A Prize

Roberto Sanhueza

Veteran readers of Bewildering Stories remember Roberto very fondly. We have two sayings that seem appropriate: “You never know where things may lead” and “Local boy makes good!” The second is for someone you know who achieves a signal distinction...

Hi Don and Jerry,

I have news I want to share with you two, because you were the ones who first had faith in my humble writing skills. The Polytechnnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain holds a yearly literary contest, a science fiction short novel contest, to be exact. It has a prize of 6,000 euros (more than $8,800 US). Among the winners in previous years I can recall Katherine K. Rausch among the well-known American SF writers.

I entered the contest this year with a new novel based on a short story of mine that appeared in Bewildering Stories some time ago: “For Your Eyes Only.” Writers can enter the contest with novels written in Spanish, Catalan, French, or English. I chose to write in Spanish and titled my novel Bis. The word is the same in Spanish and French and means “encore,” what people say when they want musicians to perform again after a concert is over.

To the point: I won first prize and am travelling to Barcelona, two weeks from now, to receive it. You can’t begin to imagine what this has meant to me. I’m far from considering myself a pro writer, and the fact that the jury was unanimous in awarding me first prize (it has been divided in some previous years) among 96 contestants... wow!

Thanks to you, Don and Jerry. I was born as writer at Bewildering Stories, and you two hold a special place in my affections. You were always encouraging and helpful, and I am very thankful for that. I owe a great deal of this to you two.

Thanks!

Roberto

The honor and distinction are yours, Roberto, and we at Bewildering Stories have the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing how well deserved they are. We’re very grateful for your expression of gratitude; such courtesy and kind consideration do you and us honor.

For the benefit of readers whose institutional memory does not extend as far back as Year 2 of Bewildering Stories, a little history is in order. “Katts and Dawgs” appeared in issue 53 was soon followed by “Katts, Dawgs & Mysse,” in issue 56. I discovered on the Asimov’s forum that Roberto was wondering whether he should continue the story, and I vigorously encouraged him to do so: we loved Phydo and Thomm!

The third installment appeared in issue 92, and from then on, Katts and Dawgs grew into an episodic novel featuring some of the most charming characters ever to be found in our pages.

Jerry Wright would have loved to publish Katts and Dawgs at Bewildering Press, and I heartily concurred. However, by issue 238, it had become apparent that the novel was not complete: other episodes had been added that are set in a time prior to “Katts and Dawgs.”

While we have no problem with episodic novels, Roberto himself expressed unhappiness with what he sensed as a lack of thematic and stylistic coherence. We had to agree. And then Roberto told us he’d revised the novel in a Spanish version. At that point we didn’t know what to do. But that’s normal. Remember the saying “You never know where things may lead”: texts are dynamic, and the creative process can take many twists and turns.

Our hope is that Katts and Dawgs will some day be retranslated into English and — we would expect in all confidence — win distinction on its own.

Congratulations, Roberto! And keep up the good work...

Don Webb
Managing Editor
Bewildering Stories