Free Anthology of Stories from 2018 Campbell Award Eligible Writers

Event Horizon 2018, edited by Jake Kerr, with a quarter million words of fiction by 58 Campbell-eligible authors, is available as a free download. (Epub, mobi, and PDF formats are available.)

Nominees for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer come from Hugo voters, who will need to read fast – votes must be in by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on Friday March 16, 2018.

The book’s introduction reminds readers that the project was originally conceived by M. David Blake, and called The Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology. The first volume was published by Stupefying Stories in 2013 and contained stories by 43 authors. The next volume included over 111 authors and 1 million words.

Table of Contents

  • “Devil’s Due” By Percival Constantine
  • “Forestborn” By Sylvia Heike
  • “A Question Of Faith” By Tonya Liburd
  • “Shaman’s Quest” By Kevin L. O’Brien
  • “Memories to Come” By Paul Alex Gray
  • “Aspiration Value” By Mike Reeves-McMillan
  • “Of Puddings and Prophecies” By Helen French
  • “Dearly Departed” By Kelly Stewart
  • “Cyborg Shark Battle (Season 4, O’ahu Frenzy)” By Benjamin C. Kinney
  • “The Legendary Legend of the Darkly’s Slayer” By J.R. Dawson
  • “The Invisible Box” By J.J. Litke
  • “Termination Pending” By Rachelle Harp
  • “Eyes That See Everything” By Karen Bovenmyer
  • “Twisted Knots” By D.A Xiaolin Spires
  • “The Heart is a Lonesome Hunter” By Eugenia Triantafyllou
  • “The Fox, the Wolf, and the Dove” By Ville Meriläinen
  • “Dragon’s Trail” By Joseph Malik
  • “Spooky Action” By David A. Kilman
  • “Granite Requires” By TJ Berry
  • “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” By Bennett North
  • “The Best Busker in the World” By R. K. Duncan
  • “Like You, I am a System” By Nathan Hillstrom
  • “Darner” By Jonathan Laidlow
  • “First date with the Hive” By Gretchen Tessmer
  • “The Librarian” By Andrew Kozma
  • “The Stars and the Rain” By Emily McCosh
  • “London Calling” By Philip A. Suggars
  • “Analog Signals” By Shawn Proctor
  • “Fandom for Robots” By Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • “The Spark That Starts The Flame” By Daniel Rosen
  • “These Constellations Will Be Yours” By Elaine Cuyegkeng
  • “The Nine” By Tracy Townsend
  • “I Remember Your Face” By E. K. Wagner
  • “Old Teacups and Kitchen Witches” Kate Baker
  • “The In Between Place” By Kat Day
  • “”A Matter of Interpretation” By M. Elizabeth Ticknor
  • “Baby Teeth” By Lina Rather
  • “The Awakening of Insects” By Bobby Sun
  • “”The Man in the Crimson Coat” By Andrea Tang
  • “Outburst” By B. Morris Allen
  • “Rushford Recapitulation” By Christopher Mark Rose
  • “A Heart in the Hand” By Jeremy M. Gottwig
  • “Moths To The Flame” By Daniel Rosen
  • “A Glowing Heart” By Anton Rose
  • “Demeter’s Regard” By Deborah L. Davitt
  • “The Ghosts of Europa Will Keep You Trapped in a Prison You Make for Yourself” By Matt Dovey
  • “The Lives Beneath” By Katherine Inskip
  • “Abyssal” By Lorraine Schein
  • “Starr Striker Should Remain Capitol City’s Resident Superhero, by Keisha
  • Cole, 10th Grade Student”” By Amanda Helms
  • “Baro Porrajmos, or Love in the Vardo” By Eileen Gunnell Lee
  • “Ora et Labora” By Theodore McCombs
  • “An Equal Share of the Bone” By Karen Osborne
  • “Phalium arium ssp anams” By Victoria Sandbrook
  • “The Broken Karwaneer” By Jeremy A TeGrotenhuis
  • “Seb Dreams of Reincarnation” By Aimee Ogden
  • “Snail Mail” By Steven Fischer
  • “The Arrow of Time” By Kate Dollarhyde
  • “Think of Winter” By Eleanna Castroianni

 

[Thanks to Mark Hepworth for the story.]

20 thoughts on “Free Anthology of Stories from 2018 Campbell Award Eligible Writers

  1. On the one hand, I am glad that someone was willing to do this. It’s a big help to Hugo nominators.

    On the other hand, I didn’t see it promoted anywhere on social media, so that Campbell-eligible authors knew that it was available for submissions.

    On the third hand, there appear to be a bunch of works in it which are not Campbell-eligible; it looks as though no vetting was done. 😐

  2. Looks like you have to install the instafreebie app on your phone to get the download. There is no desktop computer option (that I could find).

  3. Based on a cursory check, the following people are no longer Campbell-eligible, due to eligible publication prior to 2016:

    Karen Bovenmyer
    Andrew Kozma
    Philip A. Suggars

    There may be others.

  4. What bothers me is that this came out less than a week before Hugo nominations close. There’s no time to read even a representative sample, assuming you need to eat, sleep, and hold down a job.

  5. I was able to download it to my computer. Under the iTunes and Google Play icons there is another line, for “book file.” I clicked on that, chose my format (epub) and received the files in my email to download.

    They should have done this at least a week or so ago, though. I simply don’t have time to go through 562 pages.

  6. Beneath the Login Password for app-users you’ll find this line —

    Don’t want the Instafreebie App? Click here to get book files emailed to you.

    And when you “click here” it gives you the option, as it says, of having the file sent to you as an email attachment.

  7. @Bonnie McDaniel & Mike Glyer,

    Thanks. I missed that.
    (And I’ve already installed the app, got the download, and uninstalled the app.)

  8. I’ve been wondering if/when this was going to show up. At this point I’ll mostly just be using it to jog my memory about stories and authors I’ve already read.

    JJ — There was a link from the Writertopia Campbell page for eligible writers to submit their stories. But I don’t know how well that’s known or promoted on social media.

  9. Laura: There was a link from the Writertopia Campbell page for eligible writers to submit their stories. But I don’t know how well that’s known or promoted on social media.

    Last year I saw solicitations for submissions to the Campbell Anthology being promoted in numerous places on social media. This year, nothing. And I’ve just now done searches on Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and still not found anything. 😐

  10. Pretty sure it was downloading something from Jake Kerr last year that got me signed up for his email list plus a whole bunch of others, so I’m being careful with this and only signing up with my pure-spam email.

  11. I signed up with my pure-spam email and pressed the “send me an epub” button and three hours later I have nothing. I guess they really want us to install their app.

    So that’s a nope for me.

  12. I don’t use the app.

    I gave the webform my name and e-mail, clicked ‘submit’, and got the epub (with links for pdf and mobi) within three minutes.

    mister dalliard – did you check your spam filter?

  13. JJ–Since they barely got it out, maybe they didn’t feel a need to spread the word. As you said, I do appreciate that someone’s doing this. But maybe start working on next year’s asap and close submissions in time to release it when nominations start.

  14. J.J. – Regarding eligibility mere publication is not the only criteria – has to be in a professional market that meets the minimum Campbell requirements. Interzone for e.g. doesn’t pay pro rates – and has a circulation estimated to be under 10K.

  15. J.J. — Publication counts if it’s a professional sale, and my first SFF professional sale was last year. (I also checked with the organizers before throwing my hat in the ring, so there was definitely vetting done.)

  16. Fudgewalladah: J.J. – Regarding eligibility mere publication is not the only criteria – has to be in a professional market that meets the minimum Campbell requirements. Interzone for e.g. doesn’t pay pro rates – and has a circulation estimated to be under 10K.

    Thanks, I’m well aware of the eligibility requirements for the Campbell.

    I see that Interzone was dropped as a SFWA-qualified market in 2006. I was not aware that they had been dropped, but since they are no longer qualified, the following work, which is listed above, should not be in the Campbell Anthology:

    “Like You, I am a System” By Nathan Hillstrom

    There may be others.

  17. Andrew Kozma: Publication counts if it’s a professional sale, and my first SFF professional sale was last year. (I also checked with the organizers before throwing my hat in the ring, so there was definitely vetting done.)

    You are correct, since Interzone has been dropped as a SFWA market, both you and Philip A. Suggars are Campbell-eligible. My apologies. (Karen Bovenmyer is still ineligible due to prior professional publication.)

    I’m curious — who did you check your eligibility with at Dell Magazines? Or do you mean that you checked with the person who put the anthology together? (note that they have no connection either to the Campbell Award, the Hugo Awards, or Dell Magazines; they are doing this on their own initiative)

  18. J.J. – Re: my Interzone story in the Anthology – I’ve been published in SFWA-qualified markets also (first in January 2016), so am definitely eligible, but apologize if Interzone wasn’t a good market to use for this sampler. I just picked a story that wasn’t available online.

  19. Nathan Hillstrom: [I] apologize if Interzone wasn’t a good market to use for this sampler. I just picked a story that wasn’t available online.

    Hey, I’m nobody, so you don’t need to apologize to me, but thank you anyway. The only reason I checked some of the authors and stories is because the last couple of years there have been a number of authors/works promoted as being “Campbell-eligible” when they weren’t. I would be upset if I used a ballot spot on someone who was not eligible when it could have been used for someone who was, and I figure that a lot of other nominators would feel the same way.

    Dell Magazines has delegated administration of the Campbell to WSFS, who has delegated it to the Hugo Awards Administrator(s). Dell does not vet or otherwise comment on the eligibility of any potential nominees, and the Hugo Admins will not (for what I feel are very good reasons) vet the eligibility of anyone except those who get enough nomination to make it to the final ballot. The editor of this collection has done it on his own initiative, and I don’t have any idea how closely they vetted authors and stories, if at all.

  20. J.J.: I talked with the people at the John W. Campbell Award Eligibility Page at Writertopia (http://www.writertopia.com/awards/campbell). All the details on how they curate their list are on the page.

    And I understand. I’d be upset to take a nomination form someone else if I wasn’t eligible.

    As for this collection, I believe the vetting on Writertopia is directly linked to it, as that’s where I found out about this anthology.

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