Best-Selling Author Tobias Buckell to Attend 2014 Writers of the Future Gala, 4/13

Hollywood, CA -- New York Times bestselling author and Writers of the Future Contest winner in 2000, Tobias Buckell will be on hand for the 30th anniversary of Writers of the Future being held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre this coming April 13.

Buckell, a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer, grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Island and the US Virgin Islands and now lives in Ohio. His novel, Halo: The Cole Protocol was a New York Time best seller. He is also a John W. Campbell Award finalist and author of several other novels including Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, Sly Mongoose and Tides from the New Worlds.

Buckell will be attending the Writers of the Future Awards Ceremony in April and will take the opportunity to speak with this year's winners, providing tips to assist with their career advancement. He started submitting to the Contest when he was fifteen while living on a houseboat with his parents in the Caribbean. He submitted every quarter for the next five years until he won in 2000. Regarding winning the Writers of the Future award, he stated, "Winning one of the quarters five years later, after I'd moved to the US, was the cherry on a dream come true."

And now as an established author, it is his turn to help pay it forward. Having won the Contest, he now finds himself in a position to help pay it forward for other aspiring writers. Simply put, "My career was launched, and today I make a living writing and the very life I'd dreamed of when in high school."

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The Writers of the Future contest was created by L. Ron Hubbard 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 348 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 838 novels and nearly 4,000 short stories. They have produced 27 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 50 million copies.

The 276 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 4,500 illustrations, 356 comic books, graced 594 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 36 TV shows and 46 major movies.

For more information about Tobias Buckell, go to www.tobiasbuckell.com.

For more information about Writers and Illustrators of the Future or to RSVP for the Awards Ceremony, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.