Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for September, 2006

Photos from the 2006 Mississauga Write-Off

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

Down below, in my blog entries from August 31, 2006, through September 4, 2006, I describe the first-ever Mississauga Write-Off, a writing retreat held at Carolyn and my place over the Labour Day long weekend, with these participants: Carolyn Clink, Al Katerinsky, Herb Kauderer, Val King, Randy McCharles, Robert J. Sawyer, Elizabeth Trenholm, and Hayden […]

"Identity Theft" film option

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

From the Tuesday, September 5, 2006, edition of Variety, the Hollywood trade paper: Snoot plans grand ‘Theft’A new ‘Identity’ for Calder By Pamela McClintock Keith Calder’s frosh financing and production company, Snoot Entertainment, has bought the film rights to Robert J. Sawyer’s acclaimed futuristic novella “Identity Theft.” Story revolves around a private eye working on […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Four (evening)

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

And the first-ever Mississauga Write-Off is officially over. Herb and Al drove back to Buffalo around 5:00 p.m., and Randy and Val took Carolyn and me out to dinner this evening, then took a 9:00 p.m. flight back to Calgary. Although the company for dinner was fabulous, I have to say the food was not. […]

Monday spotlight: Rob’s TV demo tape

Monday, September 4th, 2006

I was too busy this past month with travel to provide regular Monday spotlights, highlighting documents on my website at sfwriter.com, but I hope to get back to doing so each week … and for this week, simply because I had to fix some broken code in it today, the spotlight is this guide to […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Four (afternoon)

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Well, it’s winding down. Hayden (who wrote 8,700 words this weekend) and Liz (5,300) have been deposited at the Toronto airport. Herb and Al are checked out of our condo’s first-floor guest suite (but are still here). Herb is writing on the balcony, but the rest of us keep rushing out to join him, since […]

Google AdSense

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Well, as those who read my blog directly at sfwriter.com/blog.htm have doubtless noticed, I’ve been trying an experiment in having Google AdSense ads on my blog. But I’m not sure I’m happy with the results: the ads seem to mostly be either from vanity publishers or authors of self-published books, or from fee-charging agents, and […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Three (evening)

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Today’s food was a brunch at our place in the morning, followed by an early dinner at Emerald Chinese, one of Mississauga’s best, and most authentic, Chinese restaurants (by the time our dinner was over, the place was reasonably packed, and we were the only non-Asians eating there). Liz and Hayden very kindly bought for […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Three (afternoon)

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

Progress has been slow for me today — stayed up too late last night, plus I’m at the difficult stage in which I’m defining characters’ voices; once I have those down, my pace tends to pick up. It’s still overcast here, but it’s not raining today. Hayden has gone for a walk, Herb is now […]

RJS Books event in Honeoye Falls, New York, Saturday, September 9, 2006

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

Nick DiChario, the author of A Small and Remarkable Life, which I published, is having a party — come one, come all: SPECIAL PUBLICATION EVENT Robert J. Sawyer Books Publication PartySaturday, September 9, 2006, 2 p.m. Q & A Session and a Celebration of Noted Rochester SF Authors Our own Nick DiChario, author of A […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Two (evening)

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

I got my 2,000 words by the end of the day. Dinner was here at our place: hot dogs, barbecue chicken, fried chicken, salad. Eight is a lot of people around our kitchen table, but miraculously nothing got spilled. Evening included watching stuff on my 50″ Sony Grand WEGA TV: the classic Star Trek episode […]

Mississauga Write-Off Day Two (afternoon)

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

We’re all back from lunch at Montana’s, a roadhouse-style chain restaurant. It’s a cold, rainy day here in Toronto, and the disadvantage of having a penthouse with lots of floor-to-ceiling windows is that if it’s dreary outside, it can seem dreary inside. But I’ve put on a fire in the living room, and that’s cheered […]

Public domain golden-age SF ebooks for free

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

See here and here.

Mississauga Write-Off Day One

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

All went well. My personal goal was 2,000 words — and I got 2,189. Most everyone else met their goals, too. We went on mass to Swiss Chalet (Canadian barbecue chicken franchise) for lunch; dinner was pizza (from Pizza Nova, for those who know Toronto pizza chains). Lots of great work done, lots of great […]

A sneak peek at Rollback

Friday, September 1st, 2006

For a limited time, the Analog website has the first seven chapters of my next novel Rollback online. You can read them here. Analog is serializing Rollback in four parts. At the end of the online sample, it says that the story will be concluded in the next issue; that’s wrong — it runs over […]

Everyone has arrived

Friday, September 1st, 2006

… for the Mississauga Write-off. Much food has already been eaten (“it’s like locusts,” said Carolyn); we’ve clearly underestimated how much we’ll need. We’d intended to go to bed earlier, but the conversation was too good. :) Now, at 1:30 p.m., we’re calling it a night. Tomorrow, the writing begins!

This weekend is a total write-off

Friday, September 1st, 2006

… by design. Two and half years ago, I started attending the twice-yearly “Write-Off” weekends hosted by Danita Maslan (aka Danita Maslankowski) for Calgary’s Imaginative Fiction Writers’ Association (IFWA). A bunch of writers — 15 or 20 — hole up for a weekend in the rec center at Danita’s townhouse complex, bringing laptops along, and […]