03/07/04  --  Back to the Main Newsletter
	03/07/04  --  View the 1998, 1997, & 1996 Contest Newsletter Articles (If You Missed Them)
	03/07/04  --  View the 2001, 2000, & 1999 Contest Newsletter Articles (If You Missed Them)
	03/23/05  --  Status of the 2004 SFWoE Short Story Contest
	02/15/05 Meet the Winners of the 2004 SFWoE Short Story Contest
	03/06/05 An Interview with the 2004 SF/F Short Story Contest Winner J. E. Bryant
	03/23/05 A Review of Christine Matthews' 2004 Contest Second Place Story "The Touch Of True Magic"
	03/08/05 A Review of Ashley Arnold's 2004 Contest Third Place Story "Pinch Hitter"
	02/06/04  --  Status of the 2003 SFWoE Short Story Contest
	02/20/04  --  Meet the Winners of the 2003 SFWoE Short Story Contest
	03/31/04  --  An Interview with the 2003 SF/F Short Story Contest Winner Genevieve Kierans
	03/22/04  --  A Review of Andrew Lyall's 2003 Contest Second Place Story "Then Comes The Lightning"
	02/24/04  --  A Review of Nathan Burrage's 2003 Contest Third Place Story "The R Quotient"
	02/08/03  --  Meet the Winners of the 2002 SFWoE Short Story Contest
	03/15/03  --  An Interview with the 2002 SF/F Short Story Contest Winner Julie Waight
	03/26/03  --  Read the 2002 Winning Story "The Overcoat" by Julie Waight
	03/16/03  --  A Review of Genevieve Kierans' 2002 Contest Second Place Story "The Lady Of Land's End"
	02/28/03  --  A Review of Graham Bensley's 2002 Contest Third Place Story "Unspent Time"
	03/07/04  --  Back to the Main Newsletter

Maintained and Updated Weekly by the SFWoE Staff in Fort Worth, Texas USA Copyright © 2005 by SFWoE. All Rights Reserved.

02/15/05    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 2004 Top Ten to send us some biographical information. In their own words, here are the 2004 contest Top Ten.

First Place: J. E. Bryant.   Where to start? I've just turned 35 and currently work as a PR manager within the computer games industry. I live with my wife (Jo) and two children (William 5 and Eliza 2) in Twyford, a small village on the outskirts of Reading -- a town which, incidentally, is also the home of fanboy guru, Dave Langford. (I once shared a train platform with the great man, and just about summoned up the courage to say hello. But that's another story...)

     As for my writing, I've been hauling weird ideas out of my head and committing them to paper since secondary school, but never really thought that it would ever amount to something as truly incredible as winning SFWoE -- I've basically been submitting stories for about five years now and predominantly used the competition's deadline as a spur to get stuff from brain to paper.

     My story "Delivery" had a route to completion that started out much like any other short story I've put together. I initially wanted to experiment with a cross genre piece -- a sci-fi detective story -- which then fed into an increasing awareness of the home automation industry becoming an actuality. Soon after these two ideas entered that half-directed/half-felt process of gestation, a good friend asked me what I was working on. I jokingly said, "It's a story about a woman who gets killed by her furniture," and as soon as the statement came out it acted like a catalyst pulling all the other elements into line behind it. I just love the fact that the creative process can be that arbitrary.

     Right now, as I sit here attempting to cobble this biography together, I'm still in that "blood in the stomach" stage of shock. This is partly because I never thought I'd win, and partly because the win itself is acting like another form of catalyst -- a friend has already offered to design a web site for my work and I've had some positive feedback about one of my novels currently doing the rounds. So things appear to be on the up at the moment, and all thanks, really, to SFWoE. I've always received encouragement from those running the competition and, in a world of cutting rejections, that can be just the motivator to get you back to the keyboard.

     And... that's pretty much it, I think. All that's left is to say a big thanks once again to uncle Eddie (only joking -- if we are related, it's on a genealogical scale that stretches back to The Mayflower) for backing "Delivery," and to all those unsung heroes who work on the administration side of the competition -- your post-its will be forever welcome...

SFWoE Note:   Congratulations J. E. Bryant on winning the 2004 SFWoE Contest. (He's not your uncle Eddie. SFWoE is checking into this!)

Second Place: Christine Matthews.   I live in Toowoomba on the top of the Great Dividing Range, inland from Queensland's capital city of Brisbane, and my original ambition was to be an artist, not a writer, although the two are kind of linked. When selecting a story to illustrate for an art course I decided on a rewrite of Snow White, which quickly outgrew the confines of the fairy tale and transformed itself into a fantasy novel.

     That was several years ago. After completing a Creative Writing course at the local TAFE (Technical and Further Education) College, I developed a writing addiction which still has me in thrall. The Snow White inspired novel, titled "Witch Queen", suggested a sequel, in fact several sequels (I'm currently working on number three), but as finding a publisher for a first novel is a slow and tedious process I decided to take a break from that and spend some time developing some short stories in the hope of producing something I could submit to one of the genre magazines. Unfortunately I have a tendency to verbosity -- Ed Bryant described my story as "winding" -- and confining myself to 7,500 words or in some cases less proved something of a challenge. However, after attending a Speculative Fiction Short Story workshop with Sean Williams at the Queensland Writer's Centre last year I received a lot of great tips, and better yet, encouragement, and soon the stories were flowing from my pen/keyboard. I've attended quite a few great workshops at the Writer's Centre, with outstanding Australian SF authors such as Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Cory Daniells, and Kate Forsyth as well as the aforementioned Sean Williams.

     "The Touch Of True Magic" has its roots in the fantasy universe I've created for my fantasy novels. The magical crystal it describes plays an important, if not at first obvious, role in the cycle of my story-myth. "Touch of True Magic" is a kind of prelude, I suppose, written at first for my own entertainment and reference, but after some polishing I decided it could stand on its own as a story and decided to send it to SFWoE, which I first entered a couple of years ago after seeing it listed in the Writer's Centre Newsletter. I didn't really expect to win and receiving news that I'd got second place was the most incredible buzz I've had in a long while. It augers very well, I think, for 2005.

     My sincere thanks go to Gil Reis, Rob Riel, and most especially Edward Bryant, for giving me the impetus to keep writing. As many others have noted it is easy to become discouraged and even a little shot of encouragement goes a long way. And this is a very big shot -- cannon sized!

SFWoE Note:   The SFWoE Nominating Committee said to tell you that "winding" or not they enjoyed reading your fantasy entry. Keep up the good work!

Third Place: Ashley Arnold.   I live in Adelaide with my wife and one-year-old daughter. During the day I'm a software engineer. At night I write, and I'm currently doing the second year of a writing course at TAFE (same institution but different city to Christine above. TAFE writing courses seem to be doing quite well). I've been writing ever since I can remember (and still have a few story drafts from when I was nine or ten years old that always bring a laugh). This is my first "winner" of a story, so I'm ecstatic. What else, what else? I love to pay out 80s music and I'm always up for a kick of the footy. If I had one wish I would turn myself into a llama.

     The idea for "Pinch Hitter" as a story came about by accident. I began writing about a guy who is annoyed with the lack of support given to his online persona. He laments the use of the word "crossed" for a species-crossing experiment. He had been pushing for "croned," meaning crossed and cloned at the same time. The story gradually developed into a future setting that touches on how people's "online image" mix with that of their "real" lives, the trend towards privatization of everything, and why there aren't opium poppy vending machines in all police stations.

     And if the guy who hates being ignored on opinion sites turns out to be one of the world's premier detectives as well, it seemed to only add to the romp.

     The story was great fun to write and I'm glad that Edward Bryant took a liking to it too. I'd like to thank Edward, Gil Reis, and everyone involved in organizing the competition (for all the hard work we don't see). Special thanks to Rob Riel of Picaro Press for his support of Australian writers and making it a breeze for us to enter.

     Congratulations to all the other winners!

SFWoE Note:   "The idea for 'Pinch Hitter' as a story came about by accident." The SFWoE Staff is amazed at the number of contestants who tell us that their best stories came by "accident."

First Honor: Brook Novak.   There are few things out there that scare me. The mention of 'bio' just happens to be one of them. So who am I?

     I'm twenty-two and currently live on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. I've worked on-and-off as a jeweller since I was fifteen, between other stunts. Reading and writing have always been constants in my life. Once I read the Macquarie Dictionary cover to cover in a desperate search for reading material. I don't remember how it ended though, and no, I haven't tried reading a thesaurus. Yet.

     Currently I'm just another voice quacking in the void with a pile of manuscripts beside the bed, trying to find an audience. I've got two sci-fi novels in the works and dozens of short stories across the genre spectrum. Hopefully, the honor of reaching the SFWoE Top Ten will help those tales find a home.

     "Take The Cake" is a story that sat half-finished on the computer for over a year. At the time I was studying for a Diploma of Arts at Holmesglen TAFE and perhaps reading a bit too much hard-boiled detective fiction. The next year I was still studying and was asked to write a story with a twist in it. I searched through my old scribblings, trying to find something serviceable. I found a half-page of one-liners and a tough guy wearing sunnies in the dark. Bingo. Now, a twist...

     I threw in about half a dozen, some tucked under the narrative, others more obvious. The final twist came in the 2004 SFWoE results, and it's one I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.

     I'd like to thank Gil Reis and the crew at SFWoE for their support to emerging writers, Ed Bryant for his time and patience, and Rob Riel for his extraordinary support and encouragement to aspiring Australian writers.

     Thank you, everyone.

SFWoE Note:   What! You read the Macquarie Dictionary cover to cover in a desperate search for reading material. Boy, could the SFWoE Nominating Committee use you!

Second Honor: Ron Vitale.   I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1999, my role-playing article, "Fires in the Sky" was published in Wizards of the Coast's Dragonlance: Legends of the Lance newsletter and my fantasy story "Such Sinners We Are" appeared in the Winter 2000 issue of Welcome to Nod.

     More recently, my fantasy story "Ghost Trails" was published on Ultraverse and now my science fiction story "Toynbee's Gate" has placed 5th out of 143 stories in the 2004 SFWoE Contest.

     While looking to find a publisher for my fantasy novel "Dorothea's Song," I am keeping myself busy on writing a second novel "Amelion's Song" and on learning how to be a father to a rather curious toddler.

SFWoE Note:   Ron has not receive any payment for his published stories, but judging from his SFWoE entry he's on the right track. You can learn more about Ron Vitale's writing by visiting his website.

Sixth Place: Darren Moore.   Though acquainted with reality (in passing), I much prefer the wondrous worlds within my head. I grew up in Middle Earth, have lived in Narnia, Discworld, Earthsea, with a recent but all too brief sojourn in Westeros.

     I now live in the Deep South with Mischief, Mayhem, Catastrophe, and the Spousal-unit.

SFWoE Note:   We were pleased to see Darren make the 2004 SFWoE Top Ten List, as Darren's story "Path To F'dar" just missed the 2003 List.

Seventh Place: Katie Gatward.   When writing, I look to my twin idols of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. Many other writers concern themselves with fantasy worlds that revolve around heroes, kings, queens, sorcerers, and princesses in disguise (possibly as coal scuttles), but I want to know about the ordinary people in a fantastic world. How do the rampaging hordes of the resident dark lord affect the guy who polishes the hero's armor? Or the woman who washes his clothes? Those are the questions I like to answer when writing fantasy.

     The story "Ever Again" grew from two things that either fascinate or frustrate me - prophecies and magical power. I'm never quite sure if I'm fond of prophecies or not but I DO know that I am never comfortable with magic that requires no sacrifice. All that energy for throwing around fire bolts, bringing down entire cities and causing rains of frogs has to come from somewhere -- and I wanted to know where. The story seemed to write itself, which is always handy. It was one of those rare ones with the last scene already clear in my head and it was an absolute joy to write.

     Speaking of writing (strangely enough), I've been doing it since I was about six and haven't really stopped. My first "novel" was called "The Adventures of Star" and followed the "exciting" escapades of various girls and their various horses. I moved on and discovered fantasy and have stuck there ever since, enjoying myself every step of the way. When I'm not writing, I work in library-related areas or fritter away my life on the internet.

SFWoE Note:    In Katie's interesting story the reader finds out what sacrifice magic requires. It can kill you!

Eighth Place: Kent Chadwick.   For the past several years, I've worked as a Documentation Manager, writing technical manuals, RFPs, proposals and software/hardware user manuals for both business and the government. On my own time, I write creative fiction in various forms and genres. I've received recognition for some of my other writing efforts besides the entry to this contest with "In Shadow." I have won 1st and 3rd place in a state poetry contest, resulting in my 1st place poem being published in a national poetry journal. While working on my Master's Degree, I submitted a short story to the University's creative writing magazine and took 1st place that year with a story about teachers victimizing their colleagues.

     I finished revising a two-act stage play last December. The play's about my son's struggles with bipolar depression and its affect on the family. The script is being reviewed for production. Currently, I'm putting the last touches on a murder mystery novel, set in Salt Lake City. The mystery is about a political candidate who is hounded by an unknown killer because of a secret in the politician's past. After I'm through with that novel, I've got to finish up a SF novel about advanced memory technology and its chaotic affect on future society. I want to polish several short stories, in between these projects, for submission to other writing contests.

     One of the most helpful tools for me has been being part of a small writing group that reviews each other's manuscripts every two weeks. I've been in the current group for one and a half years. Their excellent advice has helped shape all my fiction pieces, including the entry to the SFWoE Contest. For me coming up with ideas is never the hard part of writing, it is getting those ideas down on paper in the best form and impact to grab the reader.

SFWoE Note:    SFWoE hopes Kent will get his ideas down on paper in the best form and impact to grab the 2005 SFWoE Nominating Committee.

Ninth Place: J. H. Lamb.   By day, I'm a Facility Manager for a point-of-purchase display company in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. I've been writing on and off since I left high school in 1978 without success. I have written in flurries where it becomes an overwhelming force and then dies out for other interests. However, these other interests were just a diversion to quell my frustration at not be able to write at those times when I wanted to. My various positions have taken me from New Hampshire to Rhode Island to Ontario, and the time I spent doing my job has always consumed my life. I have stacks of rejections for submitted stories and at times allowed the rejection to stop my writing. I also have three semi-completed novels, which I view as exercises in learning.

     However, about a year ago I looked at my life and decided that it was time to look at writing with the same level of respect I held for my job as a manager. The result was more than enlightening, it was devastating. I learned that in all my years of writing, I demanded respect from the craft, when clearly it is the craft that deserves the respect. Once I learned that the business of words was every bit as complicated, and at times much more so, as my day job, then I was able to look at my work, listen to suggestions with an open mind, and take criticism with hungered pleasure. It meant learning the rules of grammar and actually attempting to use them in practice -- what a concept. I treat every day as a learning experience in regards to writing and will until the day I die. This led me to getting Honorable Mention in a Writer's Journal contest, finally some kind words back from various editors over submissions, and completion of my first "real" novel, a psychological thriller. (I am currently searching for an agent.)

     Getting published has still eluded my grasp, but looking back, I understand why. Perseverance seems to be both a blessing and a curse for one burdened with the writing addiction, and because of this, I will never give up. This honor you have shown me has renewed my belief that my words may actually say something.

SFWoE Note:    "...clearly it is the craft that deserves the respect." With that point of view you are ahead of the crowd already.

Tenth Place: Matthew D. Peterson.   When I was about fourteen years old, I wrote the first few chapters of a book called Parallel Worlds. It's about a boy who ends up going to a school to learn magic. Life got busy for me, and I put the book on hold. Many years later, I graduated from BYU in business management with an emphasis in information technologies, served a 2-year mission for the LDS church, got married, had a boat load of kids (the last time I counted, I had four boys running around), and settled down in Arizona with a nice computer job.

     One day, after looking though some old boxes, I found my book. I read it and realized that it had potential. I was still too busy, though, so I kept it in my workbag to remind me each day that I had a talent I wasn't developing. Then I decided to read a book about some Harry Potter kid. Okay, so I hadn't read a book in ten years (did I mention I was busy?), but everyone was ranting and raving about it. I immediately recognized the similarities to the book I had started to write in 1990.

     With dreams of fame and fortune, I wrote like a madman for a year and finished the novel. I even spent a bunch of money to get it professionally edited. So now that Parallel Worlds (now Paraworld Zero) was finished, I was ready for the money to come pouring in. I waited... and waited... and, well, I'm still waiting. I never even got past the literary agent part of the publishing process, so I decided to cool down for a bit.

     A year went by and I happened to get a spam email for a writing contest. The thought came to me, "Hey, Matt, you still have talent. Give it a try." So I decided to pick up my keyboard again and try my luck with some contests, Science Fiction Writers of Earth being one of the first. The results are finally coming in and Lady Luck has truly smiled upon me. I won first place out of five hundred entries in one contest and now 10th place in this fine contest. Wow! I still haven't published anything yet, but at least I've now proven to someone out there that my writing does has some value. Who ever said spam email is a worthless form of advertisement?

SFWoE Note:   You can learn more about Matthew and his writing (you can even listen to the first chapter of his book if you would like to do so) by going to his website.

     SFWoE thanks all of the 2004 Top Ten contestants who sent in biographical information for their cooperation. 

03/06/05   "Gardener shivered and guided a trail of perspiration away from his deep set eyes with a boney finger. Beneath his unruly mass of black curls, his scalp itched feverishly, but he somehow managed to resist the urge to antagonize it through scratching.

     "He'd been called in the instant they'd found a trace of blood on the window blinds of this fully automated home. His job, as a new inspector of the burgeoning tech crime division, was to ascertain exactly how it ended up there."

     With these carefully crafted words, J. E. Bryant skillfully leads the readers of "Delivery" into a puzzling futuristic crime drama.

SFWoE:  Congratulations J. E. Bryant for winning the 2004 SFWoE Short Story Contest. May we call you by your given name for the purpose of this interview?

J. E. Bryant:  Thank you very much. Please, just call me "Jonnie."

SFWoE:  Jonnie, what was your first reaction when you received notice that you won our 2004 contest?

Jonnie:  Honestly? I grabbed my good lady wife and squealed like an overly excited child.

SFWoE:  Tell us how you came to write "Delivery" and a little about the story.

Jonnie:  Ubik is definitely a strong contender for the source of the idea. There's a great scene in the novel in which hero, Joe Chip, argues with a front door that refuses to open for him because he's bankrupt. You look at that brilliant concept -- devised by Dick back in 1969 -- then you look at the current trends in home automation and that niggling unease about technology gone wild suddenly transforms into something more ominous.

     What I wanted to achieve with "Delivery," and the darkly comic notion of death by furniture, was dip into that part of us that stills distrusts new technology, while dodging any obvious cliches. Gardener, against this backdrop, emerges as our technological ambiguity personified. He's knowledgeable about programming, but he's also the kind of technocrat who would read something on the Net about the overuse of coltan in mobile phones, and then refuse to get his handset upgraded.

     I've always admired tales where oppositions give rise to complexity. I'm not sure if I achieved this with "Delivery," but that's definitely the sort of direction I wanted to head in.

SFWoE:  Have you won any competitions besides the SFWoE 2004 contest?

Jonnie:  My mother always likes to recall the day that I won a Cadbury's poetry prize when I was at secondary school -- but I really can't remember anything about it. One of my first short stories did get placed in a University led competition, which resulted in my reading an extract to an audience in which Hanif Kureishi was the guest of honor. It was a nerve-wracking experience to say the least. Other than those two high points -- and now this incredible third -- it's pretty much been a decade of rejection letters.

SFWoE:  How did you get started on writing at such an early age?

Jonnie:  I was lucky to have a run of great teachers throughout my time in education -- Jill Pirrie most notably -- plus I had the benefit/curse of possessing a borderline addiction to the written/spoken word. I think one of my first real genre novels was The Knight of the Swords, which I found in a cupboard after my brother had left the family fold. After that, once the Moorcock switch had been flipped on in my head, there was no going back.

SFWoE:  What writing schools or workshops have you attended?

Jonnie:  The first course was one on screenwriting, which ran at Birkbeck College in London. It was exactly the kick I needed at that point in my life to drive me back into higher education. From there I went to The University of North London where I had the opportunity to specialize in science fiction as part of my English BA. There was also a creative writing unit there that I signed up to, which had Deborah Levy as writer in residence -- obviously a great spur.

     Beyond university? Well, about a year ago I enlisted in weekend course hosted by Helen Carey which was hugely beneficial, and I'm planning to attend a writers' masterclass, with Rose Tremain, at this year's London Book Fair.

SFWoE:  What did you learn or gain from this training?

Jonnie:  Way too much to even attempt to list here. The two most influential tips that I find myself coming back to time and time again are:  always get to the page (regardless of what bullying/bribes that might entail), and think of your writing as a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

SFWoE:  "Think of your writing as a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets." That's very good. Jonnie, who are the writers that have most influenced your work?

Jonnie:  I find that I can go back time and time again to the likes of Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Iain M. Banks, and Bruce Sterling without ever being overly disappointed. Of late, though, names like Dan Simmons and Neil Stephenson have regularly appeared on my reading list.

SFWoE:  What books or short stories are your favorites?

Jonnie:  Ursula K. Le Guin's The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Michael Moorcock's The Time Dweller, and Edmund Cooper's Jupiter Laughs have all been massive, influential hits in my reading history. I regularly think about returning to all three at some point. Unfortunately, something fresh always keeps turning up and catching my eye. The UK magazine Interzone was, and still is, another big source for new, innovative, and amazing tales.

SFWoE:  What do you plan or hope to accomplish next with your writing ability?

Jonnie:  Predictable, I realize, but I've had some good feedback from a few agents on a proposed steampunk trilogy that I'm currently touting. It'd be great to secure a deal on this and have the incentive to finish it and move on to another project. I've also got the first three chapters of another novel pretty much complete, but that's on the back burner for the time being while I concentrate on getting my website up and running. Beyond that... Who knows.

SFWoE:  What advice would you give to future SFWoE contestants?

Jonnie:  Keep at it and don't be afraid to experiment. Sci-fi's all about being brave enough to try something entirely new. Even if readers come away scratching their heads and saying, "I don't get it..." we all still need to push the envelope and create texts that challenge/astound/mystify our audience.

SFWoE:  That's very good advice. Thank you, Jonnie, for this interview. Do you have anything else you would like to say before we close?

Jonnie:  Just to say a heartfelt thanks to all of those who have taken the time to read and comment on my short story. Please visit my website. Do bear with me, it's like a virtual building site at the moment!

     Oh, and I wish the best of luck to all the entrants to the 2005 SFWoE competition.

SFWoE Note: SFWoE thanks J. E. Bryant for this interesting and instructive interview. To read Bryant's winning story, click on the SFWoE Swirl below.)      

03/23/05   Magic is at the heart of most any fantasy story. The ways and means and purposes of that magic is as varied as the number of writers in the world, everyone has their own idea of what magic would (or can) do and what it costs. In "The Touch of True Magic," by Christine Matthews, magic is what made this story rise above the others to become this year's runner up.

     Matthews sets the reader in a world not unlike our own; there are no elves or wraiths that we see, just people living out their lives in deserts, on the ocean, and across the land. But among them are born healers, some of limited ability, like our protagonist Calandra Banchieri, but some, a very few, are born with the touch of true magic. They can perform miraculous feats of healing, saving children from lethal snakebites, or adults from the cold, rotten hand of disease. Calandra's consort, Erich, is just such a man. As the story opens we find the pair bartering to stay at an inn with Calandra's skills at healing as payment. But Erich is too weak to even walk on his own, never mind heal anyone else. "We both know I'm dying," he proclaims. And that is where the magic at the heart of this story really becomes interesting. "The True Touch of Magic" is about one woman's quest to heal the person she cares most about in the face of overwhelming odds.

     Healers of her world pay a high price for their gift. Each time they heal someone, they lose a little more of their own life-force. A shortened lifespan as payment for lengthening others. This provides a tension-rich environment for storytelling. Calandra is forced to stop Erich from using his gift in order to keep him alive. But it is only in using his gift that he can be fulfilled. To everyone in need of healing, it seems obvious the way of the touch healer is to "seldom see thirty" years of age, so why shouldn't he use his gift on them? As the story progresses, Matthews reveals the intricacies of this quandary, to heal or not to heal, and the strength of the relationship between our heroes. In the end Calandra must rely on faith to see her through.

     "The Touch of True Magic" is not without faults. Everything comes a bit too easy for Calandra and Erich. Matthews suffers from liking her characters too much, I think, and she leads them through the story rather than letting the story develop and "killing her darlings" so to speak. She also starts the story about three pages too soon and overdoes her description. But most of these problems are probably the result of this being much more than a single short story to the author. I can easily imagine there is a book waiting to be written here (if one doesn't exist already). The short story is no easy feat to master and with her wealth of ideas, Matthews is on her way to finding the balance of conciseness and vividness that the form dictates.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Keith Demanche for providing this interesting review of the 2004 SFWoE Contest Second Place story "The Touch Of True Magic" by Christine Matthews."

     Keith Demanche is co-owner and art director of the weekly newspaper, The Wire, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A graduate of, and assistant for, the writing program Odyssey, Keith has published stories and poems online and in regional journals. And in 2004, he released the literary journal The Dogtown Review with editor Dave Schwartz. His artwork has been shown in a number of local galleries and he plays bass in the band Porter.) 

03/08/05   In this year's third place story "Pinch Hitter," Australian author Ashley Arnold takes us to a rollicking future with such goodies as the torse (a cross between a horse and a tiger), "the only animal that could carry its human master a hundred kilometers and then eat him at the end," a Spez dispenser to extract the sugar out of your blood and return it to you in the form of sugar cubes, the "Different International Units board," poppy seed vending machines in the police station, and screen names used out in the real world, too.

     Our hero PincHitter, premiere police-contractor and (largely ignored) internet opinionator lands himself a lucrative missing person case searching for drunken movie star Marcia Astonia. Unfortunately, he's fighting off a "fishy" hangover and can't remember what he did the night before.

     After meeting with Astonia's lawyer, Owen Positive at Police Headquarters, he sets off with Demonova, the slinky head of network security for Police Contractors, tagging along and dropping hints about their date the night before. PincHitter uses his usual investigative brilliance (and unusual sources like the mysterious Moron Normal) to learn the truth about Astonia's disappearance. "'Inside job, of course.'" Now all he has to do is set up the sting, find out where they hid the movie star, and escape from the torse.

     Arnold's tale is a fun read, full of clever little details to get the reader engaged in the world of the future. The characters are all well-drawn and believable. From Demonova's fangs and "long witch-blade hair" to "the traditional lime-green mohawk of the Chief of Police Contractors," from Positive's "wicked-stepsister sneer" to Moron Normal's "bold outline, a pair of eyes and row of silver teeth," all the characters spring vividly into life.

     Another of the story's strengths is Arnold's exceptional foreshadowing. Within the first few paragraphs he sets up everything he needs for the story's climax. None of the futuristic details is wasted; all of them are important in one way or another.

     While I felt the climax was a little rushed (I would have liked more in-depth details there), "Pinch Hitter" is a funny, engaging story that made me laugh and left me with smile.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Angie Lofthouse for this interesting review of Ashley Arnold's 2004 SFWoE Contest Third Place story "Pinch Hitter."

     Angie entered our contest each year from 1998 to 2002. She never won the SFWoE Contest; however, her stories were all ranked near the top of the SFWoE Top Ten List. Listed below is the success she has had with her SFWoE entries.

     (1998)   "Casualties of War" will be in the April/May 2005 edition of AlienSkin (an online mag).
     (1999)   "Blessing Stone" appeared in NFG Magazine.
     (2000)   "Fidelity" is in the anthology Unparalleled Journeys:  Tales from the writers of
                    Amazing Journeys coming out any day now.
     (2001)   "Ripped" is in the current issue of Amazing Journeys.
     (2002)   "Among the Silent Stars" appeared in Amazing Journeys, and was nominated for the
                    2004 Fountain Award from the Speculative Literature Foundation.

     And that, contestants, is what SFWoE is all about! (You can learn more about Angie by visiting her website.) 

02/20/04    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 2003 Top Ten to send us some biographical information. In their own words, here are the 2003 contest Top Ten.

First Place: Genevieve Kierans.   Since my bio from last year can still be found on this website (Meet The Winners 2002), there seems little point in repeating it. I live in Toronto, Canada with my husband Ron, a research historian, three distinguished cats of advancing years (Jerrie, Teaser, & Goblin), assorted fish, and three carnivorous plants (Audrey One, L'il Audrey, and Gertrude). I typed "Mirror, Mirror" with the middle finger of my right hand, which is the only one that works, and learned I had won the SFWoE contest one week after stomach surgery, when I was feeling particularly low. Needless to say, I'm less depressed now. You can read all about me on my soon-to-be-launched (I hope) website gkierans.com.

     I'm working on a novel, an epic fantasy adventure, but since short stories in the high fantasy genre don't seem to sell unless one is really established, my short stories tend to be inspired by local legend, folktales, and history. I knew I wanted to write something for this year's contest and I knew I wanted it set in Quebec, but had absolutely no ideas beyond that. I spent an entire weekend reading poetry, legends, and ghost stories and listening to folk songs - to no avail. Then that Sunday evening, while participating in a Taoist Tai Chi meditation class, at just about the same moment my feet went numb from sitting so long in a half-lotus, it came to me. What if the farmer's wife in Stan Rogers' song "Lies" had a magic mirror? With that thought the whole story tumbled into my brain. Her name, Marie-Helene, is a nod at another Stan Rogers song, "The Mary-Ellen Carter."

     I have to thank SFWoE and Gil Reis for having a contest like this - it provides critically important encouragement for emerging authors, and Peter Taschioglou for illustrating my story. And special thanks to Edward Bryant for his gracious comments. I've also got to thank Magi Thompson and Green Fiddle Morris for introducing me to Stan Rogers in the first place.

     Oh, and I'm a Clarion grad, as is Theodora Goss who won two years ago.) Go Clarion! Go SFWoE! Arguably the two best things to happen to me this millennium.)

SFWoE Note:   Everyone on the SFWoE Staff was very pleased to learn that Genevieve had placed first in our 2003 contest. Our judge, Edward Bryant, said it best:  "Because persistence and faith are such important virtues for aspiring writers, it's always good to see previous finalists listed again in the top ten. This year was no exception. It was, therefore, a distinct pleasure to award first prize to last year's second-place winner, Genevieve Kierans of Canada."

Second Place: Andrew Lyall.   Okay, let's see. . . I live in an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. I work as a manager at a specialist employment service, and previously have worked as a sign language interpreter and a teacher. I'm currently studying Professional Writing and Editing part time.

     I started writing short stories in 2002, after having spent a few years working very sporadically on a draft of my first SF novel. Not that writing short stories is necessarily easier, but to me they seemed to be a great way to hone my skills and to develop more disciplined writing habits - the end always being in sight when working in this form.

     "Then Comes the Lightning" had its beginnings in its title. The original title - "Tears then Lightning" - popped into my head and I wondered how it would be to have a particular meteorological phenomenon that responded to a person's emotions. The Wimmera (a starkly beautiful region in my home state of Victoria, where the granite hills give way to the flat wheat belt) seemed like the right setting for the lightning to strike, and acts of brutality the right trigger. Much of what is described in the story, the box gum forest and its white wooden beehives, the cheap government land, the eucalyptus distilleries, all exist on the edge of the Wimmera. The rest basically gushed forth in stream of consciousness mode. It's a pretty dark piece, about someone who lives under a bizarre set of circumstances, ones that she can't avoid, and ones that she fears will lead her to becoming the very thing she hates. There is hope lurking in the story; it's just kind of buried. . . deep.

     I heard about the SFWoE contest through a fellow student at my writing course (thanks Louise!) and was totally shocked to find that I had been awarded second prize. I have been on such a high ever since, I still cant' believe it. It's fantastic for aspiring writers to get some positive feedback - it's so easy to feel inadequate about your writing - and so for this I have to thank the team of SFWoE so much, and especially author Edward Bryant.

     I now have three pieces accepted for publication here in Australia (non-paying markets of course) and they're due out by April 2004. I hope to enter the contest again if I remain eligible. To anyone who is considering entering it, do it. It is great to work to a deadline, and to finally let go of your work and let it speak for itself.

SFWoE Note:    Andrew Lyall's remark ". . . let go of your work and let it speak for itself" is exactly what happen with his contest entry. It shouted its way all the way up the "ladder" to Second Place.

Third Place: Nathan Burrage.   Placing 3rd and 9th in the 2003 SFWoE competition has been a timely encouragement for me, and I'm incredibly grateful to Gil, Ed, Rob, and everyone else behind the scenes for making the competition happen each year.

     I've been writing regularly since 1998, starting with a novel and then working my way 'backwards' to short stories. I've had some success over the years, including pieces in Aussie magazines such as Aurealis, Redsine, and AntipodeanSF, but I've never been paid for any of these publications, which is why I was still eligible to enter the SFWoE competition.

     I was also fortunate enough to win third prize in the 2000 SFWoE competition and in May the same year I was awarded a mentorship by the New South Wales Writers' Centre to develop my first novel. (It's been with a local publisher for about six months and they tell me they like it, but no contract yet. Cross your fingers for me!)

     I'm married, just became a Dad to a beautiful little girl by the name of Liana, and live in Sydney. I'm also a member of Calliope, the same writing group that 5th place winner Chris Barnes belongs to, so we're hoping our success will inspire other members to enter the competition this year.

     As for "The R Quotient," the story arose from a single scene recalled from that primordial place between waking and dreaming. I was standing in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney's CBD. The sky was filled with dust and smoke, and blood ran in the gutters. No bodies, no sound, just devastation. Naturally I was intrigued by this vivid image and I began to wonder what could have caused it. It was a short step from conjecture to writing the story in reverse, starting with the stunned moments immediately after an apparent terrorist bomb blast and working backwards in time so that the Reader, and Protagonist, discovers what really happened...

SFWoE Note:   SFWoE is very pleased to see Nathan Burrage back on our top ten list (3rd and 9th Place), but we really hope he gets off our list by getting that first novel published. We have our fingers crossed!

First Honor: Tom Inkel.   I was born in Santa Barbara, California, in 1975, but left for my parents' native New England when I was six days old. I was always the first to get cold, far too quickly for a real Yankee.

     Due to too much reading, I was also the first of most of my extended family to go to college. I spent four years in alternately cold and humid Virginia, finishing degrees in English and psychology. However, I found little inspiration in my English degree, and my fascination with counseling ended promptly upon discovering that the most common challenge for psychologists is weaning clients off their services. The only profession I could think of that involved lots of writing and clients who had no trouble weaning themselves was the practice of law. After three successful years of law school and bar study in California, I now work and live near the beach, which is often very cold.

     After law school, I contemplated business school before finally admitting to myself that I am a dabbler, a people/knowledge junkie, and that no degrees or career are going to capture me until I deal with that. At that point, I baffled friends and family by eschewing law firm work to focus on writing.

     "Made" was the first story I wrote. It also took the longest to finish of any that I've written since, due to its original form being a partial novel at 50,000 words (and I would rather trim body appendages than stories). The premise--an orphan who hears a voice begins to obey its commands as everything else in her life is taken away, even her humanity--is based on my fascination with humanity's unique love affair for "God." Why do the vast majority of humans believe in a Greater Power? What really is out there? What might It be thinking? Why do we instinctively worship It? "Made" considers how one might come to the point of obeying an unseen power without even knowing the answers to these questions.

     I've written daily for two years, usually for a couple hours before the work day starts. I am spurred by these surreal spells of "nostalgia" for people whom I'll never meet and experiences that they've had which I never will. Until now, writing has just been a way for me to deal with those vivid images. But winning First Honor in the SFWoE contest also gives me hope for longer-range goals.

     Like finding my way to somewhere even warmer.

SFWoE Note:   It should be noted that Tom Inkel's First Honor (4th Place) showing is the No.1 position among the 41 contestants in the 2003 contest from the USA.

Second Honor: Chris Barnes.   I'm delighted to have won fifth place in the 2003 SFWoE competition. It's a great encouragement to keep persevering. Competitions like this are a wonderful way to get experience in and exposure to the world of writing SF. I was very pleased to see that Nathan Burrage, a fellow member of the writer's group Calliope, won third place for his excellent story "The R Quotient."

     A brief history of my writing:  I've been writing SF for just over two years now. In that time, I've written about a dozen short stories, covering fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and a draft science fiction novel. I've had one story published ("Phantom Touch" in Dark Animus #2). In addition, I've just come out of the inaugural Clarion South Workshop, held in Brisbane, Australia. That was an experience! Intense and deeply rewarding. The friends I made there will be, I hope, friends for life.

     "The Glass Flower" grew from a piece of flash fiction I jotted down one day, a fifty-worder about a strange glass seed that fell from the sky. The longer story uses some of my childhood memories of visits to my grandparents' house and garden, though in real life it was my grandmother, not my grandfather, who was the keen gardener.

SFWoE Note:   Another Clarion Workshop student, with the 2003 SFWoE Second Honor and one story published now, who appears to be on his way to a writing career. We wish him our very best.

Sixth Place: Jack R. Staik.   "AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, THE LAWD DIDST SMITE THE GROUND FROM THENCE DIDST EMERGETH . . .ME!!!!"

     Born in a humble military hospital to not-terribly-simple parents, young Jack grew up to be a disappointment to his miserable egg-sucking jerkwad of a father who, truth be told, didn't like anything very much. Young Jack had some degree of a brain and learned to read at age 3, and graduated high school at age 16. Entering the Army at age 18, Jack rose to the dizzying rank of Corporal on two separate occasions, and left after two years at the rank of Private First Class with no decorations, not even a Good Conduct Medal. At this point, Jack had the first glimmers of the possibility that the military might not be his cup of tea.

     Idle scribblings took up much of Jack's creative energies. Much of these in college were directed toward RPG adventures' and later toward anime fanfics. But his creative powers blossomed when he met his online love (and later wife) Jillian 'Lady Tesser' Parks, leading to literally tons of written prose and four separate thousand-plus page stories. While Jack's creative energies were severely hurt during a hard-drive crash in 2002 that destroyed over seventy works-in-progress, the muse is healing, and stories are beginning to emerge. One of those stories that came from the healing is the tale "Along The Dreaming Shore," a tale born out of a combination of a long-held and deep seated belief that often within madness lies true vision and a strange image from a half-remembered dream.

SFWoE Note:   Ed Bryant wrote that Jack Staik's story "contained one of the contest's most intriguing ideas:  as humankind is 'improved,' will the declining travail and general lack of strife and misery take away our impulse to create?"

Seventh Place: Mark Phillips.   Biographical information not available at this time.

Eighth Place: Graham Bensley.   Biographical information not available at this time.

Ninth Place: Nathan Burrage.   Please see the Third Place biographical information.

Tenth Place: Graham Parks.   I am an ex-career soldier, married and living in superb antipodean squalor in Adelaide, South Australia. Doesn't that say it all!

     I did my writing internship in the Army as a soldier, where I spent endless days writing reports, Exercise Instructions, Accident Incident Reports, Administrative Instructions, and Training programs. I have a self-originated background of writing articles for fishing magazines (I complained about the quality of writing and was told to "do better or shut up"), a stringer for a rural newspaper ("I reckon I could write better than that" statement again), a founding administrator of a writer's group, and an unrecognized novelist. I have a history of writing - reports, business plans, public affairs programs, accident investigations, government submissions, resumes, and curriculum vitae - obtuse fiction writing at its very best. Strangely, though I subscribed to the importance of writer's groups, I actually contributed very little. I did however, edit and review most writings and I believe this helped me develop my technique and show me the problems, solutions, and results. One thing I did achieve was a "Highly Commended" from the Henry Lawson Society for their annual short story contest.

     It is fair to say, that although I have been married for 33 years, the Army had me much longer. I have been variously described by Instructors over the years as having a disproportionate personality, exhibiting a reapplied attitude, or exemplifying disappointing intelligence. If that means I'm not one of the crowd, then I wear my mantle proudly.

     I am of the school which protests that if you are a writer, you can write just about anything. So it was with this competition. Sci-fi is not something I have indulged in, however, some years ago, I became a Dr. Who fan and I read the series of Doc EE Smith sci-fi novels. There endth my sci-fi entanglements. However, I bulldozed into this competition due entirely to the precept of mixture after reading previous winning submissions. My confidence was not high, but I did plan how I would engage the competition. I wrote "The Contest" for the explicit purpose of measuring it against the winning submissions, taking into account the judges reports and promised myself a fresh start for 2004. It took just a day and a half (8 hours) to complete. Putting winner's stories and judges comments together, I felt I had a reasonable chance to get engender a word of advice from Ed Bryant.

     After submitting the story, I took a month's holiday in Western Australia, and upon my return, induced a major effort to complete my Great Australian Novel, as would most writers. Once complete, I looked at the issue of publishing. Writing a query letter, significantly different from the million begging letters publishers receive annually was the first step and on one summers Friday, I received an invitation from a major publisher to submit chapters. On Sunday morning as I sat pondering exactly what chapters might sell the book, I received a phone call from Rob Riel (SFWoE's Australian Rep.) advising me of my placement. What a truly uplifting moment for an old soldier-cum-short storywriter.

     Much of my current support has come internationally from a writers group called Skribblerz. The small, strongly committed group offers help and encouragement without the inevitable mutual appreciation. The availability of personal experience and the willingness to share ideas, concepts and techniques, has improved my writing confidence, immensely. I believe confident writers persist and write, two exemplary traits of a wordsmith artisan.

     Why do I write? Because I'm not photogenic enough to be an actor, I can't sing, nor am I a comedian. The highly volatile emissions of doom and gloom from the television - just watch the nightly news - encourage me. Therefore, I attempt to distract readers from the pedestrian and entertain with stories, all the while hoping to contribute to the enhancement of the Australian writing culture and the stature of Australian writers on the world ledger. Oh yeah, and world peace.

     I'd like to thank my hairstylist, my diction teacher, and the woman who made my bikini for the swimsuit segment.

SFWoE Note:    In his bio, Graham states that he is not a comedian. In his story "The Contest," Graham's story keeps rising to the top of the SFWoE Top Ten pile of entries no matter what our judge thinks about it. When we asked Graham for his bio info, we informed him that we had nailed his story to the wall and it had not moved since. His reply:  "I suppose you used stationary nails." You be the judge, comedian or not?

     SFWoE thanks all of the 2003 Top Ten contestants who sent in biographical information for their cooperation. 

03/31/04   "The week Marie-Hélène Carter acquired the magic mirror began, like every week and indeed most days, with chaos. This particular Monday morning, however, seemed worse than usual." With these words, Genevieve Kierans opens her 2003 First Place story "Mirror, Mirror" set in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada. Genevieve skillfully weaves a regional legend and a Stan Rogers folksong into an interesting fantasy tale.

SFWoE:  Genevieve, is writing a fairly recent endeavor for you, or did you get started early in your life?

Genevieve:  My early education was in French and I don't recall ever writing stories on paper, as it were, until I was about 10, but I have been making stories up all my life. I was a voracious reader of anything and everything. My parents placed no restrictions on what I read, and our house was full of books. I had an incredibly active imagination. While my friends played "house" and "mommy," I invented castles and fairy princesses and heroic quests. My Barbies never wore anything but mediaeval-type dresses I made from scraps of fabric or Kleenex and scotch tape, but I think they were happier for it.

     When I was 10 I switched to an English school, the Convent of the Sacred Heart. For the first time I had actual classes in "Composition." I also had an amazing teacher, Miss Mary Lant, who encouraged me hugely. She had a hundred different ways to get kids to imagine, from "what if?" scenarios to using pictures or magazine photos as departure points for stories. She also taught me to think critically. I still remember one conversation we had about the popular series of authors Enid Blyton (Famous Five) and Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew). Miss Lant shared with me the results of a study someone had done about the lack of diversity in their adjectives and adverbs. It had never occurred to me that some words could be over-used. To this day the repetition of any given modifier on any one page stops me cold. I adored English Comp and excelled at it. I think it was then that I first got the idea that being a writer could actually be a career.

SFWoE:  How and why did you get started on writing and why SF/F?

Genevieve:  Does anyone choose to write SF/F? Did Lewis Carroll set out to write a fantasy, or a book about a precocious child he taught? Did A. A. Milne set out to write fantasy or stories for his son? Aside from the obvious difference in the target audience's age, is Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit less speculative than John Adams' Watership Down? When you think about it, much of children's literature, which often anthropomorphacizes animals and toys, might fall under the heading of speculative fiction - at one end you have The Little Engine Who Could, at the other end the possessed car Christine, but both are "what if a machine were alive?" stories. Perhaps SF/F authors are just kids in grownup bodies, or grownups who've never lost a child's belief in wonder and the infinite possibility of the universe.

SFWoE:  Good point, Genevieve.

Genevieve:  At any rate, I cut my teeth on Grimm's and Andrew Lang's collections of fairytales and that peculiarly British sort of children's story that involve nurseries full of toys coming to life every night. My British mother and grandmother exposed me to good literature, much of which might now be called speculative fiction. I'm thinking C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbitt, James Barrie, Joan Aiken, John Wyndam, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Mary Shelley, Alan Garner, and of course Tolkien. My Dad, third generation Irish-Canadian and a great lover of the classics, exposed me to history and mythology, the Odyssey and Beowulf and Ancient Egypt. He also introduced me to Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Bram Stocker. But none of this was SF/F then. It was literature. One read it the same way one read Austin, Twain, or Dickens. I was raised to believe properly educated people were widely read.

     But these were certainly powerful influences, and when it finally dawned upon me that writing could be a career, then I set out to write the kind of book I most loved to read, which was at that time The Lord of The Rings.

SFWoE:  That's a tough place to start. Most authors say they started by writing short stories.

Genevieve:  The first thing I ever wrote "professionally," that is with the intent to publish, was my novel Flight To Flower Vale, which I am still working on today. I completed the first draft when I was 13.

     Its genesis was in Grade 7 Religion class. Or it might have been Math. Mother Cable, a four-foot-nothing powerhouse who could wither you with a glance was the teacher, at any rate, and she taught both. Her presence is inextricably tied with memories of that classroom. Bored, I would stare dreamily out the window. The red-bricked Montreal General Hospital, across the road and up the mountain a ways, dominated the view. Like all hospitals, it was a jumble of mismatched wings added on over the years as the building's needs grew. The utilitarian blocks created all sorts of intriguing geometric shadows and levels. From my classroom window, I could glimpse part of gravel-covered roof, but an adjacent and taller wing blocked the rest of the view. What mysterious world existed on that rooftop, in the lee of the main structure and just beyond sight? How to get up there? Thus was my novel born.

SFWoE:  What writing schools or classes have you attended?

Genevieve:  I had always eschewed writing schools and classes. Partially because I have always held that the best way to learn about writing is by reading. But also because of horror stories I've heard from anyone I've ever known who has taken one. Being forced to write hideous blank verse in the name of poetry by untalented hacks. Or denigrated for writing SF/F as though it's somehow less valid than other, vaguer forms of prose. I wrote what I liked to read and have never been prepared to expose that to the philistines.

     But then I came across a chance reference to Clarion on the internet. I checked out its website and on an impulse applied, though I knew I couldn't afford to go. When I was accepted, my family and friends took up a collection to send me and off I went.

SFWoE:  What did you learn or gain from attending Clarion?

Genevieve:  It would be impossible to overstate the impact Clarion had on me. From my talented and respectful classmates to the gifted instructors to the tireless administrators, every moment was a revelation. I had never been critiqued before, and found the experience both terrifying and creatively stimulating. I had never been in a group of people who shared my love of the genre before. It was like coming home. I broadened my horizons, was exposed to many new authors, learned to write in a disciplined fashion, gained courage and self-confidence and a powerful support network. I very much doubt I would have entered this contest without Clarion.

     I must also point out that I consider M.S.U.'s recent decision to withdraw its support from Clarion, arguably one of the most successful professional writing programs in the world with a star-studded roster of award-winning alumni, to be an extraordinary example of bureaucratic shortsightedness and pettiness at its worst.

SFWoE:  The SFWoE Staff also believes M.S.U. is making a major blunder in withdrawing its support from Clarion. To continue, Genevieve, who are the writers that have influence your writing?

Genevieve:  C.S.Lewis and Tolkien, without a doubt. Lewis, for his sense of wide-eyed wonder. Tolkien, for his exquisite use of language, vivid description, compelling narrative and rare ability to resonate on multiple levels. I'm a huge admirer of Stephen King because of his uncanny ability to create micro-portraits of incidental characters; reminds me a bit of Dickens in modern-day prose. He also has a unique way of looking at the mundane or commonplace and making it bizarre or threatening. Your 2002 first-prize winner (Julie Waight) has a similar knack - see her treatment of a truly diabolical fur coat. Finally, I adore Katherine Kurtz, because she can see magic in the sacred and the sacred in life. I really hope I can capture that sort of reverence.

SFWoE:  You have already mentioned some of the books you like. What other books or short stories are your favorites?

Genevieve:  I admire Charles De Lint. His books seem familiar and comfortable to me in the same way that celtic and folk music is. Also Guy Gavriel Kay, especially The Fionnovar Tapestry, for his lyrical use of language. I just finished Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass, which I couldn't put down. Another YA novelist I adore is the Australian author Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn Chronicles, which I'm dying to adapt to screen.

     As for short stories. I don't think I'm as well-read as I ought to be. I rarely read short stories before Clarion. Mary Turzillo's "Nebula Winner Mars Is Not For Children." Geoff Landis' Hugo Winner "Falling Onto Mars." Anything by Kelly Link or James Patrick Kelly. Pat Murphy's "Rachel In Love." Beth Adele Long's "The Secret Lexicon Of The Not-Beautiful." Theodora Goss' "A Rose In Twelve Petals," which was a finalist on this year's Preliminary Nebula ballot.

SFWoE:  And, as you know, Theodora Goss took first place in the SFWoE 2001 Contest. Genevieve, have you won any contest besides the SFWoE 2003 Contest?

Genevieve:  I won a formal poetry contest in high school. Does that count? Seriously, though. I placed second in last year's (2002) SFWoE competition for "The Lady Of Land's End." I'm still looking for a publisher for that one.

SFWoE:  What was your first reaction when you received notice that you won our 2003 Contest?

Genevieve:  I had had abdominal surgery less than a week prior, and was in pain, grumpy, fed up with winter. I had convinced myself I hadn't won anything this year because last year I had heard on the 31st of January and this year I hadn't. I was really depressed. Then I got your congratulatory email, and the sun came out. One of the many great things about your contest, from a Canadian perspective, is the fact that the results are posted at what might otherwise be the bleakest part of winter.

SFWoE:  Over the years, we have been told by the winners (Top Ten) just how much they have been motivated when they received our notice. However, what really cheers up the SFWoE Staff is when we hear from a contestant who was about to quit writing until they received a message from us telling them that they were in the top 30 or 40 percent of the entry field. That's what makes it all worth the effort to run our contest.

     Now that you won our contest, what do you plan or hope to accomplish next with your writing ability?

Genevieve:  I'm working on an edit to my first novel, a sometimes dark YA/adult coming-of-age epic fantasy quest story. My goals this year are to find an agent, publisher for my novel and sell a short story to a magazine.

SFWoE:  What advice, Genevieve, would you give to future SFWoE constants?

Genevieve:  If at all possible, go to Clarion. I'm told Jeanne Cavelos' Odyssey is also excellent. And join a writer's group. Critiquing and being critiqued are the best ways to hone your craft.

SFWoE:  Good advice. It is amazing how much help a good critique can be to a writer. Tell us about your first place story "Mirror, Mirror," which you stated was "Inspired by Lies, a Stan Rogers song."

Genevieve:  I first encountered the music of Stan Rogers through dance. Specifically through Morris dancing, which is old English folk dance that Stan called "delightfully goofy". After a few hours of heavy dancing, Morris dancers inevitably wind up at the local (or nearest - they're not particular, so long as it's licensed) pub. Once refreshed by a pint, or in my case, a cold Pinot Gris, inevitably someone would begin singing. As inevitably, someone would call for a Stan Rogers tune - usually Barrett's Privateers -- but occasionally The Mary Ellen Carter, or The Idiot, which we had also choreographed a dance to. I eventually purchased his CDs and they became favorites of my husband and mine.

     I have been trying to get a career as a fiction writer off the ground. Last year I placed 2nd in the Science Fiction Writers of Earth (SFWoE) global short story contest. I knew I wanted to write something for this year's contest and I knew I wanted it set in the Montérégie region of Quebec, where I'd grown up, but had absolutely no ideas beyond that. My winning story last year had been inspired by a Canadian folktale so that seemed the logical place to begin searching for inspiration. I spent an entire weekend reading poetry, legends, and ghost stories while listening to folk songs - to no avail. I was as dry as a Morrisman without a pub.

     Then that Sunday evening, while participating in a Taoist Tai Chi meditation class, at just about the same moment my feet went numb from sitting so long in a half-lotus, it came to me. What if the farmer's wife in Stan Rogers' song Lies had a magic mirror? With that thought the whole story tumbled into my brain. Her name, Marie-Hélène, is a nod at another Stan Rogers song, "The Mary Ellen Carter". I threw in a dash of Snow-White and a pinch of barely remembered French Canadian fairytale and stirred. "Mirror, Mirror" was born. I submitted it to the Science Fiction Writers of Earth 2003 short story contest and learned it won first prize in February 2004.

SFWoE:  And we are so pleased that you did submit "Mirror, Mirror." Genevieve, is there anything else you would like to add before we close this interview?

Genevieve:  I like the idea of weaving our legends and folksongs into my stories. It's very gratifying to share our culture with a global audience and I hope this award will bring a new audience to Stan Rogers' music. I'm especially tickled to be acknowledged on his "legacy" page.

(SFWoE Note: SFWoE thanks Genevieve Kierans for this interesting and instructive interview. To read Genevieve's winning story, click on the SFWoE Swirl below.) 

03/22/04   This year's second place story by Australian Andrew Lyall is all about atmosphere--no pun intended. In the strange and magical world of "Then Comes the Lightning," the reader falls headlong into a skewed "Deliverance" without all the water. Set in an arid, bewildering land of scrubgrass and gum trees, a storm is brewing both in the sky and within a deranged family, and no one will escape it unscathed. Our viewpoint into this bizarre world is a little girl named Lucy. She worries about her little brother Mark, who, as the story begins, is in trouble for something Lucy knows a lot about:  showing emotion.

     It takes a few paragraphs to get into this story. The setting and character descriptions jump and twist away from reality and the known, but once the place of the story comes clear, it is the unveiling of why that pulls the reader along. Why are these children forced to show no emotion whatsoever? Why are the parents--or monsters--as Lucy calls them, so intent on punishing the kids for crying? And why do those "dark billowing [clouds] that caused the air to flicker and sizzle" keep getting more and more violent? With a few deft strokes, Lyall reveals all in a literally thunderous climax of redemption and vengeance.

     Description is definitely Lyall's strength. In both character and setting, he gives tantalizing details that often beg as many questions as the traits they reveal, as when Lucy explains her mother's nature:  "She could be like that - a dancer, or a cat - when she wanted. But now she chose to be a boulder again. A lump of dry clay that held fast." The story reads like a jumpcut video; each of the characters is built on a few spare phrases stacked up over the course of the story to reveal more than the simple sum of their parts. And the creepy landscape of dust brown and storm gray that is so well realized is actually based on a real place, "The Wimmera." As Lyall explained, it is "a starkly beautiful region in my home state of Victoria, where the granite hills give way to the flat wheat belt. Much of what is described in the story--the box gum forest and its white wooden beehives, the cheap government land, the eucalyptus distilleries, all exist on the edge of the Wimmera.." This setting is the perfect place for disturbing magic to gain a foothold, and it is the children's connection to the land that gives them their power and, ultimately, the only thing capable of frightening the monsters. This conflict is reminiscent of the struggle between the Indigenous Australians and the Australian government, at least to an American. These political undertones are never brought to the front of the story but add depth upon second or third readings.

     Underneath all of the dark magic and the distressed lives of the family in "Then Comes the Lightning," there is a more universal theme. Near the end, Lucy discovers "some consolation that she was still affected by the cruelty though - perhaps she would not turn out like her parents. That had long been her biggest fear, that monsters begot monsters." That is the underpinning of this story, where anyone can relate:  the fear of becoming the thing we hate most, whether it is our parents, a corporate sheep, or just a bad friend. Lyall has tapped into those feelings to make "Then Comes the Lightning" an award winner. But it isn't entirely doom and gloom, "There is hope lurking in the story;" Lyall said. "It's just kind of buried. . . deep." Certainly, unlike his characters, Lyall has plenty to be hopeful about. He has three more pieces due to be published in Australia by April 2004 and hopes to enter the SFWoE contest again if he can remain eligible that long.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Keith Demanche for providing this interesting review of Andrew Lyall's 2003 SFWoE Contest Second Place story "Then Comes The Lightning."

     Keith Demanche is co-owner and art director of the weekly newspaper, The Wire, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A graduate of, and assistant for, the writing program Odyssey, Keith has published stories and poems online and in regional journals. His artwork has been shown in a number of local galleries and he plays bass in the band Porter.) 

02/24/04   "The first thing Tevet notices is the blood. It's running down cracks in the pavement, pooling in gutters and at the bottom of steps. The sight fascinates him, because the color is so vivid in comparison to the concrete and bitumen. It's almost as if the city itself is bleeding."

     With that vivid image, Nathan Burrage opens his third place winning story, "The R Quotient." Set in Sydney, Australia, the story takes the reader and the protagonist on a journey of discovery through a future penal system which imprisons convicted criminals in a virtual world and gauges their eligibility for parole by measuring the R quotient, or remorse quotient, as prisoners relive scenes of their past crimes while under an amnesia-inducing drug. With Tevet, an accused terrorist, we move backwards from the scene of a bombing at a bank to Tevet delivering a package to the bank, picking up the package in a seedy neighborhood for a woman named Silvana, and meeting Silvana, supposedly a fellow immigrant from Tevet's own country, in a pub, and listening to her political ranting.

     Tevet comes to himself again in the AI controlled Incarceration Center LB-351 and finds he has been undergoing a parole hearing. The AI informs him that his reaction to the scenes he has experienced has not produced an R quotient sufficient enough for release. He is returned to a morgue-like, claustrophobic cell in which the AI monitors his vital signs while his mind is plunged back into the virtual world of the prison where "brainpower, not brawn determines the pecking order." The man with the most brainpower is the MBA, a corporate whiz kid imprisoned for embezzling money from the same bank that Tevet is accused of bombing. In this virtual world, the prisoners have lost all sense of time and wonder if their prison program is even being monitored anymore. In this environment, memories from the real world are the only real commodity, and the MBA comes looking for Tevet's memories of his parole hearing. The MBA beats the memories out of Tevet in a kind of mind-rape, but Tevet is not the cowering victim he appears to be. For once he has given the MBA his horrifying memories of the bombing at Martin Place, he can exact his revenge on the man really responsible for the crime. For the bombing, it seems, was not the work of terrorists, but a final act of revenge by the MBA after his conviction for embezzlement. Tevet, an innocent pawn in this deadly game, exacts justice in the only way available to him, by forcing the MBA to experience the results of his actions firsthand.

     Burrage's prose is striking, and his imagery vivid. I could picture myself in all the scenes he described. The story is written in present tense, which lends a wonderfully intimate point of view as the reader experiences the story along with Tevet. In "The R Quotient" Burrage has created a thought provoking and often disturbing portrait of crime and punishment, remorse and justice.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Angie Lofthouse for this interesting review of Nathan Burrage's 2003 SFWoE Contest Third Place story "The R Quotient."

     Angie Lofthouse remained on the SFWoE Top Ten List for five straight years! This past summer her 1999 third place story, "Blessing Stone," was published in NFG Magazine. The story received some good reviews and she was able to market her 2002 SFWoE forth place story, "Among The Silent Stars," to Amazing Journeys Magazine. Another of Angie's stories, "Sacred Places," will appear in Irreantum Magazine.) 

02/08/03    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 2002 Top Ten to send us some biographical information. In their own words, here are the 2002 contest Top Ten.

First Place: Julie Waight.   I can't remember being so excited about winning a competition. I just couldn't believe I'd won.

     The SFWoE Competition is held in such high regard, it took a while for the news to sink in. My initial thought was, surely among all those writers, from all those countries, someone must have written a better story than mine.

     Being a single mum and living in Blackwood, VIC Australia (a breathtaking place, but very cold and a little on the isolated side of things) I haven't had much of a chance to take advantage of the great SF/F community. I'm sure that winning this competition will give me a mighty shove in the direction of future fantasy conventions.

I was a Primary School teacher for ten years, during which time I wrote countless short stories. I've also been an aerobics instructor, cleaned houses, worked in a milkbar, and a storyteller in a fairyshop, which was right up my alley.

     I hope all the contestants enjoy reading my story "The Overcoat" as much as I enjoyed writing it.

(SFWoE Note:   Julie's First Place story will be placed online for all of our contestants to read as soon as our staff artist, Peter Taschioglou, has finished his illustration for her story. Be sure to read Rob Riel's interview with Julie (just below this article) to learn more about the 2002 SFWoE Contest Winner.)

Second Place: Genevieve Kierans.   For almost 17 years I worked as a publicist in film and TV and wrote more biographies than there are stars in heaven (or Hollywood) without a second's thought. Asked now to write one for myself, I find I am tongue-tied and fumble-fingered and completely at a loss...

In the beginning...
     I am born. On the Feast of St. Genevieve (Jan 3). Hence my name. I grew up in a semi-rural town named Boucherville on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River, about 30 minutes from Montreal. My primary school education was done in French, which is how I became familiar with French-Canadian folklore and legends.

Let there be light...
     I was a voracious reader, devouring anything from cereal boxes [which I got to read twice - in both French and English] to Enid Blyton, C. S. Lewis, and the Brothers Grimm. With a British mum and granny and an Irish-Canadian father, I was exposed to a million worlds, and counted characters from Odysseus to Siegfried to Cuchulainn to Bilbo Baggins as my closest friends. Of course I did the flashlight-under-the-blanket thing. I even went one better. When the batteries ran low I discovered that if I held the book just so, there was sufficient illumination from the streetlights to decipher the type. I have even read by candlelight in an underground snow-fort, which is how I discovered snow burns...but I digress.

     When I was ten I read The Lord of The Rings for the first time (I'm up to 45 times now, and once in French), and decided then and there to become a writer.

The Road goes ever on and on...
     Life is indeed a road that can sweep you away if you're not very vigilant. On my way to today I explored several sideroads:  the ballet, the theatre, journalism... For many years I ran my own p.r. firm. I had brain surgery for a blood clot when I was 25 and can now truthfully say I have holes in my head. In '98 I retired from p.r. after receiving a diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and have been pursuing my writing ever since. In 2001, my friends and family took up a collection to send me to Clarion, which I must say was one of the best and happiest times of my whole life, and is where I wrote "The Lady of Land's End." Or, to be more precise, is where I wrote the story version. I had written a screenplay version the year before, for a contest I didn't win.

If at first you don't succeed...
     I originally wrote the script because I wanted to share the magic, mystery, and richesse of French-Canadian folklore with an English-speaking audience. I revisited the story at Clarion because of a chance comment our Editor-in-residence Shawna McCarthy made to me. I did exhaustive research on-line and e-mailed people I have never met to ensure accuracy about tides, birds, and minerals. I hope "The Lady" will inspire readers to seek out other French-Canadian legends.

Today...
     I live now in Toronto with my husband, a research-historian; my stepson, who builds robots in the basement; and my three cats, two of whom sleep on my desk when I write. I am a Morrisman (retired) and practice Taoist Tai Chi. My taste in music runs to classical, Celtic, and Broadway showtunes, and in food to Indian and Mexican. My all-time favourite movies are Lawrence of Arabia, Braveheart ,and Lord of The Rings. I can't begin to list my favourite books but they include authors my American friends often haven't read, like John Wyndham and Terry Pratchett.

Tomorrow...
     I finished my first novel, an epic fantasy quest story with a twist, when I was thirteen and am still (to the dismay of my husband who thinks I'm too much of a perfectionist) editing it. I hope this award will give me the courage to submit it to a publisher.

     Aside from thanking everyone I've ever known, I must express special gratitude to last-year's SFWoE-winner and Clarion buddy Theodora Goss, who encouraged me to submit this particular story, to all my friends and family who made going to Clarion possible, to my classmates and teachers, and to Gil Reis and Edward Bryant for their kind words. And to the other contestants -- I am honoured to be numbered amongst you.

P.S. An especial note for Lister Matheson (Clarion faculty) you will please note I am using British spelling in this bio.

(SFWoE Note:   Of Genevieve Kierans's second place story, SFWoE contest Judge Edward Bryant wrote:  "It's a story most of all about the human heart; but a muscular storytelling sense ripples beneath the surface here, and one must remember that as muscles go, the heart is among the strongest." Now we know from where Genevieve's strength originates.)

Third Place: Graham Bensley.   Although I make a living designing and implementing software solutions for various electronics companies, I have always enjoyed writing fiction. I started working seriously on my short SF about two years ago, since then some of my stories have found their way to web sites and unpaid publications, but most still refuse to leave home for want of a better place to go.

     When writing SF I always start out with something that I feel is a strong concept; one of those ideas that doesn't just come to you, but gives you a flash of insight when it does. Everything inside you says:  yes, of course, and then, more quietly:  thank you. Then, I try to sprinkle bits and pieces of that concept throughout the story, often in a manner that may put the reader on the wrong track. The important thing to remember when doing this is to make absolutely sure that all the pieces still fit together in the end. It should all make sense when the story is read a second time. In fact, the second read should reveal even more of the underlying concept.

     Most of the SF I have written is more technical and down to earth than "Unspent Time," but UT is very special to me. I came up with the concept for the story during a sleepless night on a plane heading for Japan, while contemplating the odd set of circumstances that lead me to meet a very interesting and beautiful girl, and then almost loose sight of her forever. It occurred to me that if there wasn't such a thing as destiny, then there should at the least be some kind of purpose or intent to each and every one of us. Put us together in the right place at the right time, or even in the wrong place at precisely the wrong time, and something special occurs:  new time is created.

     Although we were living in different countries at that point, I did get the opportunity to show a first draft of this story to the girl who was the inspiration for it all. I am happy to report she loved it. I am happier still to report that she has since become my wife.

(SFWoE Note:   Now, that's a winning story!)

First Honor: Angella Taylor Lofthouse.   Let's see:  I'm short and pudgy with curly hair and pointed ears. If I'm not an actual hobbit, I certainly eat like one, which would explain the pudgy part. I am the mother of four adorable and brilliant sons ages 9,7,4 & 2. When I'm not busy doing all that stay-home mom stuff, you can find me writing, reading, playing the piano or guitar, singing or watching Lord of the Rings.

     The original idea for "Among the Silent Stars," has been kicking around in my brain for many years. I think that Manon may be one of my favorite characters. I was a little nervous about writing from a deaf person's point of view since I am not deaf myself. I can only hope that I have done the deaf perspective justice.

     While I'm happy to be getting published, I am rather sad that I can no longer enter this wonderful contest. Thank you SFWoE for all of your support and encouragement over the years!

(SFWoE Note:   It is not going be the same old contest without a story from Angella Taylor Lofthouse, who placed on the SFWoE Top Ten List for five straight years.)

Second Honor: LaZealtrice Addeana Jackson.   Before you ask, it's a family name made up from Scrabble pieces from my mother's name, and yes, that's what people call me. Actually, it's not that hard after saying it for a couple of weeks, I assure you. My writing is as unique as my name. I have been telling stories before I could put words to pen, combining my favorite creatures from TV (vampires, mummies, werewolves and aliens from outer space), I produced stories with my dolls. "Very strange," my parents thought, but they encouraged me anyway. That encouragement helped me receive an honorable mention from over 1400 entries in the Junior Division of California State, San Bernardino at age 13 for a science fiction story titled "A Place In my Dreams." That childhood story and dozens more grew, changed, and was revamped over the years.

     It took three years after receiving my Communication degree from the University of California, San Diego, before I sat down and decided it was time to write a book, which I completed two years later. After entering a short story, science fiction contest, winning first place and $100.00 from WritingTree.com and becoming a finalist for my book "The Made" at the Houston Writers Conference 2001, I could finally say, "Okay, I'm ready. Let's try to get published." I've been going for that dream ever since with my husband, a musician, by my side who I met on America Online (yes, another successful story!). My husband and I currently reside in Houston, Texas.

     My SFWoE entry, "A Carnival Feeling," began with one of the strange many dreams I seem to have when I close my eyes at night. If I remember, I'll write a dream down and keep it in a notebook for later viewing. This particular dream stuck with me until I finally had to write its story . . . .

(SFWoE Note:   Both of the well-written stories LaZealtrice Addeana Jackson submitted to our 2002 contest were unique, but as unique as her name -- we're not going that far.)

Sixth Place: Stephanie Dray.   Though I spent my youth penning short stories and novels, I never set out to be a writer. Writing, after all, is an impractical profession, so I became a Communications Lawyer instead.

     I had hoped The Law would inspire me, fill me with faith, and help me fight for the things that I believed in. Instead, I miserably hated my job and felt compelled to "go along to get along" in a justice system I felt was broken.

     My wonderful husband eventually convinced me to leave The Law behind and has been extremely supportive of my impractical writing career ever since. I've written non-fiction for publications as diverse as The American Bar Association Journal and e-zines, but fantasy fiction remains my first love.

     Together, my husband and I created FiranMUX, an online text-based game set in the fantasy world of my first novel, Elik's Shadow. Today, hundreds of people log in daily to play, and it has become the most successful original-themed game of its kind. It fuels my creative interest and has spawned almost a dozen short stories set in the same world, including my SFWoE entry, "Faith's Forging."

     I am gratified that of all the short stories I have written, "Faith's Forging" first gained recognition from SFWoE, because it reflects my reasons for becoming a writer in the first place.

     Lord Drishon, the protagonist of the story, is an uninspired fighter with no cause to champion. He has spent his life "going along to get along" and doesn't question the system or the rules that govern his society. It is only when events propel him to defend the life of an innocent child that he comes to have faith in anything.

     I write about things that matter to me:  trust, honesty, integrity, redemption, and difficult choices. "Faith's Forging" is a tale that reflects those values and I am grateful that the judges of this contest saw its merits.

     I'll confess to having grown up in snowy New York, getting my bachelor's degree from Smith College in snowy New England, getting my law degree from Northwestern University in snowy Chicago, and settling down with my husband and two cats in the comparatively balmy weather of Baltimore, Maryland.

     I would like to thank Gil Reis for his encouragement, and all those who organized this contest for their time and energy in promoting emerging writers of the genre.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE has provided a link for our readers to visit Stephanie Dray's FiranMUX. Hey, don't forget to come back!)

Seventh Place: Brenda Carre.   When I was five, our house was struck by lightning. It was an actual "bolt from the blue" that took out every electrical appliance in the place and left my ears ringing and my eyes opened. It was, for me, the beginning of a transformation.

     I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, the youngest of three children. At that time I was the second youngest of a huge clan of relatives who owned many of the sprawling prairie farms just north of St. Albert. My father was a storyteller, and a small-town hardware merchant. My mother was a nurse who presided at the deathbeds of many of her own kin. I was raised on stories, on family myth and ritual, and on the nuts and bolts of nineteen fifties prairie shop life. My love of fantasy and science fiction stems from those early days listening to my father make up stories about Abracadabra and his magic carpet. Though my understanding of reality was often "haywire" as my clan put it, I firmly believed from that momentous lightning strike at the age of five that there was more to life than meets the eye.

     When I was seventeen, my father died suddenly from cancer. I was just beginning my Undergraduate studies in Secondary Education at the University of British Columbia. My mother was in the grip of depression. It was a shock no less transformational than having my house nearly explode with electricity. Writing was the release I needed. The voices of the great works of Fantasy and Science Fiction and the powerful mythologies of the world gave me the courage to fight past my pain and to win my Undergraduate degree.

     I wrote and read and painted as a release for my angst. I read everything I could lay hands on and wrote long and short fiction, short contemporary fiction, poetry and short non-fiction. At the age of twenty-two, four years older than my eldest student, I began to teach Art and English in the Vancouver School System. Trial by electrocution would have been easier.

     I am now fifty-two. Since the day lightning struck my house, I've spent thirty years rising again and again from my own educational ashes. I got married, gave birth to two healthy sons and, during those swiftly-passing years as teacher, wife, and mother, I've put together a rather large bin of story ideas.

     Several years ago, when my oldest son was seven and my youngest was three, as a New Years' resolution, I decided to finish "that book." I completed it, edited it four times, and later placed it with an agent. I discovered to my shock that I was teacher, mother, artist, and would-be author. Another reinvention; another transformation. I struggled through the requisite million superfluous words and purple prose. I was galvanized by energy one day and ashes the next. I learned a little too well about rejection letters and the business of writing. I yet struggle toward publication, and thanks to SFWoE, I can begin to believe others might enjoy reading what I write.

     I also attend writers' conferences - a rewarding experience that has brought with it a new series of electrifying experiences and a new generation of stories. Character Con, the story I submitted to SFWoE, is a direct result of my attendance at the World Fantasy Convention. While at the Fantasy Awards banquet, I thought about what it might be like if each of the authors were to have all their characters standing behind them as they ate. This thought led to the idea of a separate conference for fantasy characters and the spin therefrom.

     Now, whatever I write, there is usually some element of fantasy either in the wording or in the slightly out-of-the-box approach I give to most aspects of my life. For me a short story starts differently from a novel. I always begin my short stories with the germ of an idea that becomes fleshed out - almost like the punch line of a joke. The whole process of short story writing feels much easier than novel building because everything is already there at a glance. Despite this ease, my real passion lies with novel writing and with the intricacies of layering and plot, like layering and painting imagery onto canvas. The process of world building has me in thrall. Through writing mythological fantasy I have rediscovered my roots in the land, and my father's love of story. It has charged my life with energy and led me to a continuous and sometimes overwhelming sense of transformation. Struck by lightning. I am indeed.

(SFWoE Note:   Members of the SFWoE Staff usually attend one or two SF or Fantasy conventions during the course of the contest year. From now on, we will check to see if Brenda Carre plans to attend. With all these lightning strikes around Brenda one can't be too careful.)

Eighth Place: Edwin R. Haney.   I am a 34-year-old aspiring author who has become comfortable about my given name of Edwin with age, having gone by the names of Eddie and Ed (called Mr. Ed by friends as a play on the talking horse TV character) in my youth. I live in my Southeastern Ohio hometown with the parents, avoid some conventional obligations, and cling to my unrealized dream of publication. I received my B. A. degree in history from Marshall University at Huntington, WV in 1990, gave up on a history graduate degree, and decided by the late 1990s to use my imagination and become my own boss through fiction writing. I have written four books since 1999 - a horror novel, a science-fiction/supernatural fantasy novel and two sequels to the latter book, but they remain unpublished and need revision.

     From childhood, I have been attracted to possibilities within fantasy, horror, and science fiction in TV and on film. I have shaped my storytelling skills by avidly reading and refereeing in role-playing games, but I probably need additional writing experience to realize my ambitions. I concentrated on novels when I began my career path, but have written more short fiction in 2001 and 2002. My 2002 SFWoE entry, "The Last Minutes For An Elf," is my first recognized writing effort and the first sign of hope that I have a possible future as a writer.

     "The Last Minutes For An Elf" was partly inspired Ambrose Bierce's story "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge." I drew Valron Yelvani and his cousin Toren Dyrgla from characters a friend and I created for a fantasy role-playing game, and Dyrgla's treachery comes from our competing ambitions in that campaign. Reading the Bierce story years ago, I was fascinated by its theme of a man living hours of an escape reality he wanted, during the final seconds before his execution for sabotage during the Civil War.

     In "The Last Minutes For An Elf," Lord Valron Yelvani thinks of happy past episodes in his life to block out his impending execution by humanoid invaders. Valron's final happy recollection of a few days earlier becomes a nightmare as his defense against a hopeless situation breaks down. I did not make Toren Dyrgla a traitor until later drafts and it improved the story, since the cousin's long-planned treachery for power is the truth Valron forgets until reminded at the point of death.

     Discovering the Science Fiction Writers of Earth short story contest in 2001, I am thrilled that "The Last Minutes For An Elf" achieved eighth place in my second year of entry. My thanks to SFWoE Administrator Gil Reis and his staff for this amateur writing outlet, and author Edward Bryant for judging "The Last Minutes For An Elf" as worthy of being in SFWoE's top ten short stories for 2002.

(SFWoE Note:   Several members of the SFWoE 2002 Nominating Committee reported that they enjoyed Edwin's "tall" tale about an elf. And the SFWoE Staff wondered how long it took them to come up with that short line.)

Ninth Place: Steve Dimeo.   Biographical information not available.

Tenth Place: Alvin G. Chua.   I graduated with a B.A. in journalism at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines in 1983. For ten years thereafter I worked as a freelance writer, a newspaper reporter, and a news photographer. I immigrated to the United States in 1993. At present, I do background work (a euphemism for film extra employment) for film and TV in and around the Los Angeles basin area.

     Like most late starters at the fringes of the publishing industry, I did realize at the outset the great difficulties involved in taking on a full time job and nurturing a realistic plan for a literary career at the same time. And so I searched for a low-stress, adequate paying, part-time job, which I found by accident. In my free time, I taught myself to write. I have submitted to publications intermittently during the last nine years, and collected a respectable amount of rejection letters, along with some encouraging ones.

     Three of my submissions were published in small circulation publications. One of my literary short stories came out in Journal 500, a student publication of the University of Arizona, in 1994. I also published soft science fiction shorts in two zines:  Next Phase ("The Frozen Child," issue # 15, 1996), and in Starblade ("Answering Machines," spring 1995 issue). All non-payment events!

     It can go without saying, I have been trying my hand at both science fiction and mainstream fiction markets (and these attempts included failed bids on movie screenwriting). Two years ago, I completed the first draft of a literary novel, and I have been putting off plans to write science fiction in the long form. This procrastination probably has much to do with the daunting task of scientific research that must go with any major science fictional endeavor. By far, my tenth place inclusion at the SFWoE contest has been my most encouraging accomplishment yet in the genre. I am sure there are lots of good amateur science fiction writers out there and I really hope there were more outlets - the likes of SFWoE - for them.

     My SFWoE entry,"The Last Feast of the Fin Men," was my first attempt at writing a hard science fiction short story.

(SFWoE Note: SFWoE thanks all of the 2002 Top Ten contestants who sent in their biographical information.) 

03/15/03   "When the train lurches into movement, Miranda examines the man in the overcoat. His eyes are huge and hollow, rimmed with red swollen flesh. The overcoat that hugs him is thick and enveloping as the night beyond the window." These words by Julie Waight send her readers of "The Overcoat" on a dark fantasy ride to freighting terror.

Rob:  Congratulations, Julie, on taking out the 2002 SFWoE competition. Several Australians have finished in the top ten over the last few years, but you're the first to earn top billing. Tell us a little about Julie Waight. What do you do when not writing, why do you do it, and how did you end up doing that and not something else?

Julie:  I can't remember being so excited about winning a competition. The SFWoE Competition is held in such high regard, it took a while for the news to sink in!

I've been writing since I can remember, and assumed I'd end up being an author, as one does when young and optimistic, but we have to pay those bills. I was a Primary School teacher for ten years, during which time I wrote countless short stories and began three novels and didn't finish one. I've been an aerobics instructor, cleaned houses and worked in a milkbar. Then my sister opened a fairyshop and I became a storyteller, which was right up my alley.

But when the year 2000 loomed on the horizon, I realized I hadn't achieved any of my writing dreams, so I began attending local neighborhood house courses to get the creative juices flowing again. I got super serious the following year by enrolling in Professional Writing and Editing at the Victorian University of Technology in St. Albans, Melbourne.

Rob:  "The Overcoat." How did the story come about? Did anything suggest it to you:  Something you read, or saw on television? Or is it just one of those things which can happen late at night in front of the keyboard and a blank screen?

Julie:  I wrote "The Overcoat" at a local neighborhood house course held by Pat Kelsall. I can't remember the exact task that was set, but it had something to do with a train and an unknown destination. "The Overcoat" was what "slunk" out of my mind. It was great fun to write.

Rob:  This story seems to rely on the sort of outré speculations which made The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits so successful. Is this the way Julie Waight thinks? Is this piece typical of your writing, or does your style vary?

Julie:  I definitely think in terms of the dark and menacing. I'm a great fan of the Twilight Zone, The Night Stalker and The X-Files. "The Overcoat" is typical of my writing. I love a grisly tale and have yet to write anything that has a happy ending. In fact most of my stories conclude with the feeling . . . I know it's been a rough ride, but now things are really going to get unpleasant.

Rob:  Those writing classes you're taking in St. Albans, can you tell us a little about that? Is it helping you to progress as a writer, and if so, how?

Julie:  Professional Writing and Editing is wonderful! I've learnt so much about structure, theme, plotting and characterization. Some things are intrinsic, you think, yeah, well, I didn't know it was called that, but I've been doing it for years. Other information hits you right between the eyes and not only do you realize why something you've written isn't working, you know how to fix it! One of the most beneficial aspects of the course is the workshopping. Having a group of people give you feedback is indispensable and confronting. Sometimes it can even be more grueling than riding the last train on a Tuesday night, but well worth the trip!

Rob:  I've always held that, to write well, you must first read well and widely. Is that true for you? Who are some of the authors you most enjoy? What sort of influence have they had on your voice or style?

Julie:  Stephen King is my favorite author. No one spins a tale like him. But while I'm waiting for his next thrilling installment I read Peter Straub, Dean R. Koontz, Michael Crichton and Clive Barker. Doing Professional Writing and Editing, I'm made to read a variety of more literary novels. My favorite books would have to be the ones I've read over and over . . . The Once and Future King by T.H. White, The Stand by Stephen King, The Hobbit by Tolkien, The Great Gastby by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, and Mary Shelley's Monster.

Rob:  Victoria is blessed with a vibrant SF/F community:  there's the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, the Mount Waverly Mafia producing Aurealis . . . we held the world SF convention in Melbourne a couple years ago. Are you connected to that scene? Would you like to be? What's Blackwood like from the POV of a writer?

Julie:  Being a single mum and living in Blackwood (a breathtaking place, but very cold and a little on the isolated side of things) I haven't had much of a chance to take advantage of the great SF/F community. I've attended numerous regional workshops and have frequented the Country Festival of Writing at Shepparton. I'm sure that winning this competition will give me a mighty shove in the direction of future fantasy conventions.

Rob:  Tell us a little about how you write. Do you generate something every day, or work in spurts? Any special times of day, writing ceremonies, that sort of thing?

Julie:  I write in spurts, no doubt about it. When I'm onto something, I'll work day and night until my fingers just about drop off, then I mightn't tap a key for a month. I actually completed a novel last year -- which was a feat in itself, no matter what anyone may think of the actual value of the thing. I'm writing the next now. A fantasy (surprise, surprise) and this one's flowing so much easier that I realize I've got to rewrite the first one. As daunting as I first felt this to be, I'm now rather looking forward to it. When it comes to writing novels, you really need to write regularly, to keep the characters and plot fresh in your mind. But when I need a break from the arduous chore of it, I write a short story. I love short stories. Stephen King wrote in the intro of his short story collection Skeleton Crew, "Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair...a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger. "It's the truth!

Rob:  Many writers, including me, find that story ideas, lines of dialogue, plot twists and suchlike pop into mind at inconvenient times during the day, rather than in front of the keyboard. Is this true for you? Do you keep a writer's notebook?

Julie:  The best ideas always occur while I'm driving, or lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. I have journals galore, full of ideas, pieces of dialogue, descriptions and characters for short stories and novels. Social events are inspiring too. Often someone says something that sparks an idea and I cry, "quick, give me a pen and a piece of paper!"

Rob:  To paraphrase Paul Valéry, inspiration has nothing to do with the writer; it's the state in which the writer hopes to put the reader. I think he's calling attention to the huge amount of work involved in crafting a powerful story. Very seldom, in my experience, does a tale spring up fully formed; it's the polishing and editing which make it succeed. How about you? Feel free to disagree. . .

Julie:  I agree that a story is seldom born fully formed. It's one of the first things you learn when you get serious about writing for an audience. I remember giving an early story I'd written to a friend. She told me I had the skeleton of a story and that I needed to flesh it out. I was devastated. She was right. She still reads my work, my first port of call so to speak, and that's because she's honest and I respect her opinion. Having said that, I must admit that "The Overcoat" is pretty much the way it first appeared. BUT, before I send anything off to a competition I print it out, sit down with a cup of coffee and make myself change something. In the case of "The Overcoat" I changed the story to present tense. I think that made the action more gripping.

Rob:  Is there anything in particular you'd like to say to this year's SFWoE participants? Advice, encouragement? Warnings?

Julie:  The best advice I can give to this year's participant is; go for it! As much as I like "The Overcoat" (I wouldn't have sent it if I hadn't felt it had something to offer) I couldn't believe I'd won. My initial thought was, surely among all those writers, from all those countries, someone must have written a better story than mine! So, take a chance. Writers are often their own worse critics.

AND, if you're not in a writer's group, get in one quickly! Workshop your stories and find out what people like about your work, and more importantly, what they don't.

Rob:  I guess that's it, then. Thanks, Julie, for a little window into your experience. And for a very fine tale!

(SFWoE Note:   The SFWoE Staff in Fort Worth, Texas thanks our Australian Representative Rob Riel for his time and effort to bring this interview to our contestants. To read Julie's winning story, click on the SFWoE Swirl below.) 

03/16/03   "Maggie watched in fascinated horror as La Dame en Blanche -- the Lady in White -- floated across the scrubby summit of the giant rock that lay just off the sheer cliffs of the fishing village of Percé, Quebec. The rock emerged from the northern Atlantic like the petrified prow of a giant ship, a ruddy limestone monolith capped with a thin thatch of sea grasses, its seaward end drilled into a yawning archway by millennia of waves pounding against its mighty base."

     This is the setting of Genevieve Kierans' "The Lady of Land's End":  the easternmost part of Quebec, a rocky peninsula jutting into the ocean that, with its sudden mists and screaming gannets, scarcely needs a ghost to seem haunted.

     Sixteen year old Maggie has come to stay in Percé with her Grandpère, and she is angry. The house is boring, with no television or computer, just endless shelves of books. Her Grandpère keeps calling her Marguerite instead of Margaret and telling her old French-Canadian stories, like the story of La Dame en Blanche. And worst of all, her mother has left on a honeymoon cruise with Maggie's new stepfather. But Maggie still remembers her own father, who died so suddenly that she never had a chance to say good-bye.

     Maggie refuses to believe in La Dame en Blanche, even after she sees her in the mists off the coast of Percé. But we know she is real because, in an ingenious twist, Kierans gives us the ghost's story as well. The privileged and beautiful Blanche de Beaumont, also sixteen, grieves when the Chevalier de Nérac is sent to New France to serve in the Indian wars. But when he fails to return for their wedding, she sails across the Atlantic to find her beloved. Blanche's story is an adventure, involving an illegitimate child, fearsome pirates, and a love so strong that it can end only in tragedy. In comparison, Maggie's story is the ordinary sort of adventure that we encounter every day. She must somehow come to accept the loss of her father, her mother's marriage, and most importantly her French-Canadian heritage. Only then will she be able to understand and accept herself.

     This story is told in beautifully evocative prose, in whose cadences you can hear waves crashing on the rocks of Percé. If Kierans had not mentioned the care she took in researching "The Lady of Land's End," I would assume she had spent her life along that haunted coast. But what makes this story particularly satisfying is Maggie herself. Kierans remembers what it was like to be sixteen. Maggie is given an interior monologue that expresses her frustration, loneliness, and finally fear -- when she tries to run from her problems, only to find herself out on the rocks in a dangerous storm. When La Dame en Blanche appears, there will be a death -- or so say the fishermen of Percé. Perhaps this time the ghost has come for her?

     Kierans' conclusion is bot