Good morning, Readers!
Yesterday during my rant, I mentioned a programme that was twice now denied funding from the Ontario Arts Council. That programme is the ChiSeries; a night of speculative fiction readings.
The idea behind the series is to expose the best of speculative fiction during an evening out. Writers are invited in to read to an audience, who happily buy drinks and food, and listen to snippets of amazing stories. This kind of exposure, this set up, this programme is fantastic for aiding writers be discovered by new audiences, and readers finding new books to read.
Best of all, ChiSeries pays its readers.
Underlying their operation is the philosophy that artists deserve to get paid. And so, ChiSeries always pays the talent who comes to read for them.
Look, you don't have to be in a creative field to know how sadly rare this is. Too often creative types are expected to deliver their art for nothing but "exposure" in return.
Quick reminder, exposure is a thing you can die from, and it is a thing you will suffer from because you will no longer have food or a place to live due to lack of paying things like rent, because you weren't paid.
I feel like that sentence could use a little work.
Anyway, the point is, ChiSeries has been nothing but a positive for the speculative fiction community all across Canada. Seriously, though. They're in a tonne of cities where ChiSeries now takes place.
The denial of funding for the last two years puts this all in serious jeopardy. It would be a real loss for the speculative fiction community in Canada if we were to lose this programme.
ChiSeries is currently looking for funding alternatives. I'm really hoping that they'll manage to create a Patreon for it. It's a great platform for crowd funding, and they should get enough interest to make it viable for them.
Until then, I'm doing what I can to spread the word about this great programme. You will be hearing more from me about it as things become available. For now, though, check out their website and if you're interested in listening to some past readings, Silver Stag has them all up on their YouTube channel. Here is a playlist for this year's Ottawa readings thus far.
I sincerely hope that ChiSeries manages to continue. It really is a gift to the spec. fic. community.
Do check it out.
And now I must go attempt the same damned Welsh lesson I've been struggling with all damned week.
Ciao!
The idea behind the series is to expose the best of speculative fiction during an evening out. Writers are invited in to read to an audience, who happily buy drinks and food, and listen to snippets of amazing stories. This kind of exposure, this set up, this programme is fantastic for aiding writers be discovered by new audiences, and readers finding new books to read.
Best of all, ChiSeries pays its readers.
Underlying their operation is the philosophy that artists deserve to get paid. And so, ChiSeries always pays the talent who comes to read for them.
Look, you don't have to be in a creative field to know how sadly rare this is. Too often creative types are expected to deliver their art for nothing but "exposure" in return.
Quick reminder, exposure is a thing you can die from, and it is a thing you will suffer from because you will no longer have food or a place to live due to lack of paying things like rent, because you weren't paid.
I feel like that sentence could use a little work.
Anyway, the point is, ChiSeries has been nothing but a positive for the speculative fiction community all across Canada. Seriously, though. They're in a tonne of cities where ChiSeries now takes place.
The denial of funding for the last two years puts this all in serious jeopardy. It would be a real loss for the speculative fiction community in Canada if we were to lose this programme.
ChiSeries is currently looking for funding alternatives. I'm really hoping that they'll manage to create a Patreon for it. It's a great platform for crowd funding, and they should get enough interest to make it viable for them.
Until then, I'm doing what I can to spread the word about this great programme. You will be hearing more from me about it as things become available. For now, though, check out their website and if you're interested in listening to some past readings, Silver Stag has them all up on their YouTube channel. Here is a playlist for this year's Ottawa readings thus far.
I sincerely hope that ChiSeries manages to continue. It really is a gift to the spec. fic. community.
Do check it out.
And now I must go attempt the same damned Welsh lesson I've been struggling with all damned week.
Ciao!
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