'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 106

Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Stevie Mikayne

Recently, my awesome little LGBTQ-bookstore-that-could, Stonewall Wilde’s, had a reading with four Canuckleheads, and I had the pleasure of reading alongside today’s author. Stevie has a wide range of author voices (as you’ll see) and it was a great night, with great wine and a lot of laughter.

Also, Bold Strokes Books is having a deal right now and if you pick up any e-book this month at all, you can nab MJ Williamz’s Summer ’69 e-short for free (the deal runs until the end of October, so this’ll be my last warning to y’all). So if you still haven’t picked up a copy of Girls on Campus, don’t forget to take advantage of the deal.

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: “Whirlpool” tackles, right from the start, an issue I think almost every queer person has faced: being naked in the change rooms. What made you think of starting in a head-space filled with so much anxiety for so many of us?

SM: I think good writing needs to start in a universal place, and in a short story, you have a lot less room to establish a rapport with the reader, so tapping into a common anxiety is a great jumping-off point. In my youth I was a competitive swimmer, and my school had compulsory swimming as part of the gym curriculum, so I spent a LOT of time in change rooms. I don’t know if it’s because I’m gay or because I’m actually pretty conservative (despite the issues I write about) but I never got comfortable stripping off and showering in a communal setting. So I thought about subverting the typical uncomfortable situation with a rebellious act—and found that there was something really liberating about reclaiming that physical space. In my novel Illicit Artifacts, I built on this idea using a gym shower room and two women who weren’t really supposed to be together after hours…

NB: Your story has an almost dream-like quality to it, and I caught myself wondering if things were happening in reality or if we were slipping into a dream Zandra was having while she soaked. Beyond names, there’s almost no dialog—how conscious was the choice to make this story entirely told through touch and impression and emotion?

SM: I always think it’s interesting to layer a story or a novel so that the reader discovers different elements with each reading. In this case, the story line is refracted a little, which brings a fantasy element to it. By limiting the anchor points—dialog, setting—to a very tight lens, the reader has access to the more intimate head space of the character and that opens the door to the sensual aspects of storytelling that would otherwise be lost in the distraction of high action.

NB: It certainly worked. I loved the tone of “Whirlpool.” Now, I happen to know you write YA as well as adult novels, and you’ve crossed a few genres. Do you have a favourite genre or a favourite format (novel, novella, short fiction)? And do any of your characters cross over from one format to another?

SM: My one true love is full-length literary fiction. I’m currently working on my PhD and exploring how to illicit a strong connection to the reader using a starker, illusive style. I’ve ended up with a more evocative, sensual, draft than I expected—which is really pleasing to me as a writer. To balance this out, I have been playing around with shorter and interwoven fiction (novellas) which are great in a different way because they require completeness in a lot less time and fewer words. And yes, I do like to put in special details for my really loyal readers who read everything I write—so don’t be surprised to see characters sometimes crop up in each other’s worlds.

NB: Yay! I love hunting for those moments. Thank you!

SM: Thanks for having me, ‘Nathan. Great questions!!

If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus for your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here (and remember, there’s a free e-short until the end of October). Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

Stevie Mikayne is the author of four novels for adults and five books for children (writing as Steff F. Kneff). She also runs the Mikayne Editing Agency, with a focus on LGBT literature. When she’s not writing and editing books, she’s pursuing her PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University in the UK—exploring institutions for people with developmental disabilities during the Victorian era.

Her hobbies include taking her toddler to wacky travel destinations, and gleefully cataloguing the strange and wonderful differences between American and British English. Visit her at www.StevieMikayne.com.

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Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with MJ Williamz

Vacation over!

For those who wondered, husband, husky and I had a great time on our vacation, and if you’re ever wondering if it’s worth finding a way to take your dog on vacation with you, the short answer is yes.

Speaking of short…

 

I had the pleasure of meeting today’s author at the recent Bold Strokes Books retreat in New York state, and among other things, it turned out we had the same tattoo, which was sort of awesome. MJ Williamz and I managed a quick drive-by Q&A before I left on vacation, and I’m bringing it to you today.

Also, Bold Strokes Books is having a deal right now and if you pick up any e-book this month at all, you can nab MJ’s Summer ’69 e-short for free (the deal runs until the end of October). So if you still haven’t picked up a copy of Girls on Campus; or if you have your appetite whetted for any of MJ’s titles (or any title at all from the Bold Strokes Books e-store), don’t forget to take advantage of the deal.

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: “Hell Week” takes sorority pledging to a hot place (via a clever ‘cold place’ as it were). I have to admit my own experiences with Frats were anything but sexy (unless you count fellas who were only queer when tequila was involved). You put Dawn and Sharon in a non-queer (and likely non-queer-friendly) sorority—how purposeful was that?

MJW: It was very purposeful. I wanted the reader to understand just how chancey it was for the girls to get together in that environment. It was more than just keeping quiet not to disturb anyone. It was a matter of keeping quiet not to get kicked out.

NB: As well as being hidden from their fellow pledges from not being out, you also tucked them in sleeping bags in a group setting. Was it difficult to write that teasing ‘keep it down or we might get caught’ tone?

MJW: Actually, it was a lot of fun writing that tone. I really enjoyed the whole secrecy involved in the scene.

NB: I’m always curious to know if short fiction characters have appeared elsewhere, or are going to come by for another visit. Can readers see Dawn and Sharon somewhere else? Or do you have other characters from novels you’ve included in short fiction?

MJW: Dawn and Sharon belong only to “Hell Week.” But, my first Goldie award winner, Initiation by Desire, is about a baby butch who comes out while living in a sorority house. So, that’s essentially where I got the idea for Dawn and Sharon.

NB: Aha! Well, for all of the readers loving “Hell Week” who didn’t already know, now they have a map to their next read. Thank you!

If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

MJ Williamz is the author of eight books, including Goldie award winning Initiation by Desire, Escapades, and Summer Passion. She has also had over thirty short stories published, most of them erotica with a few romances and a couple of horrors thrown in for good measure. Her newest book, Love on Liberty is now available in eBook and paperback.

Sunday Shorts – Vacation Placeholder – What I’m Listening To

I’m on vacation for three whole weeks, so Sunday Shorts is also on vacation. That said, I thought I’d fan-boy blast you about an audiobook novella that blew me away, in case you—like me—also adore the short fiction when it’s read aloud to you.

What? It’s like being a kid again and getting tucked into bed with a story, except you can also be doing household chores or walking the dog.

I cannot tell you enough how much I loved Binti. This book by Nnedi Okorafor won the Hugo for best novella this year and oh my gosh how it deserved to. The performer was freaking brilliant. Every vocalization was so immersive and engrossing, every character of the small cast so distinct. Wow. So, if you’re an audiobook fan, don’t worry about the performance. Truly.

Prose-wise, Binti was so solid. A great SF tale through lenses you don’t encounter often in the mainstream, I can see why this blew away so many readers, and I count myself among them. The ideas in play of home as healing, as well as liberation and tradition and so many other pieces just click on so many levels.

Narratively, the set-up is deceptively simple (as is often the case in novellas): a woman from a very insular culture sneaks out in the dead of night to accept a position at a multi-species university on another planet. Mid-way to her destination, an alien attack occurs, and she finds herself in the unique position of being so many firsts to these aliens: the first human to offer a resistance to them, the first human to understand them, the first human to offer an option that is not violence.

So engaging. So happy to have listened to it, and so looking forward to the next instalment.

Sunday Shorts – Vacation Placeholder – What I’ve Got II

I’m on vacation for three whole weeks, so Sunday Shorts is also on vacation. That said, I thought I’d list two more of the short fiction collections I’ve been hoarding in my to-be-read pile, as well as a tiny bit of self-promotion.

First off, I got two more collections at the amazing Can*Con event, from ChiZine Publications. One is a collection from Ben Peek, Dead Americans, and the other is Probably Monsters, a collection from Ray Cluley. These are both a bit out of my usual comfort zone (you can probably guess that with the inclusion of the words “dead” and “monsters” in the titles, no?), but I’m thinking they’ll be up next on my “Sunday mornings away from the online world” reading jaunts to the coffee shop with my husband. Brightly lit, early morning—that way any lingering dark imagery has a chance to wash out before I sleep.

I hope.

On the self-promotion side, there’s a wee anthology of flash-fiction (so a wee anthology of wee stories?) called Flight that’s out and about. Basically, it’s a flash-fiction contest from QSF (Queer Sci-Fi) where the winners, runners up, and entries that the editors loved got gathered into a collection. Last year’s collection, Discovery, was quite solid, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this year’s collection and start reading. That I have a story in there is merely an aside, of course, as I am both modest and unassuming.

Ha.

Anyway – what’s on your to-be-read piles? What short fictions (your own or from tohers) coming out are you excited about?

Sunday Shorts – Vacation Placeholder – What I’ve Got

I’m on vacation for three whole weeks, so Sunday Shorts is also on vacation. That said, I thought I’d list two of the short fiction anthologies I’ve been hoarding in my to-be-read pile, and then share a quick “I loved this!” review for another collection.

Clockwork Canada is an anthology I picked up at Can*Con this year, and I’ve been eager to sink my teeth into it. I got to hear two of the authors read from their stories at the event, and the editor, too. Short fiction, steampunk, and Canada? How can I not?

I should note, this is part of a series of anthologies done by Exile Editions. This is the same publisher and series that did Dead North (Zombie Canada) and Fractured (Apocalyptic Canada), too, both of which I adored.

I also have Playground of Lost Toys from this series, which I haven’t cracked yet, but is seemingly darker and leaves me eyeing it in my usual ‘Wait, is this horror?’ way. We’ll see.

As well as all things Canadian, you know I try to keep an eye out for queer anthologies, and I was lucky enough to get a copy of Spinning the Record by Robert Hyers from Lethe Press. This collection was fantastic (you can read my review here, if you’d like) and was the first collection up on my little project to escape the online world for a while on Sunday mornings and just go somewhere and read with my husband.

What’s on your TBR pile these days? Have you read and loved a collection lately?

Puppy Break

Sunday Shorts will be back in two weeks, post-vacation. In the meanwhile, here’s my writing buddy, to let you know we will be spending all my time with him, as it should be.

The Five Things I need from White People Right Now

Read.

I talk a lot about what it’s like to live a queer life. Everything I talk about, I try very hard to point out that as a white guy, I walk with a crap-tonne of privilege. I’ve had to interact with police twice in my life. Once, it went very, very poorly. Once, it was fantastic. And while I have felt belittled, ignored, the butt of jokes–in short, treated like a ‘fag’–by the police, I have never felt like my life was in danger for simply being present.

That is privilege. It shouldn’t be.

derricklweston

Another day, another unarmed black man dead. Terence Crutcher’s SUV stalled as he was coming back from community college classes. He was studying music appreciation and was very active in his church choir. Seeing his picture reminds me of any number of big dudes I know who can sing their lungs out. From his view in a helicopter, a Tulsa police officer thought he looked like a bad dude. Instead of trying to help the man with the stalled car, two officers made him put his hands up as he approached them for help. As he reached into his SUV, probably to grab some form of identification, which again, should not have been necessary because he was the one in distress, he was tased and then shot. He was unarmed. He was the father of four.

I feel like ranting and raving about how angry and scared this makes me…

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Release Announcement: Flight

Every time it comes up, I enter the micro-fiction contest from Mischief Corner Books. To say that flash fiction is not my forté would be understating, and every freaking time I end up tossing a few ideas that turn out to be three times the word count maximum before finding something I can work with that’s only, say, double the word count limit, and then try to pare it back to target.

This year was no different.

The theme was ‘Flight,’ and I’ve included my wee story below (it was sparked from a dream I had, actually), as well as the links to the final anthology product, which launches today. If you’re at all a fan of flash fiction (and queer SF/F in specific within your flash fiction), it’s worth a look.

 

Flight

A 300-word story should be easy, right? Many of our entrants say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever written.

Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest challenges authors to write a complete LGBTQ speculative fiction micro-story on a specific theme. “Flight” leaves much for the authors to interpret—winged creatures, flight and space vehicles, or fleeing from dire circumstances.

Some astonishing stories were submitted—from horrific, bloodcurdling pieces to sweet, contemplative ones—and all LGBTQ speculative fiction. The stories in this anthology include AI’s and angels, winged lions and wayward aliens. Smart, snappy slice of life pieces written for entertainment or for social commentary. Join us for brief and often surprising trips into 110 speculative fiction authors’ minds.

Publisher: Mischief Corner Books

Author: Various

Cover & Illustrations Artist: Mila May

Length: 33.6 K

Format: ebook, print

Release Date: General release 9/21/16

Pairing: LGBTIQA

Price: $4.99 eBook, $12.99 print b/w*, $24.99 print color*

*Book contains 5 illustrations inside.

Purchase/Information at: Mischief Corner Books, Amazon, ARe, Kobo, Goodreads, and check out the series of contest books at Goodreads, also. I’ll edit to add more links as the publisher makes them available, and as always, if there’s a way to order from your brick-and-mortar, you know that’s where my heart is. 

An excerpt from “Conceptually Speaking,” by ‘Nathan Burgoine

Imprecise. That was the thing about their telepathy. The visitors communicated conceptually. Their initial message was barely translated in time, and only by those who could could “hear” it. Most of the mission training had focused on how difficult it would be to convey certain concepts that one side or the other didn’t already understand.

The tests were clear, though. Maddie “spoke” alien better than any other human who’d tried. No matter the misgivings of the military or the government or the population of Maddie’s birth county—and there were many—it was the highest score of conceptual communication on record, and so the UN chose Maddie.

The first direct communication with Maddie’s mind? Massive nosebleed, then unconsciousness.

 

The Authors

In the first year of the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest, we received about 15 entries for the theme “Endings”. In the second year, it was 115 for “Discovery”.

This year, we had more than 170 entries from people around the world, and from all parts of the LGBTIQA rainbow. “Flight” represents 110 of those people and their stories.

The authors:

Colton Aalto, Kiterie Aine, Odin Alexander, John Allenson, Tam Ames, R.R. Angell, Bran Lindy Ayres, Jeff Baker, Jessica Bansbach, J.P. Barnaby, Capri S. Bard, Jonah Bergen, Michael J. Bode, L.M. Brown, Marie Brown, Michelle Browne, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Iona Burnfield, A.M. Burns, Katelyn Cameron, Hank T. Cannon, Foster Bridget Cassidy, Skylar M. Cates, H.J. Chacon, M.A. Church, Rebecca Cohen, S.A. Collins, J. Comer, Ross Common, Elliot Cooper, Gretchen Crane, Jase Daniels, Claire Davis and Al Stewart, Avery Dawes, Zev de Valera, Bey Deckard, Jana Denardo, Nicole Dennis, Kellie Doherty, Jude Dunn, Tray Ellis, Rhi Etzweiler, Thursday Euclid, K.C. Faelan, Christina Mary Francis, L.E. Franks, J.R. Frontera, Liz Fury, Elizabella Gold, Ofelia Gränd, S.E. Greer, M.D. Grimm, Jenna Hale, Kaje Harper, Qaida Harte, Saxon Hawke, Kelly Haworth, Cheryl Headford, Valentina Heart, Jaylee James, Jambrea Jo Jones, Michael M. Jones, Ryvr Jones, Ellery Jude, Jon Keys, K-lee Klein, Jennifer Lavoie, A.M. Leibowitz, Mario K. Lipinski, L.V. Lloyd, Clare London, Meraki P. Lyhne, Lloyd A. Meeker, Eloreen Moon, John Moralee, Christopher Hawthorne Moss, E.W. Murks, Rory Ni Coiliean, Jackie Nacht, Thea Nishimori, Bealevon Nolan, Alicia Nordwell, Mathew Ortiz, Nina Packebush, Donald Qualls, Kirby Quinlan, Mann Ramblings, Loren Rhoads, Jojo Saunders, Brent D. Seth, L.M. Somerton, Rin Sparrow, Andrea Speed, Paul Stevens, Ginger Streusel, Jerome Stueart, Julia Talbot, Jo Tannah, Natsuya Uesugi, Allen Walton, A.T. Weaver, Missy Welsh, Eric Alan Westfall, Brandon Witt, Alexis Woods, Christine Wright, P.T. Wyant, Victoria Zagar.

 

Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Rion Woolf

Today on Sunday Shorts we’re meeting a “new-to-me” author, Rion Woolf. This is, as I’ve said a few times (for those of you paying attention) one of the best parts of reading anthologies for me.

Rion joined me and was kind enough to back-and-forth some questions about her story, “Swim Girl,” which was a great tease of a tale that pays off for the reader, while making you wonder about the time in between.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: “Swim Girl” has an awesome slow boil to it—the brush of attraction, the first interaction, the first touch between the women—it all builds at an aching pace. The parallel with Kinsey’s own sexuality and what she had—and hadn’t—yet done played perfectly into the pacing. How conscious was the choice to make Kinsey a neophyte?

RW: To be honest, the element that started this entire story was water. For me, sexuality and gender have always felt like water—fluid, flexible, and always in flux. So, I knew the story would revolve around that special element. From there, the idea of Kinsey learning the swim strokes from Ellen seemed like the natural bridge that would connect these two women together, in both location and physicality. Swimming can be a very physical and demanding sport that, in many ways, is based on self-competition and self-drive. I needed to move both of these women out of that realm of “self” and into a space where each would be willing to accept the touch of the other. Ellen’s job as a full professor is based on leading people to the knowledge that she holds, so it made sense to me that Kinsey would be a neophyte rather than Ellen’s equal. However, Ellen isn’t necessarily driven by power and control—there are elements in the story that equalize the two women. What makes these two women “equal” in some ways is their mutual desire for one another, and the fact that neither wants these experiences to end. Both women are driven to the other by curiosity and mystery. There is something undeniably sexy about professors and teachers—those enlightened mysteries that seem to be like us, but hold so much more knowledge and experience. Many of us have experienced an infatuation with a prof and fully understand what Kinsey means when she says, “I never knew History could be so sexy.” Ellen finds Kinsey incredibly mysterious as well—who is this student who will someday rival her in the pool, this young woman who seems so different from the others in her class?

NB: For me, it was “I had no idea neurochemistry could be so sexy.” Uh. Right. Moving on… Professors and students is a theme that gets explored in a few ways in Girls on Campus, but your choice to make this a story of reflection put a different frame on the tale. It was almost bittersweet. For me, so much of short fiction is thinking about ‘and then what happened?’ Do you have plans to revisit Kinsey in her present day in a future work?

RW: I loved working with both of these characters, and writing short fiction as opposed to the novel gave me the chance to get to know these two women that I have been thinking about for some time. It’s fun to think about what both of them are doing now or will be doing in the future. I’d love to check in with Kinsey when she has a few more years on her—say at age 30 or 40—but for now I’m leaving Kinsey in this space of “Swim Girl.” I imagine that Kinsey looks back on her experiences in this short story and wonders whether or not it was all a dream. I really wanted the story to have that dream-like quality to it.

While “Swim Girl” is in no way autobiographical, I have been in “secret” relationships before, and they seem to have that magical dream-like quality to them. I found myself regularly asking: did this really happen or did I imagine it all? These types of relationships rarely fit anywhere but in that strange space between reality and dream. This otherworldly quality is also present through the use of water and the environment surrounding a pool. Water in and of itself is a strange and mystical force let alone adding to it the heat and desire of a forbidden relationship!

NB: I love that ethereal quality to “Swim Girl.” Now, this is Sunday Shorts, so I have to ask: has the short fiction bug bitten? Can we expect more from you down the line, or do you have new projects coming up you’d like to share?

RW: The short fiction bug has definitely taken a chunk out of me! Short stories are all I’ve published so far, although I’m working on ideas for longer works that I hope to develop down the road. My short erotic piece “Stay” appeared in the collection Shameless Behaviour: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame from Go Deeper Press and the erotic piece “Stump Grinding” was published in the collection The Dirty Dirty from Jaded Ibis Press. My work has branched out into the romance genre, and I recently worked on a short story that I hope will find a home in an upcoming lesbian romance collection. Beyond these short stories, I have plans to continue publishing. So, more to come

NB: Huzzahs! I look forward to more.

If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

Photo credit: Francesca Woodman, 1958-1981.

Rion is a lesbian erotica writer who loves everything erotic and everything water. Her work has appeared in The Dirty Dirty and Shameless Behavior anthologies. Her latest piece, “Swim Girl,” appeared in the Girls on Campus anthology edited by Sandy Lowe.

Facebook page and contact here.

Want to know more about Rion? Read an in-depth interview with Jaded Ibis Press here.

Coming Down from CAN•CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature

So much fuzzy brain.

One of the things about being a writerly type and heading to a convention is how actively unlike the rest of my life the convention is. So many people. So much discussion (and discussion with people who aren’t bored talking about writing). It’s overwhelming, in a good way, and when it’s done it’s a little like popping the clutch.

Oh. Right. Time to walk the dog and sit down and write and…

Like I said, fuzzy brain.

So, CAN•CON. I had a pretty awesome time. You know you’re in a great place when the first thing you get to do is roll up your name badge character sheet. (No, seriously.) Alas, all the stats were rolled with a d20, and while I natural-20’d my Intelligence (yay!), I also rolled a 2 and a 4 (for Strength and Dexterity) which took me out of the running for any battles. Still, it was a neat flavour to the conference to keep track of experience (you got experience for attending panels, visiting the dealer’s room, getting a book signed, and so on), as well as earning equipment every time I picked something up from the dealer’s room (I’d look great in leather armor, thankyouverymuch).

Sam Morgan and Sheila Williams

Post character generation, I hit the opening ceremonies and enjoyed Derek Künsken‘s introductions of the guests of honour, which included Tanya Huff (or, as I kept referring to her, Tanya-Freaking-Huff!), Shiela Williams (who I didn’t manage to speak with but loved everything she said), Sam Morgan (that man is so damned funny in such a sneak-up-unexpectedly-way you have no idea) and Eric Choi (ditto).

Eric Choi and Tanya Huff

This was such an incredible amount of knowledge, experience, and influence to put in one room, and frankly it was a little bit intimidating to be sitting there listening to wealth of first-hand voices at play. Happily, as each guest was introduced and spoke, it became clear the vibe wasn’t going to be anything of the sort.

I’ve been to conferences where the guests of honour were “one step removed” from attendees, but this was not at all the case, and it was so lovely and relaxed from the moment things began. Especially when Derek handed Marie Bilodeau the mic along with a list of suggested things to say were she to stay on script.

It’s like he doesn’t even know her, eh?

Marie walked us through some of the adventures to be had for the upcoming weekend (including some of the unintentional adventures included in the program like room names that were… uh… encoded for those of us who love adventure and blazing new trails without accurate maps). If you’ve never heard Marie speak before, you need to, and you also need to make sure you’re ready to laugh, because she’s freaking hilarious.

Now, one of the things a newbie to CAN•CON might not know is the two-pronged focus. Derek mentioned it in the opening, and it struck me it wasn’t something of which I’d been completely aware. CAN•CON focuses its efforts in doing two things very well: speculative fiction discussions, and science discussions. And wow does it succeed.

“Any virus that kills its host is a crap virus.” (Agnes Cadieux)

Case in point? The first panel I went to, ‘SARS, Ebola, and Zika: What Have We Learned?’ Here I got to listen to Dr. Dylan Blaquière, Dr. Anatoly Belilovsky, Agnes Cadieux, Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, and Dr. Alison Sinclair lay some awesome science bombs down, and the discussion was lively, informative, and pretty much bursting-at-the-seams with plot nuggets for science fiction writers who want to up their science game. There was also much laughter again (I often think humour is used to deal with otherwise awful realities, and this drove home that point) and I think the winning statement of the evening went to Agnes Cadieux, with her line about “crap viruses” (see right).

All the knowledge flying around here was intensely satisfying, and the whole panel was so “on.” Really engaging, and now I want to rethink so many things I’ve accidentally picked up from the media about viruses. (That was another great line from one of the panelists, “Have you noticed the media can’t say the word ‘virus’ without the word ‘deadly’?”)

From there, it was my turn to speak, so I joined the aforementioned Dr. Blaquière, Angela S. Stone, and Talia Johnson and we hit our panel: “The Mechanics of Sex.” This was a blast, and the audience was so open and willing to engage (how can you not, when Angela is offering you sex toys and chocolate for asking questions?) and we hit some really awesome points. I love, love, loved having Talia there to bring the lens on trans experience with the medical professional community, as well as having Dylan and Angela, who, as a doctor and a nurse respectfully, had insights from within. It was a great freaking talk, and a wonderful way to end the first day.

Ian Rogers, reading from ‘Every House is Haunted.’

Bright and early on Saturday, myself, Matt Moore, and Ian Rogers were blocked in to read at the first 10:00a slot, and so I got to hear from But It’s Not the End and Other Lies (Matt’s upcoming book from ChiZine) and Every House is Haunted (Ian’s book) and they suffered through my Firefly-mentions for Triad Blood.

I then made the dash from the tower, downstairs, across the lobby, and up to “Brave New Baby,” to hear Dr. Anatoly Belilovski, Angela S. Stone, Lesley Donaldson, Julie Czerneda and Hayden Trenholm discuss genetics in awesomely unique (and sometimes frightening) ways. As I mentioned before, this focus of the convention on science is one of the more awesome parts of the convention, and I love having a chance to be exposed to topics I otherwise don’t often come across. From designer babies, to extrapolation on trends, to some myth-busting about what can—and can’t—be done as of yet (but maybe soon), the information here was a landslide of treasure for anyone who writes a genetic component to their stories. Between this panel and the panel on viruses and outbreaks, I think any writer had enough to work with for the next dozen novels or so.

At this point, I had to dash out for a friend’s birthday lunch (luckily across the street at the Loft), but I made it back for the author signings hosted by Indigo, and tried not to fan-boy too hard at Tanya-Freaking-Huff. She was very gracious, and signed my copy of Summon the Keeper and made me snivel a bit with what she wrote.

I perused the book selection, picked up quite a few anthologies (seriously, so many anthologies). I love short fiction, as you all know, and seeing so many anthologies of science fiction (and often specifically Canadian science fiction) was a flipping joy. I dodged into the Dealer’s room specifically to nab a copy of Clockwork Canada, and found out some of the authors would be doing a reading on the Sunday, and changed my plans accordingly.

I went to the DAW Authors reading (Violette Malan, Ed Willett, Julie Czerneda and, once again, Tanya-Freaking-Huff) and basked in the glow (and added more books to my To-be-Read pile). All four have a reading presence that is organic and engrossing, which is a rare treat. Each drew me in, and it was lovely to see Julie again especially, as she was the second-ever signing I ever hosted as a bookseller mumble-mumble years ago. Violette’s book seemed right up my alley (telepathy! humour!) and Ed’s setting grabbed me from step one.

Like I said, more books on the pile.

This was followed by a panel on Adapting Literary Works to TV and Movies, and alongside Tanya Freaking Huff, Ian Rogers, and Sam Morgan (all of whom I’ve already mentioned) this was my introduction to Jay Odjick, who walked us through the processes that got Kagagi produced (short version: a tonne of work), and was thoroughly entertaining and amusing. In fact, all the panelists were, and I can’t mention enough how sly Sam Morgan’s humour is. I know I personally have zero chance of writing something that would ever end up on someone’s desk in this sense, but it was fascinating to learn about the processes involved, the systems at play, and I lost count of how many times someone said on the panel “I was lucky.”

At 5:00p, it was my turn to doff my educator hat again, and I joined Caroline Frechette, Talia Johnson, and Derek Newman-Stille for what Derek introduced as ‘the Fabulous Panel! (picture glitter here)’ And it was. Nominally, we were there to discuss “Beyond the Coming Out Story – New Queer Narratives in Speculative Fiction,” and boy did we start there and go elsewhere. The themes were very clear: trans representation (and how abysmal it is, and how it needs to be so much more than a transition tale), bi-erasure, the lack of narrative inheritance to our histories and how exhausting it can be to be the constant educator (yeah, that was me, and the link is to a twitter discussion that followed after the convention), and all over the place in to YA, the inclusion of intersections (quite a few notes about persons with disability), and #OwnVoices and what that means. It was a fantastic freaking audience, and we were also lucky enough to have someone in the audience who could speak quite a bit to ace and other lesser-heard narratives.

Unfortunately, when I went to grab a snack and a drink, my head informed me I was done for the day with some scintillating scotoma, so I booked it home. My apologies to those I’d really wanted to see in the evening sessions. Sometimes my head does that.

“Head Full of Ghosts. Write that down.” (Brett Savory)

Sunday I’d recovered, and began the crack of dawn with some horror and weird fiction (the way you do) by coming to hear Brett Savory, Rebecca Simkin, James K. Moran, and Sean Moreland speak about the stuff they’d read that we needed to read. Now, y’all know I’m not a huge horror fan, but I like weird, and the topic really did balance the two (as well as define the two, in many ways) and all the panelists were fun and charming.

And, of course, way more got added to my list.

Also, there was a surprising amount of parenting advice. Books on demons and demonology might not be the best gift for the under-ten crowd.

Or, they might be just the thing.

Eiher way, good to know.

I popped in to the brainstorming/feedback session after that with Evan May and Brandon Crilly (and this was also where I finally got to have a few quick words with Eric Choi, who, again, awesome), and I cannot give enough props to these guys for taking in advice and feedback and ideas from those gathered. It was a packed room, and the discussion never stopped. You know a Con is on the right track when they include this sort of feature while the con is in play, and don’t just rely on feedback forms and e-mails later, as there’s an opportunity for brainstorming and Q&A right there and then. Loved this.

Kate Heartfield, reading from “The Seven O’Clock Man.”

As my last thing before I had to go rescue His Fuzzy Lordship from the tedium of being indoors, I found Dominik Parisien, Kate Heartfield, and Brent Nichols and basked in the glow of Clockwork Canada, which I mentioned above.

It was obvious from listening to Dominik’s introduction that this project meant a great deal to him—to take truly Canadian narratives, and especially often colonialist-repressed histories, and meld them with spec fic elements was the driving force, and from what Kate and Brent read? I’m a believer. I’ll be bumping Clockwork Canada high up on my pile.

Both readers were really engrossing, and it was so lovely to take part in the discussion after with them, especially as the topic rolled back to being a Canuck in what is often a very US-centric ocean. It was pretty cool to see similar experiences being shared, too, that it’s not anywhere near as uphill a battle to pitch a Canadian setting as it was even a decade ago.

So, from that point, I took a moment to finish working on my character sheet (I managed to get my lousy “2” in Dexterity into a fairly impressive 14 defence score by levelling up my leather armor, but there was no helping my attack score, so no battles after all), I made sure to find and say farewell to a few people, missed others I really wanted to talk to, and went back to the real world.

The real world doesn’t have a lot of the awesome things the convention had, but it does have this guy, and he was totally ready to hit the park.

“Where the heck have you been, human?”

Until next year? Thanks, CAN•CON, for everything. The opportunity to be a queer voice in Spec Fic is a huge deal to me, and I can’t tell you how much it means to be invited.