DAVID CLEDEN OF FLEET TO BE HONORED

AS WINNER OF WORLDWIDE WRITING CONTEST

Celebrities, Best-Selling Authors, Famous Artists to Fete 
Newcomers at Festive Gala in Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD — Twelve winning writers and twelve illustrators from around the globe—including David Cleden of Fleet—will be honoured during the 35th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the Taglyan Complex, on Friday, April 5, 2019 beginning at 6:00 pm.

David Cleden lives in the United Kingdom with a demanding family of cats, children and wife (mostly in that order). From an early age, he immersed himself in science fiction. During weekly trips to the local library with his father, he discovered his ABCs—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke—and all the rest of the author alphabet followed on from there. After eventually realizing that his dream job (being Isaac Asimov) was already taken, he became deeply interested in science, eventually gaining a degree in physics from Imperial College, London. It taught him a new respect for the beauty of mathematics—which sadly, isn’t shared by the rest of his family or circle of friends—but gave him the genesis of the story that follows.

The author would like to stress that he is not a trained practitioner of arithmos and has not personally encountered the Dark Equations referenced in this story. Readers are urged not to undertake similar mathematical experiments except under strict supervision.

David now writes business proposals and technical documents by day while actively pursuing the dream of science fiction and fantasy writing on weekends. He can’t stress enough how important it is not to muddle them up. He is the 2016 winner of the James White Award, and last year won the Aeon Award.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year’s two Grand Prize winners who will each receive $5,000. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future Volume 35(Galaxy Press, April 2019).

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Duneprequel series), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Eric Flint (1632), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides, which Pirates of the Caribbean IV was based on), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archive) and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award winning artists Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 35-year history, over 750 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times’ best-selling author Anderson. “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers—long before there ever was such a show.”

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” Based on its success, its sister contest, Illustrators of the Future was created five years later to provide that same opportunity for the aspiring artist.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 416 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 32 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 346 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony online, go towww.writersofthefuture.com

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