... you'll love this!



(Direct YouTube Link)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

As those who follow my travel schedule know, I fly a lot (next month, I have eight flights booked).

I rely on SeatGuru for information about which are the good seats and which are the bad ones on planes. When you're flying across country, as, for instance, I am on the trip I just booked via WestJet, having extra legroom can make all the difference between a relaxing, productive (with my laptop) trip, and five hours of pure hell, with some clown leaning his chair all the way back into my face.

SeatGuru -- which is free to use -- shows you every seat on every plane used by every major airline, and tells you about legroom, whether the seat tends to get cold, how well you can see the in-flight movie screens, etc. I love it.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

For those reading my new novel Wake, now being serialized in Analog: please let me know if you spot any typos or errors. I still have time to correct them in the Ace hardcover, which comes out in April 2009.

Many thanks!

Rob

The 2008 Mississauga Write-Off, which began Thursday evening, August 29, and finished this afternoon, Monday, September 1, was a great success. The weather was gorgeous throughout, and our balcony was put to good use:


Elizabeth Westbrook-Trenholm


Hayden Trenholm


Herb Kauderer

I did some work on the balcony, but also worked with my lovely dual-monitor setup in my office:


Robert J. Sawyer



Meanwhile, David Livingstone Clink worked at my alternative dual-monitor workstation in the living room.



Paddy Forde preferred the sun room; note the cover for the British edition of The Terminal Experiment on the wall



Carolyn worked in her office, but also kept an eye on things; here she wears a souvenir shirt from the last writing retreat she and I did -- in Dawson City, Yukon!



Al Katerinsky usually worked on the kitchen table, but here is taking a break on the living-room couch.

All in all, a wonderful four days!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I mentioned back in June 2008 that Srinivas Krishna, the director who has my Nebula Award-winning novel The Terminal Experiment under option, has renewed his option for a third year.

And I note now that his large-scale public art installation When the Gods Came Down to Earth is on display outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto during the Toronto International Film Festival, September 4-13, 2008. Check it out!

More info is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Jeffrey A. Carver is a good friend of mine, and also one heck of a good hard SF writer. To set the stage for Tor's forthcoming release of his next novel, Sunborn, Jeff is giving away ebook versions of his older titles. Highly recommended.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I had cause today to gather some links to podcasts of me talking about science-fiction writing and the history of the genre, and I thought I'd share them here:

• Audio lecture from Odyssey Workshop with Robert J. Sawyer on point-of-view
  
  
• Audio lecture from Odyssey Workshop with Robert J. Sawyer on "Is your science-fiction element extraneous?"
  
  
• Audio interview with Robert J. Sawyer conducted by Tee Morris about book marketing
  
  
• Audio lecture by Robert J. Sawyer: "Science Fiction as a Mirror for Reality"
  
  
• YouTube version of above lecture, with graphics

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Cribbed from Torontoist:The Eden Mills Writers' Festival—the Toronto literary community's annual out-of-town oasis—is celebrating its twentieth birthday this summer. This year's festival, a mere forty-five minutes west of Toronto, starts this Friday [September 5, 2008] and includes workshops, seminars, and the popular "festival day" on Sunday [September 7, 2008].

Some of the big appearances this year include David McGimpsey, Shari Lapeña, Michael Ondaatje, Alistair MacLeod, Robert J. Sawyer, and Jane Urquhart. Book lovers can get a break from the city and spend their Sunday in the village, enjoying readings, music, food, and of course, books to buy.

Website: edenmillswritersfestival.ca

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Pure Speculation Festival (October 18-19, 2008) Hazeldean Community Hall, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Two days of literary science-fiction and fantasy panels, including Con Spec (hosted by On Spec Magazine) and Comic Talks (hosted by Happy Harbor Comics); plus games, the Geeks for Geeks Charity Auction (in support of the Edmonton Small Press Association), the Speculation Bake-off, and the Costume Shindig.

Guests of Honour: author Robert J. Sawyer, author/game designer Monte Cook and artist Herman Lau. Adult Weekend Pass: $25 until 10/12/08; $30 at the door. Children 12 and under are free. Website: www.purespec.org.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

She leaves you breathless!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

They're drifting away: Liz and Hayden left before lunch. Herb, Al, Paddy, Dave, Carolyn, and I went to Swiss Chalet for lunch once more. After, I showed people the "Crazy Ray" episode of Pam Anderson's sitcom Stacked, one of the best treatments of writerly jealousy I've ever seen -- and very, very funny.

Herb and Al are heading out the door now ...

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

We ordered in pizza (which we ate out on my balcony), then we all did brief readings of the new work we'd written over the weekend. And then, to round out the evening, we watched part one of "In a Mirror, Darkly," from Star Trek: Enterprise, because Paddy Forde, Herb Kauderer, Al Katerinsky, and Hayden Trenholm had never seen it. Hayden crawled off to bed after watching the opening, but the rest of us stayed up to 1:00 a.m., rapt, watching it; we'll watch part two tomorrow.

All in all, the Second Mississauga Write-Off has been a great success!

Below: Hayden after a few beers.



The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

We had a long lunch at The Mad Hatter, a pub near Carolyn and my home; it was a wonderful walk to the pub and, once again, the Toronto weather is perfect. David Clink is rejoining us this evening after his day of golf.

Paddy Forde is in the sun room; Carolyn and Liz Trenholm are in Carolyn's office; Hayden Trenholm and Al Katerinsky are writing at the kitchen table; Herb Kauderer is on the balcony; and I'm in my office.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Ben Wall, a fan of my stories, just sent me the above photo from BrickFest in Washington D.C., a convention for adult fans of Lego. The placard says:Brickfest 2008
Starships Merelcas and Starplex
by Phillip Thorne, 33

Exploratory starships from the Robert J. Sawyer novels "Calculating God" (2001) and "Starplex" (1996)How cool is that! :) :) :)

More of Phillip's amazing work is online -- including a Lego model of Hollus having dinner at the Jericho househould from Calculating God. Check it out here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Pat Forde got us all to watch this online video, entitled "Where the Hell is Matt?"

Next time we send something like the Voyager record out into space, we should include this. It's us -- the joy of being human.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Carolyn just drove her brother, the poet David Livingstone Clink, home; he's off to play golf tomorrow. But he was a great writing-retreat participant, and we were glad to have him.

Still going strong: Robert J. Sawyer, Carolyn Clink, Hayden and Liz Trenholm, Al Katerinsky, Herb Kauderer, and Pat Forde. Tomorrow's our final day.

A line I wrote today:He'd know what to do with her junk; she should know what to do with his ... shouldn't she?

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

1) Don't eat so much for lunch.

2) There is no number two.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Herb Kauderer has gone downstairs (we've booked the guest suite in our condo for the weekend to house Herb and Al Katerinsky at night) and is napping there; Al is napping in a Muskoka chair on the balcony; and Liz Westbrook-Trenholm is having a nap on the couch in Carolyn's office.

Clearly, everyone has been working too hard at writing, and is exhausted ... or else, the giant lunch we all had at Boston Pizza is taking its toll!

The weather today is absolutely perfect here in Mississauga: it's 4:20 in the afternoon, the temperature is 25 degrees Celsius, and there's a wonderful breeze. Me, I'm writing out on the balcony ...

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

... and so is Al Katerinsky; both arrived just in time for dinner out at Montana's (a roadhouse chain restaurant).

Pat Forde was nominated for a Hugo for his remarkable novella "In Spirit," first published in Analog. He and Al -- one of my writing students -- will be with us until Monday. David Livingstone Clink is expected in about an hour ...

The first day of the Mississauga Write-Off? A roaring success!

Pictured: Pat Forde and Carolyn Clink in May 2007

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

And, OMG, it looks gorgeous! This is the latest book under my Robert J. Sawyer Books imprint for Red Deer Press; my copies were just delivered to my home. It looks fabulous.

The anthology, edited by Fiona Kelleghan, will be hitting the stories shortly. That's Fiona, below, in a photo I took at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando in March 2008. More about the book is here.



The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site