What a weekend!

For those in the know, this past weekend (Oct 14-16) was Can*Con 2022 here in Ottawa. A gathering of writers, editors, and publishers from Canada and the U.S. descended upon the Nation’s Capital to talk about what we love most: writing. Information sessions were held from Friday to Sunday on a wide variety of topics; genre specific talks, how to work with editors, pitch sessions, one on one’s with the indie scene’s best and brightest, marketing and business lessons, etc… The list goes on.

Seeing as how this was my first conference as a writer (I’ve been to a few for software testing), I stuck to a lot of sessions geared towards beginners. Hearing what it’s like to be an independent author and how to market myself is high on the list of lessons I need to learn, and luckily there were no shortages of knowledgeable people to chat with.

I met some incredible people like Nathan Caro Fréchette from Renaissance Press, E.D.E Bell from Atthis Arts Publishing and Madona Skaff, a very cool author. There were so many other people, I couldn’t possible name them all, but each one was friendly, outgoing and willing to talk about their trade with this new guy who probably looked like a deer caught in the writing world’s headlights.

In fact, a group of very nice horror writers saw me wandering the streets of Ottawa and took pity on me, allowing me to join them for a drink at a local watering hole. And, even though I was the new guy, I made through the evening without getting killed off in Act 1. I call that a success!

There was also an amazing assortment of vendors at the con, including comic book writer Jack Briglio who, besides many other comics, is the brains behind Dominion Jack. We need more Canadian Superheroes like him!

And how could I leave the conference without buying way too many books by indie authors and publishers?

Answer is: I couldn’t!

It was so much fun to finally meet a lot more people that share passion for this craft in person. I can’t wait for the next conference, and you can bet that I’ll be going to CanConSF 2023!