Phyllis Gotlieb, the mother of Canadian science fiction, as I remember her, with her husband C.C. “Kelly” Gotlieb, the great Canadian computer scientist, at my home on December 18, 2006. Photo by Carolyn Clink. Phyllis passed away on Tuesday, July 14, 2009, at the age of 83. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
My friend and inspiration Phyllis Gotlieb, the only Canadian to be in SFWA at its founding, the mother of Canadian science fiction, passed away yesterday at the age of 83 from complications related to a ruptured appendix. Phyllis was proof of concept that you could live in Toronto and still be a science-fiction writer for […]
Flaps failed on my plane from Toronto to Saskatoon; had to return to Pearson, and will board a new aircraft shortly. Frustrating: I’ll have spent a total five hours here at Pearson, 15 minutes from the home I haven’t been to since June 1st. Sigh. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
Last night, Carolyn and I had dinner with some of the great writers here in Saskatoon. Back row: Saskatchewan Book Award winner Brenda Barker, Governor-General’s Award winner Arthur Slade. Front row: Books in Canada First Novel Award winner Geoffrey Ursell, Hugo Award winner Robert J. Sawyer, John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist Barbara Sapergia. Visit […]
Well said, and well worth reading. “Life After Copyright” by Dean Wesley Smith. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
I’m the guest blogger at Borders.com’s science-fiction blog Babel Clash right now. Here’s my latest post — but, as before, I’ve turned off comments here; come join the fun at Babel Clash, and share your views: Does the Science in Science Fiction Matter? Okay, I confess: tonight I’m off to see the new Star Trek […]
From TCON-News, the email newsletter of Toronto’s Polaris, a science-fiction media convention coming up this weekend (I won’t be there this year, but it is a very good convention): Autograph fees per actor will vary, and you can expect guests to charge between $25.00 – $30.00 per autograph, as the market is leaning this way. […]
My new editor at Penguin Canada is Adrienne Kerr. Formerly a Penguin Canada sales representative for Southwestern Ontario, Adrienne won this year’s Libris Award from the Canadian Booksellers Association as Sales Rep of the Year. Prior to joining Penguin in May 2006, she was a book buyer with HDS Retail (which operates airport bookstores in […]
I’m the guest blogger for July 2009 in Borders Books’s science-fiction blog “Babel Clash,” co-sponsored by i09. My first post — my opening salvo, if you will — is over there, and also posted below, but I’m turning off comments on this topic here; come on over to Borders.com and chime in there! Time has […]
Yep, according to Speculative Fiction Examiner, this here blog is one of “10 author blogs to follow.” If that ain’t cool enough, SciFi Wire just included my Twitter feed on its list of “40 more sci-fi Twitter feeds you should be following” — one of only two author feeds to make the list (the other […]
From Ansible 264, a news note from Farah Mendlesohn: Educational Supplement. Rob Latham of the University of California at Riverside told the SF Research Association that UCR’s ‘senior-level position in science fiction writing’ was cancelled owing to huge state budget cuts — notably in higher education — announced on 19 May by Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. […]
Was asked over on Facebook what I’m reading. I dip in and out of several things at a time. Yesterday, I read, and enjoyed, parts of all of these: Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson The Evolution of God by Robert Wright Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence by Gary Lynch and […]
W00t! My great friend Tanya Huff is now officially a Canadian national bestselling author! Her Valor’s Trial, just out in mass-market paperback after a successful run in hardcover, is on The Globe and Mail‘s Canadian Fiction Bestsellers’s List, published in today’s (Saturday 20 June 2009) edition of the paper, and also available online. The Canadian […]
Someone wrote me this morning saying (of the novel this person was writing): “I think my story has great potential to be a film; my goal is to find an agent that will promote this project as both a film and a book.” My response: The reality is that agents can sell finished manuscripts to […]
Carolyn and I are having lunch today with my friend Peggy Sarjeant. Peggy is the widow of William Antony Swithin Sarjeant, who had managed to do both of the things I wanted to do with my life: he was a professional paleontologist and a published science-fiction writer. Read more about him here, and read my […]
I was about to write a blog post about my upcoming appearance on the Canadian TV show Listen Up, which airs Sundays at 11:00 a.m. on Canada’s Global TV — but I see Gabriel McKee, author of the excellent The Gospel According to Science Fiction, who is appearing on the same episode (as are Robert […]
David G. Hartwell, the reviews and features editor for The New York Review of Science Fiction, tells me my rebuttal to American academic Amy J. Ransom can’t appear in print until three months from now, long after the end of the Worldcon in Montreal, and so I’m posting it here: Amy J. Ransom’s frame for […]
Carolyn and I saw the new Land of the Lost film tonight in Saskatoon. There were eight people besides ourselves in the theatre — not a good sign for a film that’s been out for all of 100 hours at this point. It was … bizarre. It actually might appeal to my friend Nick DiChario, […]
Al Moritz, the leader of my wife’s poetry writing workshop — the venerable Algonquin Square Table at the University of Toronto — just won the Griffin Award, worth $50,000 (yes, you read that right: fifty thousand dollars)! Al is a great guy, and a fabulous writer, and Carolyn and I are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled for […]
I was asked that question ten years ago by a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English at the University of Western Ontario, who was preparing a paper on the relationship between Canadian SF and Canadian Literature. By Canadian literature, he said he meant: the tradition of Canlit and its canon, from Wacousta and Roughing […]
Science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer at work. That’s the Sixteen-12 Collectibles‘ Thunderbird 1 at the left, a DinoStoreus Triceratops skull in front of that, and the Master Replicas‘ 33-inch U.S.S. Enterprise at right, and beneath the Enterprise that’s X-Plus‘s Robby the Robot. I made this my new Facebook profile picture earlier this week. Photo […]
Over the weekend, I was in Winnipeg for an appearance at McNally Robinson (which totally rocked) and Keycon (ditto). Did interviews there for the local CBC radio station and for National Geographic Online. Today, I was off to Humber College in Toronto to speak to Cynthia Good’s class in the Creative Book Publishing Program there. […]
In a nice little piece about using lasers to communicate with submarines right here. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
One of them says: I finished reading Wake and I wanted to tell you that your book and your ending are superb. I was wondering (without knowing it) as I read the book how you would end it, how it could be “self-contained” yet leave us at a place ready for the middle W in […]
Star Trek is playing at the Imax theatre a kilometre from my home, and so, what the heck, went to see the film for the third time today (and the first time in Imax). It is stunning on the big screen — the clarity and detail is amazing (in a real Imax theatre, at least). […]
My eBay store — through which I sell autographed copies of my books — will be closed for June and July 2009, because I’ll be off in Saskatoon being writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source. I’ll be fulfilling orders received through Friday, May 29, 2009 — and then won’t be taking new orders until August. […]
My friend Stephanie Wilson in Ottawa sent me some lovely pictures she took at my launch party for Wake at the Clock Tower Pub on my birthday, Wednesday, April 29, 2009: A trademark over-the-top RJS reading. :) The wonderful folks at Perfect Books got me a birthday cake! Stephanie Wilson (pictured with me) gave me […]
There’s nothing harder than being a freelancer in today’s publishing climate, and having a new child just makes it even more difficult. Check out John Klima’s blog. (John is the editor of the Hugo Award-nominated fanzine Electric Velocipede and did the recent interview with me for the Tor.com website.) Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web […]
Carolyn and I will both be attending the NASA-sponsored Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers in Laramie, Wyoming, 14-21 July 2009. I was given early acceptance to the workshop (along with my friend Andy Duncan, a World Fantasy Award winner), but I’m very proud of Carolyn, who applied on her own, and was accepted on […]
Next up on the book tour for Wake: stops in Vancouver and Calgary. Come on out and say hello! Bookstore SigningWhite Dwarf Books3715 West 10th AvenueVancouver, British ColumbiaMonday, April 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m.http://www.deadwrite.com/wd.html Bookstore SigningSentry Box1835-10th Ave SWCalgary, AlbertaTuesday, April 21, 2009, 7:00 p.m.www.sentrybox.com The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
