Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Thursday 1 January 2601 (Earth Relative Time)

She took a deep breath to quell her nerves. This is my last chance to make a good impression. Because a third strike would not be a good career move. As Ensign Darlene Charles picked her way through the dimly lit mess littering the docking bay, the quantity of unwashed bottles and glasses heaped in bins testified to the magnitude of the party. A sour stench from trash containers suggested many partied too well, an unfortunate reminder of some early college mornings. Ahead, the starship’s giant hangar doors were closed, unusual in port. But a smaller man-sized hatch remained open allowing her to step through into bright lights and a fresh, cleaner smell.

"Hullo?" The tentative voice might’ve echoed in the vast chamber, but in truth the sound was more swallowed up by the emptiness. Darlene had never seen a single cargo compartment stretch off in the distance for more than one hundred meters and had to be fully sixty meters wide. Thick armored doors separating the cargo bay from the hangar bay were opened all the way, as were smaller compartments aft of the hangar adding to the space. Short, blond and still a very new ensign, she felt tiny. Intimidated by a military cargo ship was not how she’d expected to start this day. She’d looked up the Evensong in the Fleet registry and as one of just eight officers in a crew of twenty-two, this ship was a lot bigger than she’d thought it’d be.

"Wow," was all she could say.

Since June 2002, I've submitted a story to the Writers of the Future contest every quarter. But Dr. Phil, if you were published in WOTF Volume XXIV, from the 2007 Q3 contest, why are you still submitting? Excellent question! My story, "A Man in the Moon" was a Published Finalist and not a winner -- and as I currentlt only have two SFWA-eligible pro sales, I still have contest eligibility left. With 30 out of 37 submissions receiving some level of recognition, WOTF Contest Director Joni Labaqui thinks this may be some sort of a record, although there don't appear to be complete stats over the lifetime of the contest.

Someone else might consider my lack of winning as beating my head against the wall. But I don't see it that way. After all, if you just consider WOTF as a market, it pays better and has higher visibility than most. Why wouldn't you send new work to them?

Every ninety days.

The Results:
Rejected 6
No Call  1
Finalist 3 (1 published in WOTF XXIV, 2 in one year)
Semi     2
Quarter 10
H-M     15 (Quarter+H-M = 25)
Total   37
Subs    38 (WOTF Q4 2011 in)

Post-WOTF:
Published    6
Readings     3
Website      1

It might seem strange that only six stories from all these have been published. But only about half of my finished stories have gone to WOTF -- and often these were the first versions. It is, after all, a numbers game. For WOTF stories the publication rate is 1 in 5.5 stories, for all my stories it's 1 in 4.5. Pretty close. And whether any story fits what an editor -- or a judge -- wants at any time, is a matter of preference. And yes, I rewrite everything when it comes back.
Me? I'm pleased.

04/27/05 23:24 Wed

Hail to the Victors Version 1.0

okay, this is the opposite of a happy winning warrior story – the humans are too stupid to quit

Entries submitted electronically must be double-spaced and must include the title and page number on each page, but not the author's name. Electronic submissions will separately include the author's legal name, pen name if applicable, address, telephone number, email address and approximate word count.

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
----Douglas Adams

Rejected   5
No Call    1 (apparently USPS lost some subs in Dec 2002)
Finalist   3 (1 published in WOTF XXIV, 2 Finalists in one year, 2007 Q1 Q3)
Semi-F     2
Quarter-F 10 (designation changed to Honorable Mention in 2007)
H-M        9 (Quarter+H-M = 19)
Total     30 (24 certificate rank)
Subs      31 (WOTF 2010 Q1 in)

* "The Brother on the Shelf", May 2009 Analog, was originally part of that first entry, "Home Front".
* "Boxes", published in CrossTime anthology Vol. V.
* "Machine", published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #38, March 2009.
* "In the Blink of an Eye", published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #39, June 2009.

A Man in the Moon by Dr Philip Edward Kaldon.

This is the baker’s dozen of the anthology. It didn’t place in the competition but the judges liked it enough to fill out the book.

Gene Fisher-Hall is a terminally ill astronaut who wants to hold onto his job and wishes to spend the rest of days on the moon. He uses loopholes in the regulations, the press, and his folksy down-home charm to get his way.

I found this to be not much more than a story of a workaholic that doesn’t want to hang it up, set in space. I did enjoy a scene where Gene needs to overcome his arthritic-like disease to avoid a disaster. A Man in the Moon is easy to fall into but it went on way too long. Halfway through I started to wonder if it had an ending.

Grade: B minus

A+  1
A   1
A-  3
B+  1
B   1
B-  2
C+  1
C   3

Steven Savile They had a montage up of all 500 book covers from previous winners at wotf, familiar faces zipping by, a dance troop and Emery Huang just won a trip on the Cairo leg of the World Airship Race 2010 - how steampunk is that? Racing to the Pyramids in a blimp!