Hugo etc. pandering, 2012 edition:

First, the holiday book guide acts as a very good stand-in for repeating a lot of the book-related suggestions -- no, seriously, go there and look at the long list of books which were published by local and regional authors this year, and see if one or more of them doesn't remind you of one of your favorite reads this year, ranging from the Best Novel category (The Rift Walker, Out of the Waters, Pilgrim of the Sky, The Lost Gate, Miserere, Never Knew Another, Briarpatch, Germline, The Sworn, on and on...) or Best Related Work (here I might suggest Journal of a UFO Investigator, if it's not considered science fiction proper, or How to Write Magical Words or even The Fiasco Companion) or Best Graphic Story (TURF completed its mini-series last year, and there was the stand-alone Laddertop, as well as the first trade edition of the first several issues of The Order of Dagonet), along with checking out the editors and cover artists for those novels for the Best Editor - Long Form (David Hartwell for Out of the Waters, Lou Anders for The Rift Walker, and others) and Best Artist - Professional (such as Chris McGrath for The Rift Walker cover) categories.

In the Best Editor - Short Form category, Mark Van Name edited the urban fantasy anthology The Wild Side, and John Kessel (along with James Patrick Kelly, of course!) edited the anthology Kafkaesque. Additionally, Natania Barron and Jaym Gates edited the first Crossed Genres quarterly, which included Greenville author Ada Milenkovic Brown's execellent "Nadirah Sends Her Love". You can also see on that book guide the editors for some of the anthologies where local and regional authored Short Stories were published, such as Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (for The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities), Jonathan Strahan (for several anthologies which included local and regional authors), John Joseph Adams (for selecting Eric Gregory's "The Harrowers" for Lightspeed Magazine and its year one anthology) and Joe R. Lansdale, among others.

Second, some of the (not all, I'm sure I'm missing some here) outstanding fiction published by local and regional authors this year, not already listed on the holiday book guide, or available to peruse in the table of contents for Bull Spec issue #5 (Roger Williams's novelette "Mortal Passage" is not eligible, having been previously published online) and issue #6:

• Greenville's Ada Milenkovic Brown, "Nadirah Sends Her Love", Crossed Genres
• Asheville's Alexandra Duncan, "Rampion", F&SF (novella)
• Jason Erik Lundberg, "Kopi Luwak", Red Dot Irreal
• James Maxey, Burn Baby Burn (novel)
• Mur Lafferty, "1963: The Argument Against Louis Pasteur", The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities
• John Kessel, "Clean", Asimov's (novelette)
• Mark L. Van Name,  “The Long Dark Night of Diego Chan” in The Wild Side (novelette)
• Richard Butner, "Through the Uprights", Electric Velocipede (very long, but still a short story)
• Lewis Shiner, "A Box of Thunder", Strange Horizons
• Kij Johnson: "Story Kit" in Eclipse Four; and "Bridging the Mist" in Asimov's (novella)
• Gwendolyn Clare: "Perfect Lies" in Clarkesworld; "A Claw from the Western Paradise" in Triangulation: Last Contact; "Ashes on the Water" in Asimov's; and "Iron Oxide Red" in Daily Science Fiction
• Dan Campbell,  "Where Sea and Sky Kiss", Daily Science Fiction
• Ryan Jones, "Return to Earth", Stupefying Stories
• Rich Matrunick: “The Pale Farmer” in Every Day Fiction, May 3rd, 2011; “Stranded (with Pork Chop)”: Electric Spec, Volume 6, Issue 3; “From Alexandra to Amberglow” in Ray Gun Revival, Volume 2, Issue 8;  “Prophecy Negotiations” in Space Squid, Issue 10; and “Other Sister” in Stupefying Stories
• Joseph Giddings: "Lifestealer" in Ray Gun Revival; and "Goliath" in The Fringe Magazine
• Peter Wood, "Future Imperfect" in Ray Gun Revival
• M. David Blake, "When the Pupil is Ready", The Drink Tank #300
• Gina Massel-Castater, "Careless of the Night", The Wild Side
• Eric Gregory, "The Harrowers", Lightspeed Magazine
• Natania Barron, "Pushing Paper in Hartleigh" in Subversion
• Gray Rinehart: "The Tower" in Crossed Genres; and Therapeutic Mathematics and The Physics of Curve Balls in Analog
• Stuart Jaffe, "Little Girl with Pink Ribbons", In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk
• Erik Bundy, "The Turtle Wore Mascara", Electric Spec

Next, a quick rundown for The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: In their second year of eligibility: Local authors Monica Byrne, John Claude Bemis, Stephen Messer, and Gray Rinehart; and Bull Spec alumni David Steffen and Deborah Walker. In their first year of eligibility: Local authors M. David Blake, Teresa Frohock, Natania Barron, Mur Lafferty, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Ada Milenkovic Brown, and TC McCarthy; and Bull Spec alumni Preston Grassmann.

Nearly lastly, all of the non-fiction contributors to Bull Spec, from Paul Kincaid to Richard Dansky and many others (see those tables of contents) are eligible in the Fan Writer category.

Lastly, Bull Spec is itself eligible in the Semiprozine category, along with many wonderful "not too big, but we pay you something" magazines.

(And if you are a local or regional writer or Bull Spec alumni and/or you know of something I missed, please post a comment! Thanks!)