Probably unique to our genre of readers, a very high percentage of those who read SF/F (I’m not fond of the designation “Sci-Fi,” for reasons I’ve explained before), intend to become writers and/or illustrators for the said genres. I don’t think the same holds true for any other genre of writing. And many of those beginning or would-be writers and illustrators are looking for an easy entry into the professional end of the businesses of writing and/or illustration—to date, there has really only been one actual easy entry, and that’s L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future.
Back in 1984, the first contest I know of for WoTF (it’s still run quarterly) was promoted, and I and a bunch of my friends submitted stories (I used to run, or chair, a writers’ group in Moscow, Idaho); and at least two of us were selected for publication in the first volume of WoTF—Jon Gustafson, who didn’t win a prize (but got paid for the story), and Dean Wesley Smith, who did win a prize (and got paid for the story).
This contest is a gateway to professional publication; you can read the rules online or in the book you’re surely going to buy after reading my recommendation. Both contests are professionally judged by big names in writing or illustration, and even if you don’t win a prize, you’ll get a handsome “Honorable Mention” award like mine, to hang on the wall. Previous judges have included such personages as Algis (A.J.) Budrys, Jack Williamson, Frank Kelly Freas, Frank Frazetta, and more. Present judges include Robert J. Sawyer, Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Kevin J. Anderson, Jody Lynn Nye, Nnedi Okorafor, Craig Elliott, Larry Elmore and Echo Chernik. The stories and illustrations are judged anonymously; that is, the writer or artist’s name does not appear on the submissions the judges see. Figures 2 & 3 show two of this year’s Illustrators of the Future winners.
Let me start out by telling you my opinion of this book (full disclosure—I got it for free, but that doesn’t influence me. You can ask my wife.) I think it’s an excellent book, even better than last year’s volume, with several stories that, IMO, qualify as fully professional (and ditto several of the illustrations), and well worth reading (and viewing)—and the rest are very high-quality near-professional works. And I don’t say that to curry favour with the editor, writers, judges or publisher; I actually enjoyed reading this book, even though it cost me dearly in terms of eyestrain. (I have AMD, an eye condition that makes it hard to see.) So let’s dig right in; here is some fo the writing that impressed me the most, in no particular order.
Figures 2 and 3 show a couple of the diverse styles of the artists herein; Figure 2 is an illustration to a Tim Powers story—not one of the entries, one of the judges’ stories—that impressed me, “My Name Was Tom.” This story takes place on a boat—probably the biggest ocean liner that has ever been—and the ending will surprise you. It’s typically well-written, but what else can you expect from Powers? Figure 3, illustrating “Thirty Minutes or It’s a Paradox” by Patrick McPhee, is about a pizza delivery. No, wait, it’s about a pizza non-delivery, but it gets sidetracked into a multidimensional romp, but not by the protagonist, who’s the guy who was supposed to get the pizza there on time. (I did that for a while, and it’s not a fun job, let me tell you, in spite of the tips—when you get them.) Because he didn’t do it right, he set off a whole chain of multidimensional mishaps and met a bunch of… well, you should read it yourself. It’s fun and well done. Since I don’t want this to be twenty pages long, I’ll just pick a few of the best stories and illustrations to convince you this is a book well worth buying. Here are the contents:
“Introduction” by Jody Lynn Nye; “The Illustrators of the Future Contest” by Echo Chernik; Art Gallery (all colour); “Storm Damage” by T. R. Naus, illustrated by Haileigh Enriquez; “Blackbird Stone” by Ian Keith, illustrated by Marianna Mester; “Kill Switch” by Robert F. Lowell, illustrated by Jordan Smajstrla; Message and “How to View Art” by L. Ron Hubbard; “Tough Old Man” by L. Ron Hubbard, illustrated by Dwayne Harris; “Karma Birds” by Lauren McGuire, illustrated by Breanda Petsch; “The Boy from Elsewhen” by Barlow Crassmont, illustrated by Daniel Montifar; “Code L1” by Andrew Jackson, illustrated by HeatherAnne Lee; “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Theme)” article by Robert J. Sawyer; “Under False Colours” by Sean Williams, inspired by Craig Elliott’s “Creature of the Storm”; “Ascii” by Randyn C. J. Bartholomew, illustrated by Tremani Sutcliffe; “Slip Stone” by Sandra Skalski, illustrated by Haileigh Enriquez; “The Stench of Freedom” by Joel C. Scoberg, illustrated by John Barlow; “An Artist’s Path,” article by Tom Wood; “My Name Was Tom” by Tim Powers, illustrated by Gigi Hooper; “The Rune Witch” by Jefferson Snow, illustrated by David Hoffrichter; “Thirty Minutes or It’s a Paradox” by Patrick MacPhee, illustrated by Cam Collins; “A World of Repetitions” by Seth Atwater Jr., illustrated by CL Fors; and finally, “The Year in the Contests.” Whew! Quite the list, isn’t it? (All stories are accompanied by a greyscale version of the illustrations made for them.)
Although I didn’t think all the illustrations showed each artist’s skill equally, there were a few standouts for me, particularly the two mentioned above as well as the art for “Kill Switch,” “Karma Birds,” “The Boy From Elsewhen” and “Tough Old Man,” though the rest of the art was at least competent. Hubbard had a couple of really cogent statements in his article, which echoed a number of things told to me by Kelly Freas; namely, that art has to say something, particularly if it’s an illustration—it must involve the viewer emotionally or at lest intellectually and say something about the story. And all the artists seem to have learned what I’ve told convention artshow entrants for years—human and animal figures must have bones and muscles, so learn anatomy!
I won’t mention which entries in the writing category were award winners, so that I can talk about the fiction according to its merits. There are standouts—though again, all the writing, both fiction and nonfiction (I call attention to Robert J. Sawyer’s article here as one standout) was at the least competent. One fiction standout was “Ascii” by Randyn C. J. Bartholomew, which was an exploration of how AI might evolve to the benefit of both AI entities and humanity at large, especially given how fast those entities might think compared to our slow, feeble, organic minds. Would they be capable of human-like emotion? Love, hate, envy, greed, etc.? Would they have the same sort of survival instinct that organic creatures have? A good theme, well written. Another one that impressed me was “The Stench of Freedom,” by Joel C. Scoberg. This is a “scientific fantasy” that appears to be uniquely based on the idea that humans can be imbued with the power of elementals (called gods or goddesses) from birth; all the names seem to be Welsh—and the electricity of this nineteenth-century appearing society appears to come from physically harnessing and abusing those, called “sparkies” who are born with the power of Taranis, god of the lightning element. Our protagonist, Hywel, is an “earther” (we’d say “ground” in electric terms, where people from the British Isles say “earth”) whose task is to seek out sparkies and earth them, then capture them to produce electricity (“lightning”). The conflict arises when Hywel’s wife gives birth to a sparky. Whoops! Well thought out and written.
“Kill Switch,” by Robert F. Lowell, is another SF, rather than fantasy, story. It concerns a self-aware robot, “Lima Echo Mike 9236-2745-3142” (or “Lem” for short), who (I’ll use human pronouns here) awakens in a junk dealer’s yard in a future San Francisco, being bought by a woman who wishes him to capture a drug dealer who was responsible for her brother’s death. Lem tells her that his programming (he has two “brains,” a low and a high; the low brain does the reacting and the high brain the conceptualizing) prohibits him, as a former Law Enforcement Model, from killing the dealer. The story arises from that programming. For me, as a former San Franciscan, it’s a lot of fun seeing familiar landmarks (Yerba Buena, the Mission District, etc.) in what is a “future noir” story. It’s well thought out, and although the ending was telegraphed a bit, still a lot of fun to read. The illustration, by Jordan Smajstrla, is another good one.
I’d love to review each and every story and illustration in this anthology, but I’m sure that for some of you, it’s already “TLDR” (Too Long, Didn’t Read), so I’ll let it go at this, and hope this has given you enough of the flavour of the book to encourage you to pick up your own copy.
If you’d like to say something about this solumn you can comment here or on Facebook, or even by email (stevefah at hotmail dot com). I welcome comments, even those that differ from mine. My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
