Saturn Space Music Captured in Fiction Short Stories Anthology

Stephen Kotowych, the Grand Prize Winner of Writers of the Future Volume 23, wrote his award-winning short story "Saturn in G Minor" based on music being played on the rings of Saturn.

Now we just got to hear some of this music that was brought to us from the Cassini space probe which is circling Saturn currently. "Eerie" is definitely the word.

In Stephen's story a renowned composer takes off to Saturn on a confidential project, but we find out soon enough that he actually programmed a series of meteorite showers to hit Saturn's rings to create the ultimate symphony.

Stephen told us what inspired him to pen this story:

"The inspiration for this story came from a bit of real-world science, believe it or not. I was reading articles in popular science magazines (a goldmine of SF ideas) about the findings of the Cassini probe to Saturn. One of the most amazing things was that Saturn's rings give off distinct musical tones in the form of radio waves when struck by micrometeoroids, and the findings came as a surprise to even the scientists working on the project.

My first thought was: 'Well, somebody has to get out there and play some music on those rings!' and that's when the story idea was born. The rest of the details I fleshed out from my own experience (I work with academics every day, and took a course in electro-acoustic musical composition in university) and the science I filled in mainly from internet research."

When Stephen came to attend the Writers of the Future workshop in Pasadena, he also got a tour of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) which is the very place the Cassini orbiter was built!

But the biggest surprise came for Stephen when he found out during the awards ceremony that he won the Grand Prize with his fiction short story.

You can see a video of him getting announced and going up on stage to accept the award here:
Writing Contest - Stephen Kotowych

Furthermore, here is a photo of Stephen during the workshop with the Writers of the Future judges Tim Powers and K.D. Wentworth:



Stephen told us how he felt about winning the contest. He said:

"To have the story win in the Writers of the Future competition is still a little unbelievable to me. This was the third or fourth story I'd submitted to the contest and when I got the call from Joni that I'd won the contest--well, it was a good thing I was sitting down.

What I kept coming back to was the judges: these writers who I'd grown up reading--major pros in the field--had read MY story for a change, and had LIKED it. It's still a bit surreal, but that thought alone is a tremendous boost to a writer's self-confidence (which is usually so riddled with doubt, wondering 'Is this any good? Will anyone like this?')"

He told us that before he came to attend the workshop and the awards ceremony, so he didn't even know at that point that he was the Grand Prize Winner. Well, so it goes.

If you want to read his story, you can order the book here:

Fiction Short Stories