West Salem Writer Wins National Recognition for Imaginative Fiction
By Julie Oaks, The West Side Newspaper
Sandra Siegienski has that knack good storytellers do to turn the ordinary into the fantastic.
A fishing pole catches stars out of the night sky.
A straggly yard-sale plant grows into a sentient roommate with a taste for literature and furniture.
A beautiful shoebox inspires a shy woman to craft a life-size version for herself, with transformative results.
The West Salem writer also mixes the supernatural with the everyday, as in her latest story “Makeshift Light.” In the tale, a woman’s dead husband battles with neighbors who target their dilapidated but treasure-filled home. When the kids throw apples, he drops the tree’s branches on them. When the adults go after the tree, he shorts out the neighborhood’s electricity. Meanwhile, his spirit communicates with her through flickering lights and they plan her future somewhere new. Knowing she will lose her husband with their magical home, the widow sadly packs. But his spirit has a plan she never expected.
“Makeshift Light” is a favorite of Siegienski’s and a favorite of the well-known science fiction authors who recently awarded it second place in the highly competitive Writers of the Future contest. The award vaults her into the status of professional author and will send her to Hollywood to walk the red carpet with other winners at the annual awards ceremony.
“There are fascinating things out there to learn about,” she says. “I love to put meaningful things into stories, and if other people enjoy them too, that makes me very happy.”
The Writers of the Future contest is a well-known event held four times a year and entered by thousands of writers from around the world. Begun in 1985, it is free and open to all amateur writers. Entries are anonymous and judged by professional science fiction/fantasy authors such as Frank and Brian Herbert of “Dune” fame. Thousands enter and only the top three writers get cash awards. Many others qualify for honorable mention (Siegienski has won 22 of these) and the top 12 stories each year are published in a large anthology.
Siegienski’s winning story will be published in April 2027 in the 43rd volume, which includes the other awards category for winning illustrators. Copies will be available by order through bookstores and online. The awards ceremony will be held April 8 at a location to be announced.
“Writing professional-level fiction is difficult and not for the faint of heart,” says Eric Witchey, an award-winning author and editor in Salem with more than 170 stories to his name. “It requires thousands of hours of study and practice. Sandra has put in those hours and is now beginning to reap the rewards.”
The contest is somewhat controversial for its creator, L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific sci-fi author known as the founder of the Scientology religion. While Hubbard raises eyebrows, his contest has become important to helping thousands of science fiction writers get their stories in the public eye.
Siegienski herself is a story. She grew up in Anchorage, reading books in a cottonwood tree and developing a deep connection to nature and the forest. She started early, reading “Star Wars” at eight and devouring the “Little House on the Prairie” books. Of course, she was a big fan of “Star Trek” at 12. As a child in the isolation of Alaska, “I read to experience the outside world,” she says.
Today in her 40s, she is equal parts writer and developmental editor for new writers. She also is a certified speech pathologist, languages student, international dancer, bagpipe player, novice skateboarder, and a former Marion County Fire District volunteer.
Writing, of course, is her main passion. She started in 2006 and has written about 40 novels and short stories, 30 of which won her awards in various contests.
Yet like any experienced writer seeking publication and pay, Siegienski has a stack of rejection letters an inch deep, she says.
Her style is reminiscent of famous science fiction author Ray Bradbury. Subjects are familiar, but there’s no guessing where each story is going or how it will end. Like Bradbury’s ability to turn a trampled butterfly into a world-altering disaster, she turns simple things into profound lessons.
In “Shoebox,” for example, a reclusive woman out shopping admires a beautifully decorated shoebox and decides to make one for herself as a way to take the security of home out in the world. Despite jokes from her boyfriend, she wears it in public. Instead of laughing, people love her wearable fortress.
“It was inspired by society and why we do things,” she says.
In “Know Thy Roommate,” a woman buys a forlorn yard-sale plant and nurtures it to the point it roams the house and moves things with its vines. Soon it is spelling words, knocking books off shelves and eating the furniture. In the end, the plant chooses a book that tells its caretaker what to do next.
“I like to view things from the perspective of things,” she says.
And in “Sky-Caster,” a woman fishing for stars in the night sky befriends two children more experienced in the art. They have long been catching stars for their near-blind mother, who keeps them in a box. While they teach the woman to fish, she instructs them on the importance of catch and release.
As her bio states, Siegienski “loves bringing reflection, joy, humor, and poignancy to her pages, while giving a voice to all things in nature and to those who may not speak for themselves.”
Her stories appear in literary journals such as The Colored Lens, Shelter of Daylight, Andromeda Spaceways and The Timberline Review, which can be ordered online. Genres include speculative fiction, fantasy, young adult fiction, science fiction “on the lighter side,” and humor. She has also written “flash” fiction (1,000 words or less) and micro-fiction (50 words or less). One of these stories, “The Blue Earth,” starts with a Jupiter-bound astronaut who marvels at how beautiful Earth is from space only to learn the first view was the last.
At present, she is writing multiple fantasy/sci-fi novels and short stories, which require “20 to 40 to 60 hours a week,” she jokes. Her favored “desk” is actually anywhere outdoors, particularly her backyard and parks. “I will pull over to a rest stop to write,” Siegienski says. “Driving is one of the best ways to get ideas.”
Siegienski is also heavily involved in area writers groups such as Willamette Writers, Apex Writers, The Wordos, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. These groups are open to all and meet regularly.
“Over the decade or so I have had the pleasure of watching Sandra develop her craft, and she has repeatedly demonstrated that she is one of the most passionate, creative, hard-working, and diligent writers I’ve had the honor of knowing,” says Witchey, a longtime mentor and instructor.
You can learn more about Siegienski at SandraStoryTree.com (under construction) and by searching her name with the words “science fiction author.”