I’m a finalist for The Roswell Award for Short Science Fiction!
That means I could fly to L.A. to watch a professional actor read my short story, “Cardiopulmonary Arrest” (yes, the title is a pathology joke). And I could win $1000. The catch is, they won’t cover any of my expenses. So if it were you, would you go?

My new friend Ellen en route to San Francisco. That’s Chris Isaak’s guitar pick and some fortune cookie slips. She thinks I should go.
I worry a lot about money. Multiply that by ten if it’s my writing money. In fact, that’s the basis of the following seven things you didn’t know about my writing, thanks to Rob Brunet and Doug Smith
tagging me. Interestingly, they’re all about writing and money. I’ll append the Roswell letter below. But first, seven things!
1. For a long time, my writing was handicapped by my cheapness. I was so afraid of losing money on my writing that I did stupid stuff like use Times New Roman 12 pt to fit the maximum words on a page, even if the editor from Weird Tales sent me back a letter saying, “Your font is too small.”
2. If you do stuff like this, your work is less likely to sell, and it becomes a vicious cycle. Fortunately, Kris Rusch glared at me and said, “It’s too small. I don’t care if it’s 12 points. An editor’s eyes are her livelihood.” I increased my font to 14 points.
3. Another cheap story: when Writers of the Future flew me out to LA for the week-long workshop, I found a used book I really wanted, poemcrazy. I agonized over it. William, my “twin” (writer I was paired with for the week), just looked at me and said, “Would you get six dollars’ worth out of it?” I bought the book. I still love it, especially the part where her son is shaking a lilac bush and instead of screaming at him, she asks him what he’s doing, and he says, “I’m stirring the sky, Mama.” I wanted to have kids who would make me see the world in a different way.
4. Medicine changed my writing because I had to condense a lot of information (history, physical exams, and investigations) into half a page. Jason, one of the nurses, said, “You use a lot of abbreviations.”
5. I did feel stifled for a bit, writing “72 y.o. M, DM, CHF, SOB x 3 d…” until I let it go. I never liked other people telling what to write, absolutely loathed the five paragraph structure in high school, and spent years NEVER explicitly writing medicine into my fiction, even though everyone else told me to write like Michael Crichton.
6. After years of writing in almost every genre, from werewolves to picture books, I like creating the Hope Sze medical thrillers, but it’s the most draining type of work, for me.
7. However, I find it relatively easy and therapeutic to write medical non-fiction about the ER, and some of my essays should appear in the Medical Post in the near future—with a columnist photo! (This entailed a lot of setting up the tripod and running to the wall and getting our dog over-excited.)
And what do you think about L.A. in 2015? The downside: spending money, CO2 footprint. The upside: L.A., fun, and rubbing shoulders with SF and Hollywood peeps. Tell me what you’d do! I might quote you in my SleuthSayers.org column on Monday, where I’ll be mulling over the question in more detail.
Hurray. I hope you win. Also, a great blog post.
OMG. Why are you even thinking about it….of course you should go!
Woohoo! Go Melissa!
Awesome, good luck!
@Pierre, thanks!
Chryssi Paraskevopoulos, yes, I’m leaning that way. 🙂
Melissa that’s awesome..you rock!
Fantastic!!! Go girl!!!!
Ummm….no brainer! You’re an artist, the cost of this is a necessary investment to further your career, and – hello?! Celebrity writers present? And you get a spiel said about you as a finalist ?! In LA???!!! That is publicity, exposure and accolades whose worth can’t be measured in dollars! Go!!! AND spend money on an awesome outfit to boot. When you get famousER, the designers will beg you to wear their dresses for free!!
Congrats!
Way to go that’s amazing!!
Congratulations, Melissa! Fantastic news! And you should definitely go to LA. And not stay in a youth hostel.
Congrats Melissa well done!
Congratulations, Melissa!
That’s pretty cool! Congratulations. If you could afford it and if it makes sense with your goals of landing a trad pub deal or making connections (like you mentioned before), it might be worth it. The expenses would make me cringe too though, especially combined with the odds of winning your money back. But who knows what might come out of an event like this? If anything, it could be a learning experience.
I like that you’re the only one weighing risks and benefits. I’m leaning towards benefits, though. I learn from everything.
Way to go Melissa!
And in 50 years , will you fondly reminisce about the money you saved, and how much greener the planet is because you didn’t fly to Hollywood to hang with fellow authors and receive the Roswell Award that you SO deserve ?? Take a page from Dr Seuss Oh The Places You,ll Go
If I thought it would save the planet, I would. But since it probably won’t make a huge difference, I’ll probably fly and donate to WWF again. Thanks!
If you can go, go!! It could be a great experience (bonus points if you win), an opportunity to network, maybe even a tax write off. I just looked it up online and if you’re an sf fan at all, it’s worth checking for performances on the days you’d be going. There are a lot of “supporting actor” types doing these off-season shows and it can be a real blast to see them live.
I do love theatre, so that would rock. Not sure how much my daughter would tolerate. Who wants to come to LA with us?
I had to laugh about the youth hostel. You know me so well, Tanya, although i have upgraded to airbnb now, darling.
I’m getting a definite go vibe. But would you bring your kids? Thanks for the enabling!
Wow, you are a rockstar!
Extra bonus points to Bernadette. i hadnt even considered buying a new one. i have lots of gowns and planned to wear my red Oonu. hmmm. p.s. to Geoff Heseltine, this would mean i couldnt trade shifts. –melissa in portland
Grats! <3
Super!
Congratulations!
Congrats you should go. From an old retired nurse from CCU 🙂
Woohoo!
Well, if an old, retired nurse from ICU says I should go… 😉
P.S. Super late, but thanks to Rob Brunet and Douglas Smith for tagging me. If you want to share seven secret things about your writing selves, go for it, Rebecca Senese, Jennifer Pederson, Janet Kay Jensen, Jean-Louis Trudel, Michael McPherson, Margaret Pumpelly Finnegan, and Sara Graefe.
Congratulations Melissa Yuan-Innes. Go. Don’t take the kids. Take Matt and his crochet thong, it’ll be warm enough. Enjoy, rejuvinate and celebrate all your writing achievments of the past few years. Sometimes it’s ok to celebrate yourself. Again, congratulations!!
What Amber said….How exciting!
How wonderful! Congratulations, Melissa!
I love that the mothers of three each (six kids between them) are advocating leaving the kids at home! Hee hee. Thanks, Gloria, and everyone!
Congrats Melissa! (Go and leave the kids – from a dad of four)
[…] A few bummers: the children’s museum closed at 5 p.m., so I never got to see it. And the top floor of the contemporary museum was closed, so I couldn’t climb up to the top to see the Hollywood sign, which I was going to take a picture of for Max. His souvenir request was a tiny Hollywood sign. My son loves tourist kitsch that I can’t stand. I didn’t pay for the extra Hudson River exhibition, but you could watch a titan-sized video of people throwing balls through the glass front of the Mike & Laura Resnick building. I mention the name because he’s a big SF name, and I’m here for an SF award ceremony, the Roswell award. […]
[…] ask me, “How do you know Joel?” like at a wedding. I would say, “I don’t know Joel. I’m a Roswell award finalist.” But everyone else knew Joel. And what a clever play, a high school class on race relations […]
[…] spending the money to go to L.A. when I had a 1/6 chance of winning $1000. You can read about it here and here. I didn’t win, but I had a fabulous […]