Book Will Be Out April 9th or So
Winners will be announced as normal in a ceremony in Hollywood. And this year I will be there as a presenter, I suppose. First time in a long time.
Take a look at the cover below. See my name on the cover? That’s because I have a story in it, written for that wonderful cover by Bob Eggleton. Yes, I got asked, and I was so happy to do the story.
And since Bob’s cover was such fun, I decided to have fun with the story as well. In fact, the story will be the first published story of one of my new characters, Detective Sky Tate, a superhero detective in my Poker Boy Universe. I have about ten stories featuring her that will be out this year in Smith’s Monthly, but this story in Writers of the Future Volume #35 is her first appearance.
I also had a story in Volume #1 thirty five years ago. I was the very first person to go across the stage at a Writers of the Future ceremony. Now 35 years later I am a judge and I got to write for the book again.
And with this new story I had to hark a little bit back to that first story as well.
That first story was called “One Last Dance” and I have never reprinted it. Just never got around to it. It is about a guy dying. The story in #35 is also about a guy dying. Thirty-five years between stories and I am still writing about the same stuff. (grin)
I just hope that for Volume #70 they ask me to write another story. I will be 104. I think I can do it.
So here are two pictures. First, me walking across the WOTF Award Stage, the very first person. On the stage (left to right) was Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Greg Benford, and Algis Budrys. (We all looked so young.)
The second picture is the cover of the new volume 35 years later.
Wow, that is hard to grasp, I must admit.
Congratulations, Dean, and thanks for the walk down memory lane. Great pics.
Congratulations, and that’s a great photo! Good history… and that’s what Roger Zelazny looked like, huh. I thought he’d be all long-haired and warrior-like, like one of the guys from his Amber series. Damn what a great series that is.
Two of those four writers are still alive, so who knows.
Most of them were published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. I remember getting busted for reading it in Latin class in high school. My teacher pulled me up to the podium, snatched the book away, looked through the table of contents — then pointed to a story by Bundrys and said, “This is a good one. You should read that. Quite well done.”
Then he gave the book back to me.
Bob is 15 years older than I am and Greg is just nine years older, so very much alive and still working. And yup, AJ short stories always had a punch.
That cover is amazing! I love Bob’s work.
I’ve always loved the WotF anthologies. It’s such a great concept to discover new talent. I still kick myself about it. Back when it began I kept ‘intending’ to submit something but always forgot until it was too late, or didn’t think what I had was good enough.
I wish I had; it could have kicked me into my writing career earlier.
Good for you on getting to ‘go home again’ and provide something for this edition.