This year, Can-Con moved to a new venue, the Brookstreet Hotel. It was a beautiful event space and the hotel had all the amenities and then some.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I booked both Friday the 17th and Monday the 20th off work. In hindsight, I should have booked the Thursday as well and given myself some extra time to drive out, settle in, relax, and prepare. I’ll have to remember to do that, next year. And yes, I’ve already registered for next year’s convention.
Friday morning, my intention was to take off at 10 am, arrive around 4 pm, check in, and then attend the opening session at 5.
Unfortunately, my body decided to delay my departure until 11 am. I also had to top up the gas tank and grab a caramel toffee cold brew from Tim Horton’s before I could zoom.
One thing I finally figured out on my September trip to London was how to properly use Google Maps (!) Fun fact: I am weirdly selective about learning how to use technology.
The journey was uneventful. And beautiful!
There’s this point on Highway 17 between Mattawa and Deux Rivières where the road crests a hill and you get your first site of the Laurentians. It was particularly breathtaking on the 17th. Most of the surface was covered in pine and spruce, but there were vibrant patches of gold (birch and poplar) edged in orange and red (oak and maple). The cloud was low and scudded over the worn tops of the mountains.
I couldn’t stop to take a photo, but I wrote a poem about it afterward.
Because of my delayed start, I didn’t arrive until after 5 pm. I checked into the Brookstreet, parked, resolved an issue with my key card, dropped everything off at my room, and headed down to catch one of the panels before mine.
The Art of Rest panel was a lot of fun. I discovered that one of the other panelists is also from Sudbury (!) Many thanks to moderator Kaitlin (KT) Caul for organizing a great panel experience and to Nina Nesseth for being a great co-panelist. It was among the last panels on Friday night.
After, the lot of us migrated to Options, the hotel’s jazz lounge, and I enjoyed a late supper and their signature cocktail, the paper plane. Lovely. Again, much fun was had.
After a morning swim and breakfast, I attended panels all day on Saturday, as well as an unsuccessful pitch session (the publisher and I were hopelessly mismatched), and the launch of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 3, in which my poem “Vasilisa” was reprinted.
While I was moving between panels, I met several SF Canada members and other friends, including Andy Taylor, who shared some fabulous news. The anthology my next piece of short fiction will be published in, Super Canucks, had a cover! It won’t be published until March 2026, but it’s up on the Latitude 46 site! Pre-orders are open!
After a long day of panels, I treated myself to a solitary supper at the Perspectives restaurant. Compressed melon salad, summer vegetable and truffle risotto, and a limoncello tartufo. Heaven!
On Sunday, I treated myself to another morning swim before breakfast. I attended even more panels, and the launch of Cait Gordon’s Speculative Shorts: Stories That Fell Out of My Brain.
My second panel, “The Taste of Sadness: Writing Emotional Dysregulation” was in the last time slot of the convention and was another great experience. I may have babbled a bit, but everyone else on the panel stepped in and we all made each other look good. Gratitude to moderator Gregory A. Wilson and panelists Deanna Valdez and Sienna Tristen for making my second panel a memorable one.
Highlights from Sunday:
After, I walked the convention space as the panelists and exhibitors packed up and departed.
Then, in a different mood from the night before, I opted for a burger and fries with a caramel apple crisp for dessert at Perspectives. The apple crisp is to die for, folks.
I opted to stay over Sunday night and drive back in the morning after one final swim and a full breakfast.
I’ve attended several Can-Cons over the years, but this was my first as a panellist. It was a fabulous experience and, as I said off the top, I’ve already registered for next year. I hope to get on another panel (or two) and maybe organize an SF Canada meet and greet/networking event/membership drive.
The craft of writing effectively. Though in the academic context and eight years old, it’s applicable to all kinds of writing. University of Chicago Social Sciences
Princess Weekes looks at WandaVision and the feminine madness. Melina Pendulum
K.M. Weiland completes her review of the flat archetypal arc with the mentor in part 21 of her archetypal character arcs series. Helping Writers Become Authors
Another week, another collection of informal writerly goodness.
Black and Indigenous lives matter. All lives cannot matter until Black and Indigenous lives matter.
Wear your masks. Maintain physical distance when you can’t. Wash your hands. Get your flu shot as soon as you can.
K. Tempest Bradford: World Fantasy, the convention that keeps on failing. The lack of diversity on panels and lack of a properly enforced anti-harassment policy have been ongoing for the better part of a decade and organizers are reluctant to admit there are problems, let alone take action on them.
Princess Weekes breaks down true womanhood and black girlhood in media. Melina Pendulum
The good fight goes on despite losses. There was no justice for Breonna Taylor. Joyce Echaquan died after enduring racist abuse from the people who were supposed to be helping her. Two of the staff were fired, but it looks like there won’t be justice for Joyce Echaquan either.
On the positive side, Annamie Paul is the first Black leader of a Canadian political party. I’m watching with interest.
We have to keep educating ourselves (those of us who benefit from white privilege), listening, reading, promoting Black and Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs, and bringing issues affecting Black and Indigenous people to the fore. We need to do better.
Pandemic life
Ten months into this hellacious year and seven months into the pandemic. We’re firmly into the second wave in many areas of the province and country. Pre-reopening restrictions have been institutes again. We all have to do our part to protect each other.
Wear your masks, maintain physical distance, wash your hands, don’t go out unless you need to, and get your flu shots as soon as they’re available.
I’m just boggled that Trump decided to break quarantine to give his supporters a “gift.” What gift is that? The rona? I shake my head and wait to see what happens next.
Work wise, while front line workers have returned to the office (with appropriate protections), the rest of us are teleworking for the foreseeable. So, nothing new there. I’ve adapted to my new work laptop and the shelf Phil made for me to elevate my monitors over my laptop also provides additional storage space.
With respect to the assessment process I was involved in for the new job at work … the manager wanted to proceed with next steps in the informal process. If I was interested. To which I responded with a resounding “YES!” The potential start date has been pushed to November to accommodate any approvals that might need to be obtained. And then I was called for the interview in the formal process. Still nervous about it, but they did proceed to contact my references from there.
And now … we wait. Again. Did I mention these things tend to take a fair amount of time?
The month in writing
Please excuse the block caps, but I think some shouting is in order. THE NEVERENDING DRAFT FINALLY ENDED! Yes, I finished this iteration of Reality Bomb. It was basically 120k and I have to cut around 30k, but I’m optimistic. I’m currently mapping in anticipation of revising later this month.
So, 5,234 words, or 105% of my 5k-word goal.
I finished the short story I started last month and promptly submitted it. It was rejected and so will be added to my pile of revise and resubmit stories, but I feel that it was an accomplishment, nonetheless. Then, I started on another story, not expecting to finish it, let alone submit it, but I did both! I probably won’t hear from that submission process for a while yet. I’m just happy to have done it.
I also submitted a previously published story for consideration in a Canadian reprint special issue of a popular SFF magazine. I’ll definitely let you know if anything comes of that 🙂
2,489 word of short fiction in the month, or 124% of my 2k-word goal.
I blogged 6,815 words of my 3,750-word goal, or a whopping 182%. Whop.
Overall, I wrote 14,538 words. I’d aimed for 10,750 and surpassed my goals on all counts. 135% of my monthly writing goal ain’t bad.
In the poetry arena, “Fire and Ice,” one of the five poems accepted for publication in Polar Borealis was also selected for Stellar Evolutions, an anthology featuring the best of the first 15 issues of PB. The pieces for the anthology were selected by Rhea E. Rose of RainWood Press. Pre-orders start October 15th, and the anthology is officially out on October 31st—my birthday!
Isn’t the cover beautiful?
It’s nice to get some external validation again.
Filling the well
Over Labour Day long weekend, our small family gathered at my sister-in-law’s for what’s probably our last outdoor family gathering of the year (it’s too cold for the moms, now). Chicken wings on the barbeque and fresh-cut fries. The sandhill cranes (AKA dinos) were EVERYWHERE.
Later in the month, I went out with Torvi a couple of times for walks in the fields.
In September, I attended Jane Friedman’s workshop on Researching Agents and Publishers like a Pro, a Word on the Street event with Michael Christie (Greenwood), Kerri Sakamoto (Floating City), and Doreen Vanderstoop (Watershed), the Writing Excuses Retreat fall reunion, How to Astronaut with Mary Robinette Kowal and Terry Virts, a NaNoWriMo session on How to Unlock the Key to Your Novel (adaptation to screen) with Jenny Han (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Nancy Springer (Enola Holmes), and Roshani Chokshi (Aru Shah), a world building tutorial with Mary Robinette Kowal, and a presentation on The Inner Workings of Spacesuit Design with Adam Savage, Cady Coleman, and (again) Mary Robinette Kowal.
Whew! That was a lot of virtual events.
I also attended several meetings for the Canadian Authors Association and the AGM for CIRA as well as several learning events at work (virtual facilitation, Orange Shirt Day, anti-racism, and mental health). What can I say? I’m a learning mutt.
What I’m watching and reading
Because many series stopped filming and/or production because of covid-19, there hasn’t been a lot on cable these days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m kind of grateful. I get more writing done of an evening if I don’t have regular series to watch. I’m actually catching up on my streaming viewing, but I haven’t finished any more series/seasons that way, either.
I watched the first six episodes of Wynona Earp. It’s the usual wacky shenanigans, but we didn’t get much of anywhere before covid intervened. Apparently, the rest of the season should start coming out in January. I’ll reserve full judgement until then.
Phil and I endured Cursed. It’s okay to envision a new interpretation of traditional myths and legends, but you have to have some kind of cohesive story going in. This was just stuff happening, just to have stuff happen. Pirates and Vikings and fairies, oh my? In what timescape do these all coexist with Arthurian legend (the fairies, okay, but the rest)? It’s fiction. I get it. But it all felt contrived, like, oh yeah, now we have the Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition)!
By all means, let Nimue be the one true queen, but she should act like one (some of the time, please?). She can have (indeed should have) conflicting goals and desires, but she’s running away with Arthur one minute and then making deals with Uther to save her people the next? Everyone was changing allegiances, left, right, and centre, again, apparently for no reason.
In short, nothing came together for us. We’ve watched and enjoyed shows that have done truly bizarre things with Arthurian legend, but they worked because there was a cohesive story to wrap all the crazy in. Someone let their idea monkey out of its cage and the poor dear just started flinging poop everywhere.
The rest of my viewing was long form, that is movies.
I watched Birds of Prey (and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn) and it was fabulous. I think it’s the best DCEU film I’ve seen yet. It was all style and fun and it had a legit story. Margot Robbie was *chef’s kiss.* Nice to see strong women coming together to kick some ass and save each other.
Then, I saw Knives Out. Hilarious and clever, though I did wonder how Benoit Blanc, master detective, missed the distinct scent of vomit when he got into the car. You know the scene I’m talking about. This movie isn’t a whodunnit, but a who-woulda-dunnit-if-the-intended-victim-hadn’t-dunnit-first … and committed murder, extortion, and arson to cover their tracks. It’s about true friendship and kindness and a suspect who vomits every time she lies. A feelgood movie. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with.
Finally, Phil and I watched Enola Holmes. Another feelgood movie. It’s a plot wrapped in a mystery. Millie Bobbie Brown was perfect and got to use her own accent (sort of). Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter were lovely. There were a few key differences from the book as I understand it, but I think I’m going to pick it up. I’ve always enjoyed Nancy Springer’s novels 🙂
In terms of reading, I have four offerings, two short story collections and two novels.
The first collection was Lynn Coady’s Hell Going. This collection won the Giller in 2013. I enjoyed the stories, but they all seemed to revolve around absences, and how people only end up hurting themselves by not communicating.
Daniel José Older’s Salsa Nocturna is a collection of stories featuring the characters from the first two novels in his Bone Street Rumba series. Humans who can see the dead, half-dead ghost hunters, witches who trap the souls of their victims in dolls, mammoth ghosts (not big ghosts, but the ghosts of woolly mammoths), and regular folks who get caught up in the world of the NY Council of the Dead.
Then, I read Justina Ireland’s Deathless Divide, the sequel to Dread Nation. As dark as the first novel was, DD is darker. You have to read them both to get the full effect, and I’m not going to spoil it. The metaphoric nature of the story is killer (pun intended).
Finally, I read Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler. Well, I listened to it. Audible offered Giller prize winning novels for free back in the spring and I got a bunch. I didn’t expect to like this novel, but I did. The twist in the final pages is perfect. The narrator … I’m not as impressed with. He persisted in pronouncing yarmulke (yah-muhl-kah) as yarmuckel—that’s not even how it’s written—gah! I would think a professional voice actor would care enough to look up these things before he began narration … but I’ll leave it there.
Barney is the ultimate unreliable narrator. He’s starting to forget things and eventually dies from complications related to Alzheimer’s. So, basically, the reader can’t trust a word he’s written. He’s writing his memoir, such as it is, in response to former friend turned rival, Terry MacIvor’s fictional expose.
The problem is that Barney readily admits his faults and he does terrible things, but he’s adamant on one point: he did not kill his best friend as everyone thinks he did.
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until next time, be well and stay safe, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories.
Always Looking Up 