Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Lots of good writing advice …

Friday, July 20th, 2007

… is here, in this tutorial by George Scithers, the editor of Weird Tales magazine. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

"Identity Theft" option renewed

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

I’m delighted to announce that Snoot Entertainment in Los Angeles has renewed its option on film rights to my Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novella “Identity Theft,” first published in the anthology Down These Dark Spaceways, edited by Mike Resnick for the Science Fiction Book Club. And, I’ve got to say, I love dealing with these […]

Calgary SF convention in one month

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

I won’t be there — I’m in the Yukon for the summer — but one of my absolute favourite SF conventions is happening in just one month: Con-Version in Calgary. Author Guest of Honour this year is my great buddy Jack McDevitt. I recommend the con hightly, and encourage you to attend — Calgary is […]

Prisoners of Gravity on YouTube

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Hey, I used to have hair! Someone is putting up clips from the wonderful Canadian series about science fiction and comics called Prisoners of Gravity on YouTube. I was the most-frequent guest in that program’s history … and one of my earlierst appearances, from 17 years ago, is here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

One week left for Aurora nominating

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

The Auroras are the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards. Any Canadian may nominate, and there is no charge t do so. Ballots are here. A good list of eligible works is here. And my own eligible story, “Biding Time,” is here, as a Word document. Ballots must be postmarked by Monday, July 23, 2007. […]

Nice write-up about Hominids

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

Don’t know where they got it — maybe Donato’s site — but the above version of the Hominids cover art without the text overlay — something I’ve never seen before — accompanies a very nice write up about the Hugo Award-winning first volume of my Neanderthal Parallax trilogy over at Site 101. The Robert J. […]

Interview and video tour of Rob’s home

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

Space Channel has just put up a 23-minute interview with me, which includes a tour of my home. You can see it right here. Cheers, Rob The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Barry Gray

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

So, when I was heading up here, the previous writer said the little stereo at Berton House didn’t have the right jack to plug in an MP3 player. Well, that turned out not to be true, but I’d left my cable back in Toronto because I’d been told I wouldn’t need it. But a week […]

Comic-Con, here I come — in 2008

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Well, what should be in my in-box this morning but an invitation to be a special guest at next year’s San Diego Comic-Con! Holy cow! Needless to say, I said yes. So, see y’all at Comic-Con — the largest popular-culture convention in the world, with 120,000 people attending — July 24-28, 2008. Yay! The Robert […]

13 Free RJS Short Stories

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

It’s been over five years since I’ve had multiple short stories by me available on my website. But Carolyn has been hard at work here in the Yukon, and the full text of 13 early stories by me is now available for free right here. Enjoy! (So Google will find this: Free science fiction short […]

Beardless Rob

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

“I’ve seen a part of myself no man should ever see.” — James T. Kirk, “The Enemy Within” In honour of the beginning of my three months of being in the Yukon, I’ve shaved off my beard — for the first time in over three years. I’m going to grow it back immediately, though … […]

Stan Schmidt interview

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

Stanley Schmidt, the long-time (almost 30 years now!) editor of Analog is interviewed by Ernest Lilley over at SF Revu — and, to my delight, Stan says: “I like the entire range of lengths in different ways, because they have different kinds of strength when well executed. One of my all-time favorite stories was Robert […]

SF writers at SETI conferenced

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

The SETI conference (“The Future of Intelligence in the Cosmos”) at the NASA Ames Research Center wrapped up this afternoon, and I thought there should be a picture of the science fiction writers who participated: Left to right: Andre Bormanis, Jack McDevitt, Robert J. Sawyer, Gregory Benford. It was a fabulous conference, and I had […]

Locus Bestsellers’ List

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

I’m delighted to report that Rollback is number five on the Locus hardcover bestsellers’ list, as reported in the July 2007 issue (covering the data period of April 2007); Locus is the trade journal of the SF field. Not only is number five a very good number in its own right, but I’ll point out […]

Happy Canada Day, Everyone!

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Although I’m spending Canada Day weekend in the US (at this conference at the NASA Ames Research Center), I’m still celebrating my country’s birthday. On Friday night, I went to Kells pub in San Francisco for the “Canada Day in San Francisco” celebration, organized by the Canadian consulate (and I also stopped by the Apple […]

Ex-CARB chairman Sawyer and I look more alike every day

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Another article about the firing (as it turns out) of California Air Resources Board chairman Robert Sawyer — and what a handsome devil he is! Hee hee hee. At least the Pat Murphy they show farther down in the article isn’t the SF writer by the same name … :) The Robert J. Sawyer Web […]

A kid in a candy store

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

That’s how I feel here at the NASA Ames research centre. The conference on THE FUTURE OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE COSMOS is going really well. I moderated the session on cultural evolution today. Dinner was at a wonderful Chinese restaurant called Chef Chu. I sat next to Marvin Minsky, from MIT’s AI lab. Also […]

Website anniversary

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Well, it’s just after midnight here, meaning it’s now Friday, June 29, 2007 — and that day happens to be the 12th anniversary of my website. I was, by all accounts, the very first science-fiction writer to have a website, and it’s been of enormous value to me over the last dozen years. If you […]

Science recommends Frameshift

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Yes, that Science — the world’s leading journal of original scientific research — recommends Robert J. Sawyer’s Frameshift as one of its summer reading choices in the June 29, 2007, issue — and Frameshift is mentioned in the Science podcast for that same date, starting at the 32-minute mark: What will you be reading on […]

Rollback errata

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Normally, by this point in one of my books’ lives, my readers would have pointed out several typos, but so far no one has found a single one in Rollback. However, three astute readers have pointed out three errors I made, and I’ve asked Tor to fix them in the paperback: Page 145, fourth full […]

Praise for Rollback

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

The paperback of Rollback comes out February 6, 2008. That seems a long time from now (and it is, it is!, so you should all rush out and buy the hardcover!<grin>), but by the time I’m back in Toronto in October, the cover for the paperback will long since be done, and so I spent […]

Lou Anders and I are on the same wavelength

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

… as you can see here, in Lou’s blog, in which he cites John Scalzi’s interview with me. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Off to NASA!

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Yeah, it’s totally true: my life rocks. :) Tomorrow, I fly off to California for a two-day invitation-only workshop at the NASA Ames Research Center. The conference is entitled “The Future of Intelligence in the Cosmos,” and it’s being jointly organized by NASA Ames, the SETI Institute, and the University of California Santa Cruz. The […]

My twin resigns

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

I feel rather sad about this. For the last couple of years, about half the Google news alerts that I’ve seen for my name have really been related to another Robert Sawyer, the gentleman pictured above. Dr. Sawyer was chairman of California’s Air Resources Board — but today he resigned, and I suspect I won’t […]

Identity Theft and Other Stories

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

I delivered today the final, revised manuscript for my forthcoming short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories. It will be published in February 2008 by Red Deer Press, and distributed by Fitzhenry & Whiteside (the same fine people who do my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint). Meanwhile, I’m delighted to report that Red Deer Press […]

John Scalzi interviews Robert J. Sawyer

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

John Scalzi (above), the wonderful author of Old Man’s War, interviews Robert J. Sawyer over on John’s Ficlets blog. It’s a hefty interview, weighing in at 3,400 words. (John also very nicely promotes the interview on his famed Whatever blog, and links to the interview with me, plus one he just did with my great […]

Maisonneuve on RJS

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Maisonneuve is a glossy, classy Canadian newsstand magazine subtitled “Eclectic Curiosity;” it’s a bit like a Canadian Harper’s. The just released Summer 2007 issue (issue number 24) has a one-page profile of me written by Nathan Whitlock; it’s quite a nice piece. Only the opening is online on the Maisonneuve website; you can read the […]

Paul Levinson podcasts Robert J. Sawyer

Monday, June 25th, 2007

My great friend Paul Levinson — author of such wonderful novels as The Plot to Save Socrates and The Silk Code — podcasts an interview with me right here at Light on Light Through. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Osprey Media

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

Just back from an overnight trip to Collingwood, Ontario, where I gave a keynote at the annual leadership conference of Osprey Media, Ontario’s leading publisher of community newspapers. Lots of fun, and a great bunch of people — and the weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days, so it was great getting out […]

WordStar geekery: getting preview with any graphics card

Monday, June 18th, 2007

As many of you know, I’m a diehard user of WordStar for DOS, for all the reasons I outline here. Back in January 2007, I worked out a system for getting WordStar 7.0 (and only 7.0 — this won’t work with earlier versions) to do graphic previews of pages on any computer, and at high […]