Robert J. Sawyer

I’m giving a keynote today at the 48th Annual International Conference on Health and Science Communiciation:

Marching Together with Technology into the Future

Robert J. Sawyer
Author and Futurist (sfwriter.com)

Many industries still haven’t embraced 20th-century technology, and we’re now well into the 21st! A look at the state-of-the-art in technologies such as voice recognition, face recognition, ubiquitous computing, and artificial intelligence — and where these technologies will be in just a few years, plus an analysis of what they can do for your business; how to evaluate them, select the appropriate/applicable ones and develop a plan for integration.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Just got back from Alberta. I gave a keynote address to the Canadian Public Relation Society‘s annual meeting (this year entitled “Fast Forward”) in Edmonton. My talk was very well received. My friend Barb Galler-Smith, herself a fine science-fiction writer, picked me up at the airport yesterday, and returned me there today. Last night, she, I, and fantasy writer Ann Marston went out to dinner with some fans of my work who were involved with CPRS; we had a great time.

Although I’m now back in Ontario, there’s no rest for the wicked. Tomorrow, I have a 10:30 a.m. meeting with some film producers interested in one of my properties. Then I’m off to the annual meeting of the Health Science Communications Association, which is being held this year at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto; I’m giving a keynote there.

Then its a mad dash up to TVOntario’s studios to record a program for them (on why the world seems to have given up on optimism), then it’s off to dinner with my writing buddy Robert Charles Wilson, and finally, to cap off the day, it’s off to the beginning of my brother-in-law David Livingstone Clink’s ninth annual DAVE (Dave’s Annual Vacuuming Excuse) — a party that lasts all weekend long.

Whew!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

… and the Canadian SF Works Database wiki that Marcel Gagné and I started has a wonderfully long list of eligible works.

Check the list out here, and please read over my own eligible story, “Biding Time” (which the Globe and Mail called “excellent” in a recent review).

Grab a ballot here, and get it in the mail (postmarked by) by this Friday, June 15, 2007.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

A very talented artist named Stephen J. Greene has sent me these terrific illustrations he did of characters from my “Quintaglio Ascension” trilogy (Far-Seer, Fossil Hunter, and Foreigner). Click on the small versions below to see them full size.

Afsan and Gork

Dybo

Miscellaneous Quintaglios

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The wonderful people at H.B. Fenn and Company (Tor’s Canadian distributor) had me do a signing at their booth at BookExpo Canada today. Fenn gave away 200 hardcovers of Rollback to booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and so forth — $6,000 worth of books!

I signed them all — and my hand was getting tired by the end. I had a giant line-up, that started forming almost an hour before my event; I spent some of the time before my signing just walking along the line chatting with people.

Everyone in this picture is in line to get me to sign a copy of Rollback for them; the line goes right around the bend and off into the distance:

And here I am, wearing out my hand:

All in all, a great event — and a great day!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Be warned: lots and lots of purple and pink! Read the interview here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The sign over my head shows the Penguin logo and the slogan “The Great Books Are Here.” Who are we to argue? Today, at BookExpo Canada, Penguin Canada threw a wonderful champagne reception, and on hand were (if I may be so bold) four major figures of Canadian science-fiction and fantasy: Robert J. Sawyer, Guy Gavriel Kay, William Gibson, and John Robert Colombo (who edited the very first anthology of Canadian SF&SF, 1979’s Other Canadas). Click on the small picture above for a full-size version.

(My next three books will be published by Penguin Canada; Penguin Canada already publishes Guy and Bill, and John has done many nonfiction books for Penguin.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Saturday, June 9, 2007, edition of The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National Newspaper reviews Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer. The whole review is here; the reviewer is named Cori Dusmann.

Among other very nice things, the review says:

While Rollback is, on the surface, a book about reaching out to those across the universe, it is at its heart an investigation of our very humanity, and how relationships are a fundamental key to defining who we are. Sawyer’s crisp and accessible writing style allows for this interweaving of the personal and the scientific. The characters feel real, and their emotions and responses genuine. Beyond the SF trappings, Rollback is a story about love and commitment, about humanity at its most basic — a novel to be savoured by science-fiction and mainstream readers alike.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Carolyn and I will be closing down our eBay store — through which we sell signed copies of my books — at the end of next week, since we’re going away for the summer. The store will re-open in October, but if you want to get signed copies before then, please place your order soon. The store is here:

The Robert J. Sawyer Store Online

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

My friend and writing student Nicholas Collins sent me these wonderful jokes he came up with, based on my books. You’ll have to know my novels well to get them all — but I think they’re terrific!

How many mindscans (uploads) does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but it will cost a lot of money because he’ll want to ship the old bulb all the way to High Eden on the moon.

How many rollbacks does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, and the best part is you know he’ll be around to change the bulb for you again next time, and the time after that, and the time after that … etc.

How many female Waldahudin does it take to change a light bulb?

I don’t know, she keeps waiting for a male to do it for her.

How many male Waldahudin does it take to change a light bulb?

I don’t know, they keep fighting over who should get to change it.

How many Quintaglios does it take to change a light bulb?

Well, we started with a group of eight, but now there’s only one left, so he’d better be able to change the bulb.

How many Neanderthals does it take to change a light bulb?

I’m not sure, I forgot to count them – but I can check the alibi archive, right?

How many characters from Flashforward does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but they can all warn you when the bulb will need changing twenty-one years in advance.

How many Wreeds does it take to change a light bulb?

Maybe a few, or more, or a lot, or some … I’m not really sure (and neither are the Wreeds).

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I’m delighted to present a series of audio files and podcasts: Editor Rob Sawyer interviewing authors who have published under his Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint at Fitzherny & Whiteside — plus readings by the authors from their books!

Marcos Donnelly, author of Letters from the Flesh:

• Marcos interviewed by Rob
• Marcos reading from his book
• More about Letters from the Flesh

Danita Maslan, author of Rogue Harvest:

• Danita interviewed by Rob
• Danita reading from her book
• More about Rogue Harvest
• Danita’s website

Nick DiChario, author of A Small And Remarkable Life:

• Nick interviewed by Rob (part 1)
• Nick interviewed by Rob (part 2)
• Nick reading from his book
• More about A Small and Remarkable Life
• Nick’s website

For more on these and all the other titles, see the Robert J. Sawyer Books website — or our full-color ad inside the front cover of the June 2007 issue of Locus.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Romantic Times Book Reviews has reviewed Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, calling it “Riveting — highly emotional and original; a complex story with sympathetic and believable characters.”

The full review is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Marcel Gagné and I were chatting about a big problem with the Aurora Awards, namely that there was no convenient centralized place for people to post information about Canadian-authored works that they themselves have written, or are aware of by other people, that are eligible (either for the Auroras or other annual awards).

Well, this is the era of the wiki, and so Marcel and I have now set up a new one just for this purpose: The Canadian SF Works Database.

Marcel (who did all the technical work) felt it was important that people need to have an account to post, so please set up an account and go ahead and add to the lists! Marcel and I have simply started this … but, like all wikis, it’s wide open, and belongs to its users … including you!

The URL is easy remember: CanadianSF.com. Check it out — and add to the lists! And, please, help spread the word!

The podcast “The Future and You” interviewed Robert J. Sawyer, Mike Resnick, David Coe, and a bunch of others at Ravencon in April 2007, and the interviews are now available in this week’s podcast, available here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

After the weekend in Sudbury, during which I got my honorary doctorate, Carolyn and I drove on to Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, where I spent the next two days — Monday, June 4, and Tuesday, June 5, 2007 — visiting with students from five area high schools. You can read an account of one of the visits here and here.

Special thanks to David Frech of Central Algoma Secondary School for coordinating all the school visits. The students — ranging from grade 9 to 12, were all wonderfully inquisitive, polite, and pleasant, and they asked lots of great questions.

On Monday night, between the two days of school visits, I did a signing at the Coles bookstore in Cambrian Mall. It’s a small mall, and it was a miserable, rainy night — so I was very pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came out to the signing; I really quite enjoyed it.

After the last school visit, Carolyn and I did the seven-hour drive back to Mississauga — whew! It’s good to be home. And I am actually home for — gasp! — an entire week (until Wednesday, June 13, when I head off to Alberta to give the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Canadian Public Relations Society). Still busy, though: in the interim, it’s BookExpo Canada, the big tradeshow.

Poster announcing Rob’s visit to Korah School

Students listening to Rob at Central Algoma Secondary School in Desberats, Ontario

Rob joins in for a class photo at White Pines, a school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (I’m wearing the official shirt of the Calgary Westercon from a couple of years ago)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Sunday, June 3, 2007 — the day after I got my honorary doctorate from Laurentian University — I did a victory lap in Sudbury, appearing at the Chapters bookstore there. :) We had an excellent overflow crowd, including several Laurentian faculty members and some of the students who had graduated the day before, and heard my convocation address.

(The sign over my head at the reading was wonderfully appropriate — it’s exactly how I felt!)

After the reading and signing was over, the staff of the Sudbury Chapters presented me with a couple of wonderful gifts: a big box of various dark chocolate bars (my favorite — and pretty low in carbs!), and a wonderful framed and signed photo of Science North, the science museum in Sudbury, with a plaque beneath it that says:

The Other World of
Ponter Boddit
Chapters Sudbury
June 2, 2007

(Ponter is the Neanderthal quantum physicist who slides through to this version of reality in Sudbury, in my Hugo Award-winning novel Hominids and its sequels.) Way, way cool!

After that, Carolyn and I were taken out to lunch by David Goforth, Ph.D., of Laurentian University’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and David Robinson, Ph.D., of Laurentian’s Department of Economics. Although I received my honorary doctorate this year in response to me being nominated by Michael Emond, Ph.D., of Laurentian’s Department of Psychology in 2005, it turns out the two Davids had previously also nominated me, as well, in 2003 — which was very flattering to hear.

More: Drs. Goforth and Robinson are collaborating on a book on game theory, a discipline that’s going to figure prominently in my upcoming WWW trilogy, and we had a wonderful brainstorming session — thanks, guys!

Carolyn and I then headed out of Sudbury, stopping to take a picture of the Big Nickel — a Sudbury landmark. We then drove the three hours to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (putting us a total of seven hours from Toronto), where we checked into a hotel. Why? See my next blog entry …

The staff of Chapters in Sudbury gave me some neat gifts!

Sudbury’s Big Nickel (science fiction writer to scale); that’s King George VI, Canada’s former monarch, on the obverse

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Quill and Quire, the Canadian publishing trade journal, has just posted its cover-story profile of Robert J. Sawyer online; the cover story appeared in the May 2007 issue. The profile is titled “Nothing but blue skies: For Canadian sci-fi giant Robert J. Sawyer, the future is bright.” Read the full text here.

Update March 2008: Quill & Quire names Robert J. Sawyer one of “the 30 most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing.”

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

On Saturday, June 2, 2007, Robert J. Sawyer received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters, honoris causa) from Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario; Sawyer also gave the convocation address to graduating arts students that day. The doctorate was given in recognition of Sawyer’s international success as a science-fiction writer.

Laurentian, a bilingual English-and-French institution, is the leading university in northern Ontario. During the same series of convocations, other honorary doctorates were awarded, including to civil-rights leader Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine. Laurentian bestowed its first honorary doctorate of letters in 1970, to Canadian literary legend Farley Mowat.

Sawyer’s Hugo Award-winning novel Hominids and its sequels Humans and Hybrids are set largely in the Sudbury area, including at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and at Laurentian University itself (which is known worldwide for Michael Persinger‘s research there using transcranial magnetic stimulation inducing religious experiences, research that figures prominently in Hybrids).

Sawyer was nominated for the doctorate by Michael Emond, a tenured professor in Laurentian’s Psychology Department. Said Emond when making the nomination: “I could think of no better candidate that exemplifies the reasons why I am proud to be Canadian.”

Receiving the honorary doctorate was the final stop on Sawyer’s six-week book tour promoting the release of his seventeenth novel, Rollback (Tor, April 2007).

Laurentian University press release

Photos:

Robert J. Sawyer receives his honorary doctorate from Laurentian president Judith Woodsworth, while Dr. Michael Emond, who nominated Rob for the doctorate, looks on.

Rob gives the convocation address; read the full text here.

Carolyn Clink, President Woodsworth, and Robert J. Sawyer at the reception after the convocation

A close-up of the diploma.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Photos from the dinner at the Laurentian University president’s house. Minnijean Brown-Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine, and is a prominent Civil Rights activist; Dr. Michael Emond, of Laurentian’s Department of Psychology, nominated science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer for his honorary doctorate, which he will receive later today; Minnijean also received an honorary doctorate from Laurentian.

Minnijean Brown Trickey, Robert J. Sawyer:

Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Emond:

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Carolyn and I had a very nice drive up through beautiful countryside to Sudbury, Ontario, today — about five hours on the road. Tonight, we had dinner at the home of the president of Laurentian; the dinner was in honour of myself and the other recipients of honorary doctorates this year, including Minnijean Brown Trickey. Minnijean was one of the Little Rock Nine — the African-American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, 50 years ago. I told her how much she meant to me, and we both got teary eyed, and she hugged me. It was an absolute thrill.

At my table at dinner was Prof. Michael Emond, the Laurentian psych professor who nominated me for the honorary doctorate. We’d never met before, but immediately hit it off; he’ll be introducing me tomorrow. And, in fact, I was pleased to see the program book for tomorrow’s convocation, which says:

CONFERRING THE HONORARY DEGREE
Dr. Michael Emond will present Mr. Robert Sawyer for the Doctorate of Letters (honoris causa). Dr. Sawyer will address Convocation.

What a cool moment of transition! I’m still stunned that this is happening to me … I’m very flattered, and very pleased.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Laurentian University is giving me an honorary doctorate TOMORROW (Saturday, June 2, 2007), and they will be webcasting the ceremony. You can watch it live as it happens, starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time (Toronto/New York) on Saturday, June 2, 2007, right here.

(If that link doesn’t work, go to the main convocation page here, and select the webcast at the very bottom of the page.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I am thrilled to report that Nick DiChario‘s A Small and Remarkable Life, published under the Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint, has been short-listed for one of the most prestigious awards in all of science fiction: The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year.

The short list is here.

The Campbell Memorial is the principal juried award in the field, bestowed by a blue-ribbon panel of American and British academics and authors.

As it happens, I myself won the award last year for my novel Mindscan, so you’ll find a lot of information about it in my press release for that win.

For the record, this is the second award nomination for an RJS Books publication; the first, last year, was the Aurora Award — Canada’s top SF award — for best short work in English, for “Alexander’s Road,” the one original story in Karl Schroeder’s collection The Engine oF Recall, as you can see here.

Can I pick ’em, or what? :)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

To my astonishment and delight, my Chinese publisher has just informed me that I’ve won the Galaxy Award, China’s top science-fiction award, in the category “Most-Popular Foreign Author of the Year.” Go me!

And I will: all the way to Chengdu, China, to collect the award in person in August, and to attend the 2007 International SF/Fantasy Conference in Chengdu, where the award will be given. Carolyn’s coming along; it should be a blast!

Others attending from North America, as I understand it, include David Brin, Frederik Pohl and Betty Ann Hull, and Locus editor Charles N. Brown.

Carolyn and I won’t be continuing on to Japan for the World Science Fiction Convention the following week, though. Instead, we’ll be heading back to Canada’s far north for our writing retreat at Berton House.

By the way, this means, I’ve now won the top SF awards in the United States (the Nebula), France (Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire), Japan (the Seiun, which I’ve won three times), and Spain (the Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficcíon, which I’ve also won three times); I’ve also won Canada’s top SF award, the Aurora, nine times, but I don’t group that with the others because only Canadian authors are eligible for it; the Nebula and the Premio UPC are open to authors regardless of nationality, and the Chinese, Japanese, and French awards all have categories for foreign work.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Nominations for the 2007 Aurora Awards — the Canadian science fiction and fantasy awards — are now open. You can get the nominating ballot here. Any Canadian, whether or not resident in Canada, may nominate, and there’s no charge to do so.

My own story, eligible for nomination, is the SF/mystery “Biding Time,” from the anthology Slipstreams, is available right here as a Word document — enjoy!

(Deadline for nominations is POSTMARKED by Friday, June 15, 2007.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I’m off to Montreal tonight to give the keynote address tomorrow moring at the conference “Reasons to Hope, Knowledge to Cope — Innovations in Cancer Patient Education,” being presented by the Cancer Patient Education Network Canada. I do a lot of keynotes for corporations and organizations, talking about the current and projected state of science and technology. More on me as a keynote speaker is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I have to confess to never having watched an episode of the ABC TV series Lost, but I know it’s hugely popular — and I know it has a main character named Sawyer.

Well, a fan both of Lost and my work, points out that the name of a funeral home in a recent episode is “Hoffs/Drawlar” — which is an anagram of Flashforward, the title of my 1999 novel.

And he’s enumerated other similarities here.

Fascinating!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Author Adam-Troy Castro and his wife Judi picked us up at the hotel at 10:00 a.m. and we drove the 50 miles to the Kennedy Space Centre (getting slightly lost on the way). The Castros’ rental car’s windshield got so plastered with splattered insects (“love bugs,” we were told they were called) that we actually had a very hard time seeing though the glass.

At one point, I asked if people knew what ate love bugs — then supplied my answer: Herbie-vores. :)

We started our visit to the Kennedy Space Center (which was remarkably uncrowded, given that this was the Memorial Day holiday) by watching the 3D Imax film Walking on the Moon, which was spectacular — all four of us were teary-eyed by the end. We then took the bus tour to the launch-complex viewing platform (where we could see the top of the Shuttle Atlantis on the pad), and to the newly enclosed Saturn V viewing facility.

We lingered so long at various places (but enjoyable so) that we didn’t get to go to the third station on the tour, devoted to the International Space Station, but that was okay. We ran into San Diego fan Cary Meriwether and his girlfriend Michele at KSC, and spent part of our day with them, as well.

We finished our day by doing the Shuttle launch simulator, a new ride (it opened on Friday!) that supposedly accurately mimics a Shuttle launch by simulating three Gs. Although it was purported to be similar in vomit-inducing abilities to the Mission to Space ride at Epcot that we’d done on Friday of last week, it was actually quite tame, and we all enjoyed it. But I was very disappointed in the conclusion, which has the shuttle hanging upside down, with the Earth overhead — because, while looking on the day side of Earth, they had the sky filled with brilliant (Christmas-tree light) stars. You can’t see the stars in space when the Earth is lit up by the sun; there’s too much glare, and the stars are too faint.

For NASA to opt for a Hollywood-style version of space, instead of simulating the real thing, was a huge disservice in my view.

After, Adam, Judi, Carolyn, and I went to Cattleman’s on International Drive for a nice, late steak dinner.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

There’s a good video here about The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Check it out, and Digg it if you like it!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Anybody out there got a copy of the bulletin/catalog of the Science Fiction Book Club, that has my Rollback listed as a main selection? If you don’t need your copy, I’d love to have it for my files. My address is:

Robert J. Sawyer
100 City Centre Drive
PO Box 2065
Mississauga ON
Canada L5B 3C6

Many, many thanks!

Rob

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Karen Bennett has a wonderful survey article on her website entitled The Speculative Torontos of Robert Charles Wilson and Robert J. Sawyer. Check it out!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site