… I’d be going here. I love Julian Jaynes’s The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
(That’s Jaynes above; more on the Denver World Science Fiction Convention — the same damn weekend — is here.)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Almost 12 years ago, in January 1996, I bought a then state-of-the-art printer, a Lexmark Optra R+ monochrome laser printer (16 pages per minute; max resolution 1200 dpi). It’s been having a few problems of late — the fan stalls sometimes, and the duplexer stopped working. So, this morning Carolyn and I swapped out the printer for an identical spare I’d picked up on eBay a while ago.
(I’ve got a ton of accessories not shown in the picture above: extra lower paper tray, the aforementioned duplexer, a dual-tray rear feeder, flash ROM for permanently downloaded fonts — all of those were working fine, and the duplexing problem was with the main unit, not the duplexer.)
But before retiring the original unit, I checked the page count: it had printed 272,335 pages for us in 12 years. That’s over a quarter of a million sheets — over 500 reams of paper!
(Yeah, I could just give up on the Optra and get a brand-new printer, but I have this terrific print driver for WordStar for DOS that I customized very heavily for use with it, and modern printers really don’t have good DOS support (or a decent built-in Courier; Courier New is way too spindly). ‘Sides, I did buy a new printer not that long ago: a color laser printer from Dell — but I much prefer the Optra for printing manuscripts, and that’s something, as the above figures attest, I do a lot.)
If anyone out there also uses WordStar 7.0, and would like a copy of the print driver I customized, it’s here — just rename it to OPTRA.PDF (yeah, PDF — “printer definition file”) and put it in your WordStar directory.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Sir Arthur C. Clarke turns 90 today — and he’s sent a birthday update to the world via this YouTube video.
I’ve never met him (although I did meet his brother Fred once, so, genetically, I’ve met 50% of Sir Arthur!), but he is, and always has been, my favourite SF author, ever since my father (who, now 83 himself bears, a startling resemblance to Sir Arthur, I must say) took me to see 2001 in 1968. And, of course, there’s no doubt that my first novel, Golden Fleece, about a murdering AI running a spaceship, is a homage to Clarke’s Hal.
Happy birthday, Sir Arthur!
(above: Sir Arthur C. Clarke)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
An interesting auction on eBay: the working copy of the manuscript for my novelette “Ineluctable” with Analog editor Stan Schmidt’s notations, and artist Frank Kelly Freas’s rough sketches on it (Kelly did the art for the story).
I’ve got nothing to do with this auction — just thought it was interesting (the link will go dead at some point; eBay doesn’t keep listings around for long).
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Fictionwise.com, very wisely in my view, has made virutally all of their Multiformat ebooks (mostly short stories, but lots of novels, too) available in the format used by the Amazon Kindle eBook reader (and the Sony Reader, too). Check it all out here.
And that means — very cool! — that Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction are now available for the Kindle, too!
Oh, and lots of my short fiction is available; it’s all here.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
A reader wrote to me today, “Earth and Moon should always be capitalized; and if your line editors are sloppy, then tell them so!” (In Mindscan, much of which does take place on Earth’s natural satellite, I made a conscious choice not to capitalize “moon.”)
My response:
On the capitalization of Earth, Moon, etc., we’ll have to have a discussion. I agree on Earth, as it is the commonly accepted proper name of our planet in English and there are no other “Earths.”* But note that Analog magazine (and analogy!) can take this to ridiculous lengths: Analog‘s style guide is to capitalize: Earth, Moon, Sun, Galaxy (when referring to our own), and even Universe.
Actually, one could argue that there are no other proven universes, and so capitulate to Analog‘s arcane point about capitalizing it, but there are lots of other moons, galaxies, and suns, and so I might argue that all of these phrases are correct:
Earth
Earth’s moon
Earth’s moon Luna
Luna, Earth’s moon
Earth
Earth’s sun
Earth’s sun Sol
Sol, Earth’s sun
Earth
Earth’s galaxy
Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way
The Milky Way, Earth’s galaxy
Earth
Earth’s universe
Earth’s universe Fred
Fred, the universe containing Earth
Still, by analogy:
My house is in the valley.
Which valley?
The San Fernando Valley.
(Yes, lots of people would capitalize “valley” in the first sentence — but lots of others wouldn’t.)
There’s also the question of whether “solar system” refers generically to any system of stars and planets, or specifically to our own, since “solar” is derived from the proper name of our sun (as used in SF contexts, anyway).
But, to me, “Solar system” and “Solar System,” look wrong, although I’ll accede to “Sol system” (since we never say “Alpha Centaurian system” but always “Alpha Centauri system”); in general, I prefer “solar system,” and consider the argument that the term should only be used to refer to our own (a) pedantic, and (b) to fly in the face of already well-established common usage.
* I said there were no other Earths, but, in fact, in discussions of exoplanets — those outside our solar system — we do routinely refer to “hot Jupiters” and “other Earths,” but that’s a very specialized and quite recent usage, and shouldn’t dictate how we generally refer to our planet, although it’s interesting that the long-in-common-use term “the Earth” — meaning the Earth, our Earth — might need to be retained, instead of the definite article falling by the wayside as such things often do over time …
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Oodles of them, right here, courtesty of The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intellegence.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
How’s that for a lot of initials? Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show — a wonderful online magazine — has made its interview with me in the current issue, conducted by the always insightful Darrell Schweitzer, available right here for free.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I often get email from students asking me questions about my science-fiction writing, but today’s email contained questions from a student on an entirely different topic: dual citizenship (I hold both Canadian and American citizenship):
In my Honors Colloquium on immigration, the discussion arose about the merits and problems with dual citizenship. My instructor said he was against anyone having dual citizenship because of the loyalty issues.
If you have time, could you quickly answer a few questions for me?
How easy was it for your parents to get you dual citizenship? Were there extra steps they had to prove to get US Citizenship for you?
Do you find having dual citizenship is a benefit? Are there any concerns others have when they know you have dual citizenship?
Would my instructor be correct in that loyalty to both countries would be an issue, though Canada and the United States are not enemies?
And finally, concerning global issues and politics now, do you feel that dual citizenship should be as easy to acquire as it was forty years ago, or do you lean more toward limiting new dual citizenships to the point that they are almost eliminated?
My reply:
My mother was a US-citizen graduate student temporarily resident in Canada when I was born; mine was a foreign-soil birth to an American national temporarily abroad. She reported in person to the U.S. embassy in Ottawa upon giving birth in that city, and had my birth registered as such, which, in 1960, was sufficient to grant dual citizenship.
The benefits are obvious: I can freely live and work anywhere in Canada or the United States, and since my job is portable, and since I travel so much, that’s a real plus. No one has ever reacted negatively to my circumstances, which, frankly, simply aren’t that unusual anymore.
(The downsides: I file tax returns with both the IRS and the Canada Revenue Agency (although because of reciprocal treaties, I’m not doubly taxed, but it’s still a pain); when US selective-service registration was reactivated in 1980, I had to — and did — register and was at risk of being drafted.)
Your instructor may be right about loyalty but is misguided in asserting its value, I feel; many of the world’s problems today are caused by blind allegiance to a single country or block — whether it’s Iranian extremists, or “Homeland” security. When the European Union decided to simply walk away from a millennium of warfare among its members, the first step was making citizenship essentially EU-wide, eliminating much jingoistic partisanship.
And, just as the spread of multinational companies has ended the threat of much international war (it’s impossible to conceive of the U.S. and Japan ever being in a shooting war again, since so many businesses have major presences in both countries), the deployment of people around the globe with larger-than-local allegiance gives us the wider perspective needed to tackle environmental issues that know no borders.
Indeed, your instructor is a bit of a throwback and misguided; it’s easier today to acquire dual citizenship as an American than it was 40 years ago; 40 years ago, you essentially had to be born with it (as I was) — now, the United States, very much in response to pressure from the rest of the world, which has long had a more enlightened attitude about this, much more readily recognizes dual citizenship.
Forty years ago, my mother could get her children dual US-Canadian citizenship, but there was no mechanism for her herself to obtain it; today, she could easily have both if she wanted to (and my great friend, SF writer Robert Charles Wilson, born in the US, but resident in Canada for four decades now, got his Canadian citizenship last year without the US requiring him to relinquish his American citizenship).
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Just a quick note to say I’ll be at the science-fiction convention Arisia over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, January 18-21, 2008, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
My buddy Walter H. Hunt, author of the Dark Wing series from Tor, is in Toronto for a conference, and so we had lunch today.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Home at last! In the last six days, I’ve taken eight flights — something that’s always risky in winter. Indeed, one of my flights was almost canceled, and for two of the others, my connections ended up being so tight (because my earlier flights on those days had been delayed by bad weather) that I had to run to make them. For one, I literally made it to the aircraft with seconds to spare.
My worst travel day was this past Monday, December 3, 2007. I started the day in Victoria, British Columbia, where I gave the keynote address to the Canadian Home Care Association (about the future of medical technology). As soon as my talk was over, I high-tailed it to Victoria’s airport, and started my first of four flights that day to get me to Kansas State University, where I was delivering another keynote the next day.
The four flights were Victoria to Vancouver, Vancouver to Denver, Denver to Kansas City, and Kansas City to Manhattan, Kansas (where K-State is located). I thought I was home free after I got on my Vancouver flight on time, because the weather was only bad in the Pacific Northwest (as we Canadians kindly humour the Americans by calling that part of the world; it’s really our Pacific Southwest). But it turned out that my flight from Denver to Kansas City originated in Portland, and was delayed there almost two hours because of the huge storm that just hit that area. As I said, I made it to the final flight — Kansas City to Manhattan, Kansas, with less than a minute to spare.
Today was also very nerve-wracking, even though the itinerary was much simpler: Manhattan, Kansas, to Kansas City, then Kansas City to Toronto. But my flight out of Manhattan was delayed 90 minutes — in Kansas City, where it was originating (it just shuttles back and forth), thanks to freezing rain there.
Fortunately for me, the Kansas-Toronto flight was delayed 10 minutes, or I never would have caught it. (Kansas City is a very frustrating airport: you can’t pre-print your own Air Canada boarding passes for use at it (even though you can for use at many other U.S. airports), and you can’t change gates (I had to go simply from A12 to A14) without going through security a second time; getting the boarding pass and going through security again delayed me so much that if the flight to Toronto had been on time, I’d have been stranded.
I was so tired, and so stressed, that instead of writing on the flight home (I do a lot of my writing on airplanes), I just curled up with a good ebook: Caleb Carr’s wonderful The Alienist (despite the title, not science fiction — “alienist” is an old-fashioned term for psychiatrist, and, indeed, was one of the titles I considered for my novel about alien psychiatry, 1994’s Foreigner).
Ah, well. In the end, the trip was worth it. Although I got to see nothing at all of Victoria, my talk for the Canadian Homecare Associating was extremely well received, and I had a wonderful time at Kansas State University, first speaking at their science-fiction class (taught by Carol Franko), where the students were studying my Hugo-nominated 1997 short story “The Hand You’re Dealt,” then at a wonderful lunch in a gorgeous dining room on campus, then giving the keynote at the dedication of the new David J. Williams III Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Collection there, then at a wonderful signing for my books (I was amazed at how many sold!), and then again at a wonderful dinner out with David’s sister and cousin and some of the K-State Librarians.
All that was on Tuesday; yesterday — Wednesday — I just hung around Manhattan, getting some peace and quiet to work on my novel Wake, and enjoying a nice dinner out with Roger Adams, the librarian who had arranged the donation of the Williams collection and had arranged for me to speak at K-State.
I now have nothing major at all on my schedule for the next five weeks, during which time I’m going to finish Wake (it’s due January 15, 2008). I’m looking forward to just sitting in my living-room La-z-boy with the fireplace going and working on the book.
(For those who’ve been to my home: I do have an office with its own La-z-boy, but in winter, I tend to work at a second workstation in the living room, so that I can enjoy the fireplace there.)
Of course, as soon as Wake is done, it’s back to travel: I’m going to Arisia in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 18-21, and then I’m off to Calgary to give a keynote address on stem-cell research for the Calgary City Teachers’ Association Conference (and I give a keynote on global warming and Canada’s future the next week back in Toronto to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment).
And then, of course, there’s the trip to Patagonia … but more about that later … ;)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Nicholas Collins’s BookBlog has nice reviews of Rollback and Fossil Hunter.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
(Photo: Sara Morgan, Robert J. Sawyer, Roger Adams)
On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, Robert J. Sawyer gave the keynote address (“Science Fiction as a Mirror for Reality”) at the Dedication Ceremony of the David J. Williams III Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Collection, at Kansas State University. The collection, consisting of 3,000 items, includes a complete run of Arkham House volumes.
Williams, who lived in Richmond, Kentucky, worked for the U.S. National Security Agency and passed away in 2001. The dedication ceremony was attended by his sister Sara Morgan, who orchestrated K-State’s acquisition of the material, in conjuction with Roger Adams of the Special Collections department of K-State’s Hale Library, where the Williams Collection is now housed.
The David J. Williams III Collection
Coverage of Sawyer’s talk from the K-State newspaper
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
A very nice review (scoll down, past the cover copy) of my Foreigner is here.
(And thanks to Kirstin Morrell for drawing this to my attenion.)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I’m not teaching there in 2008, but I do recommend Jeanne Cavelos’s Odyssey workshop. Check it out.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Yes, already! Nominations are now being accepted online for the Aurora Awards to be given in May 2008 at Keycon; these nominations are for work first published or done in 2007. You must be a Canadian citizen (not necessarily resident in Canada) or a Canadian resident to nominate; there is no charge to do so.
The Official Aurora Awards Web Site
My own work eligible for the Aurora to be given next May is my novel Rollback from Tor Books …
Many thanks to Aurora coordinator Clint Budd for getting this up and running so early!
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
So, I got this question via email today (no please, no thank you, just the naked question): “Re: sci-fi short stories. Where would I submit short story?”
My reply:
“To whichever science-fiction magazine is your favorite; if you don’t have one — if you’re not actually reading the markets you want to sell to — your chances of success are almost zero.”
Of course, the major magazines in the US are Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. But if you want to publish in them, you’ve got to read them. :)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Whenever I visit the United States, people there ask me about immigrating to Canada, and increasingly so over the last couple of years. For those who are interested, here’s the official Canadian government site on immigrating to Canada.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
David S. Goyer, Robert J. Sawyer, Brannon Braga. David co-wrote Batman Begins; Brannon co-produced various Star Trek series; we had lunch at the wonderful Chateau Marmont … no special reason. :)
Keith Calder, Robert J. Sawyer, and Jessica Wu. Keith and Jessica are principals of Snoot FX, the company that has Rob’s Hugo-nominated “Identity Theft” under option.
Robert J. Sawyer, Barry R. Levin. Barry runs the world’s best rare-SF bookshop, and gave Rob the store’s Collectors Award for Most Collectable Author of the Year in 2004.
Robert J. Sawyer and Eric Greene, author of one of Rob’s favorite nonfiction books, Planet of the Apes as American Myth
Carolyn Clink, Robert J. Sawyer, Laura Frankos, and Harry Turtledove
Laura and Harry had Carolyn and me over for Thanksgiving dinner — yum!
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Andre Bormanis, that is — science consultant, script writer, and producer for various Star Trek series. Carolyn and I joined Andre and his lady Micha for a wonderful dinner tonight (at a great L.A. restaurant called “The Nook”). Andre and I became friends at the NASA Ames / SETI conference we both attended back in July.
Before dinner, we all watched Jeopardy! at Andre’s place, since a friend of his (and former Trek writer) was a contestant tonight (and she won!).
Before that, Carolyn and I had gone to museums: first, the La Brea tar pits museum, then the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, to see a wonderful exhibition on Salvidor Dali’s work for the movies in the 1940s and beyond — really fascinating.
But, as they say on Star Trek, all good things must come to an end: tomorrow morning, Carolyn and I fly back to Toronto.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
LosCon 34 in Los Angeles was wonderful — a really pleasant, really well-run convention. I particularly enjoyed spending time with David North Reynolds, the fan guest of honor — an archaeologist who has worked with Lucasfilm, and who shares my passion for The Land of the Lost (from which the still above comes).
Another highlight: the wonderful Writers of the Future dinner Saturday night, with Larry Niven, Todd McCaffrey, Serena and Tim Powers, Laura Brodian Freas, Jerry Pournelle’s son Alex, and others.
After the con ended last night, Carolyn and I headed off to a wonderful dinner party at the gorgeous Hollywood Hills home of producer Keri Selig and her husband, talent manager Keith Addis. Also on hand: my great buddy filmmaker Michael Lennick, screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs (who wrote Chocolat), actor Jeff Goldblum, and JPL scientist (and frequent movie science consultant) Rich Terrile. A truly terrific evening, with amazingly spirited discussions about global warming, SETI, politics, the future of artificial intelligence, the Mandelbrot set, the state of the film industry, and more.
Carolyn and I have one more day in Los Angeles, then it’s back to Toronto.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
… but I did, today — yay!
We love what you’ve done. It makes a lot of great points, and also manages to be a great read. I don’t think we need to make any requests for changes.
The note was from Carol Toller of Report on Business Magazine, the glossy monthly magazine included with The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National Newspaper, one of Canada’s most prestigous (and highest-paying!) magazine markets.
And what, pray tell, is my little piece about? Sorry, you’ll have to wait until the January 2008 issue to find out … :)
Below: the current issue (not the one I’m in).
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I’ll be on the radio program Holder Tonight tonight (well, early Wednesday morning) at 1:00 a.m. Eastern time, talking about, among other things Robert J. Sawyer Books, the line I edit for Red Deer Press.
Holder Tonight is hosted by Peter Anthony Holder (above), and is heard in Montreal on CJAD 800 AM and Toronto on CFRB 1010 AM. It’ll be a half-hour interview, and I’m sure both stations have Internet streaming feeds …
(I, meanwhile, am in Los Angeles …)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I got to play with one of the beta-test units a while ago, and immediately fell in love. Sadly, they’re only available in the US right now — can’t wait for them to come to Canada!
The e-ink display is gorgeous, the ergonomics (especially the big page-changing buttons) are much better than the Sony eBook reader, the promise that new releases will be priced at $9.99 or less (as will all New York Times bestsellers), the inclusion of a decent dictionary for free, plus unlimited Wikipedia access all rock.
Yeah, at $399 it ain’t cheap, but man, is it ever cool. Not only is this the best dedicated ebook reader I’ve ever seen, but the distribution method (for free via wireless connection to the Sprint network, at no cost to the end user), and the pricing model is the best I’ve seen to date.
For the curious, novels of mine available for the Kindle are Hominids, Humans, Hybrids, and a first as an ebook, End of an Era — plus a couple of dozen of my short stories.
As many of you know, I’ve long been an ebook fan — I own dedicated devices including the Franklin eBookMan, the RCA REB-1100, and the Fictionwise eBookwise-1150, plus several Palm OS devices. My trusty Sony Clie TH55 is going to stay my principal reader (because of its portability, magnificent screen, support of multiple formats, backlight, and more), but when the Kindle comes to Canada, I’m going to snap one up.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
My former writing student Ed Willett — he twice took my course at Banff — does a weekly science column for the Regina Leader-Post and the CBC in Saskatchewan, and this week’s column is inspired by my editorial on robot ethics in the current issue of the journal Science.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
The Kansas City Star‘s Top Five SF&F Books of 2007 (alphabetically by author’s last name):
The full list of the Year’s Best in all categories is here.
In their full review back on April 22, 2007, The Kansas City Star said:
Oh, to be young again. It’s an opportunity that 87-year-old Sarah Halifax and her husband, Don, get in award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer’s Rollback. In the first two pages, Sawyer depicts the warmth of a couple married for 60 years, looking back on the past from the year 2048 including 2010, when Sarah received a plaque inscribed, “For Sarah Halifax Who Figured It Out.” Sawyer’s near-future speculative fiction reveals many advances in medicine and robotics. But it’s the humanness of the closeness (and the distance) between Sarah and Don that makes Rollback an early candidate for sci-fi book of the year.
More about Rollback is here.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Well, after thinking about it for five days, I’ve decided that the particular showing I saw at the Empire theatre in Mississauga of the classic two-part Star Trek episode “The Menagerie” was a disappointment. There’s no way the theatre was using a true 1080p HD projector; my guess is that it was just VGA quality — scan lines were clearly visible. More: the image wasn’t bright enough; black objects (such as the uniform pants) were just solid black blotches, instead of showing details.
Now, yes, they technically didn’t advertise this as an HD projection, but it was geared around the release of the first season of Star Trek on HD DVD. Apparently, some theaters — Calgary was one it, seems — did use true HD projectors, and those who saw the episodes projected thus were blown away. But the theater I saw it in didn’t do that … and, frankly, I feel ripped off, although Carolyn and I enjoyed the company of friends Chris Knight, Lee Amodeo, Lou Sytsma, and others at the showing …
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
I can’t say I really enjoyed doing the Star Trek vs. Star Wars piece earlier this week, but I really loved the interview on Definitely Not the Opera I did on privacy. I just (Saturday afternoon) caught the Winnipeg CBC feed of it, but you can still get the Calgary or Vancouver feeds at a little after 2:00 p.m. local time, via the Internet here.
“Mountain” is Calgary, “Pacific” is Vancouver.
That’s host Sook-Yin Lee, above.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
