Thank you, Liana K!

I sent this note directly to the wonderful Liana Kerzner, who organized and hosted the Aurora Awards ceremony at the Montreal Worldcon earlier this month, but I'd like to share it publicly here as well:

Dear Liana,

You did a magnificent job. You were right, and I was wrong: the whole thing came off beautifully, despite the time constraints. Please accept my apology. I had a fabulous time, and was very, very impressed.

Congratulations!

All best wishes.

Rob

And, of course, let me add my congratulations to all the winners!

Pictured: Liana K and Robert J. Sawyer at San Diego Comic-Con 2008.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Aurora Voting deadline crunch

If you're voting by mail, tomorrow -- Wednesday, July 8, 2009 -- is the postmarked-by deadline.

If you're voting online, you have until Wednesday, July 15.

If you're a member of this year's Worldcon in Montreal (and a Canadian) you can vote for free; otherwise, there's a $5 charge to help defray the cost of manufacturing trophies.

The online and paper ballots are here.

Many fine nominees this year, including -- cough, cough -- my own Identity Theft and Other Stories.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Aurora Award banquet tickets can now be purchased online

... using PayPal. See here. Carolyn and I just bought ours.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Aurora Awards endcap display

So, I wandered into the local McNally Robinson here in Saskatoon, and what should I find in the science-fiction section but this wonderful endcap display honouring this year's Aurora Award nominees. W00t!

Titles pictured:

Identity Theft and Other Stories by Robert J. Sawyer

Marseguro by Edward Willett

After the Fires by Ursula Pflug

The Year's Best Science Fiction, 26th annual collection

Nice! Canadians may vote for the Auroras here -- and voting closes in a week.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

James Alan Gardner wins the Sturgeon

James Alan Gardner's "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" is this year's winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

I'm thrilled because Jim is my friend; because Jim is in my little writers' group, and we workshopped the story; and because I'm reprinting the story next month in Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction, an anthology being published under my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint.

Jim's story is also a current Hugo Award finalist -- don't forget to vote!

Way to go, Jim!

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Hayden Trenholm for the Aurora

Yesterday, I put up a post pimpin' my Identity Theft and Other Stories, from Red Deer Press, which is one of five finalist for the Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English this year. And, indeed, I owe it to the publisher, who invested a lot of money in publishing my book, to do what I can to help the book do well, including at awards time. :)

But let me tell you about another book that's also on the ballot, and why it, too, deserves your very serious consideration: Defining Diana by my writing student (from back in 1996!) Hayden Trenholm, brought to us by the good folks at Bundoran Press Publishing House in Prince George, British Columbia.

Their gorgeous trade paperback sports this blurb from me:

Hayden Trenholm is a true original; an exciting new voice, tinged with sly wit. Defining Diana will grab you on the first page and won't let you go.

Hayden's proven he's an award-calibre writer: he won last year's Best Short Form Work in English Aurora Award (and in 1992, he won the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest).

There's an excellent interview with Hayden by Edward Willett -- himself a very deserving Aurora finalist this year in the same category -- here, and Ed reivews Hayden's book here: you know there's something special about a book when the authors of its competitors for an award are singing its praises. :)

I'm the proud owner of the very first signed copy of Defining Diana -- a gift from Hayden (I was MC at the book-launch party for the novel held at Toronto's Ad Astra). And -- lucky me! -- I got to read the wonderful sequel, Steel Whispers (which will be launched at the Montreal Worldcon in August), in manuscript, and offered this blurb:

Hayden Trenholm's Steel Whispers is an edge-of-your seat amalgam of police procedural and razor-sharp science fiction. The streets of Calgary never seemed so mean! Fans of Dashiell Hammett and William Gibson will both love this; a great novel by Canada's fastest-rising SF star.

The quality of Hayden's book is, of course, first and foremost, the reason you should consider voting for it -- but there's another reason, too.

See that pretty lady with Hayden below? That's Virginia O'Dine, the publisher of Bundoran Press, and she and her business partner Dominic Maguire fund that little operation out of their own pockets, and, despite having done some fabulous books so far, with more in the pipeline, they still don't have a distributor (which means their books aren't yet widely available in bookstores).

Having an Aurora Award proclaiming that the best English-Canadian science-fiction book of the year was one of theirs just might help them get the attention of a distributor. And, after all, getting attention for deserving works and their publishers is what the pro Aurora Awards are all about.

So, when you go to fill out your Aurora ballot, please do consider all the wonderful works that are nominated, including the excellent Defining Diana from the amazing Bundoran Press.


(Pictured: Author Hayden Trenholm and editor Virginia O'Dine, the Publisher of Bundoran Press, at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg in May 2008.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Full text of "Identity Theft" novella online

My short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories from Red Deer Press is currently one of five finalists for the Aurora Award for Best Long Form Work in English.

In honour of that, I'm pleased to offer the Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated title novella, "Identity Theft," for free during the remainder of the voting period. You can read it right here.

All of the other nominees in this category are excellent, too -- and three of them are by my writing students:

• Impossibilia, Douglas Smith (PS Publishing)
  
• Defining Diana, Hayden Trenholm (Bundoran Press)
  
• Marseguro, Edward Willett (DAW Books)

So, one way or another, the odds are great that I'm going to be a happy man on Friday, August 7, 2009, when the Aurora Awards are presented at a banquet at this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal.

Praise for Identity Theft and Other Stories:

"At every opportunity, Sawyer forces his readers to think while holding their attention with ingenious premises and superlative craftsmanship." —Booklist

"A collection of great stories; highly entertaining and thought-provoking. This book has something for almost any science-fiction fan." —Quill & Quire

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Anticipation's Aurora Awards banquet -- a significant break from tradition

A few interesting facts about this year's Aurora Awards and the ceremony at which they will be presented, courtesy of the website for Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, which is hosting the Auroras this year:

"Since the Awards will be held in Montreal, we are placing emphasis on access to French works, through translations and other efforts to make the output of French Canada available to international attendees."

One wonders if the Aurora Awards subcommittee of the 2003 Worldcon -- the previous Canadian one -- had issued a statement like the above about the Auroras, but with "Toronto" and "English" substituted for "Montreal" and "French," what the response would have been. Surely all of Canada's Aurora-Award-nominated works deserve to be highlighted for those coming to the Worldcon from outside Canada.

Anyway:

"The Awards will take place Friday, August 7th. Doors open at 17:30, Dinner and Awards start at 18:00. A cash bar will be available during the Awards."

Well, that's nice that they're having a banquet; those Aurora Award ceremonies that have included a banquet (starting, I believe, in 1997) have been the best.

"Due to time constraints, the Awards ceremony will take place during dinner."

Time constraints? But Anticipation bid to become the Canadian National Science Fiction Convention: it fought for the right to be the venue at which the Auroras are presented, and fought for the right to be designated not just the World Science Fiction Convention but also the CanVention, this year's Canadian National SF Convention. Surely they are setting an appropriate block of time aside for the Aurora Award ceremony, no?

"Therefore, open seating after the banquet is not available this year. If you want to attend the ceremonies, you must purchase a ticket. You must be a member of Anticipation to attend the banquet."

Who in the what now? This is a huge break in tradition. No one has ever had to pay to see the Auroras presented before. When there has been a banquet, it has always been followed by open seating, allowing people to see the awards be presented without having to pay. Indeed, the open seating normally hasn't even required people to have a convention membership to come in and watch. (I always go to the banquet when there is one, but that's not the point.)

Also, having often been master of ceremonies for, given keynote speeches at, and participated in many dozens of awards ceremonies and banquets over the years, both in and out of the SF field, I'll point out that you never give the awards while people are trying to eat. The noise level is too high and there are too many people distracted from paying attention to the presentation of the awards; it ruins both the meal and the awards ceremony.

"Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 on site. This is on top of the registration fees required for voting ... If you want to attend the ceremonies, you must purchase a ticket."

So, if you're nominated for an Aurora, and you actually want to attend the ceremony at which the winners will be announced, the fee is Cdn$240 for your membership in Anticipation plus Cdn$40 for your banquet ticket, if you buy in advance, for at total of Cdn$290 -- or more at the door.

In the past, nominees and others who are interested (even the general public) have been able to attend the actual ceremony for free, since the ceremony has always been held either as a standalone affair or after the banquet was over.

We've often had cases in the past where there have been surprise Aurora victories (meaning no one can confidently predict who is going to win in any given category), and many nominees -- both pro and fan -- will find $40 (for their own ticket) or $80 (the combined cost of their own and one for their significant other) too steep to bear.

It seems to me, therefore, that Anticipation is manufacturing a situation in which there will likely be winners who are attending the Worldcon but will not be able to come into the room to receive their trophies (or their applause) during the ceremony, because they've chosen not to (or been unable to) spend $40 on a banquet ticket on the off-chance that they might win.

Given that Anticipation seems unwilling to clear an appropriate block of time in its schedule for the Aurora Awards (and therefore is currently planning on trying to cram all of a cash bar, a sit-down meal, and the actual presentation of the awards into a small window of time), I personally think they'd do better to dispense with the banquet, and have a proper ceremony -- one that all of the nominees can attend -- instead.

But the real solution is for this year's Canadian National Science Fiction Convention -- that selfsame Anticipation -- to find the appropriate amount of time in the schedule for both the banquet and the awards ceremony. The current plan -- a rushed affair with a mandatory entrance fee -- is unfair to the nominees, to those on a budget, and to the dignity of the awards.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

This year's Hugo and Campbell nominations

I was out of town (in Florida) when the Hugo nominees were announced for this year. I'm sure you've all by now seen the list of nominees.

It's a good list, and my hat's off to all the finalists (sincerely -- I had nothing that was eligible last year).

I'm particularly thrilled, though, by the nominations of James Alan Gardner for best novella, and my writing student Tony Pi for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

(That's my Hugo trophy for Hominids above; this year's design hasn't been unveiled yet.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Aurora Award nominees announced

The nominees for the 2009 Aurora Awards were announced this morning. My short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories is one of five finalists for the Best Long Form Work in English Award this year.

In the Long Form category, very unusually, three of the five nominees are short-story collections. Also, three of the five nominees are my writing students: Douglas Smith, Hayden Trenholm, and Edward Willett. Go team!

This is my 37th Aurora Award nomination to date; I've previously won the award 10 times -- that makes me both the biggest winner and the biggest loser on the English side of the awards. :)

The full list of nominees is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

James Alan Gardner is a Nebula finalist -- w00t!

I've been pimpin' for months on behalf of James Alan Gardner's remarkable "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story," as you can see here. And I was mightily disappointed when the final Nebula ballot was released last week, and it wasn't on it. This story made not one but two year's best anthologies, after all, and was one of only nine novelettes on the preliminary Nebula ballot.

Well, well, well, turns out SFWA made a mistake. A revised ballot has now been released, and Jim is on it (and so is another work accidentally left off the earlier version, "Mars: A Traveler's Guide" by Ruth Nestvold).

SFWA actually has a pretty long history of balloting screw-ups; I myself was victim of one in 2000, when the blindingly obvious fact that Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer and Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer were the same book escaped notice, and so the novel was left off the preliminary ballot (as was a work by William Barton that same year), and a few years before that Ursula K. LeGuin was left off the ballot, too (although that ballot, at least, was corrected and reissued).

Now, let us hope that there's no harm, no foul, in what just happened to Jim Gardner -- but the fact is that award nominations do tend to be cumulative, and in the crucial last couple of days of nominating for this year's Hugos and Auroras, SFWA blithely announced to the world that Jim's work wasn't, in fact, award calibre in the view of the membership -- only to reverse that stance after the nominating for the other awards had closed.

The Nebulas are a black box -- no one ever sees the nominating or voting tallies; the Hugos do release their nominating stats. If Jim misses that ballot by just a few nominations, well, we'll always wonder what happened in the alternate universe in which the preliminary Nebula ballots were dealt with correctly the first time.

For those who missed the story in the February Asimov's last year, and don't want to wait for the Dozois or Horton Year's Best anthologies (or my own forthcoming Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction, which will also include this story), the full text is here at Jim's site.

Oh, and: Congratulations, Jim!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Hugo and Aurora nominating deadlines are looming

I had dinner last night with my friend Diane Lacey, who is on the Hugo Awards committee for this year's Worldcon in Montreal, and she asked that I remind people that the deadline for nominations is drawing near -- as it also is for the Auroras.

You can nominate for the Hugos here.

And Canadians can nominate for the Auroras here.

Deadline for both is at the end of the month. :)

Oh, and my own suggestions for nominations for the Hugos and Auroras are in this thread.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Randy McCharles the Writer

Forget all that talk about Randy McCharles the great convention organizer. I'm totally thrilled to announce that Randy McCharles the great writer has just sold reprint rights to his novella "Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta" from Tesseracts 12 to David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for the 2009 edition of their anthology Year's Best Fantasy.

(So: don't forget this story when you nominate for the Auroras and the Hugos!)

Randy is my writing student (and my friend!), having taken more writing workshops with me than anyone else. I'm very, very proud of him!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

K.A. Bedford wins Aurealis

I mentioned K.A. Bedford's Time Machines Reapired While-U-Wait in this post.

The book has just won Australia's Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year -- congratulations, Adrian! And congratulations to Brian Hades of Calgary's EDGE, which published the book. Woot! This is truly a case of nice guys finishing first!

The full list of Aurealis winners is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Rob's suggested nominees for the Hugo and Aurora Awards

I've posted thirteen messages with suggestions for this year's Hugo Awards (the top international honours in science fiction) and Aurora Awards (the Canadian national SF awards). You can see them all here.

Attending and supporting members of last year's World Science Fiction Convention in Denver and this year's one in Montreal may nominate for the Hugos.

Any Canadian may nominate (for free!) for the Aurora Awards -- the ballot is here and more information about the awards is here.

The Canadian SF Works Database provides info about additional works by Canadians that are eligible for both awards. It's a Wiki, so if you know of any omissions, feel free to add them in.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

My writing students for the Hugo and the Aurora

This is the thirteenth and final post in a series of blog posts in which I've discussed people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Last year, 2008, was a good one for my writing students.

I mentioned back in November 2008 that Tony Pi [who was my student at the University of Toronto in 2001] has stories all over the place (and I also mentioned that he's eligible for the John W. Campbell Award), and that Douglas Smith [Ryerson University 1997] had his first collection, Impossibilia, out from PS Publishing.

And I've already crowed about Hayden Trenholm's novel Defining Diana from Bundoran Press [Ifwa workshop in Calgary 1996]; he also had a story entitled "Love In its Season" in the Summer 2008 On Spec.

Also in 2008, my student Edward Willett [Banff Centre 2003 and 2005] had his first mass-market SF novel, Marseguro, published by DAW (and picked up by the Science Fiction Book Club).

Susan Forest [Ifwa workshop 2003] had a terrific short story called "Back" in the June 2008 Analog.

Matthew Johnson [University of Toronto 2005] had short story "Another Country" in the April-May 2008 Asimov's, and the short story "Lagos" in the August 2008 Asimov's.

And Randy McCharles, whom I've recommended for a fan Aurora for his work on the World Fantasy Convention, and who has taken more workshops with me than anyone else [Ifwa 1996, Ifwa 2003, and Banff Centre 2006], had his first major pro publication this year: the novelette "Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta" in Tesseracts Twelve, edited by Claude Lalumière.

I draw all of them to your attention for the Hugo and Aurora Awards.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Kotowych, Pi, and Sellar for the Campbell

This is the twelfth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

On the Hugo ballot, you also get to nominate for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. According to the Canadian SF Works Database wiki, three Canadians are eligible for nomination this year, and I commend their work to your attention:

• Stephen Kotowych
  
  
• Tony Pi
  
  
• Gord Sellar

Click on their names above to visit their websites and learn more about their work.

I note with beaming pride that both Stephen Kotowych and Tony Pi have been my writing students. Additional information about Stephen is here, and more about Tony is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Taral for the Hugo

This is the eleventh in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

It astonishes me that Taral Wayne and I have known each other for over thirty years. Taral will be the Fan Guest of Honour at the Worldcon in Montreal this year. He's been nominated seven times previously for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist, and he's won the Rotsler Award, just this past year.

It would certainly be odd if he weren't on the Hugo ballot for Montreal. If you haven't encountered his work before, see here and here, and have a look at his Wikipedia entry here. Also, fellow Toronto-based Hugo winners Mike Glicksohn and Robert Charles Wilson offer appreciations of Taral here.

For the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist:

• Taral

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Lloyd Penney for the Hugo and Aurora

This is the tenth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

You know why Locus -- the trade journal of the science-fiction field -- is called that? It's a pun. See, it started off as a fanzine -- an amateur publication -- and the heart and soul of many fanzines is the part where letters of comment (responses to earlier issues) are printed; in fact, one of the standard ways to get a fanzine is by having sent in a letter of comment.

Well, "letter of comment" is a mouthful, and fans just love abbreviations, so instead, they're usually called a "LoC" or "loc," and that abbreviation can be employed as both a noun and a verb, so Locus's title was an inviation for people to send in letters of comment: "LoC us!" Cute, huh?

The Hugos have a category for Best Fan Writer, and the Auroras have one for Best Fan (Other). A clever, voluminous letterhack (as those who write a lot of LoCs are affectionately known) is eligible for both those awards, and Canada has one particularly diligent letterhack: long-playin' Lloyd Penney.

In years gone by, you'd have to get an awful lot of fanzines to see Lloyd's output, but this is the online era, and Lloyd took my suggestion a while ago, and established an online repository for his clever, heartfelt, warm LoCs. You'll find them here.

For the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer:

• Lloyd Penney

For the Aurora Award for Best Fan (Other):

• Lloyd Penney for fanzine letters of comment

(For trivia fans, Lloyd Penney is tuckerized [another long-standing fannish tradition -- it means he appears as a character] in my novel Illegal Alien, and my novel Hybrids is dedicated to Lloyd and his wife Yvonne.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Michael Berman for the Aurora Award

This is the ninth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

I've already mentioned that Neo-Opsis and On Spec deserve your consideration for the Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other) this year. Here's another suggestion for that same category.

Back in 2005, there was a wonderful academic conference at Brock University entitled "The Uses of the Science Fiction Genre." I gave the keynote address.

Michael Berman, a philosophy professor at Brock, has collected papers inspired by that conference into a terrific book published in 2008: The Everyday Fantastic: Essays on Science Fiction and Human Being, from Cambridge Scholars Publishing. You can find out more about it here, and if you download this sample PDF, you can read the table of contents, Michael's introduction, and my essay.

From the publisher:

The Everyday Fantastic is an anthology born in love. The love is for science fiction, in all its myriad forms: novels, television, movies, music, art, etc. Many writers from a plurality of disciplines, professions and walks of life share this disposition. This attitude cuts across national boundaries and has even outlasted the vagaries of popular culture fads. This collection of essays draws upon these feelings in terms of the different ways science fiction is engaged in different disciplines, viewing the genre beyond mere entertainment.

The papers collected here engage the fundamental questions explored in science fiction. Many of the essays were originally presented at an interdisciplinary conference in October 2005 at Brock University, highlighted by Robert J. Sawyer’s engaging keynote address. Additional chapters were in part inspired by these presentations. These essays represent a wide array of voices from the humanities, social sciences and sciences, and address a comparable range of topics and the media that use the science fiction genre.

For the Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other):

• Berman, Michael. The Everyday Fantastic. Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Farah Mendlesohn for the Hugo

This is the eighth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

So, Hugo Award-winning science-fiction critic John Clute is in Toronto right now, and he joined a group (including Robert Charles Wilson and myself) for dinner last night. It was, of course, most pleasant, and it drove home an interesting reality: that the science-fiction and fantasy fields are flat, in a way that most other fields of endeavor are not. Athletes don't socialize with sports reporters, actors don't pal around with theatre critics, restaurateurs prefer to eat without the restaurant reviewer present. But in SF&F everyone socializes, even if sometimes the opening lines of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds echo through people's minds:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

Not so long ago, another Hugo Award-winning SF&F critic was also in Toronto, my friend Farah Mendlesohn, whom I first met when I gave a talk at the Library of Congress in 1999. Farah, John, Bob, and I will all meet up again soon, at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando in March, where authors will again be put under the microscope.

And, still, yet, one wonders do authors really care what academics think of their work? Do academics actually give a damn what the subjects of their scholarship think about their assessments? While wearing those hats (author, critic), the most healthy and productive answer for each is probably "no."

But in that flat field of science fiction and fantasy, most of us wear at least one other hat, too: we're also fans, and fandom cares enough about the field of writing about SF&F to have established a Hugo Award for "Best Related Book," defined as "Any work whose subject is related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time in book form during the year in question, and which is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text."

And, lo and behold, there were a couple of standout works that meet the above criteria published last year. The one that had better distribution, and therefore has a real shot at the Hugo in this category, was by the aforementioned Dr. Mendlesohn: Rhetorics of Fantasy, described by its publisher thus:

Transcending arguments over the definition of fantasy literature, Rhetorics of Fantasy introduces a provocative new system of classification for the genre. Utilizing nearly two hundred examples of modern fantasy, author Farah Mendlesohn uses this system to explore how fiction writers construct their fantastic worlds. Mendlesohn posits four categories of fantasy -- portal-quest, immersive, intrusion, and liminal -- that arise out of the relationship of the protagonist to the fantasy world. Using these sets, Mendlesohn argues that the author's stylistic decisions are then shaped by the inescapably political demands of the category in which they choose to write. Each chapter covers at least twenty books in detail, ranging from nineteenth-century fantasy and horror to extensive coverage of some of the best books in the contemporary field. Offering a wide-ranging discussion and penetrating comparative analysis, Rhetorics of Fantasy will excite fans and provide a wealth of material for scholarly and classroom discussion.

Includes discussion of works by over 100 authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Peter Beagle, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Crowley, Stephen R. Donaldson, Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, Gregory Maguire, Robin McKinley, China Mieville, Suniti Namjoshi, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, Sheri S. Tepper, J.R.R. Tolkien, Tad Williams.

As critic Brian Attebery said,"Mendlesohn goes well beyond a survey to offer new and often surprising readings of works both familiar and obscure. A fine critical work that offers fresh insights on almost every page."

And it does indeed do just that: a fascinating, insightful, argument-provoking, entertaining, cogently presented work, fully worthy of the Hugo Award.

Farah, as it happens, is programming director for the Montreal Worldcon, where the Hugos will be given this year. It would be wonderful if, when the con was over, she had to fight with the security screening people at Montreal's Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport about why she wanted to take a giant rocket-shaped thing aboard the plane as carry-on luggage ...

For the Hugo Award for Best Related Book:

• Mendlesohn, Farah. Rhetorics of Fantasy. Wesleyan University Press.

(The other nonfiction book I'm enthused about is Canadian Michael Berman's The Everyday Fantastic, which I discuss in a separate blog post, and am suggesting for the Aurora Award.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait: Put two shrimps on the barbie!

On Thursday, August 26, 2004, I was called upon to welcome visiting Australian SF writer K.A. Bedford on behalf of the Canadian SF scene at his reading and signing at the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, and we've been friends ever since. Although he lives Down Under, he's published here in Canada (he was "discovered" by the wonderful Robyn M. Herrington of Calgary, to whom my novel Rollback is dedicated).

The latest book by Adrian (as he's known) is Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait, and it has just been nominated for not one but two major awards: Australia's Aurealis and the United States's Philip K. Dick (an award for which I myself was a juror in 1995). Here's the press release from his publisher -- way to go, Adrian!

Time Machines isn't eligible for the Aurora -- it's the nationality of the author, not the publisher, that counts -- but it most certainly is eligible for the Hugo ...

---

DOUBLE TROUBLE:
Canadian Book by Australian Author
Shortlisted for Two Top Book Awards
[Calgary, AB, January 13, 2009]

EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing is proud to announce that Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait, by Australian author K.A. Bedford, has been shortlisted for both the Aurealis (Australia's premier award for science fiction literature) and the Philip K. Dick (for distinguished original science fiction) AWARDS.

The Aurealis Awards are in their fourteenth year as Australia's premier awards for speculative fiction.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction.

EDGE publisher Brian Hades stated in an interview today, "We are extremely proud of Adrian. This is his fourth novel, and he is proving to be the new voice in science fiction we've all been waiting for."

Author Bedford comment on his back-to-back listings by simply stating, "I'm gobsmacked!"

Bedford recently completed a North American promotional book tour for Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait stopping in Denver, Colorado, to attended the World Science Fiction Convention and Calgary, Alberta, where he was the author Guest of Honour.

About the Novel:
Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait: In the future, Aloysius "Spider" Webb will journey to the End of Time. For now, Spider must be content with repairing broken time machines, rebuilding his life and avoiding the lunatic antics of his boss, Dickhead McMahon.

Spider's life is status quo until he discovers, inside a broken second-hand time machine, the corpse of a brutally murdered woman from the future. The Department of Time and Space steps in to manage the situation leaving Spider asking a lot of questions that only lead to more questions; unsettling evidence, brewing trouble, and the knowledge that Spider himself might be involved in an epic battle for control of time itself.

Will his knowing the future be a curse or a blessing? Will Spider Webb find out how things turn out before they happen? And, with his new found knowledge, who will Spider trust?

It will all happen before the End of Time!

About the Author:
K.A. Bedford was born in Fremantle, Australia in 1963. He attended Murdoch University, in Perth and studied Writing, Theatre, and Philosophy, before becoming actively involved in the Australian SF community. Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait is his fourth novel. He lives with his wife, Michelle, near Perth, Australia.

Presentation of the Awards:
The Aurealis Award will be presented at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane, Australia on Saturday 24 January 2009.

The Philip K. Dick Award will be presented on Friday, April 10, 2009 at Norwescon 32 at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel, SeaTac, Washington.

About the Aurealis Awards:
The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis Magazine, to recognize the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

The Aurealis Awards have a significant history behind them now. Since the Awards' first ceremony, both the field of literature and the vibrancy of the Australian speculative fiction community have grown substantially. The extensive list of past winners and finalists is not only a great guide to a basic bookshelf selection of the best Australian works; it is also a useful survey of more than a decade's worth of significant topics and themes, a who's who of the genre locally and the growth of the Australian publishing industry's commitment to the genre. Winners will be announced at the Aurealis Awards ceremony at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane on Saturday 24 January 2009.

For more information on the Aurealis Awards, please visit their website: http://www.aurealisawards.com/

About the Philip K. Dick Award:
The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society.

More Information on the Book:
For further information on Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait please visit our webpage.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

James Alan Gardner for the Hugo and Aurora

This is the seventh in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Those of you who've read my novel Wake as it was serialized in Analog will have encountered the open-source competitor for Google known as Jagster. As I wrote:

In the tradition of silly Web acronyms ("Yahoo!" stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"), Jagster is short for "Judiciously Arranged Global Search-Term Evaluative Ranker" -- and the battle between Google and Jagster has been dubbed the "Ranker rancor" by the press ...

But the name Jagster is really a homage to my great friend James Alan Gardner of Kitchener, Ontario, the finest SF short-fiction writer Canada has ever produced.

And in 2008, the Jagster published one of his very best short stories ever: "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story," in the February 2008 Asimov's. The piece begins in typical Gardner fashion: "This is a story about a ray-gun. The ray-gun will not be explained except to say, 'It shoots rays.'"

I had the privilege of workshopping this story prior to its publication, and was blown away. Since it came out, others have sung its praises, too. See, for instance, this review over at the always-interesting SF Gospel blog from January 6 of last year, which concludes, "This early in the year, we already have a strong contender for next year's Hugo for Best Novelette."

I didn't see a better story all year long. Gardner Dozois has picked it up for his annual Year's Best Science Fiction, and Rich Horton has grabbed it for his Science Fiction: The Best of the Year.

It's one of only nine novelettes to have made SFWA's Preliminary Nebula Award ballot. It deserves a place on the final Nebula ballot ... and on the final Hugo ballot, too (and it'll be criminal if it's not on the Aurora Award ballot). I recommend it without reservation:

For the Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the Aurora Award for Best Short Form Work in English:

• Gardner, James Alan. "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story." Asimov's, February 2008.

You can read the whole wonderful story online here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Why there's no Aurora Award for ... whatever

People kvetch that we don't have an Aurora Award for whatever their favourite art form is, and recently someone put forth the silly argument that the reason we don't is because of the cost of making trophies.

Poppycock. The reason we don't have Aurora Awards for every possible form of expression is that no one has taken the initiative to show that we acutally need them. In 1997, I was part of a committee struck by SF Canada to comment on the Aurora Awards; the committee failed to turn in a report, but I posted my comments online, and I raise the same points at every Aurora (CanVention) business meeting when someone suggest a new category:

Periodically, new Aurora categories are suggested. Among those put forth recently include best graphic novel, best TV show or movie, best poem, and best web site — many presumably with separate French and English trophies to be presented. I believe there already are too many Aurora Awards; adding more simply cheapens the value of each one. However, when a new category is proposed, I believe the proposer should be required to put forth mock ballots listing full slates of credible nominees for the previous three years in the suggested category: if five truly award-caliber works cannot be found in each of the preceding three years in a proposed award category, clearly there is insufficient quality work being done in that area in Canada to justify an annual competitive award for it.

In the eleven subsequent years, no one has even once risen to that challenge. Being nominated should be an honour in and of itself; you shouldn't be nominated just because you're one of only a handful of people who worked in a given area in the year in question. Nominations are for outstanding work, not every work; this isn't nursery school where you get a ribbon just for showing up.

You want a new category? Get crackin' on the paperwork. I'll be there at the CanVention business meeting at the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal. Put your mock ballots on the table, and, if they really do contain works that are award-calibre, I'll be the first to vote in favour of a new award category; hell, I'll even second the motion for you. But if you put in a proposal for a new category but no mock ballots to prove the proposal's worth, I'll vote against it, and so, I bet, will just about everyone else in the room.

(In point of fact, almost no one who complains about the Auroras ever shows up at the business meetings. Complaining is easy; actually working to sustain and improve something is hard.)

(My full set of comments from 1997 on the Auroras.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Identity Theft for the Aurora

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Okay, okay, what about little ole me? Well, although I didn't publish a novel in 2008, I do have something eligible for the Aurora Award in the Best Long Form Work in English category: my new collection Identity Theft and Other Stories.

The book, published simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback by Red Deer Press, includes the Hugo finalist "Shed Skin," the Nebula finalist "Identity Theft," the Aurora winners "Biding Time" and "Ineluctable," and 13 others [Table of Contents].

The book spent two months on the Locus bestsellers list, and both months was the only single-author short-story collection on any of the Locus lists (hardcover, mass-market paperback, trade paperback, media-related, or gaming-related).

"As fellow Canadian SF author Robert Charles Wilson points out in the introduction, Sawyer's fiction possesses a remarkable down-to-earth quality that appeals to readers of all nationalities. Yet Sawyer's collection showcases not only an irresistibly engaging narrative voice but also a gift for confronting thorny philosophical conundrums. At every opportunity, Sawyer forces his readers to think while holding their attention with ingenious premises and superlative craftsmanship." —Booklist

"Sawyer's latest collection is highly entertaining and thought-provoking; the book has something for almost any science-fiction fan. It is a testament to Sawyer's talent that it is not necessary to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy his writing; this is a collection of great stories that just happen to be set in the future." —Quill & Quire

For your consideration for the Aurora Award Best Long-Form Work in English:

• Sawyer, Robert J. Identity Theft and Other Stories. Red Deer Press.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Stanley Schmidt for the Hugo

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Okay, folks, y'all have been very good to me when it comes to the Hugos over the years. You nominated my novels The Terminal Experiment, Starplex, and Rollback for the Hugo; you nominated my short story "Shed Skin" for the Hugo, and you gave me the best-novel Hugo for Hominids, and, if I'm lucky, next year, you might be kind enough to nominate my new novel Wake for the Hugo, too.

But you know what all those works have in common? Stanley Schmidt, the editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, edited every single one of them. The Terminal Experiment (under its original title of Hobson's Choice), Starplex, Hominids, Rollback, and Wake all first appeared in Analog (as did my 2002 Aurora Award-winning novelette "Ineluctable"). You can't be a Robert J. Sawyer fan without also being a fan of Stanley Schmidt.

And yet, despite being the longest-serving short-fiction editor in the SF field, despite editing what has in every year of his tenure been the world's number-one bestselling English-language science-fiction magazine, despite being the only major SF&F magazine editor to write an editorial himself for each issue, despite his tireless mentoring of new writers, such as (to name an obvious example from this past year) Calgary's Susan Forest -- despite all that, Dr. Schmidt has never won a Hugo. That's criminal.

It goes without saying that Stan will be nominated for a Hugo this year -- he's nominated every year. But don't just nominate this wonderful, self-effacing, brilliant, hard-working, caring editor. Vote for him..

Some of my previous blog posts about Stan:

• Stanley Schmidt's New Book
  
• Stanley Schmidt Interview
  
• High Time Stan Schmidt Got a Hugo!

For the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor, Short Form:

• Schmidt, Stanley. Analog Science Fiction & Fact

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Reminder: Canadian SF Works Database

Marcel Gagné and I founded the Canadian SF Works Database in 2007 as a resource for those interested in nominating for Canada's Aurora Awards, and for those who want to know what Canadian works are eligible for international science fiction and fantasy awards.

If you are a creator, please make sure your creations are listed. The database is a Wiki; anyone may add to or edit its contents.

If you're a fan or reader who wants to participate in the awards process, please visit the database to remind yourself of all the wonderful people and things that are eligible for nomination.

The list of English publications from 2008 (the ones eligible for the Auroras and Hugos to be given this year) is here.

Canadian SF Works Database

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Hayden Trenholm for the Aurora

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

In the previous post in this series, I talked about a book I'd published under my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint, Nick DiChario's A Small and Remarkable Life. Nick's an American, so his book isn't eligible for the Aurora. In fact, both of the books I published last year were by Americans (the other was the anthology The Savage Humanists edited by Fiona Kelleghan).

But there were some great small-press Canadian-authored SF novels published last year, and my favourite was Defining Diana by Hayden Trenholm, brought to us by the good folks at Bundoran Press in Prince George, British Columbia.

Their gorgeous trade paperback sports this blurb from me:

Hayden Trenholm is a true original; an exciting new voice, tinged with sly wit. Defining Diana will grab you on the first page and won't let you go.

Hayden's proven he's an award-calibre writer: he won last year's Best Short Form Work in English Aurora Award (and in 1992, he won the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest). There's an excellent interview with Hayden by Ed Willette here.

I'm the proud owner of the very first signed copy of Defining Diana -- a gift from Hayden (I was MC at the book-launch party for the novel held at Toronto's Ad Astra). And -- lucky me! -- right now I'm reading the terrific sequel, Steel Whispers, in manuscript.

Defining Diana definitely deserves your consideration for this year's Aurora Award for Best Long Form Work in English:

• Trenholm, Hayden. Defining Diana. Bundoran Press.

(Pictured: Author Hayden Trenholm and editor Virginia O'Dine of Bundoran Press at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg in May 2008, where Hayden, myself, and Nick DiChario did a joint signing.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Nick DiChario for the Hugo

This is the third in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration for the Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year:

Valley of Day-Glo by Nick DiChario, published by my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint.

There's no question that Nick is an award-caliber writer: he's been nominated for the Hugo twice, for the World Fantasy Award, and for both Campbell Awards (the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1993, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year for his previous RJS Books title, A Small and Remarkable Life.

Rather than me sing the praises of Valley of Day-Glo, I'll let Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Nancy Kress do it. Here's the introduction she wrote for Nick's book:

---

NICK AT THE LOOM
By Nancy Kress

Twenty pages into reading Valley of Day-Glo, I sent Nick DiChario an email: "Am reading your novel. You have a very warped mind." Nick forwarded the message to his publisher with a copy to me, saying "Look! A cover blurb!"

Does Nick really have a warped mind? Not to look at him or talk to him at a party. He's courteous, affable, a good listener. He has always displayed these qualities, and I've known him since he was twenty-one.

We met in 1982 when I was, for the first time ever, teaching a summer writing workshop. I had not yet published very much myself -- one novel and a handful of short stories -- and felt uncertain of myself as a teacher of writing. It was pretty much the blind leading the blind. I can still see Nick, a few other students, and me sitting on the broad shallow steps of the Fine Arts building on the campus where the workshop was held. We're eating potato salad off soggy paper plates and earnestly discussing the state of publishing -- as if any of us actually knew much about it.

Nick knows a lot about it now. He's owned a bookstore, published wonderful stories, collaborated extensively with the very knowledgeable Mike Resnick, been nominated for both a Hugo and World Fantasy award for his lovely story "The Winterberry," and for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his previous novel, A Small and Remarkable Life. There is no doubt in my mind that eventually Nick will win one, or all, of these awards. Meanwhile, we have Valley of Day-Glo.

What to make of this book? In the first paragraph we have Indians named Broadway Danny Rose, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Later on, we have a sacred Jug Dance involving "an original Igloo water cooler" and a sacred text titled Network Marketing in the New Millennium. We have a corpse that steadily rots for 100 pages but occasionally sits up to chime in with comments on the action. We have a very unorthodox cure for sexual dysfunction. Is all that warped or what?

Yes, in that the world of Day-Glo is a distorted one that is highly unlikely as a direct descendant of our own. BUT -- that all-important but! -- in another sense, this world is very much our own. One meaning of "warp," after all, is "a system of spun threads extended lengthwise on a loom." The warp is then woven with the cross-threads, the "woof."

In Day-Glo Nick is weaving a very intricate tapestry indeed. His warp may be fanciful and wildly inventive, but his cross-threads are deadly serious. They are love and the price that love exacts, violence and the grief it causes, striving and the ways that striving can be twisted by the larger world. Nick's tapestry is a life-like design of brilliant, heart-breaking colors, including that imaginative warp. You will be the richer for having viewed it, read it, pondered it. You will be the richer for having spent time with Broadway Danny Rose and shared his search for the Valley of Day-Glo.

Even if you never in your life witness a sacred Jug Dance.

---

• DiChario, Nick. Valley of Day-Glo, Robert J. Sawyer Books.

Nick DiChario's website
Nancy Kress's website
The Robert J. Sawyer Books website

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

An anti-Hugo suggestion

A friend sent me an email today suggesting he was going to nominate me for the Hugo for Best Professional Editor (Long Form), for the work I do on Robert J. Sawyer Books. My reply:

That's super-kind of you, but I just don't deserve it. I edited just two books last year (granted, very good ones by Nick DiChario and Fiona Kelleghan -- how could I go wrong?). But I'd die if someone worthy, like Ginjer Buchanan or Susan Allison or Beth Meacham or Lou Anders or Jim Frenkel got squeezed off the ballot because I'd made it on.

Same thing goes for the Auroras, folks, and the "Best Professional (Other)" category. That's where you'd nominate Brian Hades of Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, On Spec, Neo-Opsis, the anthologies Tesseracts 12, Michael Berman's excellent chollection of scholarly essays The Everyday Fantastic, and so on. You only get three nominations for the Auroras; don't waste one on me in this category.

(And see The Canadian SF Works Database for other good suggestions.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Randy McCharles for the Aurora

This is the second in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

The Aurora Awards are often called "the Canadian Hugos," but that's only a partially apt analogy.

In point of fact, there's no one-to-one correspondence between categories for the two sets of awards. And while both sets of awards honour both professional and fan activities, only the Aurora Awards have a category for Best Fan Organizational.

That award is to recognize the hard-working folk who work for science-fiction clubs or make science-fiction and fantasy conventions happen here in the Great White North, and in 2008 there was one absolute standout: Randy McCharles, who chaired the 2008 World Fantasy Convention in Calgary.

The Calgary WFC was one of the best conventions ever held in this country, was one of the best WFCs ever, and was a complete success. That Randy managed to pull that off, as chair, without pissing people off is a testament to his good humour and high organizational and administrative skills.

I've sung Randy's praises before, most notably in this appreciation I wrote of him when he was Fan Guest of Honour a few years ago at Vancouver's VCON.

Calgary's conventions have been largely ignored by the Auroras (I'm on record as saying Kirstin Morrell totally deserved this award for her hard work reviving and chairing Con-Version in 2007). It's high time we recognized the hard work by the people in Cow Town, and Randy McCharles's sterling efforts are the perfect opportunity.

He'll be on my nominating ballot, and I urge you to put him on yours.

• Randy McCharles, chair. World Fantasy Convention, Calgary, 30 October to 2 November 2008

For more on the Auroras, see here.

Pictured: Randy McCharles

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

On Spec and Neo-Opsis for the Hugo

This is the first in a series of blog posts in which I'm going to discuss people and things that I think merit consideration for this year's Hugo and Aurora Awards; both sets of awards will be given at the Montreal Worldcon this year.

Last year, at the World Science Fiction convention in Denver, a motion was passed to eliminate the semiprozine category for the Hugo Awards. If that motion is ratified this year at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, the category will be eliminated, and this will be the final year that the award is given.

The semiprozine category was created essentially to keep Locus, the California-based trade journal of the science-fiction field, from always winning in the best fanzine category. Semiprozines are magazines that are not amateur efforts, but aren't on the same level of commercial enterprise as the prozines ("professional magazines"), such as Analog, Asimov's SF, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Since the category was created, Locus has almost always won this Hugo, and many think that's reason enough to retire the category, hence the current motion.

However, a great many worthy publications have emerged over the years that are also semiprozines, including The New York Review of Science Fiction from the US and Interzone from the UK.

Consider this:

• No Canadian publication has ever been nominated for the semiprozine Hugo.
  
  
• The Hugos will be given in Canada this year.
  
  
• This may well be the last year in which a Hugo Award is given in this category.
  
  
• English Canada has not one but two world-class semiprozines: On Spec from Edmonton, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and Neo-Opsis from Victoria.

Both On Spec and Neo-Opsis are perfect-bound digests printed on quality paper, and, frankly, are physically better products than Analog and Asimov's are these days. Both routinely publish excellent fiction, as well as provocative nonfiction.

Last year, it took just 38 nominations to make the Hugo ballot in the semiprozine category; last year, only seven people bothered to nominate On Spec and some number fewer than five (the threshold figure for which results were reported) nominated Neo-Opsis. Get with the program, people!

I'm going to be nominating both On Spec and Neo-Opsis for the semiprozine Hugo this year (and will also be nominating the NYRSF and the SFWA Bulletin, both of which also are worthy of the award).

If you have an attending or supporting membership in this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, or had one in last year's Worldcon in Denver, you're eligible to nominate, too.

Neo-Opsis and On Spec are terrific Canadian publications. They deserve to be nominated; heck, they deserve to win. I urge you to keep them in mind when making your nominations.

Nominations for the Hugos are open right now -- don't delay, the nominating window is short. Participate -- and maybe one of those shiny Hugo rockets will stay in Canada this year.

• On Spec, Diane Walton, ed.
  
• Neo-Opsis, Karl Johanson, ed.

Remember, this may be their last chance ever to become Hugo finalists, but for all time they'll be able to proclaim "Hugo Award nominee!" on their covers.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site