Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

The Future and You

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

The podcast “The Future and You” interviewed Robert J. Sawyer, Mike Resnick, David Coe, and a bunch of others at Ravencon in April 2007, and the interviews are now available in this week’s podcast, available here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Visiting Northern Ontario Schools

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

After the weekend in Sudbury, during which I got my honorary doctorate, Carolyn and I drove on to Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, where I spent the next two days — Monday, June 4, and Tuesday, June 5, 2007 — visiting with students from five area high schools. You can read an account of one of […]

Sunday in Sudbury

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Sunday, June 3, 2007 — the day after I got my honorary doctorate from Laurentian University — I did a victory lap in Sudbury, appearing at the Chapters bookstore there. :) We had an excellent overflow crowd, including several Laurentian faculty members and some of the students who had graduated the day before, and heard […]

Quill & Quire profiles Rob

Monday, June 4th, 2007

Quill and Quire, the Canadian publishing trade journal, has just posted its cover-story profile of Robert J. Sawyer online; the cover story appeared in the May 2007 issue. The profile is titled “Nothing but blue skies: For Canadian sci-fi giant Robert J. Sawyer, the future is bright.” Read the full text here. Update March 2008: […]

Honorary Doctorate for Robert J. Sawyer

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

On Saturday, June 2, 2007, Robert J. Sawyer received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters, honoris causa) from Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario; Sawyer also gave the convocation address to graduating arts students that day. The doctorate was given in recognition of Sawyer’s international success as a science-fiction writer. Laurentian, a bilingual English-and-French institution, is […]

Photos from last night

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

Photos from the dinner at the Laurentian University president’s house. Minnijean Brown-Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine, and is a prominent Civil Rights activist; Dr. Michael Emond, of Laurentian’s Department of Psychology, nominated science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer for his honorary doctorate, which he will receive later today; Minnijean also received an honorary […]

At Laurentian

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

Carolyn and I had a very nice drive up through beautiful countryside to Sudbury, Ontario, today — about five hours on the road. Tonight, we had dinner at the home of the president of Laurentian; the dinner was in honour of myself and the other recipients of honorary doctorates this year, including Minnijean Brown Trickey. […]

Watch Rob get his doctorate!

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Laurentian University is giving me an honorary doctorate TOMORROW (Saturday, June 2, 2007), and they will be webcasting the ceremony. You can watch it live as it happens, starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time (Toronto/New York) on Saturday, June 2, 2007, right here. (If that link doesn’t work, go to the main convocation page here, […]

DiChario nominated for Campbell Memorial

Friday, June 1st, 2007

I am thrilled to report that Nick DiChario‘s A Small and Remarkable Life, published under the Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint, has been short-listed for one of the most prestigious awards in all of science fiction: The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year. The short list is here. The Campbell […]

China, here I come!

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

To my astonishment and delight, my Chinese publisher has just informed me that I’ve won the Galaxy Award, China’s top science-fiction award, in the category “Most-Popular Foreign Author of the Year.” Go me! And I will: all the way to Chengdu, China, to collect the award in person in August, and to attend the 2007 […]

Aurora nominations looming; full-text of Sawyer story

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Nominations for the 2007 Aurora Awards — the Canadian science fiction and fantasy awards — are now open. You can get the nominating ballot here. Any Canadian, whether or not resident in Canada, may nominate, and there’s no charge to do so. My own story, eligible for nomination, is the SF/mystery “Biding Time,” from the […]

Another keynote

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

I’m off to Montreal tonight to give the keynote address tomorrow moring at the conference “Reasons to Hope, Knowledge to Cope — Innovations in Cancer Patient Education,” being presented by the Cancer Patient Education Network Canada. I do a lot of keynotes for corporations and organizations, talking about the current and projected state of science […]

ABC’s LOST and Flashforward

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

I have to confess to never having watched an episode of the ABC TV series Lost, but I know it’s hugely popular — and I know it has a main character named Sawyer. Well, a fan both of Lost and my work, points out that the name of a funeral home in a recent episode […]

How I spent Memorial Day

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Author Adam-Troy Castro and his wife Judi picked us up at the hotel at 10:00 a.m. and we drove the 50 miles to the Kennedy Space Centre (getting slightly lost on the way). The Castros’ rental car’s windshield got so plastered with splattered insects (“love bugs,” we were told they were called) that we actually […]

Singularity video

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

There’s a good video here about The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Check it out, and Digg it if you like it! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

SFBC’s Things to Come

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

Anybody out there got a copy of the bulletin/catalog of the Science Fiction Book Club, that has my Rollback listed as a main selection? If you don’t need your copy, I’d love to have it for my files. My address is: Robert J. Sawyer100 City Centre DrivePO Box 2065Mississauga ON Canada L5B 3C6 Many, many […]

Wilson and Sawyer’s Toronto

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

Karen Bennett has a wonderful survey article on her website entitled The Speculative Torontos of Robert Charles Wilson and Robert J. Sawyer. Check it out! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Rollback book tour comes to an end

Monday, May 28th, 2007

And so, with the end of Oasis 20, the SF convention in Orlando, Florida, at which I was one of the Guests of Honor this weekend, the book tour for Rollback, my 17th novel, comes to an end. From Vancouver, B.C., to Washington, D.C.; from Toronto to Denver; from Calgary to Orlando — 18 cities […]

Dinner on the Robman

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

In 2004, Mike Resnick was commissioned to edit an original anthology for the Science Fiction Book Club entitled Down These Dark Spaceways. It consisted of six novellas, all by award-winning SF writer, all hard-boiled-detective SF. The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in Spain sponsors the world’s largest cash prize for science-fiction writing, the 6,000-euro Premio […]

Florida evening

Saturday, May 26th, 2007

How’s this for a group of people on one convention panel? Mike Bishop, Jack McDevitt, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Joe Haldeman, Mike Resnick, and Robert J. Sawyer? You don’t usually get a line-up that stellar, if I do say so myself, even at a Worldcon, but that was the roster for the 7:00 p.m. panel on […]

Florida

Friday, May 25th, 2007

The fourth and final phase of the Rollback book tour is coming to an end; this was the by-plane in the USA part. Last weekend, I was in Denver, and this weekend I’m in Orlando, Florida — where the weather is gorgeous! I’m one of the Guests of Honor at Oasis 20, the annual SF […]

Publicity Doesn’t Just Happen: A Case Study

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

When Publishers Weekly did its cover story on science fiction (in their April 2, 2007, issue), the lead interview was with me, Robert J. Sawyer. The article, by Bethanne Kelly Patrick and Michael Coffey, began: Robert J. Sawyer knows a thing or two about the future. “It’s here,” says the Hugo Award-winning author of 18 […]

Membership rates to Denver Worldcon going up

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Sadly, I won’t be at this year’s Worldcon in Japan. But having just returned from a trip to Denver, and been reminded of what a beautiful city it is, I can’t wait until next year’s Worldcon, which will be there. And I noted this morning, while looking at the convention’s website, that membership rates go […]

Author’s comment for the SFBC

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

My Rollback is a current featured selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. The SFBC asked me for a comment on the book as its author; here’s what I had to say: One of the most interesting panels I ever saw at a science-fiction convention had Larry Niven and Mike Resnick on it. The moderator […]

Calgary Herald links

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Here’s a link to the review of Rollback in The Calgary Herald: Rollback; Robert J. SawyerThe Calgary HeraldSun 20 May 2007Page: C3Section: Books & The ArtsByline: Dan Healing SCI FI – Talk about a slow conversation. When Dr. Sarah Halifax decodes the first radio message ever received from aliens and helps write a response, the […]

Orlando, here I come!

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

I’m Guest of Honor at Oasis 20 this weekend along with Mike Resnick, Joe Haldeman, Michael Bishop, Kathleen Ann Goonan, and Jack McDevitt. Check it out! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Calgary Herald reviews Rollback

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Dan Healing reviews Rollback in the Sunday, May 20, 2007, Calgary Herald, the major newspaper in that city. The review is on page C3; I haven’t yet been able to find it online, but it concludes: “This latest offering from sci-fi award collector Robert J. Sawyer meets all the requirements of summertime reading — it’s […]

Yet another bestsellers’ list

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Rollback is number 9 on the fiction bestsellers’ list in Calgary, Alberta, as published in The Calgary Herald, the major newspaper there: Calgary BestsellersThe Calgary HeraldSun 20 May 2007Page: C3Section: Books & The ArtsSource: For The Calgary HeraldFiction 1 (1) Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje. A haunting story that ranges from northern California to central France. 2 […]

Fictionwise 25% off sale

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Dozens of my short stories are available through Fictionwise.com, including Aurora winners and finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Awards — and their all 25% off right now, as part of Fictionwise’s 7th anniversary sale. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Biblio’s Bloggins

Monday, May 21st, 2007

What a great name for a book-lover’s blog: Biblio’s Bloggins. Brilliant! The fact that the blogger loves Rollback, calling it “Sawyer’s best yet,” is just gravy … :) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site