You gotta take this with a grain of salt, ’cause I’m one of the few people on the planet who likes the Thunderbirds live-action film … but I also really like 2005 theatrical Bewitched film. I’d seen it before on an airplane, but Carolyn hadn’t, so we watched it on DVD tonight. Like the live-action […]
Yesterday, Carolyn and I had three friends from high school over for a game of Trivial Pursuit, some ordered-in Swiss Chalet barbecue chicken, and watching some stuff on our big-screen TV. The friends were Carolyn’s brother David (one of my best friends quite separate from being my brother-in-law), Ted Bleaney (known to fans of my […]
Writers live at the mercy of publishers who often take unconscionably long times to pay, but in all my 29 years selling my work professionally, I think a new record for lateness was reached this week. One full year after it was due, Pearson Educational Canada sent me a cheque for a reprint of one […]
I start most mornings by treadmilling for half an hour. I’ve got a portable DVD player with a 10-inch screen mounted on my treadmill’s control panel, and I watch sitcoms to pass the time. And I’ve just recently finished watching the third and final season of Arrested Development, a wonderful series about a rich family […]
I am delighted to announce that today I delivered the 100,000-word manuscript for Wake, my 18th novel, to Ginjer Buchanan at Penguin USA’s Ace Science Fiction imprint and to Nicole Winstanely at Penguin Canada. I’m sure there will still be another draft, when my editors request revisions, and I’m still waiting for some feedback from […]
To my astonishment and delight, Quill & Quire, the Canadian publishing trade journal, has just released (as the cover story in its March 2008 issue) its first-ever list of “The CanLit 30: The most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing.” On the list: Robert J. Sawyer. The unnumbered list takes ten […]
I think eReader (formerly PalmReader) is the best ebook reading software out there, better than Mobipocket (and with a much better DRM scheme). Fictionwise.com just acquired eReader.com, and to celebrate, they’ve made all versions of eReader Pro, their premium software, free. You can get them right here, for Windows, Mac, Palm, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, […]
It’s been many a year since I’ve run into Steven Gould and his wife Laura Mixon, but I’ve always been fond of them — and Steve is living what many novelists dream of just now: his novel Jumper has been made into a major Hollywood motion picture, which premiered last week. You can tag along […]
Jack Kirchhoff of The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National Newspaper does a weekly roundup of notable titles newly in paperback, and this week (Saturday, February 16, 2008) he mentions two science-fiction books with Canadian authors: ROLLBACK By Robert Sawyer, Tor, 313 pages, $8.99 The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is backdrop for Sawyer’s investigation of the […]
I’m away with eight good friends (including Randy McCharles, chair of this year’s World Fantasy Convention, and Asimov’s and Analog author Susan Forest) on a writing retreat in Banff, Alberta. I happened to be in Calgary this past Thursday, giving a keynote address to the annual professional-development conference for Calgary high-school teachers, and sticking around […]
On February 13, 1968, a seven-year-old Robert J. Sawyer — then known as Robin — recorded a reading of his short story “Bobby Bug” on audio tape, with the aid of his father (the first voice on the recording). Listen. (45 seconds WMA clip, playable with Windows Media Player, unearthed a couple of years ago […]
I’ve just accepted an invitation to be Author Guest of Honor at Xanadu Las Vegas, a new convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 17-19, 2009 (next year). Woohoo! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
At least in novel form. See here. (I love Thunderbirds — I even love the live-action movie!) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
That was the tally consumed at Carolyn and my open party for members of science-fiction fandom and fans of my books tonight (Friday, February 9) — plus various fruit trays, cheese trays, veggie platters, etc. etc. Well over a hundred people showed up, starting at 3:30 p.m. and going to 1:00 a.m. Everyone seemed to […]
Lawsuit alleges over a billion dollars a year improperly diverted at Oral Roberts University. I think I’ll have an institution called Anal Peters College in my next novel … The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Interesting question, and it came up today as I was asked to vet ad copy for something I’m involved with. The genre is “science fiction,” with no hyphen, but when used in the phrase “science fiction writer,” “science fiction” then becomes a compound adjective (two or more words that together form a single modifier for […]
Carolyn and I went to see Richard Thomas (of The Waltons) in the play Twelve Angry Men this afternoon (despite the snow storm!), and on the way we stopped at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Toronto’s venerable SF specialty store, and I signed a mountain of copies of the mass-market paperback of Rollback there … get ’em while […]
My Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint is published by Calgary’s Red Deer Press; I edit the line, and Richard Dionne has been the publisher since September 2007. In addition to securing the services of Nalo Hopkinson as editor of her own fantasy imprint, Richard has just announced the promotion of the terrific Valerie Burke-Harland to […]
Despite the heavy snowfall expected this afternoon in Toronto, the readings I’m part of at the Rowers Pub tonight (Wednesday, February 6, 2008) are still going ahead. :) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
This showed up in my email box today: I have what may be a silly question: what is the difference between genre writing and literary writing? I have asked many people/authors and I’m still confused. At first I thought a genre work couldn’t be literary, but I have a friend who published fantasy novels that […]
Today — February 5, 2008 — is the official release date of the mass-market paperback edition of my 17th novel, Rollback. The book had a very successful run in hardcover, and I’m delighted that it’s now going to be even more widely read. The opening chapters are here, and plenty more about the book is […]
It was announced in the subscribers’ only Quill & Quire Online today that Nalo Hopkinson — World Fantasy Award winner and fellow Toronto writer — has joined the Red Deer Press team as the editor of her own fantasy imprint, a companion for my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint. Nalo will be doing three books […]
Or maybe that’s “cheques” for my Canadian readers … ;) That’s the cool thing about being a writer: money shows up for work you did years ago. :) I’m delighted to announce that Divani Films has renewed (for a third year) its option on my 1995 Nebula Award-winning novel The Terminal Experiment. And I’m also […]
As we count down to the official pub date of the paperback of my Rollback — one more day to go! — SF Signal has weighed in with a lengthy five-star review of the book. A few snippets: “Thoroughly entertaining (and accessible) science fiction. Moves fast; one of those books you can’t put down … […]
Tomorrow (Saturday, February 2, 2008), at 4:00 p.m., I’ll be on TVOntario’s Big Ideas, talking about science fiction in a lecture recorded in October 2007 at the University of Waterloo. On the same show: Steven Pinker! The hour-long program repeats Sunday, February 3, 2008, also at 4:00 p.m. TVO’s description: STEVEN PINKER | ROBERT J. […]
In honour of the mass-market paperback release of my 17th novel Rollback, I’m participating next Wednesday in what is probably better known as a poetry reading series, but it should be great fun, so please join us: Rowers Pub Reading Series Rowers Pub, 150 Harbord Street, 2nd floor (416 961-6277)(W of Spadina, just E of […]
My friend Bonnie Jean Mah just drew this to my attention: A very nice review of my 1999 novel Flashforward. Go me! :) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
McNally-Robinson, a wonderful Canadian bookstore chain, has relaunched its website, and is starting a series of SF&F author interviews. First up: Robert J. Sawyer, interviewed by Kent Pollard. The full text is here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I get awfully tired of the dissing of science fiction. In the last hour, I had to deal with it not once but twice. First, a major publisher doing a nonfiction book followed up in email on a bound galley they’d sent me; they want me to blurb the book. I gave them the blurb, […]
Sharron Smith is one gutsy lady. There are lots of community-wide reading programs in North America. Every once in a while, one of them will do a science-fiction book … but they always do it stealthfully, choosing books that aren’t labeled or marketed as science fiction. But when Waterloo Region, almost half-a-million people west of […]
