Writers of the Future 32 Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthology by L. Ron Hubbard
He has also worked as a conceptual illustrator for movies and thrill rides, including Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. He did concept work for the feature film Sphere and for the Academy Award–nominated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
Between demanding deadlines for book covers and movies, Bob has illustrated two books of experimental artwork about dragons: Dragonhenge and The Stardragons.
Other books of Bob’s artwork include: Alien Horizons: The Fantastic Art of Bob Eggleton, Greetings from Earth: The Art of Bob Eggleton, The Book of Sea Monsters, Primal Darkness: The Gothic and Horror Art of Bob Eggleton, Dragon’s Domain: The Ultimate Dragon Painting Workshop, and Tortured Souls, a collaboration with Clive Barker. For Easton Press he has done the Centennial Edition of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Also, he and his wife, Marianne Plumridge, have a children’s book: If Dinosaurs Lived in My Town, available from Sky Pony Press.
Bob is a Fellow of the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA). His work has appeared in professional publications and books in the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror around the world. Spacewatch/NASA named asteroid 13562 Bobeggleton in his honor. Most importantly, he was a running extra in the 2002 film Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla.
Directing the Art
This is the second year that I have been asked to serve as Art Director for the Illustrators of the Future Contest winners. In the second phase of the competition, each artist is assigned one of the winning Writers of the Future stories in this volume and they are commissioned to create an illustration for it. Each art piece competes for the best of the year, which merits the Golden Brush Award and a check for $5,000.
It’s hardly a chore.
I practice what I preach in these regards. I just believe, in essence, in letting the artists do their very best work. I can guide and I can suggest, using my own years of experience based on what I think makes a great illustration.
What you have in your hands is some of the very best, upcoming illustrator’s work (oh, and the writer’s work, too, but that isn’t what I am here for). Illustrating what goes on in a writer’s head, becomes text and is supposed to trigger a visual response, is a juggling act.
The truth is, I see little difference between “Art” and “Illustration.” Perhaps it has one difference: Art can invite you to make up a story, Illustration tells you one. Either way, it’s a visual delight.
This year we have some amazing work. I’m not going to single anyone out because that, for me, is impossible, as every artist has a wonderful style that is solely their own. There are works that take us in subtle directions, with limited color palettes to tell the story. Two in particular were total stand-outs. There are dinosaurs, pandas, road warriors and surreal imagery. What awesome talent.
As I always attest, the best illustrations are the ones that juxtapose prosaic imagery with something completely unearthly and weird. What this creates is a sense of recognition of something “normal,” and yet something completely otherworldly is happening! It is in the flux between those points that a great illustration is formed.
As far as techniques, it’s fair to say that whether a person works digitally or traditionally (with brushes, paint, etc.), as far as communication goes, it’s the final image that counts.
Believe me, illustrating a story is no walk in the park! Some authors, while having written a terrific story, have no visual “hooks” in their narrative. Sometimes it’s just a mood. As the great illustrator Norman Rockwell once said, “Some come easy, some come hard.” One idea may just jump at you from page one. With others, several re-reads of the story are required. That is how it goes.
For me as an art director, I tend to like simple, “to the point” images. It need not be cluttered or have too much going on, but an area of focus that is spot on and makes all the areas around it sort of subordinate to it—that’s how I do my own work.
The point is, it’s not only hard work, but it’s fun. If a sense of fun is present in the art, then this will translate to the viewer that the illustrator had some joy doing it.
My opinions, I am sure, differ from other people’s, but I find that in the long run, it’s a popular appeal which judges how well an illustration worked.
Art directing is a learning experience for me as well, as I see how others work. I love seeing the “thumbnails” and concepts for the art. Often the best one, the one the illustrator themselves liked . . . is the one I like. I enjoyed the feedback from the artists. One person even gave me more information, which helped me see where they were going and why they felt strongly on their concept. I like that interplay.
Anyway, behold. Before you is a feast for the eyes and the mind. Go to it!
List of Illustrations by Artist
* * *
Christina Alberici
The Sun Falls Apart
Camber Arnhart
Last Sunset for the World Weary
Dino Hadžiavdić
Freebot
Rob Hassan
Hellfire on the High Frontier
Brandon Knight
A Glamour in the Black
Adrian Massaro
Squalor and Sympathy
Killian McKeown
The Star Tree
Vlada Monakhova
Cry Havoc
Paul Otteni
Images Across a Shattered Sea
Irvin Rodriguez
The Last Admiral
Talia Spencer
Möbius
Jonas Špokas
The Broad Sky Was Mine, And the Road
Preston Stone
Dinosaur Dreams in Infinite Measure
Daniel Tyka
The Jade Woman of the Luminous Star
Maricela Ugarte Peña
The Jack of Souls
Eldar Zakirov
Swords Like Lightning, Hooves Like Thunder
The Year in the Contests
The L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests are undoubtedly two of the largest and longest-running contests of their kind in the world—and still growing by leaps and bounds. In 2015 we celebrated the highest number of entrants ever for both the Writers of the Future and the Illustrators of the Future Contests.
Publishers Weekly, the publishing industry’s highly influential news publication, said of the 2015 anthology, “Genre insiders will find this an excellent place to spot fresh talent,” as the title reached the #7 position on the Publishers Weekly science fiction bestseller list.
Contest entries have originated in 176 different countries, with our first submissions this year from Swaziland, Samoa, Syria, and Saint Vincent.
This year, our writer winners, which include our finalists, semi-finalists, and honorable mentions came from 14 countries, while our illustrator finalists and honorable mentions hailed from 31 countries.
Publications by past winners
Each year, we go to great lengths to try to discover what our past Writers and Illustrators of the Future winners have been up to. It has become a major task. Given the proliferation of online books and magazines around the world, any numbers that we throw out will probably not reflect everything that has been released, though we counted nearly 370 books and stories by our writer winners this past year alone.
So rather than try to list so many titles, we’re going to pass. Listing just the “major” novels somehow doesn’t seem fair.
The same is true for our illustrators. We found dozens of book covers, illustrated books, graphic novels, comics, and so on, and of course much of the artwork done by our illustrators goes into products like video games, movie and television designs, and so on, when the art is only seen once the work hits the big screen. So rather than attempt to summarize all of it, let’s just go straight to our awards.
Tony Pi won Australia’s Aurora Award in the category of Best Poem with “A Hex, with Bees.”
For the Endeavor Award, for Best Novel written by a Northwest American Author, the winner was Jay Lake, for Last Plane to Heaven.
The Hugo Award, granted by Worldcon for Best Novel of the Year, went to the novel Three-Body Problem, written by Cixin Liu and translated by Ken Liu.
Ken Liu also won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for his short story “The Long Haul from the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009.”
Jay Lake won the Locus Magazine Award for Best Collection with Last Plane to Heaven.
Past winner and current contest judge Sean Williams won Australia’s Ditmar Award for his story “The Legend Trap.”
The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel of the Year was won by Brandon Sanderson, our contest judge, for Words of Radiance.
Contest judge Nancy Kress won a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for her novel Yesterday’s Kin.
The Jovian Award was presented to our contest judge, Mike Resnick, for Best Editor, Short Form for his work on Galaxy’s Edge.
Our long-standing judge Larry Niven received the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Award.
New ILLUSTRATOR of the Future Judges
This year we added two new art judges to our distinguished panel:
Artist Rob Prior is unusual in that he often paints with both hands at once—and even does it live, onstage. As a graduate of both the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Rob went on to earn his MFA from the University of Toledo and began his career as a storyteller through his artistic skills at a young age. Using his numerous skills as an illustrator, screenwriter, storyboard artist and more, Rob’s career spans over thirty years of gaming, comics, film, and television experience. He has also been recognized as one of the top intellectual property creators, by his peers, for creating incredibly detailed worlds, characters and stories.
In comics he has worked with Spawn, Terminator, Deep Space 9, Evil Ernie, Melting Pot, Lady Death, and Heavy Metal. As a leading storyboard artist, Rob has provided storyboards for video games, television, and movies such as Terminator 3, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Ghost Rider, just to name a few.
Our second new judge, Echo Chernik has over twenty years of experience as a professional commercial artist in the advertising field, and five years as an instructor of graphics and digital illustration. She specializes in art nouveau–influenced poster design, advertisements, package design, and book covers.
She currently works out of a studio in Sammamish, Washington, and when not illustrating, she also enjoys kick-boxing, target shooting, volunteering in the community, baking and outings with her daughters. She has won numerous awards for her work.
That’s it for 2015. Now on to another stellar year!
For Contest year 32, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest winners are:
First Quarter
1. J. W. Alden
The Sun Falls Apart
2. Rachael K. Jones
Dinosaur Dreams in Infinite Measure
3. Sylvia Anna Hivén
A Glamour in the Black
Second Quarter
1. Stewart C Baker
Images Across a Shattered Sea
2. Ryan Row
The Broad Sky Was Mine, And the Road
3. R. M. Graves
Freebot
Third Quarter
1. Matt Dovey
Squalor and Sympathy
2. H. L. Fullerton
Last Sunset for the World Weary
3. Christoph Weber
Möbius
Fourth Quarter
1. Jon Lasser
The Star Tree
2. Stephen Merlino
The Jack of Souls
3. Julie Frost
Cry Havoc
Published Finalist
-K. D. Julicher
Swords Like Lightning, Hooves Like Thunder
For the year 2015, the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest winners are:
First Quarter
Camber Arnhart
Talia Spencer
Maricela Ugarte Peña
Second Quarter
Christina Alberici
Vlada Monakhova
Dino Hadžiavdić
Third Quarter
Killian McKeown
Paul Otteni
Jonas Špokas
Fourth Quarter
Brandon Knight
Adrian Massaro
Preston Stone
Our heartiest congratulations to all the winners! May we see much more of their work in the future.
NEW WRITERS!
L. Ron Hubbard’s
Writers of the
Future Contest
Opportunity for new and amateur writers of
new short stories or novelettes of science fiction
or fantasy.
No entry fee is required.
Entrants retain all publication rights.
ALL AWARDS ARE ADJUDICATED BY
PROFESSIONAL WRITERS ONLY
Prizes every three months: $1,000, $750, $500
Annual Grand Prize: $5,000 additional!
Don’t delay! Send your entry now!
To submit your entry electronically go to:
www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest
E-mail: [email protected]
To submit your entry via mail send to:
L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest
7051 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90028
WRITERS’ CONTEST RULES
* * *
No entry fee is required, and all rights in the story remain the property of the author. All types of science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome.
By submitting to the Contest, the entrant agrees to abide by all Contest rules.
All entries must be original works, in English. Plagiarism, which includes the use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification. Excessive violence or sex, determined by the judges, will result in disqualification. Entries may not have been previously published in professional media.
To be eligible, entries must be works of prose, up to 17,000 words in length. We regret we cannot consider poetry, or works intended for children.
The Contest is open only to those who have not professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. Professional publication is deemed to be payment of at least six cents per word, and at least 5,000 copies, or 5,000 hits.
Entries submitted in hard copy must be typewritten or a computer printout in black ink on white paper, printed only on the front of the paper, double-spaced, with numbered pages. All other formats will be disqualified. Each entry must have a cover page with the title of the work, the author’s legal name, a pen name if applicable, address, telephone number, e-mail address and an approximate word count. Every subsequent page must carry the title and a page number, but the author’s name must be deleted to facilitate fair, anonymous judging. 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, e-mail address and approximate word count.
Manuscripts will be returned after judging only if the author has provided return postage on a self-addressed envelope.
We accept only entri
There shall be three cash prizes in each quarter: a First Prize of $1,000, a Second Prize of $750, and a Third Prize of $500, in US dollars. In addition, at the end of the year the winners will have their entries rejudged, and a Grand Prize winner shall be determined and receive an additional $5,000. All winners will also receive trophies.
The Contest has four quarters, beginning on October 1, January 1, April 1 and July 1. The year will end on September 30. To be eligible for judging in its quarter, an entry must be postmarked or received electronically no later than midnight on the last day of the quarter. Late entries will be included in the following quarter and the Contest Administration will so notify the entrant.
Each entrant may submit only one manuscript per quarter. Winners are ineligible to make further entries in the Contest.
All entries for each quarter are final. No revisions are accepted.
Entries will be judged by professional authors. The decisions of the judges are entirely their own, and are final.
Winners in each quarter will be individually notified of the results by phone, mail or e-mail.
This Contest is void where prohibited by law.
To send your entry electronically, go to:
www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest
and follow the instructions.
To send your entry in hard copy, mail it to:
L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest
7051 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90028
Visit the website for any Contest rules updates at:
www.writersofthefuture.com
NEW ILLUSTRATORS!
L. Ron Hubbard’s
Illustrators of the
Future Contest
Opportunity for new science fiction
and fantasy artists worldwide.