The World Fantasy Convention was in town and so, after a long day of panels and readings, some writers had descended on a restaurant in Niagara Falls, NY. We had made a reservation for our party of 20, which they split into three tables, and the restaurant also had another couple of tables where people were wearing conference badges.
It was well past an hour and a half by the time some of us even got our drinks; the restaurant was overwhelmed, I guess, and seemed to be doing one table at a time, start to finish, before beginning to serve the next one. I didn’t mind too much as it gave me a chance to catch up with writer friends, but by the time our table made it to the cash to pay, we were outwardly polite and appreciative but inwardly tired and grumpy.
The teenager behind the cash was not picking up on our exhausted vibes, though. As we handed him credit cards, he kept asking us, with amazement, whether we were really writers. Like actually writers, of books and things. Like for real? “Why is that so hard to believe?” one of us asked with a smile. “Do we not look like writers?” “Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that you don’t see writers, you know, just out doing things, very often.”
I wish my introvert batteries hadn’t been so low by that point; I might have asked him more about himself (he did tell us he liked manga) and given him some information to help him find the local writing community, if he wanted to. I remember very well the feeling I had when I was a young reader that authors couldn’t really be ordinary people that one could meet and talk to; I didn’t meet any until I was an adult.
I’ve been thinking about that moment for days. It’s funny because sometimes I feel like I’m constantly “just out doing things” as a writer. This fall has been full of events, and then there’s the social media posting about the events, and overall, I feel like I’m always shouting LOOK AT ME! I’M A WRITER! But the thing is, the signal only carries so far. Beyond the points where people’s circles of interests and communities might overlap with mine, there’s empty space between writers and readers (or potential readers). I often have this weird sense of being both uncomfortably visible and utterly invisible, at the same time.
Anyway, the autumn of being out doing things continues! World Fantasy was mostly great; I was on a fabulous panel about short fiction, and a bunch of lovely folks came to hear me read a scene from the Völsunga saga and then my interpretation of the same scene in The Valkyrie — a nice way to celebrate the fact that The Valkyrie is now available in paperback in Canada and the U.S.
Last night, I was on a panel at the Ottawa International Writers Festival and got to hang out a bit with Nalo Hopkinson, who is one of my literary heroes.
I’ll be at Can*Con here in Ottawa from Nov. 1 to 3, and then that will be the last convention appearance for a while.
I’m also planning a workshop here in Ottawa on November 12, which is partly an attempt to make connections between people who think of themselves as writers, and people who might not. Here’s the scoop:
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PLAYING WITH IDEAS
A WORKSHOP WITH KATE HEARTFIELD
The blank page can be intimidating, whether it's the start of an email, an artist statement, a novel or a newsletter. Imagination in our use of language is a skill and a resource, and is more valuable than ever in an age of chatbots and large language models. This workshop with University of Ottawa Writer-in-Residence Kate Heartfield will help participants spark new ideas and open up connections between them. Using prompts and play, participants will generate short pieces of creative writing. Participants will come away from the workshop inspired to write, with increased confidence in their own creativity and skills. Open to writers of all levels and genres, and to anyone who uses the written word in their work.
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This will be a free (but you have to register), two-hour workshop beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday Nov. 12 in downtown Ottawa, in an accessible location. We’re still getting the signup page ready, but if you’re interested, email me at kateheartfield@gmail.com and I’ll send you the sign-up link as soon as we’ve got it.
Finally, two small pieces of news:
The University of Ottawa has posted an article about me being Writer in Residence there.
My story “The Investigation Is Sealed” appears in next month’s issue of Pulp Literature. It’s a short story, very loosely inspired by the aftermath of the Westray mine disaster here in Canada. Since I often talk about my musical inspirations in this newsletter, I’ll share that the song I had in my head for this one was Westray, by the 90s Canadian band Weeping Tile (featuring young Sarah Harmer). I still have that CD in the basement somewhere.