Rob Sawyer remains a classsy guy

I recently sent an e-mail to Rob Sawyer, as I did to most people I know, asking him to spread the word that I put my story "The Coldest War" online in hopes of garnering an Aurora nomination this year. Rob responded by devoting a whole post on his blog to "The Year of Matthew Johnson" -- spotlighting both the story and the publication of Fall From Earth. Needless to say this was way more than I expected and absurdly flattering. It's also a bit funny to me because I've more thought of it as "the second year in a row where I've done hardly any fiction writing," as busy times at work and fatherhood have pushed me to Ted Chiang-like levels of productivity (the comparison is in terms of quantity, obviously, not quality.) That being said, I did just send off a new story I wrote shortly before the end of last year, as well as a reprint and a piece from the back catalogue, so 2010 may have a few more entries under my name in the Canadian SF Database.