Reality and Science Fantasy: How Our World Shapes Theirs

On Monday, during my Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature class, my professor was discussing the way that social context is important to understanding the context of a novel, particularly in science fiction and fantasy literature.  In particular, he was discussing the difference between the games in Ender’s Game and the games in the Harry Potter series.

The Game Plan

Here’s the game plan for August.

• Finish up the entry for L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. Apparently, this is a very important Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror genre competition. Hey, sounds good to me.
• Turn in my job application to Barnes & Noble. Still haven’t done that. I need a job so I can save up to go to Alpha next summer.  (Assuming that I get into Alpha, of course, but I can’t exactly be picky about it. $1,000 is a lot of money to raise at a part-time, weekend job.)
• Write entries to 2 Young Writers Society contests. Hopefully, they’ll end up being good enough to send to publishing houses/magazines.
• Get Jocelyn, Jasmine, Cactus, and a few other friends to submit to an e-zine. I want some editing experience, and I figure that I’d best find out how to do it myself.
• Go talk to the librarian in the Business section at the Main Library and ask about business permits in my area. I’ll have to find out a few other things, too – like about vendors’ licenses and the fees required for such things. Maybe I ought to just ask about small businesses.
• Work on my weekly assignments for my internship!
• Actually finish Fractured. God in heaven above, but that’s taken a long time. I should actually be working on it now. There are only 10 chapters left to write, and one of them’s already written out of order! I am such a lazy bum.
• Compose the short short story I’m entering into the Writer’s Digest contest. In December. But hey – I’ll be busy in October and November. I won’t be able to afford time for writing contests. I think.
• Finish Rocket Stage 4, one of the graduation requirements at my school. Because people who shall remain nameless will not get off my back until I do so, and I want them off my back as soon as possible.
• Write three essays: one for BBG Systems, one for TextbookX, and one for PresidentialCandidates.tv. The essays are for scholarship contests. The BBG one is for $3,000, the TextbookX one is for $2,000, and the PresidentialCandidates.tv one is for $4,400. That’s a lot of money. I probably won’t get all of them, but even one would help matters substantially. Especially since I don’t want to stay at the university my high school is associated with.

Well, that’s the basic plan for now. There may be a few changes later in the month, but I’m not looking forward to it…

CWIM

I have discovered the greatest resource in children’s and young adult writers’ known market: the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books.

The books is full of all sorts of helpful things, including a listing of agents, tips on writing query letters, a magazine submission section, and even a comprehensive listing of publishers. I bought it at Barnes & Noble for less than $30, which isn’t too bad.

How did I happen upon this, you might ask?