CanCon 2025 Write-Up (Part...1?)
CanCon2025 – Canada’s premier Science Fiction & Fantasty lit conference was this past weekend, and it was a terrific show. My third in a row. Luckily, it’s just down in Ottawa, a smooth train ride from Montreal.
This year’s show moved to the Brookstreet hotel out in Kanata, a far cry from the downtown Sheraton location it had been held at for past few years. The con had to move for many reasons – primarily because it has grown considerably – and for the most part the new venue was a solid choice.
Canada’s Best
I got to meet and listen to Stephen Kotowych, one of the guests of honor, and the editor of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction series. He was very approachable and incredibly generous with his time, and is a big advocate of using Kickstarter to fund books. Something I hadn’t really considered for novels (as opposed to comics), but has made me curious to investigate further, at the least.
I got to see a preview of the Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction (Volume Three), and it looks great.
Baiting the Hook
There was a session on pitching and querying, given by Arley Sorg, whom I’ve been impressed by since I first met him at CanCon three years ago. His best advice was to practice pitching by telling friends about a movie or tv series that you’ve recently enjoyed and observing how easily you summarize the high level and trying to engage your audience with how cool it is: you essentially are giving a pitch without emotional stakes. And he suggested you try to use that same technique when pitching your own work. Which is both as easy and as impossible as it sounds.
The other thing he said, which I had not heard before, was when giving “comps” (comparisons) to your work, to get specific. (For those who don’t know, the common wisdom when writing a query letter or pitching in person is to have 2 or 3 relevant recent comparrisons in your pocket, or in other words, cite 2 or 3 other works that are somehow similar to the one you are pitching, that have been released in the last 3-5 years, the more recent and well-known the better).
Arley’s advice: Don’t just say “it’s like Game of Thrones” (or “Game of Thrones meets Gilmour Girls”, or whatever) but drill down and say, “it’s the hyper violence of Game of Thrones, meets the lyrical hip-hop of Hamilton” (those are my examples, not his, but I hope he’d enjoy either of those pitches).
Panels-Panels-Panels
I also had the privilege to be on three panels.
The Player-Shaped Hole
I moderated “The Player Shaped Hole,” which had:
Geoff Gander (ttrpg writer: Kids in the Attic, Sentinel Hill Press, Mythmakers)
KM Greyburn (involved in GM-light, GM-less games), and
Aysha U. Farrah (Life is Strange Double Exposure; “Sugar, Shadows” short story)
This was a very focused conversation about player agency in games, that was terrific.
Bam, Pow or Thwack Your Way Into Comics
I was a panelist on Bam, Pow or Thwack Your Way Into Comics, with
Kari Maaren (West of Bathurst; Weave A Circle Around)
Nathan Frechette (Whispers Between Fairies; Some Assembly Required)
Moderated by the well-prepared and refined Jason Krawczyk (Little Ghost Books)
- Where we covered a huge range of what it means to make comics.
Enticing Gamers
I also moderated “Enticing Gamers: Environmental Storytelling”, which had:
Dave Ring (The Hidden Ones)
Louise Koren (lead editor at Tales & Feathers), and
Aysha U. Farrah ((Life is Strange Double Exposure; All My Maidens podcast)
- The room was packed, which was a great way to end the show, exhausted as we all were.
Misc!
It was a surprise and delight to meet Angelique Fawns, whose newsletter of short story open calls I read regularly. Check it out here:
Writing & Selling Stories with Angelique Fawns
Claudie Arseneault’s booth and range of works was beautiful and inspiring.
And it was fabulous to meet Canadian superstar, Premee Mohammed, and pick up a couple of her books, which she awesomely inscribed as “CanCan 2025,” to ensure I dance when I read them.
And everyone I showed a preview copy of Dead Money was imnpressed and supportive! (though I should have taken pictures of people holding the comic, I suppose!)