It helped, I think, that I had books that were quite different from most everything else available at the fair, which opened up great conversations with those who stopped by my table. Thank you, incidentally, for stopping by my table. It was absolutely lovely!
The best thing about small fairs like this is that there is plenty of time to chat with people, and new readers who might not know I exist, since speculative fiction is a minority at fairs like this. This isn't a slur against literary fiction, but it's true that speculative fiction has a tendency to keep to its own largely because literary fiction snubs its nose at genre.
I could go on a whole rant about this, but that's for another blog post. The point I'm trying to make is that at fairs like this, which tend to be more literary, we genre writers tend to stand out a little bit, and that is a good thing.
At least it was for me!
I want to extend my thanks to my good friends Bill and Dawn Eggleton who stepped up to the plate and helped me get my books to the site and set up while I was teaching, got me to the fair on time, and helped me take all the stuff home again. It was above and beyond. Thanks so much guys!
This weekend was also World Fantasy Convention. I am not a name in the genre yet, so I didn't attend (though I wish I had made plans to - Steven Erikson was guest of honour and I am such a fangirl of his Malazan Book of the Fallen series). I have heard fabulous things about the convention, though, from friends who are big enough to attend.
I must offer an massive congratulations to Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savoy of Chizine Publications, who won the World Fantasy Special Award - Professional. That is fantastic news. I have met them both, and they work so hard, and are so clever, and genuinely lovely people. I'm ridiculously excited for them. This award was very well deserved.
For those who don't know, Chizine Publications is a Canadian publisher. They publish the best in dark, weird and twisted speculative fiction. Their titles are really amazing and I highly recommend them.
In any case, it was a fabulous weekend all around, and I am really happy about it. Good news for me (thanks Ottawa Small Press Book Fair) and great news for friendly acquaintances and the Canadian speculative fiction scene!
Yay!
Now that all the conventions and fairs for the year are done, I have a routine to get back to. So on that note, I'm off to redo my Welsh lessons and then write a little bit.
Ciao!