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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Robert Heinlein Short Story Contest

From SF Signal

The Heinlein Society is proud to announce “The Robert A. Heinlein Centennial Short Story Contest” to take place between July 2007 and July 2008.

The Contest celebrates the 100th anniversary of Mr. Heinlein’s birth, and continues the spirit, ideas, and philosophy that make the works of Robert Heinlein a testament to the human spirit. We also hope to inspire new fiction in the style of The Grand Master, because, frankly, many of us have already read and re-read everything he wrote.

The Contest is open to any professional or amateur writer, excluding members of the board of directors of The Heinlein Society. The prizes will be awarded to the best original short story (in English) expressing the spirit, ideas, and philosophy of Robert A. Heinlein.

All stories must employ an original universe of characters and locations (sorry, no Lazarus Long stories), and should be fewer than 15,000 words in length. Entries shall be judged by a most august panel of professional writers, editors, and Heinlein scholars.

At the conclusion of the Contest, The Heinlein Society plans to publish an anthology of the best stories. Any author whose story is selected for publication will be compensated at respectable SF short story rates, except for the first, second, and third place winners who are awarded Contest prizes. By entering the contest, authors grant The Heinlein Society right of first publication for a period of one year from the date the winners are announced on or about July of 2008.

Start working on your story now!

The Heinlein Society will shortly post more information on www.heinleinsociety.org and will begin accepting entries later in the year. You may win a prize, be published, and launched on a writing career of your own.

In any case, we’ll have a lot of fun!

I haven't read a lot of Heinlein, and in fact there's only two novels of his that I've read. One is Starship Troopers, which I enjoyed, and I'd like to add that it's totally different from the movie. The other is The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, which was so-so for me, until I realized that it's part of a bigger series and has books preceding it and a sequel (the same goes for my experience with Neuromancer... it started making sense when you realize there's a sequel).
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7/19/2007 11:04 PM

    thanks for the heads up on this!

    try also heinlein's the moon is a harsh mistress and citizen of the galaxy, if you can get hold of them. and of course, the green hills of earth collection. rhysling is one of my all-time favorite fictional storytellers (or, well, bards, technically).

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  2. Charles7/20/2007 7:07 AM

    The other Heinlein novel I was interested in reading (but haven't gotten to) was Stranger in a Strange Land.

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  3. Anonymous7/22/2007 2:19 PM

    Stranger in a Strange Land is somewhat over hyped. First half is generally good; later I found rather mundane.

    I will also recommend "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" - only thing wrong with it is the title. It's the story of a revolution - anti-Imperialism kind, & very well told.

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  4. carl7/16/2009 4:15 AM

    The RAH juveniles from the 1950s are far more entertaining than the 'adult' later novels. They are less talky and feature more completely realized characters. The Star Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy, Farmer in the Sky,Red Planet...
    The satire is funnier, to boot.

    The sequels to the stunning Neuromancer are weaker and contribute nothing integral to any plot resolution: potboilers, pure and simple.
    In fact, Gibson's career has displayed a downward arc in general. Too bad, as he is the finest prose stylst to ever write pulp SF.

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