What I've been up to

Things I've been doing ...

Well, let's see ... the days are flying by, but how am I occupying them?

On Tuesday, April 15, 2008, I finished revisions on Wake, my eighteenth novel. Yay! Go me! :)

On Wednesday, April 16, 2008, Carolyn and I picked up Joe and Gay Haldeman (who were in Toronto, staying with our great friends Mike Glicksohn and Susan Manchester). I recorded an interview with Joe for the CBC (being banked for future use); it went really well.

Then it was lunch at Eastside Mario's, more or less across the street from the CBC Broadcasting Centre, with CBC producer Fergus Heywood and fellow SF authors Pat Forde and Suzanne Church, plus Joe and Gay; a wonderful time.

Then it was off to Bakka-Phoenix, so Joe could sign stock; there, I had my first bookstore sighting of my own new short story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories (the launch for which will be at Bakka-Phoenix on Saturday, May 10, at 3:00 p.m.). Then I arranged Carolyn and my flights for the San Diego Comic-Con, at which I'm special guest this year.

Thursday, April 17, 2008, was my lovely wife's 50th birthday. I spent the day getting oodles of stuff done: finishing "The Story So Far" synopses for the upcoming
Analog serialization of my 18th novel, Wake; doing editorial work on the next book from Robert J. Sawyer Books (about which more soon in another post); and more.

Carolyn's brother David was our house guest that night (and we watched Madagascar on DVD -- Carolyn's birthday; Carolyn's pick), so we could all get an early start heading down to Niagara Falls, New York, for Eericon 10 (at which Joe Haldeman and Sephera Giron were guests of honor). Carolyn rendezvoused there with Susan Manchester and they went on a shopping expedition on Friday afternoon, while Dave and I hung around the con for great conversations.

As I've said elsewhere, Eeriecon is the best-kept secret in SF: a wonderful, mostly literary, SF con. As Larry Hodges said to me, you normally have to go to a Worldcon to attend a panel with a line-up of participants including Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, James Alan Gardner, and Robert J. Sawyer. :) Next year's Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge.

Eeriecon celebrated Carolyn's birthday big time: posters announcing it everywhere (including the elevators), a big cake on Friday night, and more. As con chair Joe Fillinger said to me in an email after the con, "We didn't make a big deal of it, Carolyn IS a big deal to all of us. She is one of the sweetest and nicest people I have ever met and I know you realize how lucky you are to have her. (Is it even conceivable that there is anyone in the world that might dislike her?)." So true! And it's not just my loving-husband's eyes: nobody could believe that she was 50; she looks a decade or more younger.

Monday, April 21, was more fandom: the "Third Monday" fannish pub night at Toronto's Orwell's pub. As always a great time (although regulars Lloyd and Yvonne Penney were muchly missed -- they were off in Las Vegas celebrating their wedding anniversary).

Tuesday, I did an interview for Britain's Kerrang! Radio ("The Night Before" with Nick Margerrison) about Calculating God (the book that just keeps on attracting interest -- it was also released as an audio book by Audible.com this week). I also wrote an essay for Audible.com entitled "Science Fiction Road Trip," which will be featured on their website in June.

Wednesday was the annual "Local Authors' Night" organized by the Friends of the Mississauga Public Library -- quite a pleasant evening. Also did some interesting stuff related to a possible future writer-in-residence gig, and some stuff with my Hollywood agents and others about a possible TV project ... more later about both if they actually materialize. ;)

Thursday, April 24, was one of those stunningly beautiful, perfect days Toronto has in the spring and the fall. But I spent most of it setting up a "new" computer. I have two work stations in my home: one in my office, and another in the living room. I tend to use the former more in the summer, and the latter more in winter (because it's in front of the fireplace).

The office workstation has been based for two years now around a Dell D410 laptop (with docking station, two external monitors, wireless keyboard, and mouse, and obligatory-for-Rob La-z-boy recliner), which I dearly love, and I decided my living-room station needed a new computer, and so I retired my old Acer Travelmate 600TER there (which had given great service for 7.5 years, but had become a bit flaky of late, and had a noisy hard drive) with a second Dell D410 laptop, which I bought off of eBay: the second unit was used, but in mint condition. I spent most of the day setting it up and installing software.

(I wanted a spare Dell D410 anyway; I don't like widescreen laptops [the normal screen aspect-ratio is better for writing], and I prefer matte-finish to glossy-finish screens, and I want to stick with XP Pro rather than go to Vista for the foreseeable future, and it's getting very hard to find laptops that aren't widescreen and don't have LCDs that you could use as a shaving mirror, and, of course, most ship with Vista now.)

Friday, April 25 (yesterday), 2008, Carolyn and I picked up my friend (and former writing student) Bev Geddes at Toronto's airport. She'd flown in for a weekend rendezvous with her boyfriend, the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-nominated author Nick DiChario, who lives in Rochester, New York; they're staying with us through Sunday night. And this meant I had the great pleasure of presenting to Nick the first copies of his new novel, Valley of Day-Glo, the latest title from Robert J. Sawyer Books. It is a truly beautiful book (cover and interior design by Karen Petherick Thomas), and Nick was delighted; for me, the greatest thing about being an editor is seeing the author's face light up when they hold their book in their hands for the first time.

Last night, Nick and Bev took Carolyn and me out to dinner at Canyon Creek, one of our favourite restaurants, and then we stayed up late talking writerly stuff, and having a blast.

So, good times -- but busy!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site