I had a total blast at When Words Collide 2024!

Note: There aren’t any photos of my Bruce because he’s shy about me posting photos of him, and I respect his feelings. But rest assured, we have Broose photos!

So, we just got home yesterday from my first trip ever to Calgary! I hadn’t been on a plane in 24 years, and I must say, Porter was excellent in their service. This was the first time I flew since using a mobility device, and Noola my rollator was handled with care. Not even a scratch. Whew!

One of my favourite moments was when Noola got recognized by another author. Go Noola! (Photo credit: Bruce D. Gordon)

Over this trip, I turned 55 (flew there on my birthday) and discovered I like staying at the same hotel where a writers conference is being held. It made things so much easier on me. I don’t think I would have had the energy to do it otherwise. And the Delta Calgary South also had some great gluten-free options for room service. (I felt so fancy!)

Now, I had been on virtual panels for When Words Collide before, but this was my first time there in person. Originally, I thought I would just be attending to do one panel, but then two pleasant surprises happened! I was invited to the official When Words Collide Podcast (The episode featuring me isn’t up yet as of this date but will be soon! Check out the other ones that are posted then return to listen to more!) Andrew Buckley also asked to interview me for his StoryCentric podcast, so, that was awesome too! (It should be up in about four weeks.) And I have been declared to be highly entertaining by Andrew, so that’s a huge compliment from someone as highly entertaining as himself!

The big event for me was sitting on the panel I’d proposed, called, “We Are the Heroes, Not the Sidekicks: Building worlds and stories in SFF that centre disabled protagonists.” My fellow panellists were Arelene F. Marks, Madona Skaff-Koren, and Rick Overwater. Our moderator, Fiona McTaggart, began the discussion by asking us, “What will life for disabled people look like in the future?” And I was first to answer. (Yipes!) Here’s the video of my response, captured again by the supremely cute Bruce D. Gordon:

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Another super fun thing for me was spending time with author, actor, musician, and wonderful human Krista Wallace! Her lovely husband Matt Lees took this photo, which led me to announce that #WeAreAdorbz needs to be a thing for Krista and me. How cute are we, seriously?

Krista also lead a great workshop about how to position different microphones so we as authors can be seen and heard well while giving a reading. I thought I knew everything about this already, being a singer myself, but I learned something new about adjusting various microphones for the best result. There are things to consider when holding a book! So, I’m grateful for that!

I also learned that Krista and Matt and I share a wacky sense of humour. I don’t know if anyone reading this remembers the “Hi, I’m Mike from Canmore” character from The Royal Canadian Air Farce, but I made a suggestion to Krista and Matt, and they totally came through for me:

“Hi, I’m mic…”

So, yeah, I’m absolutely pooped and need to recover to generate spoons, so I can Cait again, but it was worth the effort. I won’t be attending next year, but I will have stored up enough memories from this con to last me a while. But who knows? Maybe in 2026!

In the meantime, thanks to the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society for rescuing this con from extinction. I hope it continues and grows, because authors interacting and learning from each other is just so amazing. Onwards!

Cait Gordon is an autistic, disabled, and queer Canadian writer of speculative fiction that celebrates diversity. She is the author of the award-nominated disability-hopepunk adventure, Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space! Cait also founded the Spoonie Authors Network and joined Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the multi-genre, disability fiction anthologies Nothing Without Us (a 2020 Prix Aurora Award finalist) and Nothing Without Us Too (a 2023 Prix Aurora Award winner).