Can*Con continues to be a shining beacon for genre writers of all stripes in Canada (and North America) and this year was no exception. In its second year back “post-pandemic” they increased the maximum number of attendees from 250 to 350 and it felt noticeably busier IMHO. Then again maybe it had something to do with my vantage point. I volunteered at the con for the first time and did a couple shifts on the Registration Desk – checking people in for the con and answering questions. It was good to give back and I enjoyed the interaction with both my fellow volunteers and the other attendees I met. As an introvert it can be hard to break out of my shell especially when I am flying solo like I was this past weekend.
Can*Con continued to take a cautious approach this year requiring masking in con-related areas (as it did last year) and I think it was viewed as a welcome precaution by attendees. Even in pre-COVID times, anyone who had ever been to a con was all too familiar with the dreaded “con crud” that struck a few days after you returned home, tired, run down, and spending too much time in close proximity to other humans.
I attended a fair number of panels that I could fit in my schedule and often had to choose between very good competing topics. It was no easy feat deciding which one to spend my time on at any given moment. Guests of Honour this year included Authors Fonda Lee and Annalee Newitz, Editor GoH Nivia Evans (Orbit Books) and Agent GoH Sara Megibow of kt literary agency. All of whom I got to see on at least one panel/discussion during the weekend. I also decided to sign up for a Friday afternoon work shop “Making the Most of the Moment: Networking & Opportunities at Writing Events” that was hosted by Arley Sorg – writer, editor, reviewer, and now agent. Anyone who’s ever met Arley (I met him for the first time last year at Can*Con but had followed him online for a while) knows he’s a smart person, caring, and genuinely wants the publishing and genre world to be a better, more accepting place. While the workshop was ultimately geared toward how to make connections and possibly even talk to agents, I went into it just trying to figure out how to exist as introvert at a convention and get the most out of it. I think I walked away from Arley’s talk better informed on how to approach people both well known and not and a) not feel like a disaster doing it and b) giving myself permission to put myself out there and not just spend the whole weekend keeping to myself. Given the fact that by the end of the con I had talked and had drinks with at least 2 people I didn’t know before the convention, I would say it was a success.
Other highlights included panels on Climate, Infrastructure, and Gentrification with Mark Robinson (the storm chaser not the politician), Annalee Newitz, and Premee Mohamed, and was moderated by Ariel Kroon that discussed climate fiction and real world influences. One of the take aways I got from that panel is that a civilization/city can withstand a climate/natural disaster crisis if it has a good government in place or it can survive a political crises if it has good infrastructre in place but it can not survive both at the same time. Guess which timeline we exist in?
I also love the panel called – How to Run Active Writing Communities that looked at what it takes to sustain writing communities (like NaNoWrimo and critique groups) and organizations (like Can*Con and magazines). Smart people talking about the reasons things go right, what to do when they don’t go right and how to prevent things from collapsing from stuff like lack of succession. Having been involved in a few writing communities myself in my lifetime, I was nodding along a lot, but also taking notes on insights the panelists brought to the table.
There was a great panel on mental health and being a self-published/independently writer and managing your career called – Putting the PR in DePRession: Indie Publishing and Mental Health. I also got a lot from the panel Online Connections in a Post-Twitter World where panelists discussed their love/hate relationship with social media and how each author needs to navigate it in a way that works for them but being mindful to be safe and protect yourself from online harassments and trolls.
The Agent GoH, Sara Megibow gave a presentation called Profit Strategy for Authors that pulled back the curtain and explained the arcane logic and number crunching that goes into how a publisher decides the worth of your project. Sadly writer’s have very little control over it, but by explaining it she helped everyone understand how to understand the process and not feel completely demoralized by it. Sara crammed so much into the time she was given and I think everyone went away better informed about how publishing works when it comes to some of the money involved and the authors relationship to the process. Writer Premee Mohamed “skeeted” after the panel over on Bluesky how “amazingly useful” the presentation was and that “Literally, QUITE LITERALLY, worth the entire cost of coming to the con!! THINGS THAT WERE HIDDEN ARE NOW MADE CLEAR. SECRETS WERE REVEALED.”
It indeed was THAT revelatory.
My final panel of the weekend I attended was called “Serious Fighting” and talked about sword play and hand-to-hand combat in fiction and discussed what fighting and physical combat can bring to a story whether it be Science Fiction or Fantasy. Panelists included Fonda Lee, SM Carriere, and Craig Shackleton, all of whom are writers and have some personal interest in martial arts (Fonda and Sonia) and swordplay (Craig). It gave me a lot to think about and my own writing since I tend to shy away from physical violence but now I could totally see the strengths of when its used to serve the story and the characters. They talked about how to make it realistic, how to research it, how to pace it, how to use it develop characters and plot. Lots of good fuel for writer’s imaginations.
I left the convention on Sunday with a full head and heart – thankful for the experience and opportunity to spend a weekend with such a great group of people. I’m planning on returning in 2024 (universe willing) and volunteering again. They already announced next year’s line up of GoH for the in person con Nov 1st to 3rd (a few weeks later than usual) and an additional day of online events scheduled for next April. Tickets have already gone on sale. See here for announcement
Next post I will talk about my book haul from CanCon2023 including PICTURES!
