The first round of the 1st Quarter Honorable Mentions of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest 2010 were announced today. The quarter ended on the 31st of December and the initial judging process of reading all of the stories and deciding the category of each has been ongoing since mid-January. "We have to wait for all entries to arrive from around the world, which takes a few weeks," contest coordinating judge K.D. Wentworth stated.

The second and final set of Honorable Mentions will be announced next week, followed by the semi-finalist and finalist announcement.

Stories that received Honorable Mention status will not go on for final judging but were good enough to merit acknowledgement for being well written. "It is important to acknowledge contestants who have the talent, but didn't quite make the semi-finalist or finalist categories," said Wentworth.

"Out of the thousands of stories that get submitted to the contest, a small percentage make it this far," Wentworth continued. "Past Honorable Mention stories routinely go on to see print in other publications."

Contest judges include multiple Nebula and Hugo Award winners and finalists such as Kevin J. Anderson, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg, Dave Wolverton, Sean Williams and K.D. Wentworth.

For more information about the contest, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

SOURCE Writers of the Future Contest

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When you call customers or prospects do you leave a rambling, boring or informal message? Or even worse, do you simply hang up if they do not answer?

"Maybe that's why these people (and maybe even some of your friends!) don't call you back," says Ron Karr, business development expert and author of Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way: The 7 Traits of Great Sellers.

"With Caller ID, regardless if you left a message or not, they know you've called. Plus, if you didn't feel your call was worth a message, why would they want to waste any effort in calling you back?"

Ron advises sales executives, professional service providers and entrepreneurs:

• If you are going to call a business contact, be prepared to talk - don't hang up.
• Know what you want to say and keep it brief.
• Leave a message that is customer-focused, not self-focused. Give them a reason to call you back.
• If you've called several times without getting a return call, change your message - it's not working.

If calling your spouse, friend, relative or someone you know very well, the act of hanging up can merely act as a silent code between the two of you that says "Hey, it's me. Call me back."

If calling a prospect, customer or someone you don't know well at all, hanging up is simply too risky. For one thing, they have not established that silent code with you.

Secondly, people hang up thinking "if I don't leave a message, they will never know I called." Hello! Is anyone home in your mind? Of course they know you called!

In fact, because the relationship is not all that strong, you have now given that person carte blanche to come up with their own reason as to why you did not leave a message and create their own message. Messages that often lead to false assumptions, emotions and actions based on those false assumptions.

Here's the problem with most voice mail messages and why they don't generate call backs. They are self-focused vs. customer-focused. Every time you hear a message, you make the mental decision as to whether or not that caller deserves more of an investment of your time. Leaving messages that record your name, company name and the request to call you back simply does not motivate many people to call you, especially if you are someone they don't know. Leaving messages with the above and talking about a product or service will not get a callback either.

So how do you get callbacks? Simply change your message from being self-focused to being customer-focused by putting an outcome in the message. A result the person will get from calling you back that will benefit them.

"A client of mine was selling x-ray technology. Getting frustrated that the radiologists were not calling her back, she changed to message to: Please call me if you want to put an end to the irate calls you are getting from the Docs because of lost films. She claims to have gotten 70% of her calls returned. Would you appreciate 70% of your voice mails being returned?" commented Karr.

"Bottom line, if you want your voice mail messages returned, then give the receiver a good enough reason to do so.

"Want to learn how to get your calls returned and get people to buy your ideas? Then make the investment and get the book Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way," added Karr.

http://www.ronkarr.com/store/lead-sell-or-get-out-of-the-way  

About Ron Karr

Ron Karr is the President of the business consulting firm Karr Associates, Inc. Ron specializes in helping organizations and professionals generate remarkable sales and operational results. Ron has been interviewed by Entrepreneur Magazine, Bottom Line Business, and Selling Power, as well as Bloomberg TV, CBS Morning Show in New Orleans, Joe Connolly's Wall Street Journal Report and many other shows.

View Ron's recent interview on The Rhode Show on FOX TV in Providence, Rhode Island: http://www.ronkarr.com/media  

SOURCE Ron Karr

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In his new poetic collection Spirit of Chinook Looking at Us (published by Trafford Publishing), debut author Gritfish tackles our current planetary environmental crisis by presenting 29 jeremiads, 29 poems that express the critical state of our many ecosystems, which support all life on Earth, and four poems about possible rescue for the human race.

In hopes of conveying the urgency of the current environmental situation and the implications for the future of life on Earth, Gritfish rekindles the awe and wonder that humans (once as children) instinctually felt toward nature and possibly encourage them to action so that we may prevent a horrible climate disaster or ecological catastrophe in the future. Nowhere does he better make his message of conservation and renewal more clear than in the beginning of his poem titled "A Sense of Place":

About the Author

Gritfish is a pseudonym for a physician with a love of nature, and Spirit of Chinook Looking at Us, his first publication, is an accumulation of poems and cartoons he has written over 15 years of environmental activism. He graduated summa cum laude in biology from Harvard College with the intent to go into fisheries biology; however, an interview with a Ph.D. candidate doing research for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife discouraged this career. Instead he followed the family tradition and went to medical school and became an orthopedic surgeon. In addition to his poems, Gritfish maintains an environmental Web site: http://www.gritfish.com.

Trafford Publishing is the premier book publisher for emerging, self-published authors. For more information, please visit http://www.trafford.com.

This release was issued through eReleases(TM).  For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Trafford Publishing

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Guinness World Records, the global authority on record-breaking achievements has announced an international search for the next Tallest Living Woman.  The record chronicler is looking high and low in every corner of the globe to fill the coveted title with the U.S. search kicking off at a social event with the Tall Club of New York City. Frontrunners from each country will ultimately help Guinness World Records confirm the one absolute Tallest Woman in the world. If you or someone you know fit the bill, Guinness World Records urges you to register your proposal on www.guinnessworldrecords.com and follow the mandated instructions. All legitimate contenders for the Tallest Living Woman title must be willing to be measured in person by an official Guinness World Records adjudicator.

"We have had remarkable success in the past with these record-breaking callouts. It's how we found the current world's tallest man – Sultan Kosen," said Craig Glenday, Editor-In-Chief of Guinness World Records. "The 'Tallest' category always brings out the most awe in people, and hopefully another amazing woman will step forward for measurement and claim the title."

The new Tallest Living Woman will join a lofty list of record-holders from the US, UK and China. The most recent record-holder, American Sandy Allen, stood 7 feet 7.25 inches and was crowned the Tallest Living Woman in 1976 and held the record until her passing in 2008. A frequent fixture in the Guinness World Records book, Allen grew at a rapid rate reaching 6 feet 3 inches by the age of 10 and was 7 feet 1 inches by 16. The Tallest Female Ever, Zeng Jinlian of China, stood an imposing 8 feet 1.75 inches tall.

In 2008, Guinness World Records launched an international search for a new Tallest Living Man. The trail led them all the way to Turkey where they discovered 27-year-old Sultan Kosen, who measures a staggering 8 feet 1 inch in height. Robert Wadlow (US) holds the title as the Tallest Man Ever measuring in at an amazing 8 feet 11.1 inches tall.

In addition to the Tallest Woman, Guinness World Records is also searching for new pet records in the following categories: Dog With the Longest Ears, Smallest Dog (Length), Oldest Dog, Smallest Cat (Length) and Shortest Cat. For a chance to be included in the Guinness World Records 2011 edition, submit your record proposal at http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com.

About Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records is the universally recognized authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the annual Guinness World Records book is published in more than 100 countries and 25 languages and is the highest-selling books under copyright of all time with more than 3 million copies sold annually across the globe. Guinness World Records celebrated its 50th anniversary edition in 2004, a year after the sale of its 100 millionth copy. Guinness World Records also annually publishes the Gamer's Edition; a records book devoted solely to the world of computer gaming and high score record achievements. The Guinness World Records website (www.guinnessworldrecords.com) receives more than 11 million visitors a year. Guinness World Records is part of the Jim Pattison Group, one of Canada's largest privately owned companies which is a conglomerate of interests, including advertising, broadcasting, grocery stores and automotive retailing.

SOURCE Guinness World Records

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An airline pilot, Federal Express driver, a computer technician, a college student and a housewife. They came from all walks of life but realized a common dream as winners of a worldwide writing contest now in its 26th year.

The Writers of the Future Contest, specifically designed to help fledgling writers 26 years ago, has helped discover New York Times' bestselling authors Kevin J. Anderson (X Files, Dune, etc.), Sean Williams (Star Wars, The Force Unleashed), Jo Beverly (Dark Champion), Dave Wolverton (Star Wars, The Courtship of Princess Leia), Karen Joy Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club), Nancy Farmer (The Ear, the Eye and the Arm), Patrick Rothfuss (The Name Of The Wind) and Tim Myers (Basho and the Fox).

"It's free and anyone can enter," says Joni Labaqui, Contest Director. "We're always looking for the next bestselling author, no matter what they currently do for a living."

Recognized as the most successful new writer competition in the world, the Contest each year collects winning stories for an annual anthology series, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, now in its 25th year of publication (the 26th edition will be released this fall), available in bookstores and Wal-Mart stores everywhere.

The Writers of the Future Contest was established in 1983 by international best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard to help new writers. Since its inception, the Contest has recognized and published 400 authors, produced 25 anthologies, and awarded a cumulative $600,000 plus in cash prizes.

Sean Williams, contest winner and now judge says "buy the book; enter the contest; take a chance on yourself! The future might be brighter than you think."

For more information regarding Writers of the Future Contest, go to http://www.writersofthefuture.com or call Joni Labaqui  1-323-466-3310.

SOURCE Writers of the Future Contest

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