Writers of the Future Volume 24, now available

Well, its taken awhile, but Vol 24 is now available at Amazon and Borders.

What's inside? Glad you asked:

First up in this overview is Laura Rede, my “twin” from the workshop who writes some of the best YA stuff around. Check out her story “Smacking Back" at the e-zine Coyote Wild – winning the WotF award was no fluke.  Her WotF story, “Epiphany,” features circus freaks, murder, and general mayhem. And that’s just the first two pages. Be sure to read the whole tale, it gets even better.

 Next up is Dr. Philip Kaldon, or “Dr. Phil” as he is known in the on-line world. Dr. Phil, a physics teacher in the real world, was the sole published finalist in Vol 24 and his story “A Man in the Moon”  not only asks  what will happen when mankind lives and dies on the moon, answers it. Check out his latest story in the current issue of Analog.

Ian McHugh, my roommate at WotF, won the Gold award with his story “Bitter Dreams.” But this story of Outback zombies and shadow magic doesn’t end here. He has both a graphic novel of the story and novel in the same setting in the works. He has upcoming stories in ASIM and Asimov’s.

“A Warbird in the Belly of the Mouse” by David Parish-Whittaker features time travel, World War I dogfights, and the ultimate amusement park – but it’s a character story too! David flies airplanes for a living, so expect true-to-life aerobics, I mean aerobatics in this story.

Read about the ultimate e-book in JD Everyhope's story "Circuit." It has all the critically acclaimed  literature ever written, offers commentary, translation and analysis. But wait -- there's more! It's intelligent and talks to you.
Hope it's available on Amazon soon.

Sonia Helbig takes us to a post-apocalypse Australian outback to meet a teacher with a very tough job: She tests her children with a "Crown of Thorns" to see who can save them all.

Is an avatar just copy? Does it have any legal rights? If you give it an inch, will it savor freedom and start "Taking a Mile?" J. Kathleen Cheney tackles this question with her story of a clone with a limited lifespan.

Steampunk's not all difference engines, gas light and zeppelins. Sarah Edwards tells of an inventor, haunted by his own past, who tries to perfect his creations in "Simulacrum's Children."

With great power -- like the power to create and destroy a world -- comes great responsibility. Erin Cashier 's story of Duxa, the AI planet builder on the way to the planet "Cruciger" has tough decisions to make. Luckily, she has mindmaps of humans and all of Earth's history, science and entertainment. But that doesn't make her choice any easier.

When "The Bird Reader's Granddaughter" leaves home after tragedy, she enters a new world of fortune telling, love and war. Kim Gillett's tale of Catia brings to light the problems of knowing the future, and when to tell a person's fortune.

When you're about to die, you've got limited options. "Snakes and Ladders" from Paula Stiles spins a story of a life-changing internal struggle.

The Anthology closes out with Al Bogdan's story of Ektela, "The Girl Who Whispered Beauty." In a world where a whisper girl has the power to bestow life and beauty, can she keep some for herself or must her mistress take it all?

I won't say anything about my story except to show the fantastic illustration from the multi-talented Robert Castillo. He had a short film accepted for the Nickelodeon Animation Festival last October and does storyboards for shows like the Sopranos in addition to all his illustration work.

In fact, all of the illustrations for this year's book are top notch, but don't take my word for it. You can download them from the Audible website here.