Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for April, 2008

SF writers at Gartner Security Summit

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Booked my outbound flight today for the Gartner IT Security Summit in Washington, DC, June 2-4, 2008, at which I’ll be chairing a panel discussion by science-fiction writers Arlan Andrews, Greg Bear, Robert J. Sawyer, and Bruce Sterling. More info is here. Speaking of flights, tomorrow morning I’m off to Montreal for the Blue Metropolis […]

Booklist loves Identity Theft

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Go me! The American Library Association’s magazine Booklist — one of the buying bibles for bookstores as well as libraries — has a review coming in its May 14, 2008, edition of my new short story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories. Says reviewer Carl Hays: “As fellow Canadian SF author Robert Charles Wilson points […]

The Savage Humanists

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

This morning I handed over to our typesetter the tenth volume under the Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint. This one is an anthology entitled The Savage Humanists, edited by Fiona Kelleghan of the University of Miami; we’ll be publishing it later this year. We have high hopes for this book in the academic market (it’s […]

Audible.com goes big time into science fiction

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I’m thrilled to be part of Audible.com’s new science-fiction initiative. All my Audible.com titles are here, and the press release is below: Audible Announces New Imprint and Exclusive Agreements with Orson Scott Card and Other Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Audible Frontiers imprint launches with 25 exclusive audiobooks, including 10 Hugo Award winners from […]

Matthew Hughes review-a-thon

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I had the great pleasure of publishing a novel by Canadian author Matthew Hughes late last year: The Commons, under my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint from Red Deer Press / Fitzhenry & Whiteside. A portion of that book, published as a standalone novella, was up for the Nebula Awards given this past weekend; Matt […]

Nebula winners announced

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

The winners of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s 2007 Nebula Awards were announced this evening at a banquet in Austin, Texas. Of course, I congratulate all the winners, but I’m particularly happy for two good friends who won: Nancy Kress and Ted Chiang. Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins) […]

What I’ve been up to

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Things I’ve been doing … Well, let’s see … the days are flying by, but how am I occupying them? On Tuesday, April 15, 2008, I finished revisions on Wake, my eighteenth novel. Yay! Go me! :) On Wednesday, April 16, 2008, Carolyn and I picked up Joe and Gay Haldeman (who were in Toronto, […]

Calculating God and others at Audible.com

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Hot on the heels of their release of The Terminal Experiment, Audible.com has just released unabridged recordings of my novels Calculating God, Hominids, and Hybrids (with Humans coming soon). The new readings are by Jonathan Davis. Check ’em all out right here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

RJS e-Mail Newsletter

Monday, April 21st, 2008

I sent out this e-mail newsletter today to the people on my email-notices list; if you’d like to be added to that list, drop me a note at sawyer at sfwriter dot com. === Hello, Robert J. Sawyer reader! You’re most likely getting this note because you’ve written to me in the past about my […]

The living nightmare of Wi-Fi

Monday, April 21st, 2008

I’ve been having no end of lost connections to the Internet with the Wi-Fi router in my home … ugh I installed a firmware update tonight, and hopefully that will help. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Off to Eeriecon 10

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Off to one of my favorite conventions — Eeriecon, a small but high-energy con in Niagara Falls, New York. The fun begins this evening. Guests of Honor this year are Joe Haldeman and Sephera Giron. Details are here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Rewatching The Time Warrior

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

My all-time favourite Doctor Who serial is “The Time Warrior,” written by Robert Holmes for Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor. It’s packed with firsts: new opening credits, the unveiling of the diamond-shaped Doctor Who logo, the revelation that the Doctor’s home planet is Gallifrey, the introduction of the Sontarans, and the introduction of one of the […]

Mindscan film option renewed

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

… for a third year, by Toronto producer Scott Calbeck. I’m delighted! Mindscan, which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year, is a story of transferred human consciousness and attempting to define what it means to be human. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Terminal Experiment at Audible.com

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

I mentioned a while back that Audible.com had issued me a seven-book (!) contract for audio versions of my novels (the entire Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, the entire WWW trilogy, and Calculating God); those are still forthcoming (and the first of them should be out next month). But Audible.com has also just released an audio version […]

Neanderthals speak

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

More or less: a synthesized, simulated Neanderthal vocal tract has now produced the sound of a Neanderthal saying “E.” New Scientist has the scoop. I fondly remember interviewing cognitive linguist Phil Lieberman, who is involved with the research mentioned above, for two hours on November 4, 1999, at his office at Brown University to discuss […]

Sawyer in Montreal in May

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

I’m thrilled to be participating in this year’s Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal. My full schedule is here. My main event is a solo reading by me, with commentary, hosted by Claude Lalumière. The event is Saturday, May 3, 2008, at 8:30 p.m., at the Delta Centre-Ville hotel in the Versailles Room (details are […]

German Flashforward

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Today’s mail brought my author copies of the German edition of Flashforward, published as simply Flash. The cover is lovely, I think. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Stanley Schmidt’s new book!

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Just received a copy of The Coming Convergence by Stanley Schmidt, Ph.D., the editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The book’s subtitle is “The Surprising Ways Diverse Technologies Interact to Shape Our World and Change the Future.” It’s a terrific book, and, on the “Advance Praise for …” page, you’ll find this blurb from […]

Identity Theft in my hands

Monday, April 7th, 2008

I received today, hot off the presses, the first copies of my new short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories, and I have to say it looks fabulous. Red Deer Press has always been known for beautiful books, and this one is no exception. The cover and interior design are by Karen Petherick Thomas. Amy […]

Getting an agent’s attention

Monday, April 7th, 2008

A question that showed up in my in-box today: I have now completed two SF novels and am hard at work on a third. However, I have had no luck whatsoever in piquing the interest of any publishers or agents. Do you have any thoughts on how to attract something more than a momentary “glance” […]

Charlton Heston, R.I.P.

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Charlton Heston, who starred in three of the best remembered science-fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s — Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and The Omega Man — died yesterday at the age of 84. Rest in peace, Chuck. Charlton Heston as Col. George Taylor in Planet of the Apes: And that completes my […]

Proud!

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Five years ago today, one of my week-long writing workshops at the Banff Centre in the ski-resort town of Banff, Alberta, started. I had six students with me for that week, and a terrific bunch they were! I’ve kept in touch with all of them to one degree or another since, and I’m just pleased […]

Free e-copies of Hugo nominated novels for Worldcon members

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

If you’re a member of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, electronic copies (as RTF files, which are readable by almost all word processors) of four of the five best-novel Hugo Award finalists are yours for the asking. See John Scalzi’s blog for the details (and many thanks to John for handling distribution!). […]

The Million Dollar Man

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

… is my buddy S.M. Stirling, formerly of Toronto. Says Steve, “Since it’s going to be published in the trade press soon, I can say that the advances for the latest contract have gone well into six figures per book and the overall advance for all six books is in the seven figure range; it’s […]

The Aurora Short-Form Finalists up against the wall

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

On Saturday night at Ad Astra, Toronto’s annual SF convention, I happened to notice that all five of the nominees for this year’s Aurora Award for Best Short-Form Work in English were standing or sitting within two metres of each other at the hotel bar. Photo-op! Here they are: Left to right: Stephen Kotowych, Tony […]