Red Rock On Air

Braham, MN – Twenty-four writers and artists from around the globe—including writer winner, Gary Kloster of Braham—were recently honored at the 25th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards —its Silver Anniversary —at the famed Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in the very room the first Academy Awards were held. Over 400 fans, including Sophia Milos (CSI: Miami), Dion Graham (Law and Order and The Wire), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, the Legendary Journeys and Gene Roddenberry’s, Andromeda), and John Francis Daley (Fox TVs Bones) were on hand in the standing room only main event hall. The annual event celebrated the winners in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests.

Gary Kloster grew up reading any kind of speculative fiction he could find – he particularly remembers names like Jules Verne, Robert Heinlein, J. R. Tolkien, and Stephen King. By age 12, Gary began to write, motivated in part by discovery of a much-earlier Writers of the Future volume. He took a competitive writing break for a few decades, spending as much time as possible as University of Illinois student. Later, he became a librarian at the University of Wyoming, wisely married a doctor, and settled in as a stay-at-home dad.

To help deal with Minnesota’s long winters and toddlers, Gary tried writing again. He credits his writing group, online critique sites like Baen’s Bar, and a writing class taught by SF author Lyda Morehouse and assisted by former contest winner Kelly McCullough. In short order, Gary’s managed to go from honorable mention to finalist over three recent entries.

Each writing and illustrating contest winner was presented their trophy by contest judges at the ceremony and combined cash prizes and royalties of over $30,000. The Gold Award to the author of the Story of the Year was presented by Dion Graham and KD Wentworth, Editor for Writers of the Future, to Emery Huang of Orlando, Florida, for his story “Garden of Tian Zi.” The Gold Award for the Illustrator of the Year was presented to Oleksandra Barysheva, a native of Ukraine, now residing in New Jersey by Sophia Milos and Ron Lindahn, a multiple award winning artist and Illustrator of the Future Contest coordinating judge.

Dion Graham commented after the event, “It was great to see how excited everyone was to be recognized for their excellence and promise. Truly inspiring!”

Prior to the awards ceremony, the winners were flown in from as far away as the UK, for two of the Writers winners, to attend a week long workshop taught by contest judges — including New York Times bestselling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune series), Sean Williams (The Resurrected Man) and internationally acclaimed artist, Stephen Hickman–each one an experienced professional in the field providing sound advice based on hard-won experience.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. Past winners of the Writing and Illustrating Contests have published over 550 novels, 3,000 short stories and more than 3 million illustrations in the field. The Contests were initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 shortly after returning to the field of science fiction with his bestseller Battlefield Earth.