cool scifi.com story

Over at the SciFi.com website, John Joseph Adams has written a cool rundown of HOW TO BUILD A ROBOT ARMY. So check it out to see what this little green book is all about.

Dabbler.ca Review

Anybody who wants to win a copy of How to Build a Robot Army oughta visit Dabbler.ca and enter the contest. Also, read the nice review and summary!

How to Build a Robot Army

My latest book was released on December 26th -- and it's hands down my favorite book so far. I wrote it after I finished school and started writing for Popular Mechanics, so it was pretty weird to interview all those scientists as a reporter/author type of guy instead of as a fellow roboticist. I learned how to ask the hard-hitting questions, like "Could a great white shark defeat that Alvin underwater robot? Huh? Could it! Answer the question, ma'am!"

Anyway, the first review of the book is in over at the Agony Column.

First the short quote:

'How to Build a Robot Army' is pretty hard to put down.

Now the long quote:

There's nobody doing anything quite like Dr. Daniel H. Wilson, and he continues his collaboration with illustrator Richard Horne in 'How to Build a Robot Army : Tips On Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas and Zombies' (Bloomsbury ; January 2008 ; $13.95). Combining straight-faced goofy humor, a bit of hard science speculation, out-and-out media-based science fiction and highly-stylized illustrations, these books pretend to be guides to one thing when they're really guides to something rather different.

Mysterious Pilot

I'll be careful not to say this in the airport, but I'm gone the rest of this week to shoot a pilot. Or more specifically, to act as the host for a pilot television show. It's pretty much top secret, but I'm sort of excited so I'm blogging the general details anyway. The pilot episode of this show probably won't be aired and it involves me operating heavy machinery. If the show gets picked up, I'll be on television. If not, I'll still have an interesting (and probably hilarious) anecdote to tell my friends and family. More soon...

LiveWire! Radio Show

On Saturday, October 20th at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon -- I'm kicking it with the LiveWire! radio hosts and talking about Where's My Jetpack? and whatever else I can think of that's interesting and not too embarrassing. But the best part? The other guests, including:

Actor BRUCE CAMPBELL (Evil Dead, The Hudsucker Proxy, Bubba Ho-Tep) and MIKE RICHARDSON from Dark Horse Comics join us to discuss their collaboration on the upcoming zombie-riffic film, My Name is Bruce

VIVA VOCE, the band Venus Magazine called, "A dark and seductive fuzzed-out pool of rock."

Love From Tulsa

Matt Gleason wrote a very nice article about Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived and about what I've been up to in general. During the phone interview Matt said something that cracked me up -- it was along the lines of: "So you're just, like, a regular dude who knows about science?" Hah! So true...

Check out the article in the Tulsa World.

Public Radio International

Heads up, world! On Monday, August 12th I'll be talking jetpacks with Faith Salie on the Fair Game Show on Public Radio International. Should be a good time!

Robot Uprising Movie... still limping along!

The LA Times interviewed Tom Lennon and Ben Garant -- the two very talented (and busy) screenwriters who are working on adapting How to Survive a Robot Uprising for Paramount. According to this LA Times story the guys are still working on what I like to call "my movie." Exciting -- it's just too bad that I'll be in my thirties before it comes out.
:)

Odd But Potentially Amusing Request

In-te-rest-ing. I've been taking improv classes this year and it looks like I'm going to get a chance to use my skillz. Well, not really. But I'll be at the Portland Center Stage on September 21st, working with Gary Hirsch from On Your Feet Improv and Super Project Lab Improv. Here's what I'll be doing:

We are looking for guests to share their stories and to inspire our improv for this next run. Here is what it would entail:

* You are introduced to the audience and ask for a suggestion to inspire a true life story or experience (in the past guests have asked for an occupation, a life changing event, etc)

* The audience yells out their ideas and when you hear one that inspires you, they tell a true story from your life based on the suggestion. This is a 2-3 minute monologue about anything you want to talk about. This does not have to be funny or clever, it just has to be true.

* After about 3 minutes, or when you find a stop point, one of the five SPL improvisers will walk in front of them and start an improvised scene inspired by their monologue. Then you move off the stage into a comfy chair for about 10 minutes.

My Kanye West-esque Critique of Transformers for Wired Magazine

Transformers don't care about people -- any kind of people. I wrote a quick article for Wired about why Transformers rock because they don't want to either be people or kill people. They've got their own damn problems.

Of course, I saw the latest movie preview today and it's all about how some Transformers want to "protect" humans and some want to "destroy" humans. That's what cracks me up about humans -- it's always all about us... But it's a movie, so what are you going to do?