Spotted this review over at the Baryon Review

The volume opens with this years winning entry, “Garden of Tian Zi” by Emery Huang. It is a tale of a conglomerate run future and genetic engineering that also shows there can still be a human relationship. Donald Mead shows an unusual tale of the results of the bombing of Hiroshima in “The Shadow Man”. Gra Linnaea’s “Life in Steam” is a steampunk tale that shows the Church as inquisitor yet again. Fiona Lehn takes an alternate THE LONG WALK/RUNNING MAN tale and adds in charity, multicorps, and war in “The Assignment of Runner ETI”. Heather McDougal gives a western setting in a dying gold rush town where “The Candy Store” just happens to open. Jordan Lapp gives the story of a Phoenix in “After the Final Sunset, Again”. There are plenty of others between the covers to give you interest and leave you waiting to see what the writers do next.

All in all, a positive review. Congrats to everyone involved.

The Phoenix seems to be connecting with people at least enough that they mention my name in reviews (which is not bad seeing as how I’m the second-to-last story in the book). Man, that’s a great feeling!

Tags: reviews, Writers of the Future XXV

I spotted this link over at the SFReader forums posted by Andre L. West which inspired me to write about potentially fake or scam writing contests.

How can you spot a fake contest?

• They don’t post the previous winners.

Dream Quest One does post its previous winners, and indeed any contest, legitimate or otherwise will be able to post previous winners so long as they’ve been running for a while, so this is not of particular importance, but still the first thing you should check.

• They post previous winning entries, but they are of extremely low quality.

Dream Quest One’s previous 1st place winner is posted here. I’ll let you judge the story’s quality on your own, but since this contest claims (from the SFReader link) to attract 400-500 entries per quarter, it’s surprising that a better written story could not be found.

• The previous winners have no web profile.

This is possible, but is it probable in today’s day and age? None of Dream Quest One’s previous winners has a significant web presence. My own web presence is paltry, but at least I have one. So does nearly every writer I know. This is a clearly a red flag.

• The editor/contest organizer has no web presence other than the contest.

Scammers tend not to want their real names associated with a bogus contest, and so develop only a very thin web alias to take responsibility. A Google search of Andre L West reveals dozens of links having to do with the contest, but almost nothing else. Again, not definitive, but certainly a red flag.

• They charge a fee.

This one is a little more problematic. Legitimate contests also charge fees (with Writers of the Future, with no fee, being the notable exception) . Often these fees are for fundraising purposes and go to support the magazine. I have absolutely no problem with this, and in fact, EDF will be launching its own fee charging contest soon (with all proceeds going to raise our payment rates).

However.

A key thing here is to look at a contest fees vs prize payouts. The top fiction prize at Dream Quest One is $500 (for poetry, it’s an even lower $250), whereas the entry fee is $10 USD. Seems about right, doesn’t it? Except that if they attract, as advertised, 400-500 entries, then they are pulling in $4-5000. For a payout of $1275. Where does the extra 3K go? There’s no magazine or other charitable cause attached to the contest. Mr. West claims it goes to administration, which means the fees for administering the contest are a staggering 75% of gross.

• They pay their judges.

Again, thorny. It’s common for even legitimate contest to offer a stipend (we plan to for the EDF contest). However, you also get big names and advertise the heck out of them. You’re paying them to attach their name to your contest. If they have no name to speak of, what are you paying for? Slush reader is a volunteer position after all.

• The contest doesn’t normally publish fiction.

SFReader has a contest that asks for publication rights when they don’t normally publish fiction. However, SFReader is a huge, thriving site where it’s likely your work will get seen. Same thing for Writers Digest. Dream Quest One appears to exist solely to support the contest. Sure they publish your work there, but who is going to be reading your work? Other contest entrants. Period.

So what is my conclusion regarding whether or not Dream Quest One is a scam writing contest? From the points above, it’s hard to say. There are lots of red flags, but instead of being a scam, it could simply be poorly thought out and incompetently administered. Either way, you won’t see me shelling out money to enter.

Tags: Contests, Dream Quest One, Scams

Spotted this review over at the Asimov’s forums done by John E. Rogers Jr.

Rogers covers every story in separate posts on this page and the previous one. His review of “After the Final Sunset, Again” is extremely favourable (yay!):

This Gaimanized theofantasy blazes along at the speed of a wildfire, slowing only when the flames of the story are cooled by the unnatural, though clever, extension of the main character’s life. The tale is advanced greatly by the author’s decision not to backfill. Let the readers add the remaining pieces of the puzzle as they see fit. We start with the raging coalescence of an actual Phoenix – a female, in human guise – swirling into being out of raw background elements – in an empty apartment somewhere in an unnamed American city. This creature, we learn, is designed to live but a day – self-incinerating at sunset, to be born afresh the next morning, with no recollection of her past deeds or fiery demise. Her mission is to proceed immediately into the bowels of the city, save as many people as she can from accidental death, and take other life-improving steps for mankind. To make her way in the world, the Phoenix borrows memories and life lessons from the minds of the (mostly) unsuspecting tenants in the neighoring flats.

However, after millennia of uninterrupted 24 hour cycles of birth-service-death, something unusual happens to our particular Phoenix. During her birth. she encounters another supernatural force and – for the first time – begins to resent her accelerated mortality. What she does to stave it off is the meat of the tale.

A real standout.

In his summation, he breaks out with some further praise:

From the fantasy quarter, I give the top nod to Lapp’s “After the Final Sunset, Again.” Like Linnaea’s story, this one dared to reach further, take more chances. McDougal’s “The Candy Store” was also memorable – for its hybridized vision and its warmth.

Colour me overjoyed!

Tags: reviews, Writers of the Future, Writers of the Future XXV

I got a note from Crystalwizard who is the publisher behind the exciting new webzine Abandoned Towers asking me to spread the word about the magazine.

Crystalwizard has singled-handedly done a lot for the short fiction community. She was responsible for re-launching Flashing Swords Magazine, helps out over at Bewildering Stories, is the review editor at SFReader, and is the driving force behind crystalwizard productions (publisher of Tears of Ishtar, a fantastic sword and sorcery novel by my good friend Michael Ehart).

Now, unlike the nearly constant pleas for assistance from struggling writers and publishers, she’s not asking for money. She’s asking us to spread the word about her magazine. That’s right, she believes in her work so much that she knows it will sell if we can just get the word out. Now that’s the kind of passion I can get behind.

So if you’re reading this, please consider reposting the text below on your own blog. Just cut and paste the paragraph below, plop it into your blog, and press “post”. It’s just that easy!

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Have you read anything good today?

Abandoned Towers magazine publishes a wide range of high quality, entertainment — both classics and brand new, never before published pieces. Whether you’re into fantasy, science fiction, westerns, literary fiction, or romances, we’ve got something you’ll enjoy. We also have informative articles on a large number of topics, comics, audio stories, video offerings and an assortment of cool, fun stuff to read. Abandoned Towers print is published 3x a year, Abandoned Towers online is updated on a regular basis, sometimes daily. Remember, what goes into the print issues never goes online and what goes online never goes into print, so if you don’t want to miss something you gotta read both!

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Tags: Abandoned Towers, Kelly Christiansen, markets, Michael Ehart

I was just interviewed by Dave Steffen over at Diabolical Plots. Dave’s a good friend and a heck of a writer. I very much enjoyed doing this interview, since it’s my first in written format since I won Writers of the Future, and Dave’s questions were really thought provoking.

A link to the interview also appeared at the Writers of the Future blog. Warning!!! The picture of me they’ve posted makes it look like I’m two seconds away from leaping at the photographer, ripping off their face, and then eating it. Or maybe that I’ve >just< performed the skin-eating and am immensely pleased about it. Either way… sigh.

Tags: Dave Steffen, Interviews, Writers of the Future