( September 10, 2007 ) - Over 300 fans, along with two-time Emmy nominated actress Lee Purcell (Due South, Valley Girl) and Latina singer/songwriter Carina Rico, attended the 23rd L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards ceremony this past weekend at the Athenaeum situated at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to honor the 24 winners of the international Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests and cheer the release of Writers of the Future Volume 23, the book featuring their first professional sale.

Each writing and illustrating contest winner was presented their trophy by contest judges at the ceremony. The Gold Award to the author of the Story of the Year was presented by actress Lee Purcell to Steven Kotowych from Toronto, Ontario, for his story "Saturn in G Minor". The Gold Award for the Illustrator of the Year was presented to Lorraine Schleter from Fort Branch, Indiana by Latin vocalist Carina Rico.

Prior to the awards ceremony, the winners were flown in from as far away as France, United Kingdom and Ukraine to attend a week long workshop taught by contest judges-including New York Times bestselling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune series), Tim Powers (Three Days to Never), 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 is working -- past winners of the Writing and Illustrating Contests have had over 500 novels, 1,400 short stories and tens of thousands of illustrations published selling an unbelievable 31,000,000 books. The Contests were initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 shortly after returning to the field of science fiction with his bestseller Battlefield Earth.

Every quarter, three writers and three illustrators are selected by a panel of leading authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy. With no entry fee and judging done on an anonymous basis, the criterion is strictly merit. Beside first time publication, benefits include over $30,000 in cash prizes and royalties, a week-long workshop with top professionals of the genre as well as book signings, radio and TV interviews organized by the contest administrators to assist the winners to launch their careers.

Website: http://www.writersofthefuture.com