Strange New Worlds Anthology Writers Unite!

[Ineti]

As you may (or may not) know, Pocket Books runs an annual short story contest for Star Trek. Submissions are taken, and up to 20 of them are published in an anthology. There are nice cash prizes for the top three stories, and all stories printed garner the author royalties. This contest has run for 5 years now, and seems to be quite successful.

Anyone out there currently writing for the contest or thinking of submitting? I'm working on a couple stories for this year's contest. I was thinking that if there was enough interest, we could create an informal writer's group to help each other write the best stories we could (act as readers, sounding boards, etc.).

Anyone interested?

[Michael Barratt]

I'm interested. I have one particular idea I'm tempted to write, and would enjoy a thread/group/whatever for the purpose of exchanging Trek story rough-drafts, ideas, etc.

The Doc

[Ineti]

Cool, Michael! What I think I'll do is wait a week or so for anyone else who might be interested. If there is interest, I'll set up a Yahoo group or something.

In the meantime, if you want to email me privately, we can get the ball rolling on your story and mine, at least. No sense waiting. It would just be another excuse not to write (for me, anyhow).

[LizardQueen]

Do you have any information about this contest? Like a website? A friend of mine once wrote a Star Trek novel (unpublished), and might want to revise it as a short story (or write a new short story) for the contest.

Thanks!

[TomMarg]

I've dabbled a little with writing, but I seldom finish what i start.

Still getting involved with a trek writers group could be a step in the right direction. Confidence and encouragement would be helpful in pushing me forward, joining such a group, might be just what I would need to write more often.

I'll keep an eye on this thread, to see how this develops......

[Ineti]

Do you have any information about this contest? Like a website?

I have lots of information. The website is www.simonsays.com/startrek. However, they're not real good about posting recent information, so I recommend checking www.psiphi.org for the latest details.

The contest rules can be found in any copy of the Strange New Worlds anthologies (of which there are four, with the fifth due out this spring). The anthologies are available in both trade paperback and mass market editions, at pretty much every major book store (esp. Borders and Barnes and Noble). If you like Trek fiction, I'd recommend reading the stories (if you're planning to write for the contest, I'd recommend reading them as well, if only for research purposes).

As for the contest rules, it's pretty straightforward. The contest is open to nonprofessional writers over the age of 18 who have not published any more than two short stories on a professional basis or in paid professional venues. Entries have to be 7,500 words or less, and must have never been published anywhere else. Natually the stories must be in proper manuscript format for short stories.

Subject matter can be from any of the Trek series or movies, and the stories really should contain at least one Trek regular character or a recurring character (such as Q or Garak).

No graphic violence, no gratutious sex, no establishing the death of a major character or a significant fact about a major character, and no "cliched stories" such as hurt/comfort or "Mary Sue" stories.

You can submit as many stories as you want. Submission deadline for this year will likely be October 1, 2002 (the offical rules for this year aren't out yet, but all five other contests have ended on October 1, so call it an educated guess).

Grand prize is a $1,000 advance on the above the anthology word rate of .10 cents a word.

Second prize is a $600 advance, third prize is $400 advance, and the remaining published stories (honorable mentions; no more than 20) each get the .10 cents a word deal. All winners get a cut of the royalties as well, I believe.

On the simonsays message boards, I asked if the contest would be ending any time soon, and the answer was that it's a hugely popular contest, with lots of entries and lots of book sales, so I imagine this thing will be around for a while.

So, you have nothing to lose by trying. Write the stories, send 'em in. Like any skill, writing improves by practice. So, write, send in, repeat.

If you need more information, please ask away and I'll do the best I can to answer.

[LizardQueen]

Dang, it's hard to cut-and-paste from this board to an email! Thanks for the information, Ineti, I sent it on to my friend.

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Ineti
Cool, Michael! What I think I'll do is wait a week or so for anyone else who might be interested. If there is interest, I'll set up a Yahoo group or something.

In the meantime, if you want to email me privately, we can get the ball rolling on your story and mine, at least. No sense waiting. It would just be another excuse not to write (for me, anyhow).

If you guys decide to go the Group route, let me know. I'll probably just end up lurking, but it'd be interesting to see what others do.

[Ineti]

No problem, LizardQueen. Get your friend to join the boards here and join in the fun!

Another writer never hurts.

So, I see a couple interested folks here; anyone else? I'd like to get this rolling sooner than later, but would feel better with a couple more folks before kicking it off.

[LizardQueen]

Well, he has the link, the rest is up to him!

[OmegaOdd]

I've been toying with the idea of giving this a shot. I think some of the stories that I read in the first two collections were some of the best Star Trek short stories that I have read.

[Ineti]

I agree. I just finished the second volume and am a few pages into the third. I've never read any other Trek short fiction, so I guess when I say some of these stories are the best short Trek stories I've read, I'm not saying much.

Some of them are quite good, though.

[Greg Davis]

Well, I just returned from my local Barnes and Noble's with all four volumes of Strange New Worlds, so I'll give them a read and see what I think.

I do think that this sounds like an interesting contest, though, after looking in the Contest Rules section in Strange New Worlds IV, it says that the deadline for Strange New World V is October 1, 2001.

So, is everyone shooting for volume VI, or has the deadline been changed?



Greg

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Greg Davis
o think that this sounds like an interesting contest, though, after looking in the Contest Rules section in Strange New Worlds IV, it says that the deadline for Strange New World V is October 1, 2001.

So, is everyone shooting for volume VI, or has the deadline been changed?

The deadline for Strange New Worlds V was indeed Oct. 1, 2001. The winners have been selected and the anthology will be out in stores in May, I believe. (Note the speed of this contest: deadline October 1. Winners selected by Jan. 1. Published in May. That's approximately 6-7 months from end of contest to seeing work published. I think that's relatively unheard of in the publishing world; what's more, the winning authors get paid!)

Strange New Worlds VI is this year's contest, and while the rules haven't been posted yet, I'm confident they'll change hardly at all, and I'm certain the deadline will be the same as the other contests.

October 1, 2002. We have 8 months. Start writing!

Since there seems to be interest, I'll start up a Yahoo!group this weekend for the contest and post the link here. Interested parties are welcome to join, but I think I'll strongly encourage anyone who joins really should be joining to write and submit stories. I've been involved in too many writing groups to count wherein all we did was talk about writing, think about writing, complain about not writing, and <i>never got any writing done</i>.

If you're like me, maybe you need someone regularly kicking you in the butt to write. The group might help; if anything, you'll have an audience for your work. I'll figure out the details this weekend and post when it's ready.

[OmegaOdd]

Originally posted by Ineti
If you're like me, maybe you need someone regularly kicking you in the butt to write.

Amen to that. I often think about registering for writing classes at the local community college just for the discipline to write.