Daniel H. Wilson
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I am a writer living in Portland, Oregon.
wikipedia or
imdb
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WHERE'S MY JETPACK?
"Wilson's tone is humorous, yet he does justice to the science underlying his topic..." - Nisi Shawl, Seattle Times check it out at amazon |
HOW TO SURVIVE
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BRO-JITSU: THE MOVIE
Nickelodeon movies optioned the rights to my forthcoming book called Bro-Jitsu: The Martial Art of Sibling Rivalry. |
HTSARU: THE MOVIE
Paramount pictures optioned the rights to How to Survive a Robot Uprising and Mike Myers signed on to star. |
CONTACT MEdaniel_h_wilson @ yahoo.com |
The Works
Finally, I can share some interesting news! Turns out that I'm hosting a new television show for the History channel. It's called THE WORKS and we've shot several episodes already. I'm even getting into the groove of being a TV show host guy: buying skin cream, bleaching my teeth, uh, being really annoying, um, what else would a TV show host do? Anyway, here's an excerpt of the very small press release sent to advertisers:
Last night, History brought out a slate of seven new series in production, all focused on a different historical angle:
Evolve -Historical perspective of key innovations over time from Optomen Productions. 13 episodes premiere second quarter 2008.
Extreme Trains -Over 8 episodes this series looks at the most amazing trains in the world with Matt Bown, train conductor as host. Produced by Tiger Aspect Productions the series will steam ahead to the schedule in fourth quarter 2008.
The Works -A "did you know" series that focuses on such diverse items as steel, motorcycles and power tools with Daniel Wilson as host from Powderhouse Productions. 10 episodes premiere in third quarter 2008.
"American Original" Sandhogs -This new version of the American Original franchise shows off New York City from the underground and its tunnels built by Sandhogs. 12 episodes from Eye Pop Productions and Pilgrim Films premieres third quarter 2008.
Surviving History -Take a history lesson with experts as they test artifacts and weapons. 9 episodes from Brainbox Productions set to open second quarter 2008.
What Went Down -Hi-def CGI recreates never-before-seen historical events using eye witness accounts. 6 episodes from Creative Differences opens in 2009.
Battles B.C. -This series profiles ancient heroes and military battles. Produced by Four In Hand Productions with 8 episodes slated for 2009.
Popular Mechanics -- Top 10 Non-Inventions
I wrote another fun article for Popular Mechanics.
Click here to read about the top ten inventions that we haven't got yet (minus all the usual crap you'd expect from Star Trek, Star Wars, or the Future Past).
Click here to listen to a podcast about it!
urban outfitters
How to Build a Robot Army has finally assumed its rightful place among all the books about sex, smoking pot, and skateboarding over at Urban Outfitters. Every single time I walk into UO (there's one up the street here in Portland), I think to myself that they have a nice selection of books but they're missing one thing... ROBOTS. I guess I have that thought pretty much wherever I go, but anyway...
Visit geeksugar to vote on whether you think building a robot army is geek chic, or just plain geeky. I'm happy with either answer, honestly. Somehow I've reached a place in my life where I get pissed off if someone claims that I'm not a real geek.
haptics for popular mechanics
I wrote a new article for Popular Mechanics. It's all about haptics -- the science of touch!
Read the article online by clicking here.
coast to coast am -- Sunday, Feb 10th
Once again, I'll be holing up wherever I can find a landline so that I can chat on the radio about robots and aliens on my favorite radio show... Coast to Coast AM! Sadly, Art Bell has retired once again, but I'm just as excited to be talking with longtime host Ian Punnett. It's a guaranteed good time.
Also, I learned something new about myself the last time I was on -- I tend to laugh a lot. This drew mixed reactions, as the following snippets from emails will show:
-- Nancy
You have the most irritating little laugh. I almost called Art to tell him to tell you off the radio. You MUST drop the laugh.
-- Candy
I liked hearing you laugh during the interview. It was obvious you were enjoying yourself and the subject matter and knew how to not take yourself (or the topic) too seriously
-- Lotus
You said "you know" too many "you know" times.
-- Bruce
livewire -- friday, feb 15th
Hooray, I've been invited back to the hilarious (and informative) LiveWire! radio show! More information as the date draws nearer...
I'm also doing this thing called True Stories on the evening of Feb 10th at Mississippi Studios here in Portland. I'll be discussing the true story of my life as a young nerd in love. And I'm not the only one there, click on True Stories to read about the other authors and funny people who run the show.
great (and perplexing) press for my robot books
The great press would be at the new and wonderful sci-fi blog io9.com which is running a short rundown of HOW TO BUILD A ROBOT ARMY. The article was written by the charming Annalee Newitz, a freelance writer who once called me for an interview for Popular Science. As you can see here, I'm a Popular Mechanics man myself, so I wasn't sure whether to speak to her or not, but then I'm pretty sure she tricked me with words.
The perplexing press comes from this political article in the Oregonian newspaper. About halfway into the article, the author mentions that Mitt Romney might be a robot and that everyone in Florida ought to read HOW TO SURVIVE A ROBOT UPRISING. And you know what? I couldn't agree more.
Also, I've got ridiculous news to announce in a few days... so stay tuned.
carnegie mellon robot skits
Some cool videos that I filmed at Carnegie Mellon (where I went to school for robot learnin') have been posted on youtube. Check out the splash page at CMU
And be sure to watch them:
Daniel Vs. Robophone
Daniel Vs. Keepon
Did you know that the Keepon robot bites? Crazy. I know, right!?
new york post
The New York Post has deemed HOW TO BUILD A ROBOT ARMY to be "required reading." You're damn skippy.
Check out the article by clicking here (about halfway down the page).
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, then 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.
"REQUIRED READING"
- Billy Heller,
New York Post