Anna Nicole Smith

Air Canada managed to get me on a later flight, after my earlier flight from Vancouver was canceled because of an impending snow storm in Toronto, and so I'm now home safe and sound in freezing Mississauga (quite a contrast to the balmy weather in Victoria).

I've been on the road for five days, but it feels longer; I'm exhausted, and will sleep in tomorrow. (If I had my druthers, I'd stay in tomorrow, sitting by my fireplace, but I have to go out and pick up my tuxedo for the Book Lover's Ball on Thursday ...)

It was on this trip to Victoria that I discovered that Anna Nicole Smith had passed away. I was sorry to hear that; her life had turned out to be such a sad struggle. And then it occurred to me that I actually mention her (not unkindly) in Rollback. There will doubtless be those who will comment on what they perceive as insensitivity in this -- naifs who think books appear in stores within days or weeks of their authors finishing them. But, of course, Rollback was finished long ago (on April 24, 2006, to be precise), and was serialized in Analog months before Anna Nicole's passing. I hope she rests in peace.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site