So I see today on Rob Sawyer’s blog an announcement about the latest winners of the Writers of the Future. Rob was a judge for this fourth quarter of the 2006/07 contest (the duties rotate) and he had this to say about the first-place story, “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom”, by Andrea Kail of New York, NY:

This quarter had fabulously good stories, but I’ll say here right now that Andrea Kail’s “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom” is a total knockout — this is a Hugo-caliber story, folks. It’ll be worth the cost of the anthology (which will be published in August) all by itself.

So I’ve learned two things from this: first, the anthology will be available in August (which I presume is around when the writer’s retreat week will be held), and second, I should despair of winning that $5000 Grand Prize.

Now, I’m fan of my story. A big fan. I like my story a lot. I think it’s one of the best, strongest, most character-driven, human stories I’ve ever written. Hell, I’m proud I wrote that story.

But is it Hugo-caliber? Hmm…

– S.