On the eve of L. Ron Hubbard's 101st birthday, we have a story which brings together several themes we've been dealing with here lately -- Scientology's alleged abuses, its "secular" front groups, and its attempts to promote the reputation of its founder.

In February, I noticed an interesting blog post by the writer Jim Hines. Jim lives in Michigan, and is the author of the 2006 novel Goblin Quest and half a dozen other books in the fantasy vein. Like other toilers in the science fiction and fantasy field, Hines got his start by winning a contest in the genre.

In 1998, his short story "Blade of the Bunny" was selected as a quarterly winner of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. Along with other winners that year, Hines was celebrated at a gala event on September 24, 1999, which was held at the offices of Author Services, Inc., the literary agency for Hubbard's works.

For a young, unpublished author like Hines, it was a big step early in his career.

But last month, Hines wrote at his LiveJournal account that he and other writers are beginning to have concerns about the Hubbard contest.

When the subject of Scientology came up, we were told that the contest and its finances were completely separate from the church. That's something I've repeated to other writers more than once. I'm no longer certain this is true.

Turns out, he didn't know the half of it.

The "L. Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future" and Illustrators of the Future contests are prestigious and lucrative. They feature judges who are among the biggest names in the field, and they've helped launch the careers of important new artists.

Over the years, however, questions have been raised about the contests and their connection to Scientology. And those questions are getting more pointed with news of the church's abuses increasingly reaching the public -- such as Debbie Cook's recent court testimony about the torture of church executives at "The Hole," an office-prison at Scientology's California international headquarters.

But is there really any connection between a science fiction contest's glitzy parties in Los Angeles and the shocking abuse going on at the church's headquarters about 90 miles away?

The Voice has learned that the connection between the two is disturbingly close.

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In January of 2004, three witnesses tell us Miscavige was having Barbara Ruiz run mass confessions in the Hole. In August of that same year, Rachel Denk saw both Miscavige and Ruiz enjoying themselves at the Writers of the Year contest, which was run by Author Services, where Ruiz was executive director
snip
You will not find anything of comparable magnitude out there for new and amateur writers of science fiction and fantasy (1)

With me, only my last 3 months under her, when I was her junior at ASI, did she become a living hell.

Yes, she was very nice most of the time. She comes from a real upper class family, and knows upper class ways for real, she’s the real deal upper class daughter.

I heard she blew, and I hope she someday gets her thoughts sorted out on DM, so she see it was not the right thing to play to DM’s style. DM’s was NOT the winning valance.

links and authors blogs quoted in article
http://www.divided-by-zero.com/showthre ... cientology

*cough*

The camera crew at the events are Gold Sea Org (Scn’s religious order) members. This means they normally reside and work at the same location where Debbie Cook was tortured and Marc Headley was run off the road trying to leave. I’ve actually point-blank asked a few of them, “Oh, are you from Gold base? I always thought that would be so cool!” (Because of my film background, people were pressuring me to go there when I was in, but now I’m super-glad I did not.)
•In 2008, the event was held at the Author Services building in Hollywood. Canapes were served by Sea Org staff.
•I’ve never met a WotF staffer who wasn’t a Scientologist (more specifically, a Sea Org member).

Chuck Beatty heard Barbara Ruiz blew.

"With me, only my last 3 months under her, when I was her junior at ASI, did she become a living hell. Yes, she was very nice most of the time. She comes from a real upper class family, and knows upper class ways for real, she’s the real deal upper class daughter."

In 2000, a quantum physicist in Ithaca, New York named Carl Frederick decided to try his hand at writing science fiction. Two years later, he was named a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. The next year, 2003, he did even better, winning a quarterly first prize for his short story, "A Boy and His Bicycle," which appeared in the anthology pictured at the right.

In 2002 and 2003, Frederick was flown out to Los Angeles to enjoy the fruits of being a contest winner.

"You're never treated anywhere in your life as a writer better than you are there. Tuxedos, parties on rooftops -- there were even paparazzi. They give you the whole works," he says.

This year, Frederick was invited back as a past winner to help put on the week-long workshops that a new set of winners will enjoy during their week of pampering this April.

But then, Frederick read our March 12 story about the troubling connections between Scientology's alleged abuses and an administrator of the contest, which the church owns. He announced in our comments section some stunning news: "After reading Tony's article and the comments, I decided to sever my Writers of the Future ties and forgo the free trip/vacation in L.A."

Last night, I called Frederick to ask him about his decision.

"I had blinders on. Self-fitted blinders. I didn't want anything to get in the way of my appreciation of the contest," he says. "I still think the contest is a good thing. But once you've gone through it, you should probably leave. It's the long-term association that I have a problem with," he says. "It implies an acceptance of everything."

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Jerry Pournelle ? I just recommended a book by him and Larry Niven to someone last night. The book is called "Inferno" and it's about a sci-fi writer who accidentally ends up in hell and has to find his way out and while doing this he encounters all sorts of infamous denizens of hell and I forgot that one of the denizens of hell he meets along the way is...L RON HUBBARD !
Something tells me no one at ASI is aware of this fact.

Last week, we brought you several moments from Scientology's big L. Ron Hubbard birthday event that was held on March 10 in Clearwater, Florida. Here's another few minutes from that celebration that we alluded to earlier, during which church leader David Miscavige uses the church's "Writers of the Future" contest to burnish Hubbard's reputation.

Now, with a little more than a week to go before Writers of the Future throws its big annual gala on April 15, Scientology is pulling out the big guns, adding surprising names to this year's party. And someone who ran the contest for many years tells us that can mean only one thing: the contest is in big trouble.

As we reported on March 12, we discovered troubling ties between the prestigious contest -- which brings together some of the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy to honor up and coming new writers -- and the startling allegations of abuse at Scientology's international headquarters ("Int Base") about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

We showed that at the same time a woman named Barbara Ruiz was running the contest as the executive director of Author Services (the Hubbard literary agency and church entity that administers the contest), she was seen by three witnesses helping church leader David Miscavige run "the Hole" -- the notorious office-prison at Int Base where fallen executives were held against their will and made to live under degrading conditions.

After that report, we heard from numerous writers who for years had been somewhat uncomfortable with the connections between the contest and the church -- despite the supposed "firewall" that kept contest participants from being proselytized. And after our story showed the disturbing connection between Author Services and the alleged abuse at the base, we heard from a couple of writers who are now publicly cutting ties with the contest, including Ithaca's Carl Frederick, who decided to turn down an invitation to participate in this year's week of workshops, which included an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles.

We never did hear back from church spokeswoman Karin Pouw, who we asked about Ruiz and the contest. But this week, we learned that the church appears to be striking back...

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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 06, 2012

The L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards ceremony, celebrating its 28th anniversary of the internationally-acclaimed Writers of the Future Contest and its companion Illustrators of the Future Contest, will be broadcast on Sunday, April 15th, 6:30 pm (Pacific), to a worldwide audience via Internet, it was announced today. See video invite. Streaming will be live from writersofthefuture.com <<cult link where a special link will be set up.

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