Writers of the Future Podcast

India has recently taken the #2 spot behind the United States with students participating in the Writers of the Future Online Workshop and Bhagyashree Prabhutendolkar is the driving force behind that. She is a published author, illustrator, public speaker, and the founder of Youth Magazine, an international youth-led publication aimed to bring positive change in the world. She is a former recipien...

The Space Western Science Fiction sub-genre has had great success beyond the page in the television and movie industries—Longmire, Firefly, Serenity, Avatar, not to mention Han Solo, Bobba Fett and the Mandalorian. To make western sci-fi work, though, you have to know what makes the western work and that’s our guest in the next episode of the Writers of the Future Podcast. Learn how the sci-fi wes...

Dr. Beatrice Kondo is the Assistant Program Director for the Masters of Science program in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University. Yes, the same university providing up to date information on the current pandemic. Biotechnology is now moving so fast that a lot of the science that not so long ago was just fiction is now part of our daily lives. If you are an author and are interested in biotechn...

Combine a Master's degree in history with a quarter-century working as a longshoreman, truck driver, auto worker, steelworker, meatpacker, glassblower, and machinist to become an international top-selling science fiction and alternate history author and you have Eric Flint.

Mark Leslie Lefebvre is a Canadian author, professional speaker, and bookseller who talks about passion and getting published. Storytelling is all about "story" and this has to be your ultimate drive and passion as a writer. We also discuss his novel "A Canadian Werewolf in New York" and his homage to Spider-Man! As a Canadian, Mark provides advice to the aspiring Canadian author which he then bri...

Joe Montaldo and John Goodwin discuss Joe's long term desire to write a story and how he has been taking the L, Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Online Workshop to accomplish this as his New Year's Resolution.

In this interview with Bill Fawcett, we discuss the history and future of publishing. We discuss the repeated "collapse" of publishing going back to the 1930s and how it continues to evolve. As an author Bill Fawcett has written or co-authored over a dozen fiction books plus close to one hundred articles and short stories. Bill collaborated on several mystery novels with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro inclu...

Steven L. Sears is one of Hollywood's most successful and productive screenwriters. He wrote for Riptide, Xena, Sheena, Swamp Thing, A-Team, Stingray, Starbuck, The Highwayman, Raven, and others. In this interview, Steven discusses how he became a screenwriter along a path that he did not expect. We discuss what is lazy writing. He also defines dynamic writing and its importance in succeeding as a...

Wulf Moon was a published winner in Writers of the Future and discusses the value of diversifying income streams to survive no matter the circumstances. He is also the moderator of the Writers of the Future Forum and discusses how it is a tool to help grow as a writer as you are with other writers who want to help each other. Discover Wulf Moon at www.driftweave.com

UK author Roger Ellory is a thriller author who discusses the book that started him along a successful path as a professional writer, "L. Ron Hubbard: The Writer." It contained essays and articles by Mr. Hubbard on the craft of writing which are as applicable now as when he wrote them, regardless the genre one decides to write in. One essay, "The Manuscript Factory," addresses output and how to ac...

Charles Gannon is an award-winning SF author with his Tales of the Terran Republic series as well as being a Distinguished Professor of English. We discuss believable world-building, xeno-world-building, exosapients (aliens), and exobiospheres (other inhabitable planets). Discover all of his works at charlesegannon.com/wp/

Lezli Robyn is the editor of Galaxy's Edge Magazine and Assistant Publisher at Arc Manor, and she discusses her introduction to science fiction and what she now looks for to be published in her publications and what a rejection from a magazine means. The value of short fiction to getting discovered, building one's name, and maintaining one's audience, especially with magazines going digital, is in...

Scot Noel was published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 6 in 1990 which helped launch a very successful career as a writer and in starting his own science fiction and fantasy magazine, DreamForge. This is his story. He also reveals what he is looking for from authors wanting to be published.

Writers of the Future and Toni originally met in New York in 1989 where she was a volunteer helping at the Awards event! She has since worked with Jim Baen, working under him as an editor and wearing every hat in a publishing house. With Jim's passing, Toni became the owner and publisher of Baen Books and is going strong! In this interview, we talk about the future of publishing and we also talk a...

With a Bachelors in Physics and a Ph. D. in astrophysics from Oxford in England, Alan Smale came to America in the late 80s to work with NASA and never went back. In addition to being a research scientist with NASA, Alan writes alternate history and historical fantasy, and is an a capella vocalist. He was a WOTF 13 winner with his story, "Wings." Alan discusses his process in writing alternate his...

Lazarus Chernik has been an art director for over 20 years working with Fortune 100 giants as well as small businesses in need of reaching their next level. He was asked to discuss do's and don'ts of working with an art director. He provides key and vital things artists need to know to work with an art director and things to avoid. He does this by explaining what the art director's job is and expl...

Larry discusses how to write hard science fiction and pitfalls to avoid based on what he learned in writing "Ring World." He does concede that readers will forgive a mistake if it's a really good story. We also discuss his laws of collaboration and what is important to make collaboration work, discussing writing with Jerry Pournelle. Larry also explains how he became an author and the two times he...

Nancy Kress is the author of thirty-three books, including twenty-six novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. Her work has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and has been translated into two dozen languages, including Klingon. In addition to writing, Kress often teaches at various venues around the country and abroad, inc...

Dave Chesson created Kindlepreneur to help authors get started with Amazon. In our interview, he discusses the evolution of self-publishing and the relevance of self-published authors comparing them to free-agents in sports. Self-publishing makes it easier for a publishing house to know who to take on. Self-publishing used to be the junior varsity team but this has evolved. The con to self-publish...

Echo Chernik is a freelance artist who has diversified her skills and creates art in all mediums which is important from her experience as she is able to ride with any bumps in the economy and changes in demand. In addition to being well known in corporate America for brands such as Celestial Seasonings tea packaging, she also created two now-famous decks of playing cards for Name of the Wind by P...

Liz Busby is a mom, homeschooler, SF critic, and superfan, and this interview was done to provide a perspective to writers on what fans are looking for in an author: turn-on and turn-off. We also discuss how to deal with religious themes in SF&F, its origin, and the current trend. Who does religion right in their SF&F? - Brandon Sanderson with his Stormlight Archive, - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Ru...

Meet Elizabeth Chatsworth, originally from the UK and now living in the US, the first winner from WOTF 37 to be interviewed. After a successful career in marketing in the UK, Elizabeth began writing as a late-in-life second career writing fiction in her late 40s. She has now won Writers of the Future, sold her first novel, and was very happy to tell the story of how she approached learning to writ...

We met Sean Patrick Hazlett in 2017 when he was a winner in Writers of the Future Volume 33 with his short dark fantasy (horror) story, "Adramelech." He is an Army veteran with the elite 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, a finance executive in SFO Bay area, with an AB in history and BS in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In this podcast we disc...

Craig Elliott is an illustrator, visual development artist, and layout artist who works in the animation industry. After graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1996, he went on to work on numerous films for Disney Feature Animation, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, and Fox Animation Studios. He is now the Director of Animation for Netflix and is now a judge for the Ill...

Cassandre was an illustrator winner in volume 30 where she painted two pieces of art for that volume. And this year, she created the art for the L. Ron Hubbard story, "Borrowed Glory," where she was her own model for both people in the painting. She believes that art and writing can change the world. The interview was done at a Panera Bread Restaurant in Chicago. Discover her art at www.cassandreb...