GAITHERSBURG, Maryland — When Rustin Lovewell, a native of Presque Isle, submitted his fantasy fiction story, “Release from Service,” to an international writing contest, he had no idea that the work would become his first published story and a potential launch for his writing career.
“I’ve always been an avid reader and I started writing around six years ago. Back then writing was just a hobby but over time I became more serious about it,” Lovewell said.
The L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest is an international contest for which the winners are published annually in the Writers of the Future anthology. The winners also will participate in a weeklong professional writer’s workshop and awards ceremony in Hollywood, California, during the first week in April. The contest’s mission is to give aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers early publication success and help them establish connections with published and emerging writers as well as publishers.
The 2019 edition of the “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future” science fiction/fantasy anthology features the short story, “Release from Service,” written by Presque Isle native Rustin Lovewell.
(Courtesy of Galaxy Press)
Writers of the Future runs a contest during each of the four quarters of the year and the top three winners of each quarter are published in the anthology. Lovewell joins a list of writers who come from states such as Kentucky, California, Michigan, Colorado and Washington as well as Canada and England. Winners of the Illustrators of the Future contest will contribute artwork to correspond with all 12 stories in the anthology, which will be published on April 9.
According to the Writers of the Future website, past winners of the contest — which was established in 1983 — have gone on to become bestselling authors and have sold over 50 million copies of their work. Although Lovewell has no plans to give up his day job of being an immunologist — a scientist who studies the interactions of the immune system with bacterial infections — he sees his acceptance into the anthology as a major step in his journey as a writer.
“Even if I hadn’t won the contest, I would still be writing, but this will certainly be a launchpoint,” Lovewell said. “Science is very much about data and analysis, which I love, but I also think of myself as a creative person. Writing helps me use a different part of my brain and it’s very cathartic.”
Lovewell graduated from Ashland Community High School, now known as Ashland District School, in 2000 and now lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with his wife Eleanor and their 1-year-old daughter Piper. He learned about the Writers of the Future contest after attending the Readercon conference in Massachusetts and discovering that the event’s guest of honor, Nnedi Okorafor, was a previous contest winner.
After reading several Writers of the Future anthologies and further developing his craft as a fantasy writer, Lovewell entered “Release from Service” into the second quarter of the 2018 contest and received the second place prize of $750. His story centers on a young man serving as an apprentice to an assassin who goes throughs a “crisis of conscience” when his boss orders him to murder a child.
“I like stories that have twisty plots where you don’t know what’s coming next,” Lovewell said. “My goal is to create those types of stories with my own work.”
Today, Lovewell’s parents, Arlen and Terri Lovewell, split their time between Florida during winter and Ashland during the warmer months. Although Lovewell has not visited Aroostook County for several years, he would love to return and possibly host a reading of his Writers of the Future story at local libraries.
“I miss being able to take part in winter sports like snowboarding and skiing,” Lovewell said. “I think living in a small community helps writers. You can get ideas for stories by seeing how people interact with each other.”
As a writer, Lovewell gains much of his inspiration from favorite authors Neil Gaiman, author of “American Gods,” Brandon Sanderson and Okorafor. The latter two authors are previous winners of Writers of the Future and Okorafor currently serves as a judge. Lovewell considers the contest and upcoming events in California to be unique opportunities to learn more about the craft of writing and how to better market himself to potential publishers.
Lovewell plans to continue working on fantasy short stories and novels and hopes to gain a wider audience with future publications. He encourages aspiring writers to push forward in their craft despite the difficulties of writing and consider entering contests similar to Writers of the Future.
“Writing is like learning to ski. You’re going to suck at first, but if you practice you’ll get better,” Lovewell said.
Folks who want to read Lovewell’s award-winning story can preorder the anthology, “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 35,” on Amazon, through the publisher Galaxy Press or http://rustinlovewell.com/.
