Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for March, 2008

Aurora nominations deadline looming

Monday, March 10th, 2008

The deadline for nominating for the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“the Auroras”) is fast approaching. Online ballots must be cast by Monday, March 17, 2008 (one week from today). Any Canadian may nominate, and there is no charge to do so. The online ballot is here. A comprehensive list of eligible works to […]

SF authors at Gartner Security Summit

Friday, March 7th, 2008

I’ll be participating at the Gartner IT Security Summit in Washington, DC, in June 2008. When Gartner’s Victor Wheatman approached me about putting together a panel of SF authors for the summit, we quickly came up with a dream-team list, and were delighted by who said yes: Sigma chair Arlan Andrews, plus Greg Bear and […]

Upcoming Events

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Some of my upcoming events for 2008: Reader and PanelistInternational Conference on the Fantastic in the ArtsOrlando, FloridaMarch 19-23, 2008http://www.iafa.org PanelistAd Astra 2008Toronto, OntarioMarch 28-30, 2008http://www.ad-astra.org PanelistEerieCon 2008Niagara Falls, New YorkApril 18-20, 2008http://www.eeriecon.org Book Launch for Identity Theft and Other StoriesBakka-Phoenix Books697 Queen Street WestToronto, OntarioSaturday, May 10, 2008, at 3:00 p.m. PanelistKeycon 25The 2008 […]

Living in Toronto

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I’ll be interviewed this coming Monday, March 10, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. on CBC TV Toronto’s program Living in Toronto about my novel Rollback — and I’ll be recommending some other good SF reading, too. The segment with me was recorded a little while ago at Toronto’s Bakka-Phoenix Books, and also features the lovely Chris […]

SciBarCamp in Toronto

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

In 2006, I was a participant at the inaugural Science Foo Camp (or SciFooCamp; “Foo” is short for “Friends of O’Reilly,” the giant computer-book publisher). The event was co-sponsored by O’Reilly and the journal Nature (which published one of my stories back in 2000 — “The Abdication of Pope Mary III,” a little number called […]

And I’m #1 in Saskatoon!

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

McNally Robinson, Canada’s second-largest bookstore chain, has bestsellers’ lists for Winnipeg, Calgary, and Saskatoon. Right now the Rollback paperback is #7 on the mass-market list (combined fiction and nonfiction) in Calgary, and it’s #1 in Saskatoon. Here’s the Saskatoon list: #1. RollbackBy Robert J Sawyer – $8.99 #2. JumperBy Steven Gould – $9.99 #3. The […]

Rollback #2 Canadian fiction bestseller

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Woohoo! BookNet Canada’s BNC SalesData service has just released its list of the top 20 Canadian fiction titles for the two weeks ending February 24, 2008. BookNet tracks actual point-of-sale purchases at over 650 bookstores across Canada. The top five Canadian-authored fiction titles for the last two weeks are: 1. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen(HarperCollins […]

Penguin Canada hires new commercial fiction editor

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Penguin Canada has just announced the hiring of the person who will be my Canadian editor — and will head up the commercial-fiction publishing list for the company. (I copied the job listing here back in January.) Laura Shin, formerly a Senior Editor at Harlequin — where she worked on crime, fantasy, and women’s fiction […]

More nostalgia: Bewitched

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

You gotta take this with a grain of salt, ’cause I’m one of the few people on the planet who likes the Thunderbirds live-action film … but I also really like 2005 theatrical Bewitched film. I’d seen it before on an airplane, but Carolyn hadn’t, so we watched it on DVD tonight. Like the live-action […]

A trip down memory lane …

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

Yesterday, Carolyn and I had three friends from high school over for a game of Trivial Pursuit, some ordered-in Swiss Chalet barbecue chicken, and watching some stuff on our big-screen TV. The friends were Carolyn’s brother David (one of my best friends quite separate from being my brother-in-law), Ted Bleaney (known to fans of my […]

A new record on late payment

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

Writers live at the mercy of publishers who often take unconscionably long times to pay, but in all my 29 years selling my work professionally, I think a new record for lateness was reached this week. One full year after it was due, Pearson Educational Canada sent me a cheque for a reprint of one […]

Arrested Development

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

I start most mornings by treadmilling for half an hour. I’ve got a portable DVD player with a 10-inch screen mounted on my treadmill’s control panel, and I watch sitcoms to pass the time. And I’ve just recently finished watching the third and final season of Arrested Development, a wonderful series about a rich family […]