Can-Con 2014

Like GenreCon, Can-Con is an out-of-Toronto sci-fi convention that I want to keep as a regular part of my life. Two years ago I attended, back when I was still pushing The Cupid War, and I regret not being able to go last year (same weekend as my first GenreCon).

This time around, the con was held at the Sheraton, a much bigger and more convenient hotel in downtown Ottawa (as opposed to being out past Bell’s Corners). The Sheraton had a lot more available space, meaning bigger panel rooms and a larger dealer’s room.

My panel schedule involved some interesting and creative stuff. Unfortunately I missed my very first one on Friday night – my bus was over an hour late getting into the city. Saturday morning onwards, however, I had no trouble at all.

Here’s what I was up to:

Saturday

10 AM – 11AM
The Economics of Self-Publishing: Kevin Johns (m), S.M. Carriere, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Tim Carter

12PM – 1PM
The Whedonverse: from Buffy to Firefly to the Avengers:
Derek Newman-Stille (m), Timothy Carter, Kevin Johns

7PM – 8PM
Email spam: Can a narrative be created? Silliness may ensue.
Rebecca Simkin (m), Timothy Carter, S.M. Carriere, Geoff Gander, Max Turner

Sunday

12PM – 1 PM
No More Sparkly Vampires! Scary Monsters in Fiction:
Derek Newman-Stille (m), Mike Rymar, Timothy Carter, Caroline Frechette, Kevin Johns

1PM – 2PM
Talking about your Sonic Wrench and Other Tricks for Flushing Out the Nerds Who Are Hiding As Muggles:
M. Bilodeau (m), S.M. Carriere, Erik Buchanan, Timothy Carter, Mark Shainblum

I did three panels with S.M. Carriere, a novelist and party animal like myself. She's the one who, during my last Can-Con visit, said "I'm stealing this from you. This looks awesome!" to her friend The Blurry Fan, who was reading Evil at the time. Speaking of The Blurry Fan, I ran into her once more in the dealer's room, next to S.M.'s table. Good times.

I still have my spam stories. It was an interesting writing exercise – each of us interpreted the directive in our own way. I found I couldn’t come up with a narrative and then work the spam into and around it – I chopped my spam up and put the sentences back together in a new and (hopefully) funny way, figuring out where I was going with it as I went along.

Sadly, I no longer have Optimus Plane, my entry into the paper airplane contest. Run by Marie Bilodieu and her terrifying minions, it was just as fantastically fun as 2012’s. And my plane went a lot further, too! Before a terrifying minion crushed it under her foot. I won a prize, and my cats have enjoyed playing with it. Marie really knows how to put on a good show.

No, I mean she really, really knows – I went to her reading Saturday night, and she demonstrated her storytelling talents with a tale of tragic love. It was a moving experience I shall not soon forget.

The final day’s panels were No More Sparkly Vampires and Talking About Your Sonic Wrench. Sparkly vampires was about the de-fanging of monsters that used to be, well, monsters. As an example, vampires used to be bloodsucking fiends of terror before certain authors turned them into brooding romantic leads. Good fun, and we all had plenty to say.

Marie hosted Sonic Wrench, a panel about discovering whether or not someone is a closeted geek. The audience tossed out names from genre media properties, and each panelist had to come up with a way to subtly bring up said media property through casual conversation. Many laughs ensued, and some of them were actually mine! I like it when I’m actually funny (as opposed to just trying to be).

The con ended, I said my goodbyes, and added a few more people to my Facebook friends list. My parents picked me up, and we had some quality time together before I headed back to Toronto the next day.

Can't wait for next year!

Can*Con 2012 - Saturday

On Saturday I checked into the hotel. We could have stayed with my folks again, but having a room at the hotel just seemed easier. I wanted to have the freedom to do con stuff late into the night without worrying about how I was getting home(OC Transpo and I have, shall we say, a sordid history). Besides, staying in a hotel is kind of exotic. And it was great for Violet and I to have a place to dump our suitcases.

I had no panels that day, so I spent a lot of time in the dealer's room selling my stuff. I was delighted to see so much interest in Evil and The Cupid War - it was my first Ottawa convention, so I was introducing myself to a lot of new people. Do you have any idea how amazing it is to look over and see someone reading a book you wrote? Well, trust me, it's fantastic. But almost as fantastic was hearing the person next to them saying, "I'm stealing this from you. This looks awesome!" Thank you for that, S.M. Carriere (author of The Dying God & Other Stories)!

Apart from my novels, I was also trying to unload some of my Transformers toys. I know I made some fellow Trans-fans very happy (I'm looking at you, John Seed!).

In the afternoon, I attended a panel on marketing one's novel(with Marie Bilodeau, Matt Moore, Allan Isfan and Above author Leah Bobet), and learned the benefits of not being an a$$h0le. Apparently that's a really bad thing. All kidding aside, though, I came away from that panel with plenty to think about. Afterward, Marie joined Violet and I for dinner at a small Vietnamese restaurant across the road from the hotel. Good soup, and lots of it; when they say a large bowl, they really mean LARGE!

That night I went to the ChiZine launch party for John Park's new novel Janus. I missed his reading, sadly, but I got there in time for good conversation and plenty of beer! It was a perfect way to unwind after the events of the day.

Then I slept. Just down the hallway from the dealer's room. Super convenient, and it sure beats lugging a suitcase full of books back and forth by transit, lemmie tellya!