Den Valdron

Can*Con Literary Festival, October 15-18, Ottawa, Ontario

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.

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HORROR CON 2026

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2026

      Tomorrow is Horror Con 2026, at Assinboine Downs in Winnipeg. This is my first time with a solo dealers table at a major convention. Well, first time with a solo dealers table at all, and first time dealing at a major convention. I’ve decided to jump in. Set up was tonight, and tomorrow morning. I got in about quarter to seven. Anna drove me in, it’s out at Assiniboine downs. I think it’s a good spread. I’ve got about forty titles out. Mostly mine, Scott Ellis’, Eve St. Albert, Ewen Campion-Clarke have two or three each.
     It feels weird. First time I’ve done a table by myself. First (hopefully) big Convention. The other times I’ve done tables have been a literary or fan conventions – Keycon, When Words Collide, Can-Con. Membership a few hundred, and there mostly for other things.
    This one, membership in the thousands I would assume. I have no idea how to estimate – but presumably anywhere from a few thousand to ten or fifteen? And unlike the other conventions – this is literally all about dealers. Everyone coming here is coming to look and buy things. A few other literary types are going to be here – A.P. Fuchs, I.D. Russell, I think I spotted GMB Chomichuk and Chadwick Ginther sharing a table. A.D. McDonald. The horror bookstore people are here, as is at least one used bookseller. I hope it’s going to be a literary crowd.

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A Review – Amazing Stories Online

CLUBHOUSE: Review: “Murder-Chickens on Mars” by D.G. Valdron – Amazing Stories

Review by R. Graeme Cameron, Amazing Stories Online.

He covers both Murder Chickens on Mars, and B-Movie Monsters in Love, I am impressed. I would have thought these books would have been impossible to review, they’re so off the wall.

They’re basically a series of specula-fictions.  So an examination of the Godzilla Cinematic Universe (the first one), or an evolutionary history of the Gill-Men, tales of Murder Chickens, Martian Civilizations, and strange examinations of cultural artificats.

For example, one of the pieces looks at Harryhausen’s goat legged cyclops, and goes on a tour through Paleantology, Folklore, Biology and Evolution to figure out where and how an 18 foot tall, goat-legged humanoid fits in.

In an ‘Unnatural History of Slurpasaurs’ I look at all those lizards that posed as dinosaurs in B-movies of the old days, treat them as real animals and discuss habitat, development and ecology.

So tall order, but Graeme managed.

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WINNIPEG HORROR CON, September 12, 2026

Ladies and Gentlemen, Genders of all tastes, I present… Winnipeg Horror Con, September 12, 2026.  I’m D.G. Valdron, and I’ll be one of the dealers – offering my personal bookstore of weird tales of every kind. Starting with…

A dark excursion into cosmic horror, existential dread, over the top gore, featuring 90s slasher movie killers assembled, vampire infestations, river gods, wendigo, human farms, giant centipedes, alien dimensions, and stuff too weird and scary to describe.  The trigger warnings alone for this went on for three pages.

And more…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!