Spencer Sekulin and J.R. Johnson Winners L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest

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Ontario authors Spencer Sekulin and J.R. Johnson are winners in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest earning them both a trip to Hollywood, a week-long master-class workshop, and their winning stories published in the international bestselling anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 39. 

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 39. . . 

  • These stories will bring you into fresh new worlds and new ideas.
  • Some of your favorite authors chose them.
  • Reading the stories will teach you what it takes to win the contest.
  • Artists of the future illustrate the stories.
  • You need to know what happens when death and taxes come together in the form of one IRS agent who faces the darkest audit of all. (Find out in one of the stories in the volume….)

The Contest, one of the most prestigious writing and illustrating competitions in the world, is currently in its 40th year and is judged by some of the premier names in speculative fiction.

The Writers of the Future Contest judges include, Tim Powers (author of On Stranger Tides), Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (Dune prequel series), Robert J. Sawyer (Quantum Night), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, The Stormlight Archive), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death),  and Katherine Kurtz (Deryni series) to name a few.

The Illustrators of the Future Contest judges include, Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Echo Chernik (graphic designs for major corporations including Celestial Seasonings tea packaging), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book).

Following the 1982 release of his internationally acclaimed bestselling science fiction novel, Battlefield Earth, written in celebration of 50 years as a professional writer, L. Ron Hubbard created the Writers of the Future (writersofthefuture.com) in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers of speculative fiction to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writers of the Future Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was inaugurated five years later.

The 547 past winners and published finalists of the Writing Contest have published over 2,000 novels and nearly 6,300 short stories. They have produced 36 New York Times bestsellers, and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 382 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows, and 40 major movies.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award is the genre’s most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction.

Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have produced 39 anthology volumes and awarded over $1,000,000 cumulatively in prize moneys and royalties.

For more information about the Contests, go to www.WritersoftheFuture.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S):

When Spencer Sekulin isn’t on the road as a paramedic or studying medicine, he is most likely writing. Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Spencer fell in love with books at a young age, with authors like Terry Brooks and Eoin Colfer giving him an appetite for speculative fiction. Though he didn’t begin writing until university, he quickly discovered that it was just as fun as reading—and the rest is history. His passions include emergency medicine, homemade coffee, travel obscura, and of course, writing. 

J.R. Johnson finds speculative fiction appealing because she likes the idea that there is more to the world than meets the eye, and that the human race has a future. She grew up in the folded Appalachian hills, where she learned to love Fall, blueberries straight from the bush, and the stream beneath the willows near her house. The fact that Fall is inevitably followed by Winter, that picking berries means crossing paths with bears, and that the stream was laced with dioxins may also have had some impact on her outlook. She now lives and writes in Ottawa, Ontario.