Robert J. Sawyer

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World Fantasy Award winner James Morrow

Nebula Award winner Ted Chiang

Hugo Award winner Robert J. Sawyer

All reading together on the same stage: this Saturday morning, March 21, 2009, at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.

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My friend the great Canadian paleontologist Phil Currie is interviewed by the BBC today about Hesperonychus, the smallest meat-eating dinosaur yet to be found in North America. The story is here

Phil’s a big SF fan, and is mentioned in Calculating God.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Darby is the YA protagonist of a novel by my friend (and Surrey International Writers Conference programming guru) kc dyer, and here Darby speaks with me.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Old-timers in the science-fiction field hate the term “sci-fi,” considering it derogatory; they insist the preferred abbreviation is “SF.”

Me, I gave up the fight when the US cable network devoted to the genre chose to call itself SciFi. (And, in fact, the hardcover of my Rollback was branded with the SciFi logo on the lower-right of the front cover, and labeled “A Sci Fi Essential Book” as part of a cross-promotion between the channel and Tor.)

But now it turns out SciFi Channel has decided it doesn’t like the term SciFi, either — in part because they haven’t succeeded in trademarking it. And so — I kid you not — they are changing the name of the channel, the website, and the magazine to Syfy.

Many years ago, in the heydey of the Great Domain Name Gold Rush, I believe Martin Harry Greenberg got one million dollars for the domain name “SciFi.com” when he sold it to the channel’s owners.

Hey, if anyone wants SFwriter.com for a million bucks, let me know, and I’ll rebrand as EsEfwriter.com …

The New York Times has the scoop.

(And tip o’ the hat to my friend Kirstin Morrell for drawing this to my attention.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

For the RJS completeists out there, I’ll note that the new issue, number 75, of the Canadian literary magazine CNQ (aka Canadian Notes & Queries) contains an excerpt from my now novel Wake.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

One of the highlights of my year each year is Toronto’s SF convention, Ad Astra (which in 2009 takes place March 27-29).

Here’s my panel and reading schedule for this year:

Sat 10:00 AM
Ballr. East
What’s In a Name
Ed Greenwood, Gabrielle Harbowy (moderator), Robert J. Sawyer

Sat 1:00 PM
Crowne Room
Reading
Robert J. Sawyer

Sat 2:00 PM
Salon 241
Those Pesky Laws of Physics
James Alan Gardner, Robert J. Sawyer, Calvin Climie, Derek Knsken (moderator)

Sat 5:00 PM
Salon 243
First Contact
James Alan Gardner, Robert J. Sawyer (moderator), Timothy Zahn, Steven Kerzner

Sat 9:00 PM
Salon 241
Move Over Meatbrains
Madeline Ashby, James Alan Gardner (moderator), Robert J. Sawyer

Sun 11:00 AM
Ballr. Centre
Working with a Smaller Press
Nick DiChario (moderator), Robert J. Sawyer, Rick Wilber, Erik Buchanan

Sun 12:00 PM
Ballr. East
Adding Humour to Serious Works
Steven Kerzner (moderator), D.K. Savage, Adrienne Kress, Ed Greenwood, Robert J. Sawyer

Sun 2:00 PM
Salon 243
Reading on Screens
Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder (moderator), Michael R. Colangelo, Sephera Giron

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

So, one of my editor friends just got a partial manuscript that she liked: she took time out of her busy schedule to read it, think about it, talk it over with her colleagues, and ask to see more (and her response time was rapid by the standards of our industry).

And what did the author have to say? Not, “W00t!,” or “Yay!,” or even “Thank you.” Nope. The author replied by saying he’d already sold the book somewhere else.

Folks, you wonder why publishers make reading over-the-transom stuff the last priority? It’s because people pulls crap like this. Even if a publisher allows simultaneous submissions (and most don’t, precisely to avoid this sort of thing), it’s mandatory that you inform editors when your work is no longer available for consideration.

This isn’t quite as bad as the clown who 13 years ago thought it was just fine to sell the same story to Carolyn and me (when we were editing Tesseracts 6) and to one of our competitors without telling any of us. But it still sucks.

Writers making submissions: show a little professionalism, please!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Remote Viewing

Tues., March 17, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT, coast-to-coast in Canada on Vision TV

During the Cold War, the U.S. government tried to harness ESP as a tool for espionage, through a technique known as “remote viewing.” Today, most dismiss the notion. But there are still those who believe remote viewing represents the next step in the evolution of human consciousness. In this episode, Toronto science writer and adventurer Jeff Warren searches for the truth about remote viewing, and enlists famed scientific skeptic The Amazing Randi to help put the idea of psychic spies to the test. Produced by Paradocs.

Host: Robert J. Sawyer

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

My buddy Bruce Schneier — cryptographer, security specialist, incisive commentator — does a free monthly newsletter called Crypto-Gram. Well worth signing up for — which you can do right here.

His books — including the most-recent one, Schneier on Security, shown above — are also always worth reading.

(Oh, and he’ll be on 60 Minutes tonight talking about TSA screening …)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Cracked magazine puts up a photo or image every day at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, and invites people to write funny captions (or “Craptions”) for it. Today’s image is the Pioneer 10 plaque, and some of the craptions are hysterical. Check it out.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The buzz has been amazing. The Hollywood Reporter calls Flash Forward “a strong companion to Lost.” TV Guide concurs, saying, “It could be an obvious fill-in when Lost ends its run next year.” And Entertainment Weekly calls it one of the season’s “most notable projects.” All the footage I saw in L.A., and everything I saw being filmed when I visited the set, totally lives up to the hype. This is going to be amazing.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I was talking with my friend Virginia O’Dine just a couple of days ago about coincidences (after she’d watched Supernatural Investigator, which I host on Vision TV; this week’s topic — people who had dreams that seemed to presage the events of 9/11 — we both agreed could be chalked up to coincidences).

Well, how’s this for a bunch of cool coincidences?

Right now, today, they’re filming the pilot for a TV series based on my novel Flash Forward, which is set at CERN, the European particle-physics lab.

Right now, today, I received the very first copy of my new novel Wake, about the future of the World Wide Web, which got its start at CERN.

Right now, today, Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the Web, is back at CERN for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of him drafting the idea for the Web.

And right now, today, he made this observation (as paraphrased by Scientific American Online), which is pretty much the starting point I took in writing Wake:

Berners-Lee pointed out that there are 100 billion Web pages today, roughly the same number of neurons in the human brain. The difference, he added, is that the number of pages grows as the Web ages, whereas the number of nerve cells shrinks as we get on in years.

Cool! :)

More on Sir Tim’s CERN homecoming is here.

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I very fondly remember visiting David’s house in Michigan in January 2004, and having a tour of his amazing collection of first editions.

(The set includes a hardcover of my 2003 Hugo-winning novel Hominids, the original mass-market paperback first-printing of my 1995 Nebula-winning novel The Terminal Experiment, and the later first hardcover of that book, as well, all signed.)

(Hint: if you have to ask if the $116,530 is Canadian or American dollars, you probably can’t aford this …)

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My previous novel hardcovers were all 8.5″ by 5.75″, but Wake is 9.25″ by 6.25″ — three-quarters of an inch taller and half an inch wider.

The interior type (beautifully designed, by the way) is large, with good leading; it’s extremely readable.

Just yesterday, I received an email from a reader complaining about the general trend toward smaller type in books (to save printing costs by reducing page counts), and my 84-year-old father (an avid reader) was decrying that same thing a week ago. But there are no such concerns with Wake.

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The FedEx guy just delivered a copy of the finished American edition of Wake, my eighteenth novel, courtesy of my editor Ginjer Buchanan at Ace Science Fiction.

This is, I think, the best-looking book I’ve ever had (and I’ve had lots of good-looking books). It’s just stunningly beautiful. The cover and spine has selective use of matte and glossy finishes that is really classy. The jacket design is by Rita Frangie.

The back cover has advance praise for the book from Robert Charles Wilson, John Scalzi, Allen Steele, and Jack McDevitt.

Official on-sale date for this edition is April 7, 2009.

W00t!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Carolyn decided the picture of my Nebula Award trophy on my website sucked — and it did; it was a low-res scan of a print that we’d put up back in 1996.

So she took a new one, and here it is:

I won the Nebula in 1996 for my novel The Terminal Experiment.

That was the period when William Rotsler, the artist who hand-crafted the trophies each year, was designing the best-novel trophies based on the winning author’s work.

For Greg Bear, the year before, who had won for Moving Mars, the Lucite block contained a large polished red sandstone sphere that looked like Mars; for Nicola Griffith, who won the following year for Slow River, the lapidary stones in the Lucite had mostly settled to the bottom.

For me, he actually honored my Far-Seer trilogy by featuring a giant polished agate that resembled a Jupiter-like planet, with a too-close moon orbiting around it (you can’t see the little moon on the face-on view, but it’s clearly visible in the side at the right of the picture and also at the top).

At the top, there’s a spiral nebula — the one constant element in all nebula designs.

The Nebulas are given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; they are the field’s “Academy Award.”

Oh, and here’s an essay about the night I won the award.

Here’s another new shot:

And here’s the now-retired old .gif photo:

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

(That’s Courtney and Executive Producer Jessika Borsiczky Goyer above in Los Angeles last week.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I’ve been meaning to rant about this for a while, but haven’t found the time. But the topic came up in conversation with a good friend today — a brilliant lady who had done a book with a small press, and had cringed when she finally held the finished product in her hand because the cover, font choices, page design, and so forth all were, in her words, horrible.

Good friend that I am, I, of course, own a copy of her book, and she’s being kind. :) So, for those in the small press who think that just because you have layout software you know how to design a book, Rob’s four rules of book design, coined spontaneously while looking at the mess in question today:

Rule number one: be conservative.

Rule number two: if you haven’t seen somebody else do it that way before, it’s probably a bad idea.

Rule number three: actually have a published book at your side while designing your own — to see how it’s done.

Rule number four: don’t suck.

(For Robert J. Sawyer Books, we currently rely on the brilliant Karen Petherick Thomas to do our designs, and, back when we were based in Calgary, we used the equally fine Erin Woodward. Yes, designing books is actually a job — it’s not something you just wing.)

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Toward that end, we included a 17,000-word scholarly introduction by Fiona (which formed the basis of the cover story that took up most of the December 2008 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction), and her extensive notes along with the stories.

And what stories! The anthology contains work by Gregory Frost, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Jonathan Lethem, James Morrow, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Tim Sullivan, and Connie Willis.

And now we’ve gone a step further. Prof. Kelleghan has prepared a comprehensive 7,000-word educators’ guide (or teachers’ guide) to the anthology — and we’re giving it away as a PDF right here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

And you know what? She deserves it. Her The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of the best science-fiction novels I’ve ever read.

The New York Times has the scoop.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The class will do two core novels — the Hugo Award-winning Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer and the Hugo Award-winning Neuromancer by William Gibson — plus short stories by (among others):

* Isaac Asimov
* Greg Bear
* Gregory Benford
* Arthur C. Clarke
* Lester del Rey
* Greg Egan
* Harlan Ellison
* Joe Haldeman
* Harry Harrison
* Ursula K. Le Guin
* Murray Leinster
* Vonda McIntyre
* Larry Niven
* Alastair Reynolds
* Spider Robinson
* Robert Silverberg
* Theodore Sturgeon
* Vernor Vinge
* Kurt Vonnegut

How cool is that! (“Too cool for school!” as my buddy R. Scott Bakker is wont to say …)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

You can read the full review here; the review is by Chadwick Ginther who is in charge of science fiction at McNally Robinson’s flagship store in Winnipeg.

I will be signing at the McNally Robinson in Winnipeg (the Grant Park store) on Saturday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m., and at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon on Thursday, June 4, at 7:00 p.m.

More about Wake.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

My dear friend Hugo winner Jeanne Robinson is recovering from surgery. Husband Spider has the scoop here.

Spider ends with, “And God bless Tommy Douglas, who created Canada’s socialized medicine.”

Amen to that, brother. Amen.

And best wishes to Jeanne!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The amazing Sonya Walger, who plays the female lead in the upcoming Flash Forward TV series, based on my novel of the same name, has just been nominated for a Saturn Award by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Films, in the category “Best Guest Starring Role in a Television Series” for her work on Lost. The full list of nominees is here.

Congratulations, Sonya!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

John Demjanjuk, a Cleveland autoworker, has spent the last few decades under a cloud of suspicion: he bears a passing resemblance to Ivan.

Based on all the research I did when writing Frameshift, I’m sure to a moral certainty that Demjanjuk is not, in fact, Ivan, but people continue to go after him figuring even though they were wrong about that, he must be guilty of something.

Today, German prosecutors charged him with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Realms of Fantasy is coming back, it seems. SF Scope — as is so often the case these days, first with the news — has the scoop here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Antichrist
Tues., Jan. 27, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Does the Antichrist walk among us? Are we nearing the End of Days? Surprisingly, belief in the Biblical prophecies of an Antichrist remain alive and well in the 21st century.

Life from Other Planets
Tues., Feb. 3, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Are we alone in the universe? Or have we already been visited by life from other worlds? These questions burn in the mind of author and futurist Mac Tonnies.

What Killed Joe Fisher–Part 1: The Trap is Set
Tues., Feb. 10, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
In the 1970s, Joe Fisher forged a reputation as one of Canada’s leading investigative reporters. But there was another side to him. The rebellious son of Christian fundamentalists, he grew increasingly enthralled by Eastern religions, eventually becoming a popular media expert on paranormal phenomena.

What Killed Joe Fisher–Part 2: The Trap is Sprung
Tues., Feb. 17, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
When Joe Fisher’s efforts to learn more about his spirit lover Filipa ended in failure, his life began to unravel. Convinced that he had unleashed psychic forces bent on vengeance, Fisher fled to rural Ontario — and it was there, on the rim of the Elora Gorge, that his demons, real or otherwise, may have finally caught up with him.

The Crystal Skulls
Tues., Feb. 24, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Narrated by Robert J. Sawyer (in addition to hosting)
Archaeologist Joel Palka retraces the journey of the adventurers who first found the skulls, and seeks out an isolated tribe that still believes in their mystic powers.

Remembering Past Lives
Tues., March 3, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Reincarnation has long been a part of many Eastern belief systems, and the idea has gained increasing acceptance in North America during the last few decades. In this episode, Supernatural Investigator pursues some reported cases of reincarnation, from a Canadian singer who believes she was Marilyn Monroe in a past life, to a Louisiana boy who has vivid memories of being a World War Two fighter pilot. Are these simply the stories of individuals with over-active imaginations — or are they proof of life after death? Produced by Sorcery Films Ltd.

Seeing 9-11
Tues., March 10, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7 PM PT
Can precognitive dreams and visions provide warnings of impending disaster? Did thousands of people with no connection to the event somehow know in advance that 9-11 was going to happen? In this episode, Supernatural Investigator takes a critical look at the claims of those who say they have seen into the future. Produced by Elevator Films.

Remote Viewing
Tues., March 17, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
During the Cold War, the U.S. government tried to harness ESP as a tool for espionage, through a technique known as “remote viewing.” Today, most dismiss the notion. But there are still those who believe remote viewing represents the next step in the evolution of human consciousness. In this episode, Toronto science writer and adventurer Jeff Warren searches for the truth about remote viewing, and enlists famed scientific skeptic The Amazing Randi to help put the idea of psychic spies to the test. Produced by Paradocs.

Hex or Hoax?
Tues., March 24, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Jinxes, curses, hexes, the evil eye: many cultures possess their own brands of black magic. Are there really people who can harness dark forces to strike down their enemies? In this episode, Halifax filmmaker Donna Davies enters the world of sinister sorcery to learn about Newfoundland witches’ spells, Haitian voodoo rituals and cutting edge contemporary research into the science of the curse. Produced by Sorcery Films Ltd.

March 31 & April 7, 2009: on hiatus

Chaos Magick
Tues., April 14, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Newfoundland born mentalist and magician Jeremy Bennett investigates the mysterious brand of sorcery known as “Chaos Magick.”

Hunting Houdini
Tues., April 21, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Gothic rocker Tara Slone (Rock Star INXS) travels to New York City at Halloween to enter the inner sanctum of escape artist Harry Houdini’s most obsessive followers. Produced by Arcadia Entertainment Inc.

The Nightmare
Tues., April 28, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Filmmaker Adam Gray pursues a malevolent entity that strikes sleepers in the dark. Produced by Paradocs.

Occult Architecture
Tues., May 5, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Filmmaker John Wesley Chisholm asks: is there a secret master plan carved into the Masonic art and architecture of Washington, DC? Produced by Arcadia Entertainment Inc.

The Seducers
Tues., May 12, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
A journey into the secretive underworld of “the Seducers” — men who use a mysterious power known as NLP to lure women into bed. Produced by Elevator Films.

Detour on the Road to Atlantis
Tues., May 19, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Have ocean explorers found clues to the whereabouts of the lost civilization of Atlantis? Produced by Arcadia Entertainment Inc.

It’s in the Stars
Tues., May 26, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
For thousands of years, astrology has influenced both Western and Eastern cultures. But can the position of the stars really influence earthly affairs? Produced by Sorcery Films Ltd.

FINAL EPISODE: The White Mountain Abduction
Tues., June 2, 2009, 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT
Narrated by Robert J. Sawyer (in addition to hosting)
What happened to Barney and Betty Hill on the night of September 19, 1961? Their niece investigates the world’s most famous case of alleged alien abduction. Produced by Paradocs.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I always find it interesting to see who is ponying up to use my name in the Google AdWords program (the thing that puts sponsored links to the right of Google search results). Chapters.ca and Amazon.ca have both bought “Robert Sawyer,” which is fine by me, and my speakers bureau has sometimes bought my name in association with other words, such as “talk” or “keynote.”

But now ABE.com has bought “sawyer flashforward” — to steer people interested in the show to their used-book service. Folks, my novel Flash Forward is in print, and has been continuously since it was first published a decade ago. You can get new copies in paperback easily, you can buy it for the Kindle, and you can get it as an audiobook from Audbile.com, or you can buy an autographed copy directly from me: all those things put money in my pocket, and I’m very grateful for that. But if you buy a used copy through ABE.COM or any other source, well, I don’t make a cent. Just so you know. :)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

(It’s also a nice tour of my living room and some of my toys.)

More about Xanadu Las Vegas is here, and their latest progress report is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site