People like to dream! Who can blame them for imagining a better world or aiming for a higher standard of life? As Einstein had put it, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Yes, we are another one of those sci-fi publications, whose writers and illustrators dream about the future with the mind’s eye of visionaries. Called Sci-Fi Almanac, it represents an international community of people, who draw ideas from beyond the stars above their heads: novels, paintings, radio drama, animations, computer games…—a glimpse into the unknown. Ah, the unknown, which always makes us think, “What if…?” The question with the power to change the world.

Our vision is simple. We believe our world had enough “Berlin Walls” of separation between ideas and nations, who share the same planet. We see that the recent climatic shift might force humanity to move into space sooner rather than later as “one race under the stars.” We know this has been a dream of all visionaries from before the two world wars of humanity, fought for food and territory, not just gold and glory … or ideology. Starting with Jules Verne and ending (or rather continuing) with all of us, we have painted this human dream of shifting from planetary to cosmic society, using words, colors, and music. This isn’t just sci-fi or just space art! This is a lifestyle, comprised of hope for the better and faith in human destiny. In short, we do not believe that humanity is destined for the dust but for the stars. And certainly not for oblivion and self-obliteration! Whether you accept the ongoing paradigm shift on our planet or not, time isn’t going to wait for us to first comprehend it and then try it. The changes are taking place already. Naturally.

Can people live and work in space-station cities? Can we terraform our Moon and Mars, or at least prepare there shelters in case of global emergency? Can we move our factories into orbit, which at present are killing our environment? Can we build artificial planetoids around our sun, instead of just overpopulating and overusing our planet? Can we mine our asteroid belt? These are but a few of millions of questions, which we want to discuss and portray in our anthology from a scientific, artistic, and fictional perspective. That’s what might help get us up there … before it’s too late.

To take our vision from fantasizing to practical applications, we have created:

[] International SF4 Contest for best 12 short stories and illustrations
[] Sci-Fi Almanac for publishing our winners with global exposure
[] Radio Drama Team for producing various audio projects
[] Golden Rocket Crew, an imprint for comic books and graphic novels
[] Pulsar Art Books for artist's albums with and without tutorials
[] Animation Group for future production... and the list is growing!

To find out more, refer to Call for Writers and Artists, For New Members, Terms & Conditions, Guidelines, Copyright, Q&A, Sci-Fi Sub-Genres, etc.

Godspeed,

Bob Bello

Editor-in-Chief

Note: If you want to illustrate us, see Sample Project and Letter To Illustrators.
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DEADLINE for Writing: May 10th each year!
DEADLINE for Illustration: August 20th each year!
RELEASE DATE: October 1st each year!

Note: The above deadlines are for the inclusion in the current volume of SFA. If you submit after deadline, your work would automatically be considered for the next-year contest and almanac volume. If you want your stories illustrated on time for the printed version, submit as soon as possible, so that the artists have more time to illustrate you! Once your writing is approved, you will still have time to polish it until August 20th. Exceptions only due to illness and only if extension has been requested prior to deadline!

All 12 award-winning shorts will be announced in the Approved Stories forum and produced on audio the following year: a) with the author's original voice, b) narrator, or c) full-cast radio drama adaptation. If you want to be involved in the audio production, join our Y3K Radio Drama group and tell us about your goals.