Thank you to Gloria McMillan for the opportunity to present on the topic of science fiction and the real-life exploration of space for the September 2025 edition of the HardScience SF Writers Readers Artists Zoom Group speaker series. A recording of my presentation is available on the group’s YouTube channel. Next month’s speaker will be astronomical artist Simon Kregar.
For those who are not familiar with Scott Edelman’s wonderful Eating the Fantastic podcast, it’s like a benevolent transporter accident that combines two of my favourite things: food and fandom. I am truly honoured to be the guest of the latest episode of Eating the Fantastic. Listening to the episode took me right back to my wonderful meal and conversation with Scott at Lebanese Taverna in Rockville, Maryland last September after the Capclave science fiction convention. It’s just like being there!
For the record, I’ve never actually seen William Shatner dubbed in Cantonese, but I have seen Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman dubbed in Thai.
Please join me on January 26, 2023 in conversation with Kachun Alex Wong for a virtual book talk on my collection Just Like Being There presented by the Richard Charles Lee Canada — Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto.
Update: A recording of the event is available here.
The Astounding Analog Companion blog has posted a Q&A in which I discuss the background of my story “The Greatest Day”, how my late dear friend Leslie Gelberger introduced me to Analog, the engineers and scientists who have inspired me, how I got into writing, the reading pile on my bedside table, and my career in aerospace engineering.
Robert J. Sawyer, Kim Stanley Robinson, and I were on the July 22nd episode of TVOntario’s The Agenda, “Moon Rising: 50 Years After Apollo 11”, to talk about how the historic lunar mission has influenced our work as science fiction writers. The episode is now available online.
SF2 Concatenation is running an excellent series of articles by science fiction writers with a degree in science, engineering, mathematics, or medicine about the Top 10 scientists (and engineers) born in the 20th Century who have most inspired or influenced them. Click here to read my article, which appears in the Summer 2019 edition.
Previous authors in the series include Julie Czerneda, Sam Peters, Peter Watts, Andrew Bannister, Paul McAuley, Ian Stewart, and Tony Ballantyne.
My interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show is now online. The episode was originally recorded at Loncon 3 back on August 15th, 2014. It’s a little noisy because we were standing near the runway of London City Airport, but the plane spotter geek in me was up to the challenge (my hosts found me “informative and fascinating”, at least in this regard). A big thank you to Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer and Julia Rios for a truly fun late summer chat in London. Enjoy the episode!
I will be having a one-on-one conversation with Jeff Beeler about Carbide Tipped Pens at GenreCon 2015 this Saturday, May 2nd at 1:00pm. We will be talking about the origin and creation of this new anthology of hard science fiction, how Ben Bova and I came up with the idea, found a publisher and the authors, obtained the stories, and put them together to create the collection. GenreCon will be held at the Sarnia Public Library, located at 124 Christina Street South in Sarnia, Ontario. Here is my full programming schedule:
10:00am — How Books Get Published
What is the way books are created and how can you access it to get the books you want to read or write in print or electronically?
Sandra Kasturi (moderator), Sylvia Hubbard, Brett Savory, Dennis Collins, Monica Royal, Eric Choi
11:00am — Meet and Greet
1:00pm — Carbide Tipped Pens
A conversation with Eric Choi about the origin and creation of this new anthology of hard science fiction he created with Ben Bova, how they came up with the idea, found a publisher and the authors, obtained the stories, and put them together to create the collection.
Jeff Beeler (moderator), Eric Choi
2:00pm — The Weird and the Wonderful
The attraction of reading and writing science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror.
Sandra Kastury (moderator), Brett Savory, Dennis Collins, Monica Royal, Eric Choi
I am profiled in the March 2, 2015 edition of the Hong Kong based newspaper Wen Wei Po (文匯報).
The Skiffy and Fanty Show have posted the audio of the Canadian SF/F panel at Loncon 3, featuring Hayden Trenholm (moderator), Eric Choi, Kate Heartfield, Marjolaine Lafreniere, Ira Nayman and Caitlin Sweet.