Short Story Contest - November 1999

On November 1, 1999, our annual Short Story Contest was held as a diversion from our normal writing as novelists. The workshop is devoted exclusively to hardsf novelists and this contest was a writing exercise only, not a regular part of the workshop. This year's theme: Life forms. All the contributors are members of the SFNovelist writing workshop as of November 1999. The following short stories are reprinted here by permission of the authors as a condition of the contest. However, each story is copyrighted by the respective author and copies cannot be distributed without the express permission of the authors. As moderator of the workshop and sole judge of the contest, Victory Crayne selected the winners on the basis of: sticking to the contest theme, creativity, story writing skills demonstrated, including dialogue, characterization, setting, etc., and entertainment value.

The stories submitted for this contest were, in the order of rank in the judging: "It's Time" by Gil C. Schmidt, First Place Winner "Gazus" by Jeff Johnson, Second Place Winner "A Hole in the Sky" by Bruce Davis "Life Forms: Growing" by Richard Womack "Conversation with an Uncle on the Occasion of His Passing" by Don Muchow "Two Days on a Planet" by Daniel Turner "Going Home" by Eric Vesely "Celestial Doves" by Eric Vesely

- Victory Crayne, President of the SFNovelist writing workshop at http://www.sfnovelist.com