Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for October, 2008

Off to World Fantasy Convention in Calgary!

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Leaving first thing in the morning. Hope to see a bunch of you there! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Deadlines

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Well, I didn’t want to have to do it, but it became a necessity: I wrote today to both of my charming, wonderful editors — Ginjer Buchanan in New York and Laura Shin in Toronto — and asked for deadline extensions on Watch and Wonder, the second and third volumes of my WWW trilogy. The […]

Atlas of Cyberspace

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

My Calgary friend H. Don Wilkat sent me this link this evening to the wonderful book The Atlas of Cyberspace, by Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchin. I already own it in hardcopy, but it’s now available as a free download as well. Way cool! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Alibi Archives come to life

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Roman Frillarte, a fan of my work, drew to my attention the debut of “My Mobile Witness,” not unlike the Alibi Archives that appear in my novel Hominids and its sequels. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I love it when they try to get me to do their homework

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

A letter I received today: In what ways would you consider The Terminal Experiment philosophical? What themes or messages are you trying to convey in The Terminal Experiment? What does the book say about the human condition? Can’t blame the guy for trying … The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Ian Randal Strock’s book

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Many in the SF business know and love Ian Randal Strock, formerly of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, editor of Artemis, and now editor of SF Scope. Ian’s first book comes out tomorrow: The Presidential Book of Lists: From Most to Least, Elected to Rejected, Worst to Cursed: Fascinating Facts About Our Chief Executives. It’s […]

Pure Speculation

Monday, October 20th, 2008

… was lots of fun! I was Guest of Honour at this small convention in Edmonton this past weekend. I had blast doing a joint reading with Thomas Wharton, enjoyed defending Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin against Canticle for Liebowitz and Dune on an SF-survivor panel, had a terrific GoH interview (conducted by Barb Galler-Smith), and […]

"I Love the Planet"

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Not quite as cool as “Where the Hell is Matt?,” but still absolutely charming: “Boom De Ah Dah.” (That’s my buddy Jay Ingram singing the line, “I love the planet.”) And watch carefully for the fellow singing near the end (easier to see in full-screen mode). The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

WATCH: The Soundtrack, Part 1

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Referenced in passing in a scene I’m writing, but, man, this is a beautiful piece of music: the theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, written (and conducted in this clip) by Ennio Morricone. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Too obscure?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Anybody besides me able to tell what I’m riffing on here, in a scene I’m working on for my novel Watch? (“Caitlin” is a character’s name; otherwise, I’m directly quoting something that resonates with the scene I’m writing): His voice was its usual monotone. “Caitlin, if I may …” “If …? Oh!” She got out […]

Turkey, Here I Come! (Or: Hangin’ with Erin Brockovich)

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

On February 2, 2009, I’ll be one of five keynote speakers at a management conference in Istanbul, Turkey, entitled “Time to Exit the Labyrinth.” Also on the program: my buddy David Gerrold, who wrote the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” and — and how cool is this? — Erin Brockovich. More on […]

Best.Art.Ever.

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

OMG! So, I’ve now got copies of the December 2008 Analog in my hot little hands. Of course, my new novel Wake is not on the cover this month, the way it was last month when the serialization began, but I flipped the issue open, to see what interior art they’d come up with. And […]

Something to be thankful for

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

My Hollywood agent just emailed to say that the first of what we’re hoping will be a great many checks related to the sale of my novel Flashforward to ABC arrived at his office today. Woohoo! More on the Flashforward TV series is here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Go West, Young(ish) Man!

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

And I will! Yee-haw! Guest of HonourPure SpeculationEdmonton, AlbertaOctober 17-19, 2008www.purespec.org Program ParticipantSurrey International Writers ConferenceSurrey (Vancouver), British ColumbiaOctober 23-26, 2008www.siwc.ca Rob will be offering this three-hour master class on on Thursday, October 23: “The Intimately Human and the Grandly Cosmic” — making your science fiction appeal not just to the mind but to the […]

Prince George goes SF noir!

Friday, October 10th, 2008

More details to come, but mark your calendars: Hayden Trenholm, the author of the SF noir novel Defining Diana, and Robert J. Sawyer, author of the SF noir novella “Identity Theft,” will be appearing together in Prince George, British Columbia — home of Canada’s wonderful Bundoran Press — early in November 2008. On Tuesday, November […]

You must download this

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

I was recently listing what I think are the four must-read books for fiction writers, and observed that agent Donald Maass wrote two of them. One is the amazing Writing the Breakout Novel, and the other is the best book on being a commercial-fiction writer ever written: The Career Novelist. And now, Don has made […]

Warning: Bambi’s mother gets shot

Monday, October 6th, 2008

A letter I received today from a library patron (I’m hoping she’ll ask the library to ban my books — nothing is better for sales) … :) Since I wrote you, I’ve devoured another 10 or so of your novels. I’m on Frameshift, and I’ve been traumatised by Chapter 1 (nazi concentration camp…). You should […]

VCON, here I come!

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Look for me this weekend at Vancouver’s venerable VCON science-fiction convention. This year, VCON is welcoming a bunch of Guests of Honour Emeriti. In addition to this year’s Author GoHs Kelley Armstrong and Patrick Rothfuss, past Author GoHs in attendance include authors Don DeBrandt, Lynne Fahnestalk, Eileen Kernaghan, Jeanne Robinson, Spider Robinsion, and Robert J. […]

Another RJS student gets published

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

That’s Elizabeth Hirst, above, one of my students when I was Writer-in-Residence at the Odyssey Workshop in 2006. She’s sold a story called “Made of the Mist” to AlienSkin. It should be in the next (October-November 2008) issue. Congratulations! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

How to make business cards pay for themselves

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

TITSATAAFL* I get my business cards from VistaPrint — and I always pay for the cards, rather than take their free ones that have advertising (usually for their own printing services) on the back. (Even if you’re a fiction writer, you’re still a business person — so present yourself as such; cards with ads for […]