Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for August, 2006

The Pope and Evolution

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

A papal summit will debate the Catholic church’s stance on evolution, says New Scientist.

MasterReplicas Enterprise

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

I’ve put four 4.1-megapixel pictures of the latest prototype of the MasterReplica’s 33-inch Enterprise model from Classic Star Trek up on my website, for those who, like me, are thinking of getting one. Only 2,000 are being made, and they cost US$1,199 each (or more, with autographs). The photos are: here, here, here, and here. […]

Carolyn and Rob live out childhood dreams

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

… at L.A. Con IV, the Worldcon in Los Angeles: Me in a Star Trek uniform Carolyn in the Batmobile

Boarding the Enterprise now out

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Boarding the Enterprise, the 40th-anniversary Classic Star Trek essay collection edited by David Gerrold and me, is now out from BenBella Books; I’ve now seen it for sale in stores, and it was flying off the BenBella dealers’ table at the L.A. Worldcon. You can read my introduction to the book here. And there’s a […]

Of all the nerve!

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

A message that just showed up in my inbox: Dear Robert, I expect you get asked by a lot of people to finish their story…. Mine really isn’t such a sloppy idea… I really just am too busy and thought you might help?? That’s as far as I read. Sheesh! I’m rather busy myself, ass-face. […]

Writers of the Future, Volume XXII

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Volume 22 of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future is now out. This volume contains writing essays by Hubbard, Orson Scott Card, and myself, plus one on art by Bob Eggleton; mine is called “Eight Things New Writers Need to Know.” But the meat of the volume is the award-winning stories from the […]

World Fantasy Barbecue in Calgary

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Calgary World Fantasy ALL-U-CAN-EAT BBQ! Saturday September 16th, 12 – 4 PMPearce Estate Park (east downtown) $10 gets you all the burgers and pop you can handle + an assortment of amusements: Music, nature walks, games and much, much more. Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer will lead a discussion on how near-future technology can save […]

Hugo stats from a decade ago

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Happened to come across a few of the stats for the 1996 Hugos — the ones given ten years ago, at the exact same venue (the Anaheim Convention Center) as this year’s Hugos; the ones ten years ago were given at L.A. Con III. Back then, the nominees were Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age (which […]

Net’s Largest SF&F Forum

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Net’s Largest Science Fiction & Fantasy Forum Created by Chronicles Network Acquisition of Ascifi.com. The chronicles network has purchased Ascifi, and successfully merged the forums from both sites, to create the internet’s largest general science fiction and fantasy forums. Read more

Worldcon day five

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Sunday, August 27, was the final day of L.A. Con IV, the World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles. I started off with a meeting with Scott Danielson from SFF Audio, then did my autographing, which was well attended, and my reading, which was not (just four people — the readings venue was hidden off […]

Worldcon day four

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Saturday, August 26, was the fourth day of the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles. Carolyn went off to Disneyland with friend Stella Luuk, but for me the day started with a wonderful two-hour lunch with Eric Greene, who wrote one of my favorite nonfiction books, Planet of the Apes as American Myth. […]

Hugo statistics for 2006

Monday, August 28th, 2006

Lots of interesting stuff in the Hugo nominating stats. For starters, I’ve suggested to my friend Robert Charles Wilson that he send a thank-you note to Neil Gaiman, ’cause it turns out Gaiman withdrew Anansi Boys from Hugo consideration (presumably because, although flattered by the nomination, with two Hugos already and a superstar career, he […]

Hugos for Robert Charles Wilson, David G. Hartwell, Donato Giancola …

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

… and others. My “Identity Theft” did not win in the best novella category … but I knew I didn’t have a chance, and was totally calm all evening. It was a great ceremony, and my posse (Carolyn, Kirstin Morrell, Barbara Geiger, and Elisabeth Hegerat) and I had front-row seats at the ceremony. I’m totally, […]

Worldcon day three

Saturday, August 26th, 2006

Yesterday (Friday) was very busy, but very enjoyable. It started with an excellent 10:00 a.m. panel [note to self: stop agreeing to do 10:00 a.m. panels] on “Giving Good Interview,” moderated by the wonderful Evo Terra from the Slice of Sci-Fi podcast. After, I was approached by the producer of Escape Pod, who actually had […]

Worldcon day two

Friday, August 25th, 2006

The con began bright and early for me, with a 10:00 a.m. panel called, “No, Really, That Makes Sense!” SF writers tried to come up with rational and entertaining explanations for various things that at first glance seem illogical in SF movies, TV shows, and books. Despite valiant moderating by Dr. Isaac Szpindel, it didn’t […]

Worldcon day one

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

Lunch with Amy Sisson and her husband, NASA scientist Paul Abell. Sat with Mike Moscoe at the Analog/Asimov’s table, hustling subscriptions, then at the Edge Press table, helping to sell J. Brian Clarke’s The Alphanauts, for which I did the introduction. Moderated a very lively and entertaining panel entitled “You Are Responsible For Your Own […]

Pre-Worldcon

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

Carolyn and I have been in Los Angeles since Sunday. Yesterday, we fought the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad traffic in L.A. to visit the terrific store of Barry R. Levin, the world’s leading rare-SF dealer, then had a a very productive lunch with my film agents, Vince Gerardis and Eli Kirschner, then headed […]

Writers of the Future

Monday, August 21st, 2006

Carolyn and I spent from Thursday afternoon until this morning (Sunday) in San Diego at the 22nd annual L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future awards weekend (I’m one of the judges for the writing contest). As always, it was a fabulous event, and we had a great time. A few pictures: Todd […]

The Dragon Page interviews Rob …

Friday, August 18th, 2006

… about the Hugo nomination for “Identity Theft.” You can listen here.

Author will kill you

Thursday, August 17th, 2006

My buddy Mark Leslie is auctioning off the right to be murdered in his online serial, in order to raise funds for literacy. Details are here.

Science and Science Fiction

Thursday, August 17th, 2006

DAW author Edward Willett “in praise of science-fiction writing,” in this article in the Regina Leader-Post.

One of the many reasons I love fandom

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

When the chips are down (kind of a pun in this context …), SF fandom always comes through: there will indeed be an Internet lounge at Worldcon this year. Details

OSC’s Medicine Show loves Nick’s book

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

See here for the full review by John Joseph Adams. An excerpt: … kudos to Robert J. Sawyer for making this book available via his imprint at Red Deer Press. Books like this one remind us that the small press is of vital importance to the field, and remind us that it’s up to us, […]

Science Foo

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

Left to right: Stewart Brand of the Long Now Foundation, Google co-founder Larry Page, and SF writer Greg Bear at Rob’s brainstorming session Yes, it’s officially true: my life rocks! I spent this past weekend (August 11-13, 2006) at the Googleplex, the headquarters of Google, in Mountain View, California. I was a participant at Science […]

Watch your punctuation!

Monday, August 7th, 2006

My friend Don Wilkat drew this to my attention, from today’s Globe and Mail — one misplaced comma in a contract that ended up costing a company millions of dollars.

Monday Spotlight: Flashforward

Sunday, August 6th, 2006

I’m off on Tuesday for a trip that will ultimately take me to Califonia for a meeting with my film agent — and one of his favorites of my books is Flashforward. And so, for this week’s Monday spotlight — a day early! — a few words about writing Flashforward.

Our Inner Ape

Saturday, August 5th, 2006

Maclean’s: Canada’s Weekly Newsmagazine asked me to recommend a book for this summer. My pick appears on page 83 of the August 14, 2006, double issue, now on sale. Here’s what I had to say: Summer is the perfect time for people watching — on the beach, at the mall, in the park. Nothing makes […]

SciFi Dimensions says, "DiChario rocks"

Friday, August 4th, 2006

Another rave for Nick DiChario‘s A Small and Remarkable Life, published under my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint. The review is from SciFi Dimensions. The review concludes, “This is a pearl of a first novel; DiChario rocks.” As editor, I couldn’t agree more.

When is an organ donor dead?

Friday, August 4th, 2006

That provocative question was the springboard for my 1995 novel The Terminal Experiment, which went on to win the Nebula Award: how do we decide whens someone is gone for good, so that it’s appropriate to harvest their organs. Here’s a snippet from that book:      “Let’s go,” said Mamikonian.      A nurse moved in and injected […]

Twin planets … with no sun

Friday, August 4th, 2006

And a Toronto connection, to boot.