Before Voices started, selected stories and artworks were posted to the main Orion’s Arm website. Now, with Voices’ continued success, the Orion’s Arm Board has consented to allow us to bring you those stories. Voices from our early days. distant echoes, coming back to us over time…

This is among the first of several changes coming to V/FT this year. But we can talk of that later.

For now, please enjoy our first two Distant Echoes: Anders’ Sandberg’s Falling Stars, and In The Halls Of The Flesh Sculptors, by David Jackson.

Our five winners are:

Heaven’s Door, by Michele Dutcher
Diversion Tactics, by Steve Bowers
Parameter Space, by Graham Hopgood
The Devoted Follower, by Darren Ryding
Apotheosis, by Kevin Schillo

Each of our winners will receive a $200 (USD) cash prize and publication, with royalties contract, in the first Orion’s Arm paperback book. The book is due on shelves no later than September 2009.

In addition to our winning authors we also have a cover art contest winner, a collaborative piece created by Bernd Helfert and Chris Shaeffer.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this effort.

with delight,
Bill Ernoehazy
editor, Voices/Future Tense

Our entries are found throughout this quarter’s issue; our table of contents will point you to them. Each is designed to act as a cover for the novella contest winners’ book, to be published by the OAUP.

To vote for the entries of your choice: Pick one and only one entry, that you’d like to see grace the cover of our first novella collection; put that name in your email client; and send them to

voices.future.tense@gmail.com

Only one vote per email address, please.

Voting starts as of this post, and ends at 1201 am, EST, December 1 2008.

The entry receiving the most votes will be our winners. Their image shall be used as the cover for the novella collection published by the Orion’s Arm Universe Project (described elsewhere).

In the event of a tie between two or more entries, the publisher, Bill Ernoehazy (Editor, Voices/Future Tense), shall break the tie.

The winners will be announced with a special bulletin here, and on the Orion’s Arm and Cafe OA e-lists.

Read, enjoy… and vote!

Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll open another contest for fan films. So, if you ran out of time to execute that snazzy script you were thinking of…

*smiles* Don’t throw the script away just yet.

Rules for the contest are here.

Our entries are found throughout this quarter’s issue; our table of contents will point you to them. Each is an excerpt of the beginning of the novella; they should give you a good feel for the entries.

To vote for the entries of your choice: Pick up to five entries, that you’d like to read all the way through; put them in your email client; and send them to

voices.future.tense@gmail.com

You do not have to rank your choices in order.

Only one vote per email address, please.

Voting starts as of this post, and ends at 1201 am, EST, December 1 2008.

The five entries receiving the most votes will be our winners. Their novellas shall be published by the Orion’s Arm Universe Project, in accordance with the contest’s terms (set forth in the rules).

In the event of a tie between two or more entries, the contest judges, Chris Shaeffer (Secretary of the Board) and Bill Ernoehazy (Editor, Voices/Future Tense), shall break the tie.

The winners will be announced with a special bulletin here, and on the Orion’s Arm and Cafe OA e-lists.

Read, enjoy… and vote!

Deadline for submissions: 09/30/08

Prizes: Each of the five winners will receive a $200 (USD) cash prize, and a royalties contract to correspond with their publication in the first annual Orion’s Arm Universe Project paperback book. A collection of short stories set for release in summer 2009.

Entry Guidelines:

Distributors that will be carrying the book in its final form:
Ingram
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Borders.com
Barnes&Noble.com
Powells.com
Froogle
Alibris
Baker&Taylor
Abebooks
Gardners
BAMM.com
Bertram Books
Nacscorp
Orionsarm.com

Simple Suggestions to Improve Your Odds:
Write. Successful entries will have original ideas, strong characterization, fidelity to the OA canon, and appeal to the sense of wonder. Stories must be clear and understandable.
Share. Post your developing story as it progresses at the Café OA for reviews and critiques by your peers. This really is a phenomenal tool that will allow those who use it to progress leaps and bounds beyond those that do not. Maybe that great text you have written works for you, but nobody else understands it. Maybe the science is faulty or you have misused features of the project. This is the place to work out those bugs.
Know your audience. Do your research and ask questions in the discussion groups. Don’t let yourself to be disqualified simply because your story is outside Canon. This is another reason to follow suggestion #2. If you’re new to the Orion’s Arm scenario we suggest starting with our introductory material found at the Welcome page in order to get up to speed.

Daunting? Well, yes, but it can be done — and the SF and fantasy fan community is leading the way. The list is, once one stops to think of it, remarkable: Star Trek: New Voyages, Star Wars: Troops, Red vs Blue, Star Wars: Revelations, The Codex, Duality, and the cast and crew of Into The Black, all have all done startlingly beautiful work.

Here at V/FT, we think the OA universe is equally capable of inspiring such works of art. This is your chance to prove it.

Rules:

1. All films must be set in the Orion’s Arm universe.

2. Films can be live action, animation, machinima, or any combination thereof.

3. All films must be substantially created by the teams submitting them; remixing of clips from other films will not constitute an acceptable entry.

4. All films will be judged by a panel convened by the editorial staff of Voices/Future Tense. The decision of the judges shall be final.

5. Entries must be received by the editor by July 20, 2008 CE / 39 AT.

6. Entries may be received either physically, or by durable link to a website or streaming video location.

Prizes:

1st Place: $100.00
2nd Place: $50.00
3rd Place: $25.00

Further, the winning entry will be the subject of a special edition of Voices/Future Tense, devoted solely to the writing, production, and cast of the winning entry.

We look forward to seeing all your entries!