Twenty-six years ago, on January 4, 1983, I joined the Writer’s Digest Book Club. I bought a lot of books from them over the years — my friend book-collector Jack Brooks once remarked, looking at bookcases in my home, that I had the largest private collection of books about writing he’d ever seen. I let […]
Woot! Go me! Well, it’s been almost a year and I have finished reading the last of your books and short stories. I’ve read every single one! I’m writing to tell you how much I have enjoyed them all. Your characters are believable. The science in the stories is fascinating. I love the philosophical and […]
… was a great success. I bought a tuxedo, so I wouldn’t have to keep renting one: More on The Book Lover’s Ball. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
“Evolution is not a theory — it’s a fact. It really happened.” Happy 200th birthday, Charles Darwin. You gave us the most profound truth in all of science (and therefore the most profound truth of all). Relativity was interesting, in an abstract way; the Copernican revolution, likewise. But that species originate through natural selection speaks […]
I’m absolutely thrilled to be included on this list over at David Halpert’s SciFiWatch of “Nine Science Fiction Blogs You Should Keep Track Of.” It’s a great group to be part of! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
… but my friend Virginia O’Dine drew this clip from Onion News to my attention. LOL! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Another nice email today, also prompted by an online book order: I have to let you know that you have turned me on to reading again. I read a lot through college but in my adult life I have not found anything that makes me make the time for reading until a few weeks ago […]
Nice fan note today, which made me smile (actually sent to Carolyn, who handles the business of selling my books online): Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve received my books and I’m absolutely delighted with my purchase. From one book lover to another, the care in packing is very much appreciated […]
Go figure. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
PREAMBLE WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and […]
As I said here, I like that iPod commercial with Feist’s song “1 2 3 4.” And if you like that commercial, too, you’ll love this spoof of it from Mad TV. (The original ad is here.) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Sent to people on my email update list this evening; if you’d like to be added to the list, send me a note: sawyer@sfwriter.com News from Science Fiction Writer Robert J. Sawyer * ABC filming pilot based on FLASH FORWARD* Rob hosts Canadian TV series: debuts TUESDAY* New novel WAKE coming in April* WAKE Canadian […]
Okay, I confess I bought a copy of The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! for three resaons. First, I was curious about what a new Canadian small press might be up to. Second, my friend Virginia O’Dine designed the cover. And third the author is Nina Munteanu, whom I’ve always enjoyed running into at […]
A friend of mine was wondering aloud recently if his anthology — edited by Canadians, but with stories by Canadians, Americans, and Brits — was eligible for the Aurora Award, or whether the administrators might disqualify it for being “insufficiently Canadian.” My response: Go ahead and nominate your book. The Aurora administrators don’t routinely overrule […]
I have very fond memories of BookExpo Canada, the annual publishing tradeshow in Toronto. In the summer of 1982, I worked at Bakka, Toronto’s SF specialty store. It was a summer job — I’d just graduated from Ryerson with my degree in Radio and Television Arts, and I had a job back at Ryerson starting […]
So, I often go days without getting phone calls — I mean, voice is so last millennium. But yesterday and today, I’ve been recording audio: portions of Wake that I’m reading for Audible.com, plus me reading the entire first chapter myself to put on my website at sfwriter.com. And the damn phone has just not […]
Lessse, got up nice and early … but what the heck did I accomplish? Well, I wrote 1,700 words of answers for a by-email interview for a Turkish national news agency (as a lead up to my keynote address in Istanbul on February 2). I wrote 900 words of answers for a by-email interview by […]
Today — Monday, January 19 — is this year’s celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Tomorrow — Tuesday, January 20 — a black man will become President of the United States. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. […]
Yes, yes, yes, we all know that my Wake has the most beautiful cover of any book coming out in 2009. But the second most beautiful cover is doubtless that for Wondrous Strange, the debut novel by my dear friend Lesley Livingston. It’s a YA urban fantasy published by HarperCollins. She launched it at a […]
The lead story at Locus Online right now, in its entirety, is this: Del Rey editor Liz Scheier was laid off yesterday and will be joining the growing ranks of newly unemployed editors — her position at the company officially ends January 23, 2009. Get more news like this in each monthly issue of Locus […]
Pretty much bought on a whim, but will prove very handy on my loooong flight to Turkey in 14 days’ time, not to mention on the book tour for Wake: my first netbook, an Acer Aspire One, model AOA150-1049. Specs: Intel Atom Processor N270 1.60GHz, 802.11b/g WLAN, 1GB DDR2, 160GB hard drive, 8.9″ WSVGA (1024×600 […]
Yes, indeed! The Italian edition of my novel Humans just came out from Urania, and they’ve given it the Italian title Fuga dal pianeta degli umani, which is indeed Escape from the Planet of the Humans, a lovely homage to one of my favorite films, Escape from the Planet of the Apes. The Robert J. […]
Access Copyright is the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency. Attention Canadian Copyright Holders: An Important Message to all Canadian Publishers, Authors and Heirs of Authors about the Google Settlement This settlement has the potential to affect every copyright owner in Canada. It is important to read the following message and forward it onto other copyright owners […]
I’m a proud alumnus of Ryerson University in Toronto (where I earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts, graduating in 1982). And I guess Ryerson’s pretty proud of me, too. In 2002, they gave me their Alumni Award of Distinction, one of (as of now) only 50 alumni out of […]
Robert J. Sawyer, Don Tapscott, and others on TVOntario‘s The Agenda with Steve Paikin discuss “Your Brain and Technology” (38-minute video, first broadcast January 14, 2009). The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
By coincidence, two old friends got in touch today. T. Jackson King, a science-fiction writer I’ve known since the early 1990s, emailed to say he’s established a new web site, and, as part of the contents has resurrected a 1993 interview he did with me for Science Fiction Chronicle. And Gene Wilburn, whom I’ve known […]
A fellow writer just emailed me to say she’d been invited to do her first Guest of Honor stint at a science-fiction convention, and she asked me, since I’ve often been a GoH, for how to make the best impression so as to increase her readership. Here’s what I had to say: First, congratulations! That’s […]
Just received a beautiful thank-you card from the organizers of the 2008 Surrey International Writers’ Conference, in Surrey (Vancouver), British Columbia, with a nice selection of quotes from the evaluation forms submitted by attendees about my Friday-night keynote address “The Writer’s Story”: “Rob Sawyer was a passionate and inspiring keynote.” “Robert Sawyer on Friday evening […]
Tomorrow night (Wednesday, January 14, 2009), I’ll be part of a panel discussion on TVOntario‘s flagship current-affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin, discussing what being online does to the human brain and our concepts of socialization. It’s all part of the show’s “Mysteries of the Mind” week. The hour-long program airs at 8:00 p.m. […]
Another track from the soundtrack for my upcoming novel Watch, the sequel to Wake, which I’m writing right now: “Good Morning Starshine” from the musical Hair (YouTube video clip). The song is alluded to in the book. :) Good morning, starshine!The Earth says hello … (Previous entry: the theme from The Good, The Bad and […]
