Current events

Can*Con A Convention Diary

Our latest youtube video, produced and edited by Dean Naday, starring me.
Actually, I found myself reluctant to watch this. I don’t think the camera likes me – my face is stiff and damaged, worn down and lumpy. I’m inexpressive, my upper lip barely moves. My conversation, my monologue is peppered with pauses and drags, hums and haws. I had to force myself to watch the video.
But… but I actually sounded okay. As I was sitting there, talking to the camera, I think there was something raw and honest and thoughtful to my monologue. Not arrogant. Just… me. Bemused, a little insecure and uncertain, tentative, but honest. It felt like there was something real here.
I liked the segments where I interviewed people, particularly Rachel A. Rosen who was so passionate and colourful, and Holly Tannis so committed to their art.
I wouldn’t have recorded this at all, without Dean pushing me. And it wouldn’t exist without Dean editing it all together.
So thanks, man.
And for the rest of you, check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih4_k9mCaPQ

CAN*CON – Screw the Hero, let’s talk the Scribe’s Journey

CAN*CON 2026 – The Writing Life, Hanging with the Scribes

So, when I wasn’t ambushing and selling books to the unwary, I got interested in the other dealers. Who were all these strange people? Why were they here? What drove them? I wanted to know about them. I wanted to know about their books. I wanted to admire their tables and set ups. To hear their passion.
So, I started to go around, doing brief interviews here and there. I talked to anyone who would let me, and I loved it. And I think they loved it right back. We were all the same people. We were people who loved stories and who loved sharing stories.
This video includes:  Bruno Lombardi, Jen Desmarais (Desiree Dubois), Eric Desmarais, Stephanie Ann, M.K. Schultz, Kyle Bentley, Kelsey August da Silva, Danielle Harding Nevins (D.H. Nevins), Barret Nevins, Heather Chambers, Helga R. Paxton, Gail Morrow, Jesse Edwards, Alice Chase.

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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WRITING ACTION SCENES: Violence, Trauma and Altered Consciousness

By D.G. Valdron, an online Presentation, Tuesday, September 22, 2026, for Nicole Whisler’s Facebook group

“Finish My Fantasy Novel: Write My Best Book”

All too often, violence is sugar coated, from Finn giving a football whoop as he blows up his former friends in The Force Awakens, to Legolas and Gimli’s friendly rivalry keeping score on their murders in Lord of the Rings.  Fantasy action is armies and battles either abstracted or cheerful all too often.
But in the real world action is violence. It’s traumatic and terrifying, your body goes through changes, your mind doesn’t work the same way. Instead of heroism there’s desperation and terror, a cavalcade of emotions.  Your heartrate shoots, adrenalin floods, your attention narrows.  And afterwards? Collapse, elation, depression, ptsd.
I’m really looking forward to this. With a personal history of violence and trauma, and having encountered it professionally, I think that I can offer a lot of insight into the inner dynamic, the emotions, the sensations, the alterations to consciousness that a lot of writers are missing when attempting action or fight scenes.

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 FIELD GUIDE TO SELF PUBLISHING – September 5, 2026

Exactly what it says on the box.  Got the craving to write? Eager to see you work in the world? Want to do it your way?

Welcome to the Crash Course in Self Publishing, by yours truly, hosted by the Manitoba Writers Guild.  We’ll guide you through ISBN registrations, the National Library of Canada, Copyright, book formatting, cover design, all the ins and outs of signing up to IngramSpark, Amazon and other spaces and getting your books out. Ebooks, Hardcovers, Print-Books and Audio, the opportunities and challenges of each.  Print on Demand, Small Presses, Small Printers, Friesen Press, Vanity and Hybrid publishers, cover designers and artists, editors. You name it.  Spaces are limited, they’re going fast. So sign up today!

All proceeds are donated back to the Manitoba Writers Guild.

Sign Up Here…

Field Guide to Self-Publishing

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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!

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