Award-Winning Gaithersburg Author Honored at Hollywood Gala

(Hollywood, CA) – Rustin Lovewell was honored Friday night, April 5th, at the 35th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards Event at the prestigious Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood, California as one of twelve winners in the Writers of the Future contest. The capacity crowd of 400 attendees celebrated the winners of both the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests and the release of the anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 35, where the winning stories and art are published as well as Mr. Lovewell's story, "Release from Service," illustrated by Illustrators of the Future winner, Emerson Rabbitt of Minneapolis, MN.

The Taglyan provided an elegant backdrop to the festive L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards Event which hosted celebrities and judges as well as speakers, winners and their families and guests.

The annual event included a presentation by keynote speaker, Ed Hulse, author and renowned pop-culture historian, who talked about the Golden Age of Science Fiction and post World War II era being a veritable explosion in pulp magazines. Hulse said, “The Golden Age of Science Fiction isn’t a relic of the past. It has seeped into our popular culture in myriad ways. The Galactic Empires of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series were foremost in the mind of George Lucas when he conceived Star Wars, and Doc Smith’s Lensmen were among the influences of his Jedi knights. In the first film’s famous bar scene, he even lifted a sequence from L. Ron Hubbard’s story The Kingslayer virtually word for word. Van Vogt’s mutant Slans were forerunners of Marvel’s X-Men. Countless popular motion pictures and television shows have adapted classic Golden Age pulp yarns, officially and unofficially.”

Executive Director of Author Services, Inc. and the evening's emcee, Ms. Gunhild Jacobs, introduced Dr. Beatrice Kondo, member of the Board of Directors of The Heinlein Society and daughter of the late Writers of the Future judge, Dr. Yogi Kondo. She began her speech about the over four-decade friendship between Robert Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard even quoting excerpts from personal letters. She spoke of their “common purpose to help their fellow writers, to pay it forward, to help fulfill human potential and expand our vision of the world as a whole.” She concluded by presenting a Letter of Recognition to L. Ron Hubbard and the Writers and Illustrators of the Future on the occasion of the contest's 35th anniversary.

Contest Director, Joni Labaqui and Founding Writers of the Future judge, Dr. Gregory Benford were presenters for the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award which went to Founding Illustrators of the Future judge, Bob Eggleton. In Mr. Eggleton's 36-year career (and counting), he's created art in the genres of science-fiction, fantasy and horror winning numerous awards including 9 Hugo awards, 12 Chesley awards, and as he puts it, “I'm still doing it 36 years later and to give you some perspective on that I have been a [Illustrators of the Future] judge for 32 years!” He continued by thanking L. Ron Hubbard quoting him, “A culture is as rich and capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists” and concluded by saying, “Don't try be the best there is. Be the best you can be!”

The highlight of the ceremony was the announcement of the year’s two Grand Prize winners who each received $5,000 with the Illustrators of the Future Grand Prize and The Golden Brush Award trophy going to Ms. Aliya Chen of Fair Oaks, California and the Writers of the Future Grand Prize and The Golden Pen Award trophy awarded to Mr. Andrew Dykstal of Arlington, Virginia. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations are published in the annual anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 35 (Galaxy Press, April 2019).

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequel 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), David Farland (Runelords) and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award winning artists Bob Eggleton (12 Chesley Awards and 9 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Echo Chernik (Illustrations for Name of the Wind Art Deck by Patrick Rothfuss) all of whom are contest judges and will all serve as award presenters.

Rustin Lovewell is a native New Englander now living in Maryland with his wife, daughter, and overly-yappy dog/mobile alarm system. Full of contradictions, he is an immunologist when not writing fantasy stories, a soccer player when not rolling d20s (d20 = A 20-sided die used in many games in the "Dungeons & Dragons" series), and a snowboarder if he can ever find enough snow.

Rustin has been an avid reader since he discovered Tom Swift’s incredible inventions and the nightmares hidden within the pages of Goosebumps. His favorite stories have always been those that pointed left and then twisted right, only to twist yet again, before finally knocking the reader out with a “Luke, I am your father” roundhouse. After reading several such pieces, he wondered if he could come up with one of his own. He did, and he wrote it, and it was awful. Of course, that’s how it starts. He’s loved trying to get it right ever since. This is his first published work of fiction.

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 artists.

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 to www.writersofthefuture.com

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