Press Release - 13 September, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
B.C. authors to dine with the First Lady
British Columbia husband and wife authors Spider and Jeanne Robinson have each been invited, separately, to bring a guest to the White House and dine with Laura Bush at the end of this month, as part of the Library of Congress's National Book Festival.
Each year fewer than 80 authors in North America are chosen to represent their publishers at the NBF, which includes dinner with the First Lady on September 29, 2006, breakfast at the White House next morning, and a day reading from and signing their works at the National Mall. Other authors this year include Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Connelly, Douglas Brinkley, Bob Woodward, and Alice McDermott. (See http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/ for more information.)
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| Spider Robinson reading the Robert Heinlein novel Variable Star in the White House library. |
Spider Robinson's name was submitted by Tor Books to celebrate the biggest novel of his 33-year award-winning career: VARIABLE STAR, a posthumous collaboration with Robert A. Heinlein, voted the First Grandmaster of Science Fiction by his peers in 1974. Robinson was chosen by the Heinlein estate to complete the novel from a detailed 1955 outline recently discovered among Heinlein's papers. "The first book I ever read, at age six, was a Heinlein," Spider says. "Being asked to complete one is a great honour and profound privilege. Robert was my mentor and friend, and 18 years after his death, I just wanted to read a new Heinlein novel so badly, I didn't care if I had to do 95% of the typing." The book will be launched in Vancouver on October 22, 2006 with a reading/signing at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, where Spider has just been named its first-ever Author In Residence.
The Library Journal's review of
Variable Star closes, "...award-winning author Robinson has captured the late Grand Master storyteller's essential spirit while adding his own unique brand of lyrical prose and warm humor. A mandatory purchase for all sf collections." The NY Times Book Review was the first to call Spider Robinson "the new Robert Heinlein" back in 1982, and he once penned a famous essay savaging Heinlein's detractors, titled, "Rah Rah, RAH!!!"
Jeanne Robinson was chosen for the NBF by Baen Books for another collaboration - with her husband Spider. The choreographer and former modern dancer, who ran Halifax's historic Nova Dance Theatre for nearly a decade, co-wrote three international-award-winning novels about zero gravity dance, and Baen is re-releasing them in a hardcover omnibus as
The Stardance Trilogy this month. In 1977, the Chicago Sun-Times called the first novel in the series,
Stardance, "...a major achievement: not merely as entertainment, but as a literary milestone."
Jeanne, a Soto Zen monk, is now working on a 10-minute film about zero gravity dance with Hugo-winning artist Ron Miller, director Michael Lennick, and composer James Raymond (son of David Crosby); see
http://www.spiderrobinson.com/stardance.htm for details.
The Robinsons, married for 31 years, hope they'll get to sing "On The Way To The Stars" together for the First Lady. Yet another collaboration, the song's melody was provided by their friend David Crosby, for some lyrics Spider had written in
Variable Star. After September 19, 2006, Crosby and Robinson can be seen together being interviewed at length about Heinlein at
http://www.expandedbooks.com, in a video that features Spider performing their song.
Spider's latest solo novel, an adult SF/mystery/thriller called
Very Bad Deaths, set in present-day B.C., with flashbacks to the Sixties, is also just out in paperback from Baen this month. "Five Robinson titles, in time for Christmas," Spider says. "Good news for readers."
Spider has won SF's top world honour, the Hugo Award, 3 times so far; Jeanne is believed to be the only writer ever to win one with her first published work. More information on both Robinsons can be found at
http://www.spiderrobinson.com .
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