Last week, I announced a science fiction short story contest, Singular Source. It’s been keeping me busy, but it’s been a lot of fun. I’m using parts of my brain that I haven’t used in years.

In addition to publicity and raising money for prizes (please donate!), I’m looking for judges.

My goal is to have three judges. I’m assuming that I’m going to have a sufficiently large number of entries that three judges are warranted. For the three judges, I wanted to one with an academic background (a professor of something tech-related or literary or…), one published author, and one aspiring author. I wanted the professor, because the story will be published as part of an academic book. The published author will bring a professional eye/ear. Including the aspiring author will help build community, both to educate the aspiring author about what it’s like to be a judge and to bring attention to a new voice.

I will likely end up being the academic judge. This seems appropriate, because I’m editing the book. If this is the case, I will not take an honorarium. Any money that I raise for honorariums will be divided among the other judges.

I’ve asked lots of published and aspiring authors and almost all have declined. (I do have one affirmative nibble that I’ll announce in the coming days.) Among the people I’ve asked are Vernor Vinge, Greg Wilson, Kavita Philip, Daniel José Older, Karl Schroeder, Antoinette LaFarge, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Wil Wheaton. I’ve really enjoyed communicating with science fiction authors. They’ve all been really nice and actually took the time to answer the query. Although, they have all said “no,” it’s been a pleasure to come close to greatness.

Do you have any suggestions for who I should ask?