Robert J. Sawyer June 2009 events — all are free and open to the public: Bookstore Reading & Signing from WakeMcNally Robinson3130 8th Street EastSaskatoon, SaskatchewanThursday, June 4, 2009, 7:30 p.m.www.mcnallyrobinson.com/saskatoon_events EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Launch PartyFeaturing a reading by Robert J. SawyerVenturion Art GallerySuite 104A214 – 11 Avenue SECalgary, AlbertaSaturday, June 13, 2009, […]
It’s been up on YouTube and the Penguin Canada site for a while, but my buddy Marcel Gagné gave me some extra server space to host more multimedia files on Carolyn and my websites, and so I’ve now got a hi-res version of the book trailer for Wake on my own website. Have a look. […]
Want a free critique of your manuscript — and happen to be in Saskatoon? My first three critiquing days are all booked solid now, except for one appointment on Saturday, June 6 — I need someone to take the 3:00 p.m. slot for a critique (I don’t want to fall behind schedule my first week!). […]
What a month this has been! For all of May — starting Friday, May 1 — I was “Author of the Month” at McNally Robinson, Canada’s second-largest bookstore chain. Independently, both The Toronto Star (on Saturday, May 2) and The Globe and Mail (on Monday, May 4) had me as answers to clues in their […]
On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer spoke at Google Waterloo, in a talk that was broadcast to Google facilities worldwide, about the science behind the World Wide Web gaining consciousness — the theme of his new novel Wake. (Wake is set in Waterloo.) You can listen to Rob’s talk […]
On Monday, May 25, 2009, Robert J. Sawyer gave the closing keynote address at the annual meeting of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (Canada’s professional organization of science journalists), which this year was held in Sudbury, Ontario. Rob’s 52-minute talk to the CSWA (including Q&A session) is now available right here. (Matthew Dalzell of the […]
My friend Alethea Kontis is in New York City at the Audie Awards and reports that Calculating God by one Robert J. Sawyer just won the 2009 Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association for best Science Fiction or Fantasy Audio Book of the Year! I’m super-proud of the team at Audible.com that produced the […]
The University of Saskatchewan’s alumni magazine is called Green & White, and the Spring 2009 issue has a nice little piece about my stint (which begins this Monday!) as Writer-in-Residence at the Canadian Light Source. It says: Taking Up Residence Award winning Canadian science-fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer, will call the Canadian Light Source synchrotron […]
I’m pleased to see that the audiobook of Wake is one of Audible.com’s Best (So Far!) of 2009 Editors’ Picks — one of 19 audidiobook titles — and the only science-fiction one! — to be so honored. You can get all my Audible.com audiobooks here. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
Readers of my fiction occasionally think they can tease out details about my private life from what I write. One such surmise I hear periodically is that I must have a thing for red-headed women (they cite Lenore from Rollback and Tess from End of an Era). I neither confirm nor deny this, but instead […]
MostlyFiction Book Reviews has posted a terrific review of Wake; the review is by Ann Wilkes, and says, in part: Sawyer’s treatment of the awakening of a consciousness from a man-made construct (in this case the web) coupled with the awe and wonder of a blind person’s journey to sight is brilliant. And the review […]
The business blog Knights on the Road has just posted a very nice review of all three volumes of my Neanderthal Parallax trilogy (Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids). You can read the review, by Reg Nordman, here. Healthy day! Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
Robert J. Sawyer appeared on the Dr. Howard Gluss Radio Show on May 12, 2009, talking about consciousness, computers, his new novel Wake, and his older novel Flash Forward. The interview is now available online as a two-part podcast: Part 1 (11 minutes 30 seconds) (when the break begins at the 11:30 mark, the rest […]
As always, Richard Curtis — a leading literary agent — has words of measured wisdom on the furor over the disabling of text-to-speech on the Amazon Kindle. You can read what Richard has to say on this topic in his blog at E-Reads. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
The Globe and Mail is reporting that CTV, Canada’s largest commercial television network, has bought Canadian rights to Flash Forward, the ABC TV series based on the novel of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
Got a nice letter today from a person in the Pacific Northwest whose father, blind since birth, gained sight in adulthood after a cataract operation. The letter made my day; it said in part: Wake has a poignant scene where Caitlin is “seeing” for the first time. I related to that scene so strongly because […]
Despite all the attempts to make the new Star Trek movie as friendly as possible for people unfamiliar with the franchise to follow, the ending credits actually assume a lot of Star Trek knowledge if you want to figure out who played whom. Winona Ryder is credited as playing “Amanda Grayson,” a name never heard […]
Program ParticipantReadercon 20Burlington, MassachusettsJuly 9-12, 2009www.readercon.org Program ParticipantAnticipation: the 67th World Science Fiction ConventionMontréal, QuébecAugust 6-10, 2009www.anticipationsf.ca Guest of HonourCon-Version 25Calgary, AlbertaAugust 21-23, 2009www.con-version.org Program ParticipantVCON 34Vancouver, British ColumbiaOctober 2-4, 2009www.vcon.ca Program ParticipantAstronomiconRochester, New YorkNovember 6-8, 2009www.astronomicon.info Guest of HonorCapricon 30Wheeling (Chicago), IllinoisFebruary 11-14 (four days), 2010www.capricon.org/capricon30 Program ParticipantAd AstraToronto, OntarioMarch 27-29, 2010www.ad-astra.org Guest of […]
Tomorrow — Monday, May 25, 2009 — I’m off to Sudbury, Ontario, to give the closing keynote address at the Canadian Science Writers Association’s annual meeting, and am also doing a free public reading and signing for Wake at the Chapters superstore, 1425 Kingsway Road, Sudbury, at 7:00 p.m. If we’re lucky, Ponter Boddit will […]
Alan White produced the wonderful tribute fanzine Flashing Forward with Robert J. Sawyer as part of promoting the terrific SF convention Xanadu Las Vegas at which I was author Guest of Honor last month. You can download the amazing zine as a PDF file right here. Needless to say, I’m incredibly flattered. Visit The Robert […]
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 […]
… just got a nice fan letter from a library patron in Salt Lake City: Let me preface my praise with the fact that I have read all your works. I have just finished your latest book Wake. (no more than 8 min. ago) I found it wonderfully refreshing and deeply interesting. You are an […]
My event in Waterloo for Wake on Thursday was terrific (and my friend Marcel Gagné saved the day by getting the sound system working with literally seconds to spare). And now the North Perth Public Library has put an entry about my event in their blog. Check it out. Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web […]
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 […]
And very nicely, too, I might add. Check it out! Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
This is so cool. Craig Rintoul of Bookbits took a 90-second audio clip out of the interview he recently did with me about Wake and produced a computer-animated version of me giving the pitch for the novel. You have to see this! (And pay attention to the things in the background!) (And Craig’s full interview […]
I worked very hard to come up with a plausible scenario for the World Wide Web gaining consciousness for my novel WWW: Wake, and I’m thrilled to have a chance to share some of that background with the members of the Association for Computer Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. The last […]
McNally Robinson, the bookstore chain based in Winnipeg (the capital city of the province of Manitoba), has just released its bestsllers list for the week of May 17, 2009, and Wake by Robert J. Sawyer is #1 in hardcover fiction. Woohoo! The Winnipeg Free Press, the major daily newspaper in Winnipeg, uses the McNally Robinson […]
Jessica Strider, a bookseller at the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, recently interviewed Robert J. Sawyer for her blog Sci-Fi Fan Letter. You can read the whole interview right here. Among the questions and answers: What was the hardest scene for you to write? I’ve written lots of gut-wrenching scenes over the years, and some […]
John Joseph Adams recently interviewed me about my story “The Shoulders of Giants,” which appears in his just-released anthology Federations. Among the things I say: Those who’ve read my recent novels have seen that I don’t have much interest in antagonists; I think the idea that all fiction is fundamentally about conflict, and you need […]
