Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

I am writing this the day after returning from my favorite genre literary convention ever with a report. Can*Con is the kind of SFF convention I will try very hard to never miss. I went to my first in 2011 (I think? It’s been so long), when I was a little baby writer with one self-published anthology and a couple of sketches to my name. Despite having no clout, no idea what I was doing, and absolutely no connections to anyone or anything in the scene at all, I was warmly welcomed and made to feel like I was an actual real writer with something of value to offer the world.

This is going to sound really corny, but for the anxiety-ridden, personally struggling young me, that was an enormous deal.

I have not missed a Can*Con since.

I figured since not everyone can make it, be they countries or provinces away, and the costs of… well… everything making travelling often prohibited, I thought I’d bring the experience to you. As best I can, anyway. However well I make my report, it’s not the same thing as the experience.

Sorry.

The event started Friday the 17th. I had in the four days prior to that, vanished into the woods to  the lake where most of my extended family have cottages. There, with my mother, who was visiting from Australia, I spent my mornings painting, and the afternoons visiting family. It had been such a long time since I’d painted like this. I haven’t had the time or the energy to paint, being utterly wiped at the end of the work day, for months and months. I can’t remember the last time I was able to paint for hours on end.

It was so wonderful. Magical, even. The weather had been unusually warm, and the autumnal colors were still on full display. We could stand outside near the water, with steaming cups of tea or coffee, and work on our canvases and listening to the loons that were calling from the lake.

I went up with the full intention of starting and finishing a painting in the three days we had (the first day was the journey up) that I was going to donate to Can*Con, as I’ve usually done for the last few years of attending (as an aside, I really love this convention, and really wanted to contribute in some way. I haven’t the time to volunteer, and I’m not especially comfortable with absolute strangers, so offering a painted for a silent auction is the way I’ve found which does permit me to help some).

But that did mean that I did not have so much time leading up to the convention to prepare properly. That was my fault. I did know we’d being heading out of the city prior, getting back the evening before, and should have done a lot more to prepare than I did before heading out. But I am nothing if not chronically disorganized.

Still, I figured I was more or less okay. So, my mum and I rented a car, packed it up Friday late morning, and off we went to the convention.

This year, Can*Con left the downtown core of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, and headed to the Brookstreet Hotel, a conference center in Kanata, out in the suburbs. Despite making it difficult for folks like myself who don’t drive to head out there, I happen to think that this was a very good move.

There was more space, first and foremost, permitting the vendors to have tables that are well spaced, with room enough for people to stand and chat with their favorite vendors and permit traffic to move easily around them; traffic that includes mobility devices. It was such a nice space. I’m trying hard to figure out how to get there next year with all my stuff, as I fully intend to be a vendor again. But that’s a story for a different time.

Friday set up went very smoothly. We managed to get set up quickly, go check in at our hotel (I was once again disorganized and failed to nab a room at the Brookstreet in time. The entire place was booked out by the time I could get it done), get ready, return, have a bite to eat, and find ourselves behind our table for the first afternoon of vending.

Friday was an unusual opening day for me. I managed to make two book sales. Normally, day one is the day when folks just wander around and have a peak at everything in order to develop a purchasing plan for the rest of the weekend. But off went a copy of Daughters of Britain and Skylark. Not bad at all.

Saturday was wonderful. Can*Con this year had some excellent programming, most of which I missed, as I was at my table, sewing leather. Listen, when I said I could have been more prepared for Can*Con than I was, this was absolutely part of it. I sell handcrafted leather dust jackets (am hoping to eventually get into book binding as well), and one of the designs try to keep in stock as a demonstration of the kind of stuff I do is a goat leather jacket that reads “Go Away I’m Reading.” Thursday night I remembered that I failed to either stain or sew the jackets I had cut and tooled weeks ago. So I went to do that, only to discover I was out of one of my colors… Of course. So I stained one, and then Friday before set up, I had to zip into my favorite leather goods store to pick some up… and then stained the second at the hotel. I then Spent most of Saturday sewing it up.

Can I tell you that attempting saddle stitch with only one straight needle at your disposal and none of your tools with you  is very slow going. It took me all day. Happily, I did get breaks when I attended the Renaissance Press launch party as the emcee, and then at lunch, which I will talk about soon, and again in the afternoon when I had my signing time at the back of the vendor’s room. They were welcome breaks, let me tell you. My wrist is still sore.

One of the many improvements by the Can*Con team this year was first, instituting an hour where there was no programming so that folks could go get something to eat without missing out on a really good talk, and second, creating a meal pass where you could get a lovely sit down meal at the hotel. They opened up a room downstairs, filled it with tables, and we all ate together. The food was nutritious (soup, salad and sandwiches, with fruit and cookies for those with a sweeter tooth), and the company was wonderful. It did remind me a little of school, which I found amusing.

It was a stroke of genius, and I’m a fan of the meal pass.

I am also a huge fan of the longer break times between panels, which permitted us all to drink some water, or got to the restroom, or find our way with time to spare. This made for a much more pleasant experience.

Anyway, I didn’t attend any panels, but my mum did, and she really enjoyed them. I’m not surprised. The Can*Con programming team did so well in developing this year’s programming. It was really lovely to see my mother enjoying her time at Can*Con. I was worried that I’d bore her to death. But she was not bored at all.

The panels I did attend all happened on Sunday. I was part of the panel on Creating a Historical Protagonist, in which I got to nerd out about the Celts, and the cultures that came before, which I have studied extensively and so influence nearly all of my writing. My fellow panelists, Terri Favro and J.F. Gerrard were fantastic, as was our moderator Monique Cuillerier. I had so much fun being a nerd about stuff, and I learnt a lot from my fellow panelists.

My second panel was The Continuation of Epic Fantasy, in which I was fortunate enough to be sitting with Suyi Davies Olungbowa and Anuja Varghese. Moderated by Y.M. Pang, this was a very excellent discussion about what makes epic fantasy epic fantasy and why it endures, why and how it has changed, and how to approach it. I really enjoyed being on this panel with folks who were way smarter than I. Once again I learnt so much from my fellows on the panel.

The last panel was one I moderated: Genre Identity: How to Know When it’s Time to Change. I’ve not moderated before at Can*Con, and I was so very nervous. I was having nightmares about long, awkward silences, uttering questions that engendered eye rolls, and irritated panelists. I’m not sure how it went. I kind have a blank spot in my memory about it all. I do remember, though, that we were down a panelist, who was recovering from surgery. With only two speakers, I was pretty stressed about not making time. Luckily, both panelists Ira Nayman and A.E. Lister were brilliant, and full of insight and ideas, and they really carried this panel for me. Thank goodness!

That created a very full Sunday in which was I rarely at my table. It was all for a good cause, and I managed to sell two more copies of Daughters of Britain and another copy of Skylark. My art got a lot of attention this year, which was very nice, and I might have acquired a commission, which I generally do not do, and also may have agreed to a volunteer position for something else book-nerd related. I’m not sure. We’ll see.

There were a number of events I didn’t take part in because of time and the fact that I was in another hotel I had to travel to get to. I made an appearance at the Small Publisher party Can*Con threw, but left quite early because I was overstimulated and exhausted, nor was I at the dance party Saturday night. Both events are things I will probably participate in next year, provided I do manage to get a hotel room next time.

Can*Con made a number of changes this year – new location, new scheduling, and a meal plan. But they were all improvements (except getting to the hotel with a bunch of stuff), and everyone was still the same warm, welcoming people, and it was still the same SFF convention that is full of people too excited about sharing their love of genre to worry about putting on airs. Even my mum mentioned the easy inclusion of Can*Con.

And, of course, as has been tradition for the past few years, I went to Can*Con wearing sunglasses, and somehow lost them. That’s the third year running.

I have plans to attend other conventions of this nature within Canada, and if all goes well, I’ll be able to report on those, too. Also, as I’ll be travelling (more) for these, I’ll be able to simply attend, rather than worry about selling, so that will be a nice perspective.

There. I think I remember everything, though I am still very tired. If you get the chance, I would absolutely recommend attending a SFF convention. They’re a wonderful place for finding and building community, and if ever you come to Can*Con, please come find me. I’d see so thrilled to see you.

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When S.M. Carrière isn’t brutally killing your favorite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and sometimes painting. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and sometimes relaxing. Her most recent titles include Daughters of Britain, Skylark and Human. Her next novel The Lioness of Shara Mountain releases early 2026.