Good morning, Readers!

So, October is soon, and I'm preparing for the book launch.

As with last year, I'm launching with the good folks at Renaissance Press, who have FIVE things to launch this year, including four spectacular books by incredible writers and a sex ed. card game that looks like a tonne of fun!

Also launching that evening are two of Ottawa's best independent writers.

I'm thrilled to be in such excellent company, and I'm really really excited about this launch!

There will be prizes - three draws to be exact - and anyone who shows up in costume will be automatically entered.  It's going to be a lot of fun.

So, when and where?

Well, here is the information:

When: 29 October, 2016
            5:00pm

Where: The 3 Brewers
             Unit C215
             240 Sparks St
             Ottawa, ON
             K1P 6C9

We'll be the folk upstairs.  They do have an elevator, so it should be wheelchair accessible.

If you're on Facebook, please RSVP via our event there (here's the link) so we can give the kind people at The 3 Brewers a better idea of how many people they will be serving.

I will be sending out periodic reminders, so I apologise in advance if I bore you to tears.  I'm so so damned excited about it!

Okay, I have a lot of work to catch up on because I was ill over the weekend.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This was me, attempting to get out of bed this morning.

I'm currently a big ball of hurt.

There's something interesting about this year's Can Con that I didn't make note of in my recap of my experience there.  That interesting thing was this:

I did not have a panic attack.

Every convention I've been to thus far had been preceded by or interrupted by a panic attack.  Every one.  Except this one.  I'm not sure what the difference was.  Perhaps it's that I've finally managed to cope with crowds and having people sit in a room and expect me to be intelligent and/or entertaining.  I also think that being at this particular convention is so like being with great friends you haven't seen in a while, and also a credit to all attendees, a place where it was safe.

So, there's that.  No panic attacks this year (though I came close before my pitching session).

Martial arts training has once again commenced.  I am so, so, sore today from Tuesday.  Technically, training began Monday, but I was still so exhausted from CanCon that I went home and curled up in bed instead.  So, a Tuesday start it was.

After three weeks where the only activity I managed was the hour walk from home to work and then back again, I was in no shape to be attempting much.  Still, go big or go home, right.  So, I started Tuesday as I normally would, some weight training (which my trainer very kindly made easier for me), and then an hour of kung fu followed by an hour of kick-boxing.

I'm paying for it today.  This morning, it took me several attempts to roll my body off the bed.  Everything hurt so much I could barely move.  It was rough.  But now that I'm back at training, I'm much calmer and happier.  It's weird how much I miss it and don't realise.

It'll take about two weeks for my aching muscles to calm down and I'll be fine.  Until then, I'll grumble about how sore I am, but with a smile on my face.

In other things, I am painting again.  I had a painting half-finished for a long while and now I'm finishing it.  It's taking a while, as the painting is of a bird, and birds take forever to paint.  It's all those stupid feathers.

Next week, I'll get back into writing, and maybe I'll have a finished manuscript by Christmas.  Who knows?  Right, I have to get working.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

That above image was me when the convention ended.

I woke up Sunday quite sad.  It was the last day of Can Con and that made me very sad.  It had thus far been a fantastic convention and, though I was exhausted, I was sad to see it all come to a close.

I consider myself very fortunate in that I had nothing more than a reading Sunday, and so could spend the majority of my time at my table, surrounded by fantastic people.  And so that's what I did, from 10am until just before 1pm.

That's when I had my reading.  It went alright.  Everyone always tells you that you read really well, but I know for a fact that words went missing, were added in, skipped over, mispronounced, and stuttered.  Still, it was very fun, and I was in great company, both with my fellow readers (Erik Buchanan and Nicole Lavigne) and the audience.

Thanks everyone who came to the reading.  You're all awesome.

I spent the last hour of the convention in the vendor's room, chatting with awesome people.  The fabulous Jay Odjick dropped by for a chat.  He's such a fantastic guy, and doing lots of amazing things.  You should really check out his stuff.

And then, just like that, it was over.  Three o;clock hit and that was it.  The convention was over.  I hung around for a little bit longer, slowly packing away my things, feeling very sad.  I was very tired, and very hungry, and so happy.

This was, genuinely, the best Can Con I have ever attended, and I so, so, so, grateful to everyone involved - from the most excellent volunteers who busted their arses this convention, to fellow attendees and panellists, the fantastic guests of honour, and, of course, the organising team - Nicole Lavigne, Brandon Crilly, Evan May and the convention co-chairs Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau.

My goodness you've all outdone yourselves this year.  I cannot wait until next year.

Thank you.  Thank you.  A thousand times, thank you.

Other great recaps of the weekend can be found by Susan N (also known as Jaggy Sue) and JenEric Designs.

Good morning, Readers!

I woke up Saturday morning feeling great.  I was awake early enough to have walked to the hotel (it would have been a two hour walk), but decided on a little lie-in, not least of all because it gave me extra time to cuddle the cats.  I'm always up for cuddling, and Galahad in particular is always up for receiving a cuddle.  The trick is to not feed them, then they come bother you for food, and you actually get some pretty quality cuddle time before getting up to feed the little buggers.

I digress.

I stayed in for a cuddle, then took the bus to the convention.  It was very convenient for me! Just one bus!

As an aside, I really loved the location of the con this year.  The hotel was nice, and the rooms were great.  It was ridiculously easy to get to, and wonderfully close to the Byward Market, where food could be gotten quickly and easily.  The vendor's room was a little cramped, but that's a very small complaint.

Anyway, back to my story.  What is my story?  Oh yeah, day 2 of Can Con 2016.

I arrived on time and enjoyed an hour at my table in the vendor's room before I had to take off and sit on a panel discussion epic fantasy and whether or not it gets the respect it deserves.  I think, in the end, we all more or less agreed that epic fantasy can be quite good and very worthy of respect, and there's also a lot of dross out there.  That some circles are slow to coming around, but it is gaining ground with regards to respect.  My most excellent fellow panellists were pretty much a dream team; Ranylt Richildis, who is a scholar as well as an author, Peter Halasz, who is extremely knowledgeable and quite brilliant, Evan May, who is a wonderful human all round, and our most excellent moderator, Ed Willett.

I then returned to the vendor's room to meet and greet and hang out and chat with awesome people who dropped by my table, before running away again before the hour was out to go pitch.

This marks my fourth ever pitch ever in my ten or so years of writing.  I was a nervous wreck.

I was pitching to Sam Morgan of JABberwoky Literary Agency in New York.  That's pretty big agency for speculative fiction.  It's a big, big deal... At least it was for me.  And I was really nervous.  Really, really, really nervous.  So, I sat in and said hello to Sam and did the whole pitching thing.  I think it went pretty well?  I mean, in truth, I don't really remember much of it at all.  I do remember that the whole pitch took about seven of my fifteen allotted minutes.  We just ended up awkwardly trying to fill the rest of the time, because Mr. Morgan felt badly that I wouldn't be getting the full time otherwise. I don't remember what else we talked about.  I do remember that he liked my opening paragraph, so that's good.  I also remember that he was the only one all convention to correctly identify where the script of my forearm tattoo came from, so... he gets super bonus points.

I'm not saying this just because I want an agent, or Sam as my agent or anything like that (though, since he recognised my tattoo, I'm thinking I really would), but he is genuinely one of the most laid back, lovely blokes out there.  I saw him around, and he seems genuinely cool.

Yeah, so, my head buzzing with 'I think that went well,' mixed with, 'Oh God, I hope that went well,' and a large helping of 'What if it didn't go well at all and I looked like a complete moron? OMG I'm going to cry,' I headed back to the vendor's room to be around yet more awesome folk until I had to dash off to another panel I was sitting on.

Our Monsters Are Us was a fascinating panel moderated by the incredible five-time Aurora Award winner Derek Newman-Stille, who, I just discovered upon looking for a website for him, is also an artist in addition to running a speculative fiction podcast and fan magazine (called Speculating Canada).  He is also a spectacularly wonderful human being.  You know when you meet someone and you can just tell that they're good people?  Yeah, that's Derek.

Also on the panel was the incredible Madeline Ashby, who has one of the driest wits that had me stifling more giggles than I knew what to do with, Erik Scott de Bie, who is ridiculously tall and also extremely knowledgeable and bright, and Peter Halasz once again.  I felt like I was the intellectual junior at that table.  It's very likely that I was.

And then it was over.  I had no more pitches or panels to speak on that day, so I returned to the vendor's room again.  By the time five o'clock rolled around, I was so utterly exhausted that I was on the verge of collapse.  There were still so many things I wanted to get to, but I just couldn't.  I was far too exhausted.  So, alas, like a lame duck, I scored a ride home and collapsed into bed shortly after, in an effort to prepare myself for more fun and fabulous frivolity (alliteration FTW!) on Sunday.

Funny story, I was so exhausted Saturday that I started making dinner - I put some left over roast chicken in the oven to warm up - before I fell asleep.  A loud clap of thunder woke me, and I smelled burning.  Damn it.  So much for dinner.  So I ate an orange and went back to bed.

Clearly I am a capable, mature adult.

Good morning, Readers!

So... Can Con was this weekend.

OMG  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

The organisers really outdid themselves this year!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I should just discuss the first day.

*cue dreamy music*

It was a day like any other.  Almost.  I work up.  I went to work.  And by about midday, I was so anxious to be away from the office and setting up for the convention that I literally started pacing.  For a further five hours, I paced, and paced, and paced.

I was a caged tiger, growling in ineffectual rage as i waited for the first opportunity to escape and...

Geek out over everything because I'm a complete and utter nerd.

Okay, so, five o'clock rolls around and I'm out of work like a shot.  I practically ran to the Novotel Hotel downtown, carrying a bag of stuff that I forgot to pack before.  I got there sweaty and breathless and so very excited.

The vendor's room opened to the public at five.  I couldn't get the day off work to set up, so a very kind friend carted all my books over for me at around midday and I set them up when I arrived.  I tried to make my table look pretty.  It wasn't very pretty, but I tried.

I also failed to take a photo of it, because no sooner had I finished setting up than the room flooded with people scoping the place out.  So many familiar faces, so many smiles, so very many hugs to be had!

And then, a mere two hours later, the room closed.  And I was away, listening to the opening ceremonies, and then onto the first panel I was a participant in:

Unarmed Martial Arts for Writers and Dummies.

With me on the panel were other writers who were also martial artists:

Erik Buchanan, who was also our very excellent moderator, Nicole Lavigne, Kris (K.W.) Ramsey, and myself.  It was great!  We got up, we showed how some things are applied, and talked about the different ways our various styles approached various situations.  For an hour, I got to geek out over martial arts and that was so, so, SO much fun!

Immediately following that, I had another panel in which the fantastic Katrina M.E. Guy (for whom I could not find a website, but trust me, she's awesome), myself, and our brilliant moderator Lesley Donaldson got to discuss archaeology and where it's one right... and so very wrong... in fiction.  I've become a huge fan of both these people.

Afterwards, I was dragged out by the new friends I met on panels Friday night, and they very kindly paid for my dinner... because I was, and still am, broke AF.  I will get them back, however, as I'm certain I will see them again.

Don't let me forget, Erik!

We didn't realise how late out we were, and ended up staying out until about fifteen or so minutes before all the parties shut down for the night.  So, I popped in the the Bundoran Press party, and then had to duck out again almost immediately, as I had a bus to catch.

I got home to very angry, very hungry cats (sorry kitties).  I fed them, got ready for bed, and, despite feeling so damned buzz from such a spectacularly wonderful night, I fell into the sleep of the dead.

I would like to take this time to thank all the people I met Friday night, to Erik, Lesley, Katrina, and the most awesome KT Bryski (we met during dinner) who are new to me, and to Kris, who isn't new but awesome all the same.  You made for the best first night of a speculative fiction convention I have ever had.

Thank you all so much, and I cannot wait until we meet again!

Good morning, Readers!

OMFG, guys.  When I said I was excited for Can Con this year (tomorrow! It starts tomorrow!! EEEEE!), I had no idea they were going to do something so incredibly fun and nerdy it'd damn near burst my geeky heart.

Ladies and gentlemen, Can Con is now the playground for a mobile RPG.

What?!?!\

I can't explain it very well.  I'm mostly far too excited about it and tripping over my tongue and stuff because I'm so damned excited!  The folks at Can Con do a much better job of explaining it than I do, so head on over to read about it.

I'm so, so, so excited this year, guys!  SO EXCITED!

Er mah gerd!

The problem now becomes transport and set up... as plans fell through.  As they do.  So that's the scramble today - get my books to Can Con!

I must attend to that immediately.  Before I leave off, though, here's 25 or so minutes of joyful music:

Ciao!  Hope to see you this weekend!

Good morning, Readers.

So, uh, Toll the Hounds was a great book.  A very worthy addition to the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. But in this book, I lost one of my favourite characters.  And I am feeling quite depressed about it right now.  All I want to do is bury myself in a mound of chocolate and alcohol and cry.

​Instead, I'm going to indulge in something silly and inane to try and lighten my own mood.  There's this silly list floating around Facebook about life achievements or something called The Bucket List - Canadian Edition.  So I decided to fill it out.

Because I need the distraction.

Because I am in mourning.

​Ugh.  Books can utterly destroy you sometimes.

And now I'm off to find another distraction.  Before I go, what fictional deaths left you in tears?