My John W. Campbell Award Ballot

(Disclaimer: English is my second language, so I want to apologize in advance for there may be mistakes in the text below. If you find any, please let me know so that I can correct it. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.)

I confess that I usually have a lot of problems to decide which authors to include in my John W. Campbell Award ballot (as you know, this award is voted together with the Hugos, but it is not a Hugo award) as I find it very difficult to find two or three, let alone five, new authors whose work I've read and liked. However, this year I've had exactly the opposite problem: there are many interesting new authors to choose from.

After some thinking, I've settled on these five writers, presented here in alphabetical order:

• Madeline Ashby (1st year of eligibility): her debut novel vN was one of my favourite reads of 2012 and I may even include it in my Hugo ballot. You can read my review of the novel and my interview with the author.
• Adam Christopher (1st year of eligibility): I really liked Seven Wonders when I read it a few months ago (I should write my review someday) and I've also heard very good things about Empire State, a novel I really looking forward to read.
• Tim Maughan (1st year of eligibility): one of the most interesting short fiction authors of the last few years. I reviewed Paintwork and the excellent "Limited Edition" and I also interviewed the author.
• Jeff Salyards (1st year of eligibility): his Scourge of the Betrayer was a wonderful surprise for me, since this is not the kind of novel I usually like. I'm looking forward to Veil of the Deserter, the second installment of the saga.
• Courtney Schafer (2nd year of eligibility): Her novel The Whiterfire Crossing was another strong debut (and I should also write about it soon) and The Tainted City has received even better reviews.

   

If you are a Hugo voter I strongly recommend you to check these authors' work and to consider including them in your John W. Campbell Award ballot. They really deserve it. And you can find more eligible authors on Writertopia's list and even read some of their fiction for free on the Stupefying Stories anthology.

(You can also read this article in Spanish/También puedes leer este artículo en español)

Free Ebook: Stupefying Stories, The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology

For a limited time only, Stupefying Stories: The 2013 Cambpbellian Pre-Reading Antohology is free to download. This ebook includes short stories and novel excerpts by a number of authors that are eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer.

This is the table of contents:

Anatoly Belilovsky:
          "Of Mat and Math"
          "Durak"
          "Karlsson" 

M. David Blake: 
          "Absinthe Fish"
          "When the Pupil is Ready"
          "Don't Eat the Piano Player" 

David Carani:
          "The Paradise Aperture" 

Zen Cho:
          起狮，行礼 (The Rising Lion—The Lion Bows)
          "The House of Aunts" 

Adam Christopher:
          Empire State (novel excerpt)
          Seven Wonders (novel excerpt) 

John Chu:
          "Best of All Possible Worlds" 

Krystal Claxton:
          "Sapience and Maternal Instincts" 

Robert Dawson:
          "The Widow"
          "Please Wait" 

Thoraiya Dyer:
          "Breaking the Ice"
          "Sleeping Beauty"
          "Complaints Department" 

Ronald D. Ferguson:
          "His Brother was an Only Child"
          "Hire Education" 

Sarah Frost:
          "Falls the Firebrand"
          "Borrowed Feathers" 

Rebecca Gomez Farrell:
          "Bother" 

Damien Walters Grintalis:
          "Like Origami in Water"
          "Scarred"
          "They Make of You a Monster" 

Lee Hallison:
          "This Life"
          "Taking Care of Ma"
Michael Haynes:
          "An Unsuitable Job for a Human"
          "Scraps"
          "Twenty-Seven Rules for Coping" 

Michael Hodges:
          "Seven Fish for Sarah"
          "Street Lamps and Carbaryl" 

Van Aaron Hughes:
          "The Dualist"
          "The Burbles"
          "Random Fire" 

Micah Joel:
          "Ritchie Boss: Private Investigator Manager" 

Alex Kane:
          "In the Arms of Lachiga" 

Kenneth S. Kao:
          "Selfless"
          "The Trickster's Bones" 

Mur Lafferty:
          "750,000 of Your Friends Like This"
          "MESSAGE REDACTED"
          "The Reason for the Season" 

Anaea Lay:
          "Your Cities" 

Lauren Liebowitz:
          "Green" 

Marina J. Lostetter:
          "Rats Will Run" 

Wakefield Mahon:
          "Dragons"
          "International Intrigue"
          "Ex-Boyfriend" 

Rich Matrunick:
          "The Watchmaker's Gift" 

T.C. McCarthy:
          "Somewhere It Snows" 

D. Thomas Minton:
          "Thief of Futures"
          "Observations on a Clock"
          "My Mask, Humanity" 

Bernie Mojzes:
          "The Ritual of Names in Prague in the Last Days of the New Empire" 

Grayson Bray Morris:
          "A Puddle of Dead"
          "Death Comes for Maggie McDaniel"
          "Putting Down Roots" 

Trina Marie Phillips:
          "Until They Come" 

Sarah Pinsker:
          "Twenty Ways the Desert Could Kill You"
          "Not Dying in Central Texas"
          "The Ants Go Marching" 

Andrew Penn Romine:
          "The Parting Glass" 

Robert Lowell Russell:
          "The Question" 

Martin L. Shoemaker:
          "The Night We Flushed the Old Town"
          "The Mother Anthony" 

Alex Shvartsman:
          "Spidersong"
          "A Shard Glows in Brooklyn"
          "You Bet" 

Cory Skerry:
          "The Word is Cruel, My Daughter"
          "Sinking Among Lilies" 

Grant Stone:
          "Young Love on the Run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984)" 

Amy Sundberg:
          "Forever Sixteen"
          "The Box in My Pocket"
          "Daddy's Girl" 

Peter Sursi:
          "The Seven Samovars" 

Nicole M. Taylor:
          "A Spoonful of Salt"
          "The Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter"
          "In the Valley" 

Nick T. Chan:
          "The Command for Love" 

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley:
          "Looking for a Knight in Shining Armor"