As I type this, I’m at the bus station, ready to head back to Toronto from Can-Con 2015. Had an absolute blast!
I haven’t been to a lot of cons, and even fewer writer-focused-y cons (just Norwescon 2015), but I had a lot of fun here. People were friendly and enthusiastic and approachable, and you tended to see the same people over and over (panelists and attendees) in the halls, in the dealer’s room, and in the hotel lounge/restaurant. Really fun, friendly atmosphere.
One really cool feature of the con was an event-series they called Blue Pencil Cafés – wherein published authors sat down with attendees and gave them constructive critiques of a three-page sample of their writing. I owe a huge thanks to Leah Bobet, Nina Munteanu, and Marie Bilodeau for their kind, clear, helpful, and enthusiastic feedback. They gave up good chunks of their con time to help out new, aspiring writers, and gave me a lot of useful guidance. (Fortunately of the “shift this bit around, and do more of this” variety, and not “Oh God, tear it down and start over”.)
Between Blue Pencil Cafés and visiting family while I was in Ottawa, I only made it to three panels. How Would We Make the Future Accessible to Disabled People? and Biological Engineering in Science Fiction and Mystery Writing were both great discussions of topics on which I want to learn a whole lot more, and which I think can enrich my writing. And Contract, Contracts, Contracts – What’s a Good One? was intensely interesting (I genuinely could have happily sat for another hour of that panel) and useful in a rather different way.
Great con; great, great con.
And now, I surrender to the travel gods.