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