How I won writers of the future

I feel tremendously blessed to have won 1st place in Quarter 1 of the recent Writers of the Future competition (volume 42).

For those who are unfamiliar, Writers of the Future is THE premier competition for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Thousands of entries are judged each quarter, with winners selected by a panel of professional authors. First, second and third place winners receive a cash prize, publication in the annual Writers of the Future anthology, and a trip to Hollywood for a week-long writing workshop taught by some of the best writers in the world.

So how did I win this thing?

Frankly, not the way you’re supposed to. The genuinely good advice you’ll hear about Writers of the Future includes gems like “submit every quarter,” and “never resubmit an old story.” Well, my winning story had been submitted TWICE before, and I was pretty inconsistent about entering.

Now before all my fellow entrants spit at their computer screens in disgust, I wasn’t SO far off the mark. In any given quarter over the past fifteen years, I’ve probably written 20-30 thousand words of new fiction. It’s just that not all of it was short fiction (and not all of it was very good). When I had a story that I felt was both good, and a good fit for the contest, I’d submit it. Especially after I met Dave.

The Dave factor

I had the opportunity to take a writing workshop with the marvelous Dave Farland (AKA Dave Wolverton), who was at that time the coordinating judge for the contest. (Sadly, Dave has since passed on.) I learned a great deal from Dave - more on that in another post - and for some reason he saw promise in the mess of a manuscript I was workshopping at the time. He encouraged me to enter the Writers of the Future contest and told me “If you enter, you’ll probably win.”

So yeah. I started entering more often. And I started entering to win.

Turns out Dave was right, though it took me a while to live up to his prediction. (Remember that bit about me not following the actually-very-good standard advice?) Over the intervening years, I entered around 15 stories in the contest. Of those, I received five honorable mentions and four “Silver Honorable Mentions.” I finally won with a story I had entered twice before. Let’s call it Story X, since I’m not supposed to give any details until after the final judging. (The four 1st place winners are still in competition for the yearly prize, so we have to keep things anonymous.) So why did I re-enter a story when everyone says not to?

Most of my early stories weren’t worth trying to resurrect. I knew this one was.

Sometimes I just KNOW a story is special, but my skills aren’t ready to do it justice yet. Plus, important things had changed since I wrote the first version of Story X. I’d been actively writing and revising other stories and novels (13 finished novels to date), getting critiques and rejections (so many rejections), reading craft books, taking classes (most notably, Brandon Sanderson’s), and working with an excellent writing group. So when I went back to Story X this time, I wasn’t just shuffling commas around. I was coming back as a meaningfully better writer.

Despite that, I almost didn’t submit.

The quarter was winding down, and as I read through my various works-in-progress, nothing felt right. And then, three days before the deadline, I did another revision on Story X, and loved it more than ever, and sent it off, and mostly forgot about it.

Like, really forgot about it.

Um. . . I missed the call.

So here’s how the contest works. Coordinating judge Jody Lynne Nye and her team read through everything submitted, reportedly thousands of stories each quarter. Jody awards the Honorable Mentions, Silver Honorable Mentions, etc., and also selects eight finalists. Contest coordinator Joni Labaqui then calls the finalists to congratulate them, and to let them know what’s next.

But I wasn’t expecting a call. I’d mostly forgotten about entering the story. Also, I don’t really have a cell phone. (Yes, I’m weird. Let’s stay on topic.) So when an unlisted California phone number kept calling my wife’s phone…. Well, we just figured it was spam. Luckily, Joni eventually left a message. And then I DID REMEMBER ABOUT THE CONTEST AND CALLED HER BACK RIGHT AWAY.

Joni assured me that I really was a finalist, and it wasn’t a prank call or wrong number. We had a lovely chat about me and my family and Dave and the contest. She told me she’d call back in a week to let me know if I was one of the winners. I assured her I’d answer the phone this time.

The week between finalist and winner

A panel of four judges (all world-class authors like Jody) reads the finalist stories, and each judge independently rates the stories. Jody tabulates the scores, and then winners are notified. Meanwhile, I waited. Totally not stressing out. Because, not only was I waiting to hear back from Writers of the Future, but….

I signed with my agent

Remember those novels I mentioned? Well, good news came in spades that week. In the middle of waiting to hear about the contest, I officially signed with my agent, the hardest working man in publishing, Joshua Bilmes of Jabberwocky Literary. I’ll put details about this one in another blog post.

And then, a few days later, Joni called back. Or at least tried to.

Yeah. I missed the call again. Repeatedly.

Joni tried calling me several times on Friday, but no one answered. Also on Friday, I checked several times to see if she had called. The problem here is that I’m an idiot, and was checking the wrong phone. Luckily, when she called Saturday, I heard the phone ring, and. . . . didn’t get to it in time. But I called her right back!

Joni was relieved. She’d been worried I might have died. I apologized and assured her I was alive. Then she gave me the news.

My favorite memory here is that my teenage daughter came down the stairs at about this moment, and realized who I was talking to. Since I’d previously told her that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners all got published, she hopefully held up three fingers. Third place? I shook my head. And held up one.

(My daughter proceeded to do a happy dance for me. Winning a contest is nice, but being a dad is absolutely the greatest.)

Joni informed me my story had won first place. Unanimous decision. I was too shocked to react like a normal person, but I did my best to fake it.

Preparing for publication

Since that call, the amazing folks at Writers of the Future/Galaxy Press have given me priceless feedback and resources. I can’t say enough about the kindness, patience, and professionalism of Jody Lynne Nye, Joni Labaqui, Meliva Koch, John Goodwin, and everyone else involved in the contest and the production of the book. It’s been an absolute honor.

The book and the workshop

The best part of the contest is still to come. Along with the other contest winners, and legendary authors Orson Scott Card, Larry NIven, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman, I’ll be published in this year’s anthology, Writers of the Future, volume 42 (available for preorder now), which comes out in April 28, 2026. I’ll also attend the April 16 awards ceremony and the week-long winners workshop in Hollywood.

I can’t wait to meet my cohort of winners, learn from some of the world’s finest writers, and see our stories in print.

Coming up in the next blog: How I got my agent