WHEN WORDS COLLIDE – MY SCHEDULE
Ladies and Gentlemen, Genders of your Choice, Children of all Ages, Assorted Sentients and Sophonts,
Here’s my schedule for When Words Collide 2026. This is the stuff I’ll be actually doing. Basically, three low impact items, meet and greet, autographs and stuff. And three big items – Panels on AI, Presentations on Copyright and Contracts. You’ll find my notes on the big items on this website. Feel free to stop by and sit in. I’m very entertaining. If you’re very entertaining too, so much the better!
A CRASH COURSE IN CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS
WHEN YOU’RE A WRITER, YOU’RE NOT JUST AN ARTIST. YOU’RE ALSO A VICTIM.
A SAP, A SUCKER, A DOOFUS, A STUMBLEBUM, A BLINDFOLDED TRAVELER TRYING TO CROSS THE ROAD AT RUSH HOUR, YOU’RE THE ROADKILL ON THE PUBLISHING HIGHWAY.
But do you have to be?
WRITING IS NOT JUST ART, IT’S A BUSINESS, PUBLISHING IS A BUSINESS. YOUR PUBLISHER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, YOUR EDITOR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, YOUR AGENT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
Or rather, everyone is friends right up until they’re not friends
IT’S ALL BUSINESS, AND YOU NEED TO KNOW THE CONCEPTS YOURSELF, TO UNDERSTAND THE ISSUES, AND HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER YOUR CAREER.
THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY STORIES ABOUT HOW THE WRITER GOT SCREWED. OFTEN, IT COMES DOWN TO ‘SHIT HAPPENED’ BUT ACTING LIKE A PROFESSIONAL MAY SAVE YOU SOME HEADACHES. HERE ARE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLISHING CONTRACTS, AND SOME OF THE TOOLS TO AT LEAST KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON.
A CRASH COURSE IN COPYRIGHT FOR WRITERS
COPYRIGHTS – In the modern era, literally every artist and writer lives and dies on their copyrights.
But what exactly is copyright? Where does it come from? Who created it and how? What does it mean? What exactly do you own when you have a copyright? What are your rights to your own work? How do you prove or register your rights? Do you even need to? How long does it last? How do you market it, what are you selling? Where is the line between your copyrights and someone else’s? When is copyright infringed? What about reviews?
A basic understanding of copyright is a fundamental, critical need for any writer or artist to navigate through life. This presentation is intended to provide the tools to appreciate and explore rights.
Enclosed are my presentation notes for When Words Collide, 2026.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – THE AI ARGUMENT
Friday, August 14, 2026; 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARGUMENT
Artificial Intelligence is changing the world as we watch. And it’s changing writing.
Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds of the books on Amazon is AI. AI slop is overwhelming online nonfiction sites like Medium, Quora and Substack, it’s dominating clickbait articles. As much as 60% of social media traffic may now be bots. The future is here and it’s ugly as hell.
We are literally at ground zero of the potentially transformative explosion. There’s so much discussion of AI and so much of it is bad, so much is emotional. Literally every aspect of AI is just… insane! It’s a huge amount of ground.
Does what we do even have a future? Is there a future for the novel, for books. Is there a place in the market for real writing and real writers? Can we use AI? If so, what can or should we use it for? What’s ethical? Is there such a thing as ethical use?
People feel strongly about this topic, and rightly so. This is not business as usual.
These are my Moderators notes for the panel… follow along, enjoy, have your own discussions.
BANNER
BANNER – Commissioned from VistaPrint. Designed myself modifying the templates – so no snark please.
The image is from a photograph of mine from my home town. Fossil Cove is just on the edge of town, Dalhousie, a cove just off the Inch Arran beach (it’s a terrible beach, a field of rocks, but go figure, it’s the tourist site). This is one of the ‘flowerpot’ rocks, exotic shapes carved by ferocious tides. This rock is so big you can literally walk right underneath it.
CREATING A COVER
OKAY – Here goes. You need a cover. You have no money. You can’t pay an artist. You have no talent, you can’t draw or do artwork. What do you do?
Well, you get sneaky. I was doing a book, B-Movie Monsters in Love! It’s just a personal project, it’s a fun book and I want it to be out there in the world. But I’m a quirky eccentric guy, and this is a really quirky eccentric book. So while I want it to be available, I don’t know that it will sell. At all. But I need a cover.
The Book’s theme is mainly deconstructing movie monsters. So that’s where I’m heading. I need a picture of a monster. Preferably a public domain picture, one without copyright issues. You can find public domain images if you keep your head around you and look around. Anything from the 19th or early 20th century can be fair game. We’re up to 1931 in the United States. Any image you can find that’s earlier than that is reliably public domain. Some of the stuff after that – from say Night of the Living Dead, or the Hideous Sun Demon is in Public Domain because the registrations got screwed up – you can get a screen capture from those. Or outside the US, the limitation period is 70 years after the death of the creator.
You can also buy ‘stock photo’ images with a legal license to use, from places like Alamy and Adobe. Some cover artists use them. I haven’t.
I poked around and poked around, and I found a really nice poster for the original Lost World, the 1926, Willis O’Brien stop motion animated film. Due to copyright registration issues, the film and its materials had gone into public domain long ago. This was safe.
COMING SOON!!!
Just a little relaxation project, while I’ve been working on other stuff. This is another collection in the same vein of Dawn of Cthulhu, Fall of Atlantis and Murder Chickens on Mars.
The cover art, by the way, is taken from the original poster for the 1925 film, The Lost World, now in public domain. I’ve cropped out the poster for everything but the dinosaur, switched to B&W and played with tints, textures and contrasts till I had something representing the old gray-skinned, leathery/rubbery stop motion dino look, slapped a border around and set it in red to make it pop.
KEYCON 2026
I’ll be doing the Dealer’s Room at Keycon 2026,
Hilton Winnipeg Airport Suites, 1800 Wellington Avenue
May 15th – 17th, 2026
I’ll be going in with other Authors of Manitoba, notably Nancy Walker, Rachael Clark, Sandra Terra and V.H. Balaban.
Since the last Keycon, I’ve got several new books – Squad Thirteen, Murder Chickens on Mars, The Time Traveller Chronicles, 1 and 2. And I’ll be bringing back several classics – Starlost Unauthorized, Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies, Axis of Andes, the Mermaid’s Tale, Lexx Unauthorized, Bear Cavalry and More. It’ll be great. Don’t give money to Amazon, come to Keycon and give money to me directly! Meet the authors! I’ll autograph. We all do autographs. I’ll give bulk discounts! Cash, Interac or Credit card!
Also, I’ll be doing panels and presentations:
Saturday 9:00 AM – Executive 4 – Worldbuilding Panel – Den Valdron & Casia Schreyer
Saturday 12:00 Noon – Executive 4 – A Starter Guide for Self Publishing – Den Valdron
Saturday 4:00 PM – Executive 4 – Comedy and Sci Fi – Den Valdron & Casia Schreyer
Sunday, 12:00 Noon – Main Room – Authors Roundtable, Den Valdron & Others
Drop by!
The Time Traveler’s Chronicle, Season Two
H.G. WELLS NAMELESS TIME TRAVELER IS BACK to save the day, with mixed results. Alongside the superpowered but sarcastic duo, Heart and Diamond, the Time Traveler meets old friends and enemies, travels from the age of piracy to space opera, stumbles over monsters, and tries to do his best with wit, charm, high intelligence and low cunning. Featuring:
The Pirates of Penance – The trouble with being a Time Traveler is you never know if the past is catching up to you, or if it’s coming back around the other way. The secrets of Heart and Diamond are revealed.
Heartbreak – The Time Traveler’s old foe is back, as a tourist? Featuring Morlocks, aliens and more.
Mourning – The Time Traveler, seeking help, looks up an old friend. Maye ‘friend’ is too strong a word.
Toad Warrior – On his own, the Time Traveler visits a sleepy English village which conceals a supernatural guardian. But even the supernatural ages, and things are about to go wrong.
Debts Owed – Shapeshifting aliens invade a golf course, friends are re-united, enemies are back for another round. The fate of Weena, the secret of the Morlocks and the Time Traveler’s true identity are about to be revealed.