Well, here we go again. I’ll be heading to Ottawa, Ontario, for the Can*Con Literary Festival. It’s basically a literary and genre convention, emphasis on the literary side of genre.
The first time I went was back in 2016. The Mermaid’s Tale had just been released through Five River’s Publishing. I had a real book. I had arrived… semi-arrived… achieved something. There had been a book launch at When Word’s Collide, but due to scheduling, I hadn’t made my own launch. Talk about Sad Sack. So the next convention coming up was Can*Con.
That was a mixed experience. On the positive side, I remember attending a panel where my Editor, Robert Runte was participating. I’d never met him face to face, so I was looking forward to it. I’m sitting there, and a tall distinguished gentleman walks by carrying my book – it’s Robert. He introduces himself on the panel, holds up the Mermaid’s Tale, and says something like “This book is so good it will make my reputation as an Editor, and I hardly had to do anything.”
Wow. He didn’t even know I was in the audience.
The convention was fine, but I’d been away so long, I didn’t really have any bearings. I pitched a few times, badly. I sat with some marketing people and they used words like branding and platform. All I really knew was how to write, and so much of the rest of it was foreign to me. I’ve learned a few things since then. Not nearly enough.
The most vivid memory, walking along the Rideau Canal of Ottawa in the autumn. Breathtaking. I read up on how the canals were built, the sheer astonishing human labour and skill that went into it. Amazing.
I tried going a few more times, off and on. Spent my travel budget on trips to Australia to see my sister in 2017 and 2018. Did a San Diego Doctor Who Convention in 2019. Covid accounted for no-conventions in 2020 and 2021. I did better at When Words Collide. I prioritized World Fantasy Conventions, the business conventions. I think I’ve been to the last three or four consecutively, doing programming – panels the last three years. When the Convention was held downtown, I loved wandering downtown Ottawa.
Last year it moved to Brookstreet Hotel, out in some Industrial Park. Nice hotel, not really an engaging location. You have to walk eight blocks to find a strip mall. But, I didn’t worry too much then, because I was medicated to the gills off my compressed vertebra. The doctors had finally figured out what it was, prescribed correctly and unspeakable pain had been reduced to crippling pain – feeling good! Not only did the meds cut the pain to ‘not curling up into a screaming ball’ but they knocked 20 points off my IQ. Did a couple of panels, spent most of the time sitting in the Dealers Room with Bruno Lombardi, and on the way back spent three days in a run down hotel in Toronto because Air Canada screwed up. Good times. Fun, fun, fun.
This year, sadly, is going to be low key. I’m not signed up for any panels or programming. Darn! I like doing those. I’m actually good at object oriented tasks, much better than at small talk. I’m not sure why I’m not doing them, they may have figured I still had health issues, or maybe I just didn’t make the rotation, or maybe I forgot to apply (I’m still recovering). Also I applied for all the pitch sessions with agents and publishers, got almost nothing. That’s disappointing. Ultimately, I justify these excursions in the hopes that they’ll advance my career somehow, raise my profile, do the networking thing, meet agents, publishers and wow them.
I’ll be doing the Dealers Room with Bruno again. And Fossil Cove has published a couple of his Books – Bruno Bites and Snake Oil. It will be nice to hang out. And it furthers my ongoing “Table Sales” experience. So maybe developing that skill will come in useful somewhere else. Life is all about developing skills to do one thing, and seeing where else you can apply them.
Finish this, do the table at Comic-Con Winnipeg, and then, finally, I can stop being a writer, and just focus on actually writing. Isn’t that hilarious? This is the writer’s life – we’re all on this treadmill of chasing the dream, going to conventions, networking, pitching, doing panels and readings, selling books at tables. There’s hardly time to write.
Next year? I dunno. Worldcon is in Montreal. I think I might put my travel budget there instead.
Anyway, off we go.