When Words Collide – Conference Schedule
Well, I’m attending When Words Collide, a literary festival held in Calgary, Alberta. And I’ve volunteered to contribute to programming so I’ve got five sessions up.
Friday, August 15 through Sunday, August 17
Volunteering in the Merchant Room
D.G. Valdron books available
* Squad Thirteen
* Starlost Unauthorized
* Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies.
Friday, August 15
1:00 pm to 1:30, Merchant Room
D.G. Valdron and Arlene Marks
Autograph Session
Friday, August 15
2:00 PM Sheraton West Room
D.G. Valdron – Solo Presentation
A Crash Course in Copyright
Just what it says. I’m a lawyer, I kind of deal with this stuff. A run through on all the basic concepts that a writer needs.
Saturday, August 16
4:00 PM – Barlow Room
MODERATOR – Den Valdron. Panelists -Panelists: Marie Powell, Anna Shannon, David Worsick
Accuracy in History, Science, and General Knowledge
When and when not to have it. How far can you ignore it or exalt it in a story before you either bore readers (too much accuracy) or anger readers (too little accuracy).
Sunday, August 17
9:00 AM – Barlow Room
Moderator: Heather Wilkey
Panelists: Denis Valdron, David Worsick, R. Overwater
Alternate History
Explorations of other paths, what to read, what to write, what to research and what to watch out for.
Sunday, August 17
2:00 PM – Sheraton West Room
D.G. Valdron Solo Presentation
A Crash Course in Contracts for Writers
Just what it says – I’m a lawyer, Contracts are my life. I explain the basics and run through the Important Issues.
https://www.whenwordscollide.org/
https://www.whenwordscollide.org/2025-lineup.html
https://whenwordscollide2025.sched.com/grid
SQUAD THIRTEEN – It’s official
IN THE LAST DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, all over America, unstoppable masked killers began to emerge. Called slashers, and using everything from machetes to chain saws, these figures would appear out of nowhere, slaughter a group of people, and then vanish, leaving traumatized survivors, only to reappear again, months or years later.
LAW ENFORCEMENT WAS HELPLESS against Killers who would not die, who appeared and disappeared out of nowhere, who would not be stopped. Eventually, the Army was sent in. They couldn’t stop the slashers.”
SO THEY RECRUITED THEM.
IT WAS PROBABLY A REALLY BAD IDEA.
SQUAD THIRTEEN – COMING SOON!
LAUNCHING AUGUST 2025 – AVAILABLE AS A PRE-ORDER EXLCUSIVE EBOOK ON AMAZON
SQUAD THIRTEEN: Worse than Death eBook : Valdron, D.G.: Amazon.ca: Books
ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PAPERBACK, AUGUST 2025,
AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, KOBO, APPLE AND MANY OTHER PLATFORMS
ORDER YOUR ADVANCE COPY NOW
***
IN THE MEANTIME – HERE’S A TEASER! SQUAD THIRTEEN PROLOGUE
CAN’T GET ENOUGH?
***
WARNING
POTENTIAL TRIGGER ALERTS
Potential Triggers: Horror, Existential Horror, Absence or negation of God/good, Evil as a default state, slashers, zombies, vampires, religious and ethical crisis, destruction of small town virtue, monsters, wendigo, cannibal god hippopotamus, regular hippopotami, cannibalism, suicide, mass murder, spree murder, serial killers, really graphic murder, Ferris wheel atrocity, rain forests, alien invasion, cocaine-based fuel air explosion, firestorm (Dresden style), magic, sorcery, erosion of the self, ghosts, philosophical horror, b-movie horror, slashers, harsh language, the price is right, runaway forest fire obliterates town, factory farm practices, factory farm of humans, failure to rescue a baby in danger, animal cruelty, allusions to Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dead-Alive, Black Christmas, African Queen, Apocalypse Now, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Phantasm, Mattel’s Hungry Hungry Hippos, 1970s existential horror, B-movies, one sexually explicit scene, depictions of depression, moral compromise, existential powerlessness, futility, hopelessness, pain, suffering, cancer, self-mutilation, mental illness, fascism, Donald Trump, roccocco, Norman Rockwell, chainsaw biological navigation, some minor nudity and references to consensual sex. Free will, determinism. Religion. Ancient religions. Human sacrifice. [Please note – this list is not exhaustive]
PAGE 178 is probably safe to read.
SQUAD THIRTEEN
A bit of newspaper coverage
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A PASSIONATE PERSPECTIVE
There are actually quite a lot of troubling issues around AI which really don’t seem to be discussed, or get discussed in the shallowest way.
The thing that everyone, and I mean everyone overlooks, is that AI is not a public resource. It is private property. It’s owned. And the owners are pouring money into it, with the intention of getting a profit out of it.
In pursuit of their profit, they are literally stealing everyone’s information. The works of artists, the works of writers of books and novels. We’ve seen language inserted everywhere to try and allow AI to take your zoom conversations, your phone calls, your social media posts, all taken without permission or compensation, for the ultimate purpose of the owners of AI and their investors to make a lot of money.
It was recently revealed that one of these AI companies early on considered paying for peoples work, they decided it was too expensive, and they’d just steal it instead. Wow. Well, that’s a completely ethical stance. Decide to steal, and then argue a self serving justification, and throw a bunch of lawyers at it, maybe buy a few judges.
I have to say, I find that viscerally offensive. Let me explain where I’m coming from.
WRITER’S YEAR, 2024 WRAP UP
Well, here’s my writer’s year in review. What have we got? Another year of nothing much, unfortunately. Another year of spinning the wheels. Six books in all, though I didn’t write one of them, and only partial for another. I’ve been doing this the last few year, trying to keep track of what I’ve been up to and how far along I’ve gotten. I went back and reviewed the last few roundups. It’s rather distressing – basically, plugging away hard, the same projects slowly advancing or not advancing year by year. Word counts piling up, but an uncertain sense of accomplishment. Anyway, let’s jump in.
STARLOST UNAUTHORIZED – Now Available
The giant Earthship Ark, drifting through deep space over eight hundred years into the far future, its passengers descendants of the last survivors of the dead planet earth, locked in separate worlds heading for destruction… The Starlost (1973)
Starlost, a Canadian television series, running sixteen episodes in 1973. The premise was interesting – Earth was long gone, the last survivors of humanity had fled in a giant generation ship composed of interlinked domes. But something had gone horribly wrong, an accident had taken out the bridge crew and locked the domes away from each other, and the ship had drifted out of control for four hundred years. Now it was heading on a collision course with a nearby star, and only Devon, Rachel and Garth, three exiles from a rural dome, understood the danger and faced the almost insurmountable task of trying to save what was left of humanity.
Originally, it got off to a great start with names like Harlan Ellison, Ben Bova, Doug Trumbull, Keir Dullea, Walter Koenig and Ursula K. LeGuin attached to it. But things went wrong – Harlan Ellison threw a tantrum, scripts weren’t ready, the revolutionary special effects system didn’t work. The big names departed, leaving the show in the hands of an inexperienced production crew who had no time, no money and no experience. The verdict was catastrophe, one of the worst series ever produced in the sci fi genre.
But was it? I just wrote a book saying different.
CONVENTIONS UPDATE
CONVENTION SCHEDULE
Well, even though I’m not able to attend the World Fantasy Convention in Niagara Falls, October 17 – 20, 2024, in person, I will be participating as an online member.
I’m confirmed for two panels:
STOLEN VALOR
World Fantasy Convention – Friday, October 18, 2024 – 10:00 a.m.
* Fiction is about creating believable and/or identifiable characters. But can an author write the “other” successfully without offending those they hope to portray? How has cultural appropriation impacted the genres? Do sensitivity readers help ensure real representation? How do we make sure that actual disenfranchised people get to the table?
Panelists
Maurice Broaddus
P Djeli Clark
Pat Murphy
Vanessa Phin
D.G. Valdron
CROSSING BOUNDARIES: BLENDED GENRES
Saturday, October 19, 2024 – 12:00 p.m.
* Blended genres such as romantasy have extended the boundaries of fantasy and horror. What boundaries are being crossed in today’s genre fiction? What new boundaries loom on the horizon?
Panelists
Casella Brookins, Moderator
Heather Graham, Guest of Honour
A. T. Greenblat
Mica Scotti Kole
D.G. Valdron
Assuming my eyes hold up and travel is permitted, I hope to be attending Can-Con Literary Festival in Ottawa, November 1-3, 2024.
I’m scheduled for one panel there:
TWISTING THE TROPES – OVERDONE?
Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 2:30
For a long time, one frequent piece of writing advice has been to take a common trope and turn it upside down: the chosen one is weak and useless, and their followers are the heroes; the surprise villain; the monster is just misunderstood. Is reversing or twisting a trope still solid advice, or is it rarer now to see a trope played straight? How are writers still using this strategy and standing out? How do we ensure there is still space to play, without excluding authors who haven’t had a chance to do so yet?
Panelists:
Claudie Arsenault
Aysha U Farah
Kari Maaren
D.G. Valdron.
In addition, I’ll be participating in a book launch at McNally Robinson:
TWILIGHT OF ECHELON BOOK LAUNCH
McNally Robinson, Winnipeg,
November 26, 2024, at 7:00 pm
At Bay Press hosts the Launch of the collaborative work based around the Twilight of Echelon painting series by famed artist Robert Pasternak, with collaborating writers Den Valdron, Loverne Kindzierski, Alex Passey and Blaize Moritz.
That should keep me busy. I did drop the ball a little bit, the Winnipeg Comic Con, October 25 to 27 was apparently looking for people to do panels. Sadly, I was distracted by vision problems in September, and a full work schedule, so I let that go by.
Still, I’ve already done 24 panels and workshops so far. This will bring me up to 28. And I have or will have attended six conventions and about eight other professional events. So I think I’m working it pretty hard.
STARLOST UNAUTHORIZED, Update
1st Draft done. 2nd Draft done, Currently reorganizing up to 3rd and hopefully final draft.
Waiting to do a few interviews. Doing the cut off.
Season 14 Review – Doctor Who Stumbles Along
Well, the verdict is in, at least for this season.
So what have we got?
Disappointment I’m afraid.
So far the Gatwa era consists of an extended cameo in David Tenant’s “The Giggle,” the Christmas Special, “Church on Ruby Road,” and an eight episode season starting with Space Babies and Ending with Empire of Death.
Overall impressions? Deeply uneven. Mostly unsatisfying. Three brilliant episodes, two unfocused sub-par efforts that we’ll generously call mediocre, and an opening and closing set of dumpster fires.
The larger problems? Gatwa’s overacting masks an underlying lack of commitment or emotional depth. RTD has become a shallow parody of himself. And critically, the show is deeply stagnant and failing to evolve or change. We’re getting the same old same old, as we got fifteen years ago, just tired and worn out.