Next weekend, Michael Chabon is going to kick my butt ...

However, at least for the moment, I'm beating him! :)

Yes, I have no doubt that one week from today, Michael Chabon's wonderful The Yiddish Policeman's Union is going to beat my Rollback for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year.

But, to my absolute astonishment and delight, I see that my short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories is currently beating his book on the bestsellers' list published by Locus, the American trade-journal of the science-fiction and fantasy fields.

Here's this month's Locus Trade Paperback Bestsellers List (numbers following listings are months on list and position last month; all the titles are debuting this month except for the Brooks):

AUGUST 2008 (data period: May [List on Locus site]):

1) The Queen's Bastard, C.E. Murphy (Ballantine Del Rey) 1 -

2) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks (Three Rivers Press) 6 3

3) Identity Theft and Other Stories, Robert J. Sawyer (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 1 -

4) The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon (HarperPerennial) 1 -

5) Chronicles of the Black Company, Glenn Cook (Tor) 1 -

Whoohoo!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site