2017 Awards Eligibility Post

This year, I only had one short story publication, but it's a really good one, and you wouldn't regret voting for it for a Hugo or Nebula. It's called "A Crawlspace Full of Prizes," and it appeared in the sixth volume of Unidentified Funny Objects.

Amazing Stories had this to say about it: 

“A Crawlspace Full of Prizes” by Bill Ferris – One of my favorites in the anthology, even though it is told in second person, which rarely works for me. You are surprised when a strand of tickets comes out of your faucet after you brush your teeth. More appear after doing the laundry and other chores. Then, when you try to put a box of Christmas ornaments in your crawlspace storage, you find a counter with prizes for redeeming your tickets. The sort of booth you might find at a carnival. This is one of those gems I mentioned at the beginning. Highly recommended.

And here's Tangent's review:

"A Crawlspace Full of Prizes" by Bill Ferris sets up a situation where you start to get tickets—like those you get from playing Skee-Ball at an arcade—from your various home appliances. You learn that these actually can be redeemed for various prizes, most of which are things from your past, like "perfect recall of your high school prom." This is magic realism that's more strange than funny, but I think overall the story works well, and gets extra points for succeeding while being written in the second person.

Again, "Crawlspace" is eligible for the Hugo and Nebula in the short story category. Whether you vote or not, however, I hope you enjoy(ed) the story, and I'm looking forward to writing more of them in 2018.

Award Eligibilty Post 2016

Hello! Here's my year-end post about my work that's eligible for awards. It's just one story this year, but it's a good one that I like very much: My Enemy, the Unicorn, published in Unidentified Funny Objects 5. Please enjoy this short excerpt:

Snowflake had been Jax Zoo's lone unicorn since his mate, Raindrop, broke her leg. Scuttlebutt was that the zookeepers had used their gun on her, then split the carcass between the griffins, tigers, and bears. This had come from Lily and her friends, though, and they were full of shit half the time, and at least half-full all of the time. They told Chad all sorts of things, like if he'd been taken to any other state, he'd have rights as a person, but like most creatures of arcane genetics and questionable legality, he'd ended up in Florida.

Award eligibility post about awards for which I'm eligible to be awarded awards

Photo credit: akahawkeyefan

Here's a rundown of what I've recently published, in the event you'd like to nominate my work for a major award. 

I'm eligible for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, based on the publication of "Athlete's Foot" in Crowded. 

Also, my short story, "Suicide Chef," appeared on the Tales to Terrify Podcast. It is eligible for the Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form).

FYI, if you'd like to read some of my work for free, I published two of my short stories on this here website:

• The Consolidated Brotherhood of Truly Bearded Santas (first appeared in Stupefying Stories; reprinted in The Again)
• Uncle Eats You (website original)

Whether you nominate me for anything or not, you're still allowed to enjoy the stories. I don't mind, I promise.

Download a free anthology of writers eligible for the John W. Campbell Award

Stupefying Stories, a fine publication that has published two of my own works, has released their biggest project to date. The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology features stories from forty-three (!) different authors, all of whom are eligible the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer​. Best of all, it's a free download.

I'm not eligible for the Campbell until next year, but I'm privileged to be friends with two of the talented authors in the anthology, Rich Matrunick and M. David Blake. I also met Rebecca Gomez Farrell at a party once, and she served peaches wrapped in prosciutto and rosemary, which has nothing to do with writing but is absolutely worth mentioning. I would not try to sway your vote one way or another, but I can personally attest that their fictions are quite good.

To sum up: Whether you can nominate writers for the Campbell, or you just want to read a lot of good stories for free, it would behoove you to download this anthology.

2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology