Kitchener-Waterloo

Carolyn and I hit the road at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, May 11, 2007, for a trip to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. I did two TV interviews there. The first was on Daytime on Rogers Cable; the second was the noon news on CKCO, the KW CTV affiliate.

I've had a long, pleasant association with KW; Carolyn and I lived there in 1980; my Hominids was the "One Book, One Community" reading choice for all of Waterloo region in 2005, and I was the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence at the Kitchener Public Library last year.

After the noon news interview, Carolyn and I met up with Hugo-nominated SF writer Pat Forde and Linux guru Marcel Gagné at Solé for a wonderful, leisurely lunch, then headed off to meet Pat's newly adopted daughter, Maeve. We all hung out for the afternoon -- a welcome respite in the very hectic Rollback book tour, and at 5:30 repaired to Eastside Mario's (Italian restaurant) for dinner with the SR PJs ("Senior Pajamas"), my writers' group -- which consists of Pat, Hugo-finalist James Alan Gardner, and wonderful new writer Suzanne Church -- as well as Marcel, his wife, Sally Tomasevic, and their son Sebastian (Hominids is dedicated to Sally and Marcel).

Then it was time for my reading and talk at the Chapters superstore in Kitchener. We had a packed house, and despite me being totally exhausted, the event went well.

After that, Carolyn and I hit the road for the two-hour drive to Sarnia, Ontario, where we stayed overnight in a hotel; tomorrow, I'm guest of honour at GenreCon, the free, one-day, all-genres convention at the Sarnia Public Library (other guests include superstar fantasy writer Kelley Armstrong and Crime Writers of Canada president Rich Blechta, plus my writing-group buddy Suzanne Church).

Some photos:



My first interview of the day was on Daytime, the Rogers Cable morning news show.



Host Mark Paine interviewed Robert J. Sawyer about Rollback



Next up was the noon news at CKCO, the Kitchener CTV affiliate



A beauty shot of the Rollback cover



Robert J. Sawyer on CKCO noon newscast



Hugo-nominee Patrick Forde and Carolyn Clink at Eastside Mario's for dinner



A placard advertising Rob's event at Chapters in Kitchener



A packed house at Chapters



Long-time friend Fraser Gunn. Rob and Carolyn shared an apartment in Waterloo with Fraser Gunn and Lynn Conway in the summer of 1980.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site