I’ve always known I’m a writer. You are born with it, sleeping in your gut. The rest is dedication, education, and polishing your craft. And courage. You have to serve seven cats–every successful writer knows that–and allow only ONE in your office. But if you want more proof, read on. The first is the press release bio, the second is the long personal one. How much time have you got?
1. The press release biography.
Wulf Moon Biography
Wulf Moon wrote his first science fiction story when he was fifteen. It won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards–the same contest that first discovered Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter S. Beagle, and a host of iconic names in the arts. It became his first professional sale in Science World.
Moon has won over forty awards in writing and thirty in public speaking. A sample of these include: Star Trek Strange New Worlds Contest; Critters Readers’ Choice Awards for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story of 2018, of 2019, of 2020; Best Author of 2019, of 2020, of 2021; Best Positive Future Story of 2021; Best Writers’ Workshop of 2019, of 2020, of 2021; Nora Roberts Novella Contest; and the Writers of the Future Contest, Vol. 35.
Moon’s stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Writers of the Future, Best of Deep Magic Anthology Two, Future Science Fiction Digest, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2, Best of Third Flatiron, Galaxy’s Edge, and DreamForge magazine.
Wulf Moon is also a professional voice-over actor and has produced works for Hugo Award winners and bestselling authors like Mike Resnick, Jeff Wheeler, and Will McIntosh. Moon is podcast director at Future Science Fiction Digest.
His award-winning SUPER SECRETS Online Resource and Writing Workshop has had over 800,000 views. These Secrets have been attributed by a multitude of writers as the reason they obtained their first professional sales, and wins in national and international writing contests. Two SUPER SECRETS writing books will be published this winter by editor Mark Leslie Lefebvre through Stark Publishing Solutions. Learn more at https://bit.ly/TheSuperSecrets
Explore the works of Wulf Moon by visiting driftweave.com or by checking out his Amazon author page at: amazon.com/author/wulfmoon.
2. The long personal bio. You asked for it!
Hi. Name’s Wulf, Wulf Moon. Let’s make it easy. Call me Moon.
I wrote my first hard science fiction story when I was fifteen. It became a winner in the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards–the same contest that first discovered Stephen King, Peter S. Beagle, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and a host of iconic names in the arts. This became my first professional sale when it was published in Science World (circulation 500,000 per issue). Since then I have won more than forty awards in writing (and thirty in public speaking), the largest being a full scholarship to a private college—a good thing to happen to a kid in a foster home.
After college, I had many businesses, including working as a full-time freelance writer and artist. Through my companies, I have written and produced creative newsletters, brochures and manuals for financial marketing firms; designed corporate logos for some of the biggest startups in the nation; had my own studio and waterfront gallery on some beautiful islands; and created and marketed my own line of artistic greeting cards sold in gift shops. These days, my focus on art is watercolor, my focus on writing is speculative fiction. Yeah. Space ships and dragons. Want a piece of me? Read my work.
As to my fiction, here’s some professional credits:
My science fiction story “Seventh Heaven” was published by Simon and Schuster’s Pocket Books Division in the anthology Star Trek: Strange New Worlds II. A Borg love story. What could be sweeter?
Another honor was winning a contest sponsored by New York Times best-selling author Nora Roberts. My entry won first place, and became the conclusion to her novella, “Riley Slade’s Return.”
Third Flatiron Publishing bought my story “Beast of the Month” for the anthology Strange Beasties, released September 20, 2017 in e-book and trade paperback (it was also reprinted in Third Flatiron’s Best of 2017). My story was also selected for podcast, and I was hired to read it. Some quiet night when you ease back in your armchair and turn down the lights, let me read you a story. Take your pick, they’re here, on my podcast page.
My conquistador fantasy story, “War Dog,” was published by Third Flatiron in TERRA! TARA! TERROR! in October, 2018. In 2019, thousands of readers from around the world voted in the Critters Readers’ Choice Awards. “War Dog” won Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story of 2018. I am honored so many read my story or listened to the podcast from Third Flatiron and gave it this large category award! The sequel, “Cold Iron,” is published in the anthology Infinite Lives: Short Tales of Longevity by Third Flatiron.
The International Talent Search Writers of the Future
In the fall of 2018, I was awarded a full scholarship to Superstars Writing Seminars, and I won the international Writers of the Future Contest! Thousands of writers from around the world compete in this international talent search each year by submitting stories in speculative fiction. Winners are judged by bestselling authors in the industry like David Farland, Kevin J. Anderson, Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, Tim Powers, and many more. We won substantial prize money, got paid pro rate for our stories, got flown to Hollywood where we enjoyed a week long free workshop with top experts in the field, and it all culminated in an awards banquet and gala many have dubbed “the Oscars of science fiction and fantasy.” And, our stories are now published in a #1 bestselling anthology, Writers of the Future, Volume 35. Many of the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy got their start by winning this contest, as you can see in this list of their newest science fiction books. I am happy my story, “Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler,” has been read by tens of thousands worldwide. (To find out more about this international writing contest, go to https://www.writersofthefuture.com )
In the Critters Readers’ Choice Awards where over 2,500 readers vote each year, “Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler” won BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SHORT STORY OF 2019. At the time, this was the second year in a row my stories had won this largest of categories! Not only that, I was awarded BEST AUTHOR OF 2019. I also won BEST NON-FICTION ARTICLE OF 2019–for “Never Let Go” in How I Got Published and What I Learned Along the Way. Also, I won BEST WRITING WORKSHOP OF 2019–this, for Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRET Writing Workshops. Finally, my story “Weep No More for the Willow” in DEEP MAGIC Fall 2019 took 2nd place in BEST OTHER SHORT STORY OF 2019. Suffice it to say, 2019 was a very good year for me.
And the Critters Readers’ Choice Awards didn’t end in 2019. I know, it’s a long list, but as Count Rugen said in The Princess Bride, “This is for posterity, so please be honest.” To date, I’ve won BEST AUTHOR OF 2019, OF 202O, OF 2021. I’ve won BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SHORT STORY of 2019, of 2020, and took 2nd Place in 2021. I won BEST POSITIVE FUTURE SHORT STORY in 2021, and BEST OTHER SHORT STORY in 2021. I won BEST NONFICTION ARTICLE in 2021 (and 2019). I won BEST WRITERS’ RESOURCE (The Super Secrets of Writing) in 2021 and 2020. And I won BEST WRITING WORKSHOP (Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS Workshops) of 2021, 2020, and 2019. That’s six Critters Readers’ Choice Awards in 2021, which I believe is a record for a single writer to earn in these awards in one year.
In 2021, I won another set of writing awards, bringing my lifetime tally to over forty. These were in contests sponsored by the Southeastern Writers Association, a writing organization that’s been supporting great writing since 1975. Out of the four categories I entered, I won in each. In the Vega Award for Speculative Short Fiction, I was awarded First Place. In the Microcosm Award (flash fiction) I was awarded Second Place. In the Award for Historical Fiction I was awarded Second Place. In the Southern Pen Novel Award, Third Place. I received nice cash prizes and certificates with each.
Here’s a weird trivia bit about my writing. In 1996, I won Grand Prize in the “Contest Corner Prose Contest,” which was likely the first major online flash fiction contest. It was sponsored by AOL, judged by a panel of twenty pro fiction writers and editors. Over the course of that year, thousands of writers including novelists, journalists, lyricists and composers entered the weekly contests. At the start of each week, you were given a one word theme prompt, by the end of the week, you posted your story. The judges awarded prizes to the top three each week, and I’m happy to report I placed in those top three almost every week I entered–against 400 to 700 entries in any given week! But the big deal was the award for Writer of the Year, where first place winners from each week were compiled and judged for that year’s Grand Prize. Out of over 25,000 total entries for the year, two of my stories placed in the Top Ten, one of them taking the award for Writer of the Year and the grand prize worth thousands of dollars. Oh, and then the editor at The Rose and Thorn, one of the best online literary magazines of the day, published the story that placed just under my grand prize winner.
And there’s more! “Muzik Man” wins BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SHORT STORY OF 2020. That’s my third annual win in a row in this category.
BEST OF DEEP MAGIC ANTHOLOGY TWO.
Okay, I already told you I won Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story of 2020, but this is the actual story, and it had more honors. “Muzik Man,” published in DEEP MAGIC magazine, Fall 2020, received a wonderful review in Tangent Online. It went on to earn a starred novelette on Tangent’s Recommended Reading List for 2020. It was also published in trade paperback on May 25th, 2021 in BEST OF DEEP MAGIC ANTHOLOGY TWO. I view publication in this anthology as a particularly special honor, because in that selection period, the board had published many NYT and USA Today bestselling authors in their magazines, including Michael Sullivan and Terry Brooks. I am also proud of my mentee Brittany Rainsdon that made the cut for this anthology with a story I had assisted her with.
And there’s more! (I warned you this would be loooong.)
Scot Noel at DreamForge Anvil magazine cares about hopeful writers like I do. We’re kindred spirits! He has commissioned me to write stories and writing articles for their magazine. I am honored to be asked to be a part of his program–DreamForge’s stories have earned over twenty Recommended listings in the last two years on Tangent’s Recommended Reading List, and their art is absolutely gorgeous. My celestial beings science fiction story “Shaken, Not Stirred” was published in DreamForge Anvil, Issue 2, April 2021, served as their website’s Featured Story for most of the year, and became one of my many Critters Award winners.
I’m even more excited about being asked by the editor to produce articles for the magazine on writing. These will be featured as Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS, based on my award-winning online writers’ resource by that name. The first appears in the April, 2021 Edition: “NAIL YOUR OPENING: How Driving to the Story Creates Accidents.” There is also a Behind the Scenes Author’s Notes on how I wrote “Shaken, Not Stirred.” Don’t miss their beautiful flagship issue! DreamForge Anvil magazine, Issue 2.
And that’s not all!
I was invited to teach my award-winning Super Secrets of Writing master workshops in 2020 and 2021 at Fyrecon and Fyrelite, and they sold out over and over again. I am thrilled so many writers have benefited from my teachings, saving them many years of trial and error in the school of hard knocks. The proof? In the past three years, six alumni from my Super Secrets Workshop–the year-long version I conduct for free to help aspiring writers–have either won or were published finalists in the #1 international talent search for speculative fiction writers, the Writers of the Future Contest. One of my editing clients won as well after I encouraged her to enter the contest. Many of my mentees and students have obtained their first professional sales, one took grand prize in the Mike Resnick Memorial Award and another took third place, another won the Canadian Book Awards, many have been finalists in Writers of the Future, and a number are well on their way to achieving their own professional writing careers. This makes me most happy.
Last, but not least! (Are we there yet? Are we there yet?)
My workshops usually sell out when I teach them, and I often have to do overflow workshops, even when I’ve set max seating to fifty. I taught four Super Secrets of Writing Workshops at Fyrecon Online in November 2021 as a master guest, and I’ve been invited back again for 2022. Would you like to obtain an e-book, trade paperback, or hardcover of the award-winning Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS? Well so would I! Where is it? How do I get one? It’s still TOP SECRET, but I can let you in on a secret. It’s coming out this year–TWO, COUNT THEM, TWO BEAUTIFUL BOOKS–with an exciting Kickstarter to kick off the show! They’ll be published by Mark Leslie Lefebvre of Stark Publishing Solutions. Stay tuned because . . .
The story of Wulf Moon is to be continued.
Some of the Critters Readers’ Choice Awards I’ve won over the past three years. 2500 from around the world vote for the best each year in publishing, and I’ve won some of their largest categories.
