Scrambling to make up lost time and lost ideas to fill anxious television and film
production schedules, some Hollywood writers are turning to the oldest and newest
sources for inspiration -- the legendary Golden Age of fiction from the 30s and 40s and
today's fledgling authors of speculative fiction published by Galaxy Press.
"We've already been contacted by some big name scriptwriters right out of the
gate following the end of the Writer's strike here in Hollywood," said
John Goodwin,
president of the Hollywood-based publisher. "They're eager to comb through the wealth
of wonderful stories published by pulp fiction master storytellers like
L. Ron Hubbard,
Asimov,
Bradbury,
Heinlein and
Clarke.
It's a ripe area for Hollywood: best-selling author Hubbard's "golden age stories,"
for example, are set to appear in an unprecedented 80-volume series of short novels
beginning in summer, 2008 covering virtually every major popular genre including
westerns, adventure, fantasy, and science fiction.
Also under Hollywood's literary microscope are short stories from some of
speculative fiction's newest writers. "Screenwriters and producers are asking about
adapting works from stories by newly-published writers from the Writers of the Future
annual anthology, filled with intriguing, clever plots from fledgling writers in speculative
fiction," Goodwin added. The anthology, now in its 23rd year, publishes winning fiction
of the worldwide Writers of the Future annual contest -- speculative fiction's top
merit-based competition of its kind for new or little-published writers from around the
globe.
Conceived of by Hubbard in 1983, the Contest and anthology have launched the
careers of over 500 writers (and illustrators in a companion contest) through professional
publication and payment for their works of up to $1,000, with the yearly grand prize
winners bringing home an additional $5,000. And many of these winners have gone on to
become the must-read names of science fiction and fantasy; names such as Stephen
Baxter, Nancy Farmer, Jay Lake, Robert Reed, Stephen Savile, Sean Williams and Dave
(Farland) Wolverton, to name a few.
Photos of winning writers from volume 23 are available at
http://www.writersofthefuture.com/news/wof23event.htm
