New SF convention coming to Toronto in 2010

SFContario -- a new science-fiction convention -- will have its first annual edition just about one year from now: Friday, November 19, through Sunday, November 21. And unlike most Toronto-area cons, this one will be downtown! (At the Ramada Plaza Hotel, overlooking Allan Gardens.)

My friend Diane Lacey is part of the concom, and she reports: "While an announcement for Author Guest of Honour is yet to come we're thrilled to be able to announce that Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden have agreed to be our Editor Guests of Honour, Geri Sullivan has agreed to be Fan Guest of Honour, and Karen Linsley has agreed to be our Filk Guest of Honour. We are, of course, pleased, honoured and excited to have every one of them."

I'll be there for sure. :)

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Why I'm not going to the World Fantasy Convention this year

Answer: because they don't sell memberships at the door, and they cap sales for pre-registration.

This weekend, I have to be in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a presenter at the Surrey International Writers Conference. Sometime shortly after that -- but the date is yet to be precisely nailed down, but it might be Friday, October 30, and it might be Monday, November 2 -- I have to go to Los Angeles, to do some work on FlashForward, the TV series based on my novel of the same name.

So, what's in between Vancouver and Los Angeles, and is taking place between the dates I have to be in those two places? Why, San Jose, and this year's World Fantasy Convention, which is being held there.

But I can't buy a ticket now, unless I hunt around to find someone who isn't going and is willing to sell theirs, and I can't buy one at the door at any price. I understand that World Fantasy wants to keep out last-minute local goths and vampire-junkies who might get wind of the convention through the media as it's happening, but the effect of their membership-cap and no-at-the-door-sales policies is to keep me away.

Surely the same effect of keeping outsiders out could be accomplished by limiting at-the-door sales to publishing professionals (employees of publishing companies, active members of SFWA, etc.)? And surely a handful of at-the-door sales to people who obviously belong couldn't really overrun the convention's capacity?

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Charity auctions and SF conventions

More and more science-fiction conventions have taken to asking authors to donate things to charity auctions, which, on its surface, seems like a great idea: let's see if we can raise some money for this cause or that.

The problem: conventions that don't have the turnout, or don't do the hustle at the con, to actually get the fair value of the things being auctioned. (Many charity auctions turn out to be "silent auctions," with bidding sheets hidden away somewhere and not promoted much or all during the convention; others have real auctioneering, but with tiny turnouts.)

At one recent con, a copy of The Bakka Anthology -- one of only 400 in existence, signed by me (and containing the first appearance of my Hugo-nominated story "Shed Skin"), Tanya Huff, Michelle Sagara West, Fiona Patton, Cory Doctorow, Nalo Hopkinson, Ed Greenwood, and others, went for just $10, a fraction of its original cover price, let alone what it's worth now.

Another con recently got me to donate a Tuckerization [naming a character after a real person] in one of my upcoming novels -- something I might agree to do once per book, maybe -- and then managed to raise just 25% of what the last Tuckerization I let be auctioned off went for, because the con was so small.

Memo to con-runners: there aren't an endless number of such goodies out there, folks. Think twice before you decide to mount a charity auction; it's real work to do one properly, and they don't do well at small cons. If you're not coming close to realizing the actual value of the things you've gotten authors and others to donate, please note that you are likely taking those things away from other conventions that might have managed to actually raise some real money for charity with them. Just sayin'.

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VCON in Vancouver this weekend

I'll be at Vancouver's science-fiction convention VCON this weekend. If you're in the area, come on out -- it'll be a blast!

More info

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Ottawa Citizen blogs Worldcon

Check it out: The Ottawa Citizen -- the largest circulation newspaper in Canada's capital city -- sent a reporter named Kate Heartfield to the Montreal Worldcon, and she blogs about it here in an entry entitled "Gaiman, Krugman, Sawyer and Ottawa writers at the Auroras."

Included in the blog post: Photo of Ottawa writers Hayden Trenholm and Peter Atwood, plug for the new books by Hayden and Matthew Johnson from Bundoran Press, and, I must say, a super nice concluding paragraph:

Then we trooped over to a launch party for Trenholm's book Steel Whispers, and for a book called Fall from Earth by another very nice Ottawa writer (they're everywhere!) named Matthew Johnson. Both were published by Bundoran Press. Robert Sawyer was at the party (and was a presenter and nominee at the Auroras). It seems like everywhere I go, people are talking about what an incredible friend Sawyer is to young SF writers, how much he gives back to the community. And from what I saw from the fringes of the party, he's a friendly, humble guy who seemed to always have his attention on someone else's needs, whether it was lugging a box of books for a younger writer or giving a big hug to a former student.

Blush. The full blog post is here.

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Heading off to Worldcon in Montreal

My reading is one of the last events at the con: 2:00 p.m. Monday afternoon in Room P-512AE. It was to have been a joint reading with Joe Haldeman, but Joe will be gone by then, so Anticipation is giving me the full hour.

Among the things I'm going read, the first-ever public performance of "The Transformed Man," a 1,000-word prose poem I was commissioned to write by Toronto's Harbourfront Centre to accompany an art exhibition there.

Also, don't forget that Robert J. Sawyer Books is co-sponsoring the SF Canada party Friday night in the Delta, Room 2815, at 9:00 p.m.

And please stop by the Robert J. Sawyer Books table in the dealers' room, and pick up a copy of Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction, which I edited.

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Come to Con-Version in Calgary!

Con-Version 25, this year's edition of Calgary's annual science-fiction and fantasy convention, is fast approaching. Dates are August 21-23. Here's the description of the con from the website:

Con-Version is a three-day festival devoted to science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between. Whether you love the groundbreaking sword and sorcery of Terry Brooks, the sexy, modern-day vampire stories of Tanya Huff, or the intellectual, thought-provoking science fiction of Robert J. Sawyer, Con-Version has something for you.

If you're a fan of anything from Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, or even Battlestar Galactica -- either one! -- you'll find people with the same interests (and maybe the same Stormtrooper costume).

Whether you like the Harry Potter books or just the movies, like Lord of the Rings on screen but not on paper, whether you're a literary or a media fan, Con-Version is the can't-miss event of the year!

Regular programming hours are full of demonstrations of medieval swordfighting, discussion panels on your favourite books, gatherings of costumers to share their secrets, and much more. The evenings are packed with entertainment: the dance, variety show, a concert, and Con-Version's famous fundraising "Slave Auction."

Join us on our Facebook group and let us know if you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information, see here.

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Thirteen hours, forty-five minutes

Door-to-door from Readercon in Boston to the house I'm renting in Saskatoon.

Ugh.

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Readercon reflections

Random thoughts on Readercon 20:

I'm at Pearson -- Toronto's airport -- changing planes on my way back to Saskatoon from Readercon 20 in Boston.

It was a great, great convention -- and I made a point of telling both Eric Van (this year's programming chair) and Bob Colby (who founded Readercon 20 years ago) that.

It was startling to see myself referred to as a "Readercon stalwart" in the program book -- but, according to the chart in the book, I'd been to 10 of the 20 Readercons, and most of them in the past decade, so I guess I am.

I seemed to be the only person from Toronto present; highly unusual for Readercon.

Great catching up with old friends Michael and Nomi Burstein, Ian Randal Strock, Warren Lapine, Nick DiChario, Rick Wilber, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jacob Weisman, and Bernie Goodman.

The Senior Editor of the journal Neuron came to my kaffeeklatsch -- how cool is that?

Catherine Asaro is looking amazingly hot. Just sayin'.

At the request of Cary Meriwether, who came all the way to Boston from San Diego, I read from Watch, the second WWW book, instead of Wake, the first one; it went over well.

Fitzhenry & Whiteside shipped down 10 copies of Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction, edited by me; it was the first I'd seen of the book. I gave a copy to Tor editor David G. Hartwell and to Pulitzer-Prize winning critic Michael Dirda, and sold the rest like that -- boom! The book looks fabulous.

Also sold out our stock of The Savage Humanists, despite the absence of editor Fiona Kelleghan, and of our two Nick DiChario titles (thanks, I'm sure, to Nick's smiling presence).

Bernie Goodman and Jacob Weisman from Tachyon Books made the con for me: I had more than half my meals with them. Despite them being much more experienced small-press publishers than I am, they treat me like a colleague, and we had a blast.

Friday's dinner party included Nick DiChario, Allen Steele, and Rick Wilber -- what a great time! We went, at Rick's suggestion, to the Capital Grill (and a Nick's suggestion, we walked there).

Saturday's dinner party included Michael Bishop and Geri Bishop (two of the nicest people in the world) and SFScope editor Ian Randall Strock.

Tor editor Stacy Hague-Hill -- who has been working very hard on my behalf at Tor -- and her husband took my out for lunch on Saturday -- w00t! Her husband is South African, and so I talked with him a bit about my work on Charlie Jade, a Canada-South Africa co-produced TV series.

I'm one of four judges for the Cordwainer Smith Rediscover Award, which is presented at Readercon. I introduced fellow judge Barry Malzberg to the crowd on Friday night, and he gave the award to A. Merritt (1884-1943). The other judges are Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg.

I bought a paperback copy of Thomas J. Ryan's The Adolescence of P-1 from Judith Klein-Dial in the dealers' room, one of the seminal novels about computers gaining intelligence, and certainly an influence on me and my Wake. I own it in hardcover, and had read it back in the summer of 1980, but re-read a bunch of it on the long trip back to Saskatoon. Fun.

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Come to my Readercon Kaffeeklatsch

Tomorrow (Friday, July 10, 2009), at 5:00 p.m. in Room 458 (but you have to sign up in advance at the con, and space is quite limited): an opportunity to spend an intimate hour over coffee (or whatever) with me. Always one of my favourite parts of any convention that has them.

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My Readercon programming

I'll be attending Readercon 20, July 9-12, 2009, near Boston. Here's the programming I'll be on:

Friday 11:00 AM, Vineyard: Reading (60 min.) from his recently published novel WWW: Wake.

Friday 5:00 PM, Room 458: Kaffeeklatsch.

Saturday 10:00 AM, Salon F: Autographing.

Saturday 12:00 Noon, VT: Federations Group Reading (60 min.) John Joseph Adams (host) with K. Tempest Bradford, Robert J. Sawyer, Allen Steele, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine: Readings from the original and reprint anthology (cover blurb: "Vast. Epic. Interstellar.") edited by Adams and published by Prime Books in January.

Saturday 1:00 PM, Salon E: Panel: Novels of Advocacy vs. Novels of Recognition. Paolo Bacigalupi, John Clute, Ken Houghton, Barry N. Malzberg, Robert J. Sawyer (Leader), Graham Sleight: At the keynote Thursday night panel at Readercon 18, our panelists stumbled upon a useful taxonomic distinction: novels that advocate for a particular future (a la Heinlein) versus novels that merely attempt to recognize and describe a possible one (a la Gibson). There was some debate as to just how strongly the field was moving from the former to the latter, and if there was such a trend, its relationship to others (optimism vs. pessimism, far futures vs. near futures, etc.) One of the panelists, Graham Sleight, has recently renewed the discussion online. We'll explore the numerous possible directions raised by Sleight and others.

Saturday 3:00 PM, Salon E: Panel: Is Darwinism Too Good For SF? Jeff Hecht (Leader), Caitlin R. Kiernan, Anil Menon, James Morrow, Steven Popkes, Robert J. Sawyer: This year marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species and the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth. Considering the importance of the scientific idea, there has been surprisingly little great sf inspired by it. We wonder whether, in fact, if the theory has been too good, too unassailable and too full of explanatory power, to leave the wiggle room where speculative minds can play in. After all, physics not only has FTL and time travel, but mechanisms like wormholes that might conceivably make them possible. What are their equivalents in evolutionary theory, if any?

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Cool YouTube promo for Calgary's Con-Version

Con-Version is Calgary's annual SF&F convention. Author Guests of Honour this year are Terry Brooks, Tanya Huff, and Robert J. Sawyer -- and now there's a nifty promo for the con on YouTube. Check it out.

See you in August!

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Guest of Honour at Ad Astra in 2010

Toronto's Ad Astra science-fiction convention has always been very good to me, and next year, they'll be having me back as one of their Guests of Honour. (The other author GoHs are Eric Flint and Todd McCaffrey, both of whom are friends -- I'm looking forward to spening some time with them.)

This will be the fourth time Ad Astra has had me attend in a special capacity:

• Guest of Honour
  Ad Astra
  Toronto, Ontario
  April 9-11, 2010
  
  
• Toastmaster
  Ad Astra 2001
  Toronto, ON
  February 23-25, 2001
  
  
• Guest of Honour
  Ad Astra 18
  Toronto, Ontario
  June 5-7, 1998
  
  
• Special Guest
  Ad Astra 16
  Toronto, Ontario
  June 7-9, 1996

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Upcoming SF conventions with RJS

• Program Participant
  Readercon 20
  Burlington, Massachusetts
  July 9-12, 2009
  www.readercon.org
  
  
• Program Participant
  Anticipation: the 67th World Science Fiction Convention
  Montréal, Québec
  August 6-10, 2009
  www.anticipationsf.ca
  
  
• Guest of Honour
  Con-Version 25
  Calgary, Alberta
  August 21-23, 2009
  www.con-version.org
  
  
• Program Participant
  VCON 34
  Vancouver, British Columbia
  October 2-4, 2009
  www.vcon.ca
  
  
• Program Participant
  Astronomicon
  Rochester, New York
  November 6-8, 2009
  www.astronomicon.info
  
  
• Guest of Honor
  Capricon 30
  Wheeling (Chicago), Illinois
  February 11-14 (four days), 2010
  www.capricon.org/capricon30
  
  
• Program Participant
  Ad Astra
  Toronto, Ontario
  March 27-29, 2010
  www.ad-astra.org
  
  
• Guest of Honor
  OSFest 3
  Omaha, Nebraska
  July 23-25, 2010

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Robert J. Sawyer tribute zine

Alan White produced the wonderful tribute fanzine Flashing Forward with Robert J. Sawyer as part of promoting the terrific SF convention Xanadu Las Vegas at which I was author Guest of Honor last month. You can download the amazing zine as a PDF file right here. Needless to say, I'm incredibly flattered.

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They like me! They really like me!

(To quote Sally Field, for the humor-impaired ...)

So, Capricon --- a major Chicago-area science-fiction convention -- polled its attendees to see which Guests of Honor from their previousw 29 years they'd most like to have come back for the 30th year. I'm honored and thrilled to be one of those chosen. Capricon 30, a four-day con in February 2010, will have these author guests of honor:

• Frederik Pohl
• Spider & Jeanne Robinson
• Robert J. Sawyer

Yay! (I was Author Guest of Honor at Capricon 17 in 1997.)

Meanwhile, they want me back in Nebraska! I'll be Author Guest of Honor at OSFest 3, to be held in Omaha, Nebraska, July 23-25, 2010 (next year); Pierre and Sandy Pettinger, and other key members of Nebraska fandom, fondly remembered me being Guest of Honor at Andromeda 2 in Lincoln in 1995, and want me back. Cool!

(And, just for the record, both of these invitations came before the Flash Forward TV series was picked up.)

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Off to Tennessee this weekend

Kevin J. Anderson -- who is one of my best friends in this industry -- and I are the Author Guests of Honor at Chattacon in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this weekend. My programing schedule:


Fri 7p - GOH speeches followed by reception

Sat 10a - panel with Snider, Douglas, Buettner - Post 9/11 - has SF missed the mark?

Sat 11a - reading

Sat 4p - autographs

Saturday night: masquerade judge

Sun 12p - panel with Anderson - Benevolent Dictators and Galactic Overlords (future politics)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site