us a short paragraph about themselves. In their own words, here are the 1996 contest winners.

First Place: Richard R. Harris.   I am a lifelong resident of Seattle, Washington. I graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in English, and have been struggling at the craft of writing fiction for something over 25 years. At present, I work at a large banking institution. My time is unevenly split between writing science fiction, earning a living, and helping to raise two beautiful daughters. Despite popular belief, I have never visited Mars.
(SFWoE Note:   The last sentence of Mr. Harris' statement is in reference to his novel, The Martian Solution, that he recently sold to Aegina Press. You may read more about our First Place winner in the interview with Richard R. Harris by Susan M. Boyce.)

Second Place: R. G. Riel.   I've worked as a sailor, metallurgist, failure analyst, university research fellow, and general-purpose wage slave, but am resolved to be a writer next and last. To subsidize my international postage bill, I run three electron microscopes for James Cook University on the northeast Australian coast, and am setting up the largest (and only) mechanical testing facility between Brisbane and Papua New Guinea. I've been astonished to learn how pernicious an influence the writing of Quality Manuals can be on my prose -- all that damnable passive tense! Late last year my short story sales took off, with twelve snaffled up as of this writing; Tomorrow SF, Eidolon, Aboriginal SF, even ELF: Eclectic Literary Forum. Some credit must go to the Critters Workshop, an international e-mail writer's group which can improve anyone's writing (hint, hint). Bit of a distraction during the last few months, though, as I've taken some time off prose to concentrate on poetry. I hope my motivation is purely artistic, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the University's new Poetess-in-Residence has such a winning smile.
(SFWoE Note:   One of the stories that Mr. Riel sold was "The Gift" -- the story that won Second Place in our contest. Since he is no longer eligible to enter our contest, he has volunteered to be our Down Under Representative.)

Third Place: John McCabe.   My wife, our two dogs, and I make our home in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. In order to support my writing habit, I teach mathematics and Russian at an area high school. I am working on a novel, my first, while continuing to crank out the occasional short story. I was very pleased to learn that my story placed in the top ten. Hats off to everyone associated with SFWoE, staff and contest participants alike, for working to promote the craft of science fiction writing.
(SFWoE Note:   Mr. McCabe finished in First Place in our 1995 contest, and has been a strong supporter of SFWoE. Judge Edward Bryant said that John McCabe demonstrates magazine-level prose.)

First Honor: Kenneth G. Bland.   I was born in Midland, Texas, and grew up reading Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I have been interested in fantasy and adventure ever since. After college training in history, I settled down to the life of a tax appraiser and part-time history instructor. I have been very happily married to my wife Martha, who is my organizer, inspiration, and best friend. I write fantasy stories with some emphasis on sword and sorcery because that is what I like to read. I have been writing consistently for about four years. I very recently received word that one of my stories has been accepted by Musing Magazine, and will be published in a special fantasy issue in March. Martha and I regularly attend southwestern science fiction conventions, and occasionally national ones.
(SFWoE Note:   Mr. Bland mentioned that his wife was his best friend. She also writes SF/F stories as Martha Jean Gable Bland. As if this double threat was not enough, his wife and best friend is also the other half of the formidable Kenneth Bland and Martha Bland writing team, which we at SFWoE can assure you is anything but bland.)

Second Honor: David John Witmarsh.   I am thirty-nine years old, and work as a contract programmer/database designer in the City of London. I write short stories for relaxation during the occasional small gaps available in a busy but very happy life filled by my darling wife Tracy, by earning a crust in the City, and by trying to keep up with the breakneck pace of change in the software industry. Someday, I'd like to write a whole novel -- maybe when I retire. Mornings and evenings I am often to be seen on the London to Brighton line, eyes and fingers glued to my laptop (I hate to waste time). My tastes in SF lie firmly in the "hard" camp, as epitomized by Arthur C. Clark.
(SFWoE Note:   In Mr. Whitmarsh's winning fictional story, he dealt with a situation that messed up his characters' best-laid plans. In real life, he dealt with a situation that messed up some characters' best-laid plans -- the Aussies, who had hoped to push the Brits out of the top ten.)

06/26/97   Richard R. Harris is celebrating. And with good cause! In less than a year, he's three giant steps closer to reaching a major life goal -- filing his tax return with the word "Writer" on the line declaring his occupation.

     As well as being the winner of the 1996 Science Fiction Writers of Earth Short Story Contest ("The Angel"), Rich's short story "The Pilgrim" is scheduled to make an appearance in Absolute Magnitude in the near future. And just to round out recent achievements, his novel The Martian Solution (published by Aegina Press) is already on the shelves. "I suppose you could say that after 25 years of writing science fiction, I'm an overnight success," he says.

     Rich says his win in the SFWoE contest came as a complete surprise. "I had a call from Gil, apparently out of the blue. He talked for five or ten minutes without discussing anything to do with the contest, then casually mentioned I'd won and went right on talking about something else. I'm sure I must have shouted 'What did you just say?' when I realized what the call was actually about."

A SFWoE Bit: --- UPRIGHT --- In the 1995 Contest Judge's Report, Edward Bryant who has judged all 17 SFWoE contests wrote in reference to his continuous battle to keep his aging house upright, "... The two Feline-Americans in my household, Zooey and Caliban, are still observing apprehensively as their human companion's old brick Victorian in north Denver continues to subside into the east." This prompted the following response from SFWoE: "... And no matter how crooked stands the House-of-Bryant, over the years many of our contestants have testified that his Judge's Reports have always stood straight and level, showing no sign of subsiding."

Winning wasn't the only surprise. "I'd entered two stories and I was sure it was the other one that had come in first," Rich says. "It had more science -- moon base, shuttle, plague, alien contact. 'The Angel' moves along quite slowly and I didn't really think anyone would like it."      Rich's first break into the world of novel publication didn't come easily. "I had a lot of trouble marketing The Martian Solution," he says. "I'm sure part of it was because I was an unknown, but the biggest problem was the length -- 45,000 words. That number of words doesn't fit anywhere comfortably." Originally a short story that just kept expanding, The Martian Solution is set in the Martian Colonies of the 22nd Century, where Rich leads his readers through a complicated web of mystery and murder to discover that on the Red Planet the only solution may be struggling along the path of greatest resistance.      Like most writers, he admits the years of rejection slips and polite "we liked your story but it's not quite right for us" letters have sometimes made it hard to keep believing in the reality of being a writer. "As soon as someone finds out you're a writer, they always want to know what you've had published," he says.      But Rich never let go of the image of himself as an author. "I've always been a voracious reader," he explains. "I grew up on writers like Ray Bradbury, so it seemed natural to start writing science fiction myself." And write he does -- eight novels in addition to The Martian Solution and close to twenty short stories are carefully packed into boxes and on computer disks ready to be marketed. "My plan is to continue dazzling the literary world," he says with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

     Rich is down to earth when he talks about what he sees as one of the most important challenges of being an author -- published or not. "I think too many writers today aren't focusing enough on character development and the actual craft of writing. Science fiction presents a huge opportunity to be creative, but I read so many stories where the characters aren't alive." He laughs. "I could probably write a whole treatise on just that."

     In spite of the many hours Rich devotes to his passion for science fiction, he still always makes time to spend with his two teenage daughters even though he says he's not quite sure what they make of it all. "I gave my older daughter a copy of The Martian Solution for Christmas. At first she didn't realize who'd written it -- she thought it was just another book. They both take my writing as more or less routine, but I have absolutely no idea what they tell their friends," he says, although the chuckle sounds like a tip off that he suspects it's something to be proud of.

     Has growing success and public recognition changed his life? You bet. The renewed enthusiasm sparkles in his conversation and, more importantly, now Rich looks forward to meeting people who ask the question "So what have you had published?"

     Richard R. Harris lives in Seattle, Washington and is looking forward to becoming a full-time writer even before he's had the chance to visit Mars.

(SFWoE Note:    SFWoE thanks Susan M. Boyce for conducting and reporting her interview with our 1996 Short Story Contest Winner. Susan, who has made our top ten list a couple of times (Second Honor in 1994), is the editor and publisher of Travel impulse magazine. She also writes interviews and articles for several other magazines. She says that she enjoys interviewing interesting people. With her flair for colorful dress (but never outlandish) and her sparkling personality, it is most likely that the people she interviews also find it a very enjoyable experience. A mix which produces lively interviews; for example, the one above.

     If the reader is interested in obtaining a copy of The Martian Solution by Richard R. Harris, he or she should write to UNIVERSITY EDITIONS, Inc., 59 Oak Lane, Spring Valley, Huntington, WV 25704 and request an order form for the book.)

06/26/97   There's an immediate "Old West with a Twist" flavor to Richard R. Harris's short story "The Angel."

     In classic fashion, the story begins with the mysterious illness and death of Parker, a crotchety, aging prospector. Other than Lizzy, a street urchin with a sharp tongue and irrepressible instinct for survival, the villagers ignore the dead man -- even the dogs avoid his shallow grave.

     Parker's reputed gold mine is, however, another matter altogether, and when Mr. Janis, a "doctor" from San Francisco, arrives by stagecoach he's willing to pay almost anything to convince Lizzy to show him where it's located. Pursuit by armed villagers, the possibility of becoming infected with the same disease that ravaged Parker, and a confrontation with the shadowy Hopi Woman -- Janis will risk it all. He's even willing to face down an angel of death.

     "The Angel" is a well crafted story of internal struggle and conflicting loyalties. Although there is little hard science, the characters are engaging, individual, and believable, and Harris' attention to detail involving all five senses make this story a great read. True, we are left with a question still hanging in our minds, but Harris has achieved a sense of completion and satisfaction -- and left the door open for a sequel!

(SFWoE Note:   Judge Edward Bryant, in awarding Mr. Harris First Place for "The Angel," said, "Mr. Harris cleverly manages to set up a metaphorical series of nested dolls in which an apparent dark fantasy morphs into a perfectly straight forward sf story suggesting that definition of reality simply depends upon one's most comfortable frame of reference." Our judge agreed with Susan M. Boyce's observation that there is an old west flavor to Rich's story when he said, "The 19th century scene-setting is nice, as are the touches of myth, romance, and a kind of Wild, Wild West meets Whitley Strieber ambiance." SFWoE is proud of our 1996 Short Story Contest Winner and we wish Richard R. Harris continued success in his writing career.)

12/02/97   SFWoE's Name the Author Contest is a free, easy to enter online contest open to everyone (except the SFWoE Staff in Fort Worth). Contestants can win from $100.00 to $25.00US. Contest void where prohibited by law.

How does the contest operate?
     SFWoE has selected a well-known author to be the "Mystery Author." On 1 November 1997 SFWoE posted in this section of our online newsletter a clue to the author's identity and, when nobody named the author during the following week, a second clue was posted on 8 November. SFWoE will add a clue each week until the "Mystery Author" is named. The contest will continue until a contestant names the author. After the contest winner is declared, SFWoE will provide an explanation of the clues that were posted during the contest.

How do I enter this online contest?
     To submit your entry (guess) as to who you think is the "Mystery Author," click on the SFWoE Swirl located after the latest clue, and e-mail SFWoE the author's name typed as the author's name would appear on the cover of his or her books (Ex: Jules Verne; not J. Verne). Also, type your name as you want it to appear on the check (cheque) that SFWoE will send to you if you are the first contestant to name the author correctly. Each contestant may submit only one entry (guess) for each clue posted online. If the contestant submits an incorrect name (guesses wrong), that contestant must wait until the next clue is posted before they may try again to name the author. Of course, it is wise to enter an author's name as each clue is posted. After all a wild guess may just bring you a few dollars. What have you got to lose? And, if you win, SFWoE will place an interview with you in this newsletter. A little world-wide exposure could be very helpful for an aspiring writer.

How much can I win?
     The first contestant to properly name the author will be declared the winner of the SFWoE online Name the Author Contest. The time/date of the e-mail received by SFWoE will be used to determine the winner if more than one contestant names the author. The amount of the prize awarded to the winner for properly naming the "Mystery Author," will be from $100.00 to $25.00US. The exact amount depends on how many clues have been posted before SFWoE receives the winning entry as listed below:

• Clue No. 1 -- $100
• Clue No. 2 -- $90
• Clue No. 3 -- $80
• Clue No. 4 -- $70
• Clue No. 5 -- $60
• Clue No. 6 -- $50
• Clue No. 7 -- $45
• Clue No. 8 -- $40
• Clue No. 9 -- $35
• Clue No. 10 -- $30
• Clue No. 11 and on until a contest winner is named -- $25
• Note: A $10 bonus will be added to the above awards if the winner has also entered the 1997 SFWoE SF/F Short Story Contest. (Just a little "Thank You" for supporting our annual contest this year.)

Is there anything else I need to know?
     That's about it. Just be sure to visit the SFWoE Web Site each week, starting on Saturday 1 November 1997. Select the "Free online Contest" on the SFWoE home page, study the clues, and then click on the SFWoE Swirl to enter your guess for the week. Remember, you may enter only once after each clue is posted. Your mother's mother may also enter, each member of your writing group, your auto repairman -- so spread the word and talk it up. The kid that cuts your grass may know the answer. Let's have some fun! Just how clever are these writers that visit our web site? We may also learn how badly the SFWoE Staff can write up the clues. Good Luck!

SFWoE Note:   Karen E. Leonard of Mission, Texas has been awarded $60.00US for correctly naming Ben Bova as the "Mystery Author" on the 5th clue posted. As promised, SFWoE interviewed our winner (see below) to find out who this clever woman is and how she was able to determine the SFWoE "Mystery Author" when dozens of others guessed wrong and many more hesitated even to submit a guess.

     Mrs. Karen E. Leonard, who lives in Mission, Texas (which is about as far south as one can go in Texas without falling into the Rio Grande) told SFWoE that she was born and raised in the U. S. Air Force. Mrs. Leonard graduated from Pan American University (now called UT-PA) with an accounting degree.

     Reading science fiction brightened the long summer days of her youth, she told SFWoE, until she finally read everything available at the local library. Then she moved, as one does when they are raised in the military. After a long hiatus, she returned to the fold for Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever (created by Stephen Donaldson). Her son's collection of fantasy novels drew her interest, too. And, a year and a half ago, she decided to write an epic fantasy that doesn't derive its entire plot from reincarnation. "That book," she told SFWoE, "is in the middle of its fifth draft." A ghost story seized her a few months ago, temporarily distracting her. "A second novel," she reported, "hunts madly for its beginning point like a read-write head in search of lost files."

     SFWoE's Administrator, who had labored for weeks to create over 20 contest clues that rhymed (well, sort of rhymed), asked Mrs. Leonard, "How were you able to determine that Ben Bova was our 'Mystery Author' with so few clues?" She replied, "Trivia kinds of things always stick in my head." Then she added sort of sheepishly, "I read Mr. Bova's book Notes To A Science Fiction Writer this last summer." She went on to explain, "Truthfully, I've been reading everything I can find at the local library in the 'how-to-write-a-book' category. Purchased some at Amazon.com, too, and at my local bookstore and the local Walden's. My theory is that it takes more than just trying to learn how to do something. It first takes information on how it's supposed to be done and then a willingness to try again and again." After a short pause, she added, "Of course, theory isn't practice."

     And practice she will; for she is already starting to prepare a story for the 1998 SFWoE SF/F Short Story Contest. "I will try to have something worthy of submission for the 1998 contest," she said with just enough confidence that our administrator got the feeling he might be writing another check to this clever lady who lives and writes down by the Rio Grande.

SFWoE Note:   Congratulations to Karen E. Leonard for winning our online contest. Also, many thanks to all the SFWoE writers and Internet visitors that took the time to email SFWoE contest entries. Close to 100 entries were received during this contest (1 to 29 November). Many of you mentioned that you thought the contest was fun and enjoyable. The SFWoE Staff sincerely thanks all the contestants who offered kind words of encouragement. Some of you asked when we would run the next Name the Author Online Contest. We have not had much time to think about the next one, but it would have to be after we mailed out the 1997 short story contest results, scraped up another $100 for the prize money, and found the time to come up with new contest clues -- perhaps next summer. We will keep you posted and will provided online advance notice before starting another such contest.

05/30/97   SFWoE would like you to meet two of our contestants who have written their way onto our top ten list two times in two years (1995 & 1996). First, meet Magee Gilks from Paris. (No not Paris, Texas -- Paris in Ontario, Canada.)

     I live with my very tolerant husband and our resident menagerie in a 150-year old house that we have been renovating for the past 15+ years. My current career -- having been for varying periods of time a carnie, machine operator, potter, and manager of an industrial laundry -- is all-around office denizen and proofreader for a local printing company.

     Often I try to combine my two passions, ancient history and travel, in what my husband calls "another tour of tumbled rocks and ruins." I inevitably return home with a headful of impressions and ideas for more stories. In my teens, I wrote reams of poetry then, at a friend's urging, I graduated to writing short stories for "fanzines." My current leanings are toward historical and speculative fiction.

(SFWoE Note:   Mrs. Gilks took Seventh Place in 1995 and finished in Ninth Place in our tough 1996 contest. As we were about to place "Two for Two and Counting" online, SFWoE received the following e-mail from Magee Gilks: "Just a note to let you know that, sadly (yes! really!), I will not be able to enter this year's contest. I now have cheque and comp copy actually in hand. I've been published and paid by Pursuit magazine, a semi-pro effort that, I think, is quite new. Therefore, I am disqualified from the SFWoE contest. I will, however, continue to visit the SFWoE Website to 'keep in touch.' It's been great!" With Magee out of the running for this year's top ten list, we thought about changing the title of this article. But, then we realized that Magee was still "Two for Two and Counting." She's now counting from Big Number One. Well Done, Magee!)
(SFWoE Update:   We contacted Magee towards the end of the year and asked her if she would be kind enough to provide SFWoE with an update on her writing activities. She graciously replied, "My sales so far this year have been 'Venus,' 'Josie's Marble,' and 'The Supplicants,' all short stories through Spaceways Weekly (e-zine); 'Rain Daughter,' a short story for Eternity Online (e-zine); and 'Sisters,' a short story to Horizons SF. I've been devoting most of my time over the past year to writing a novel. Ask me again next year, Gil, and maybe I'll have a book sale to report!")

     Now meet Steve Petrella from Bulter, New Jersey. I've always been writing. Like everyone, I began in grammar school writing book reports and essays. In college I gravitated toward a creative writing class, but it wasn't until several years after college that I began to write for enjoyment. My first effort was a science fiction novel that received a dozen rejections before someone told me to cut my teeth on short stories first. I read a few anthologies and the pulp mags of the era, chose a couple of my favorite themes (time travel and alien contact), and cranked out a half dozen tales. Another 50 rejections followed. I got discouraged and stopped writing for six years.

     On a vacation to California in 1987, I accidentally ran into the editor of a sporting magazine I read regularly. She suggested, out of the clear blue sky, that I write an article for her about what it was like for an east coaster to compete in our sport (paintball) on the west coast. How were the two coasts different? I feverishly composed 1,000 words and sent it to her, and had my first non-fiction sale.

     After a string of articles that saw publication in specialty sporting magazines, I built up the courage to rewrite and resubmit my science fiction stories. I currently have 25 stories circulating to 21 magazines. I've racked up a whopping 160 rejections, spent approximately 1,000 hours writing, purchased a computer, innumerable dictionaries, thesauruses, writing magazines, and bought an incalculable number of postage stamps, reams of paper, and manila envelopes. Pirate Writings magazine has recently shown interest in one of my stories, but to date the manuscript remains unpublished and, of course, I remain unpaid.

     (SFWoE Note:   For his effort, Mr. Petrella stories in the science fiction and fantasy genre have garnered Second Honor in the 1995 SFWoE contest, Eighth Place in our tough 1996 contest, Honorable Mention in the Soft Science Fiction 1995 competition, and both Semi-finalist and Quarter-finalist positions in 1995's L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest. Steve Petrella has proven that he is a talented writer who is willing to "pay his dues" to reach his goal of becoming a published SF/F author. SFWoE, therefore, asked Steve to provide us with a short article relating some of his thoughts on what it takes for an amateur writer to prepare himself or herself to stay the course in order to become successful. Here are his Words to Aspiring SF/F Writers that he sent to SFWoE.)

04/15/97 (SFWoE Note:   The excerpts from letters to SFWoE included in this section have been edited for the purpose of being concise by removing statements which do not address the subject of the letter or are of a personal nature and of no interest to the reader. During the editing, precaution was taken to ensure that the writer's intent and point of view were not altered.)

     I must say, first with the mailed newsletter and Ed Bryant's letter and your personal notes, now with the SFWoE web site, you do something specia