New Pulp Sci-Fi Market: Ray Gun Revival

A writer friend and editor passed along the news that Every Day Publishing will be relaunching Ray Gun Revival in February as a semi-pro online magazine. They're looking for some good old pulp science fiction; less about the science and more about the story.

In their words:

Ray Gun Revival (RGR) is an online magazine dedicated to fun stories, grand escapism, and good old sensawunda. RGRl provides just that, a throwback publication that revisits space opera and golden age sci-fi. Their stories focus more on character development than hard science and sail all the wide-open waters between science fantasy and harder SF. Think of the original Star Wars stories, Doc Smith's Lensman series, the Warlord of Mars tales from Edgar Rice Burroughs. Think of everything from John Carter and Gully Foyle to Kimball Kinnison and Han Solo. They are bringing out the deepest elements of what has traditionally been rather superficial fiction and updating them for a new generation of fiction enthusiasts.

It's always fun to find a new market, and especially for such an underserved niche.

LosCon 37

I'm going to be at LosCon 37 this Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be on three panels, one on Friday and two on Saturday. I'll also be autographing at 11:30am on Saturday. I'll have copies of WotF 26 on me should anyone wish to stop by and pick up a copy!

Here's my panel schedule:

Friday 4:30 p.m. – New Orleans
Developing Good Writing Habits -- Avoiding the Bad

Saturday 1:00 p.m. – New Orleans
Writing Formidable Women

Saturday 4:00 p.m. – New Orleans
A jury of peers - When to join a critique group.

Interview Up At Writers of the Future Site

There's an interview of my experience with the Writers of the Future contest up at the WotF site. It's a novel feeling seeing a photo of myself up there, especially all made up in a fancy dress. I hope I sound all right in the interview page. I'm told I do, but I'm not a good judge of my own speech.

There is one thing I should point out though, the interview mentions that I'm an exec at a game company. I'm not. My title is Project Lead and I think the interviewer may have gotten confused.

In other news, my contributor copies of WotF 26 have arrived and are now safely stowed in my closet and I need to find a place to hang the print of Irena Kovalenko's haunting artwork for my story.

Writers of the Future Now Available as an eBook

I received word from Galaxy Press that Writers of the Future Volume XXVI is now available in the iBookstore and on Kindle. The Barnes & Noble ebook store and Sony ebook reader are soon to follow.

I'd been wondering about that since I saw Amazon had the electronic version listed and it wasn't for pre-order like the paperback version.

The paperback should be out on October 19th according to Amazon.

Upcoming Coverage in Locus

I found a little blurb on the Locus web site regarding this year's Writers of the Future ceremony. There will complete coverage of the event in the October issue of the magazine.

I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Picture of the Gold Award Winners

John Goodwin of Galaxy Press, the publisher of the Writers of the Future anthologies, was kind enough to pass on today's copy of the daily Publisher's Weekly newletter. They have a picture of the day at the bottom and I'm in it!

I'm in the middle with the red dress. Makes me easy to find, doesn't it!

I remember having to go up and pose for photos after the ceremony was over, but at the time I had no idea where or if I would ever see those photos. I'm relieved at how well it turned out. I was in make-up for three hours the afternoon leading up to the ceremony, and I didn't get a good look at my overall appearance because I was in such a hurry that I was about to miss the photo shoot if I didn't get dressed! As it was, I missed the opportunity for an interview because I was tied up so long. (I'm sorry!)

Standing with me in the photo are Ron Lindahn, illustrator judge; June Scobee Rodgers, our keynote speaker (her speech had me in tears!); Gunhild Jacobs of Galaxy Press; Seth J. Rowanwood, the Gold Award winner for the illustrators (he has the most awesome business cards!); John Goodwin, president of Galaxy Press; Joni Labaqui, our extremely helpful contest director; Martin Kove, one of the actors who helped present the awards; and K. D. Wentworth, who is probably best known to aspiring writers as the coordinating judge of the Writers of the Future contest.

All entries go through K. D. first, and she was kind enough to pass mine on for further judging. If she hadn't enjoyed "Living Rooms" I wouldn't be where I am now!

Welcome to the Rebirth of the Rat's Den

The Rat's Den was my old writer web site. It's not back in presentable shape, but upon the advice of one Jordan Lapp I have at least set up a web presence, which is important when one is the winner of a prestigeous award.

It's difficult to explain everything in a single beginning blog post, at its simplest level I am a fantasy and science fiction writer and this past Saturday I recently won the the grand prize to the annual Writers of the Future contest. WotF is intended for the amateur writer who may have the talent, but lack the professional credits to establish themselves. The contest is extremely well regarded, and the combined prize money for winning the grand prize is more substantial than some authors receive for their first novel.

I'm afraid I sound very frank in this opening post, with none of the emotion that should have come from winning such a momentous award, but I really just wanted to write this to get the blog started. I've listed my fellow WotF Winners in my blog sidebar. If you somehow manage to stublem across my blog at this early date, please go visit my fellow winners as well.

We were all there together, and it was a experience I wanted to soak up for all it was worth. I don't normally stay up to 2 or 3 in the morning, but I did, because these guys were all a class act, I wanted to hang out with them, and I knew I would miss them once the workshop was over. I already do.

And if you're reading this, guys, what Tom said was right. We gotta take over the world!