Tag: speaking

Can Con 2023 Schedule

Anthologies, conventions, editing, marketing, podcast, podcast, self-publishing, Writing

The summer went by so fast! Now I’m suddenly scrambling to pull myself together for Can Con 2023, a writing and publishing convention held in Ottawa. Things were going well, I actually did a jog in the park yesterday, but then in the afternoon I lost my favorite pair of headphones in the supermarket and my day went haywire from then on (I found myself crawling on the supermarket floor in search of them in case they got kicked under the shelves, but they stayed lost).

Sometimes I feel like whenever I feel happy, that is when things go really wrong. Anyhow, I’m hoping things will go well at the conference now that my bad streak has happened…below is my schedule if you happen to be going to the conference, feel free to come chat with me!

The schedule looks action packed with lots of writing sessions, book launches and interesting topics about the future of publishing. It’s one of the few conferences left in Canada that features genre writing and it should be hopping!

Capricon 41 Panels

conventions, diversity, fun, Geek stuff, marketing, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, Supernatural, Writing

This year I’m doing a few talks at Capricon 41 (Feb 4-7, 2021), a spec fic convention based in Chicago. I’ve been sent their panelist invites a few times, but this is the first time I’m attending.

To my surprise after receiving the schedule, I saw that I’ve been paired up with a few people I know from Toronto and someone I met at Detcon1 years ago! Looking forward to meeting these friends virtually again!

The con features many panels on writing, science and fandom – so if you’re looking for people to chat passionately with about geek topics, come hang out!

To get a pass to events (free/donation), visit http://capricon.org/

My schedule and panels:

  • Diversity, Inclusion, and Safety in Our Creative Spaces, Willow room – Fri 6:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM EST
  • Publicizing Your Book: Tips, Tricks, and No-Nos, Willow room – Sat 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM EST
  • Horror and Dark Fantasy Writing, Ravinia room – Sat 2:00 PM CT / 3:00 PM EST
  • Future of Publishing, Willow room – Sun 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM EST

Hope to see you there!

Cover Reveal for Trump Utopia or Dystopia!

Anthologies, Books, branding, business, editing, marketing, publishing, Toronto, Trump Anthology, Writing

Whoopee! The great Jen Frankel and I are almost done editing this Trump book! Instead of 20 stories as planned, we have 30 stories. Too much of a good thing won’t kill you…I think…depends on what…

Anyhow, we revamped the cover too to make it a bit stronger. There were debates over changing the title too, but in the end, we stuck with the same title as Trumptopia, Trumpocalypse, etc were all taken.

It was great to work with all the writers and although sometimes we agreed to disagree, everyone worked hard on polishing their stories. We hope that reader will enjoy the book as we had a fantastic time editing!

This week I’m off to read a new piece about Toronto convention no-nos at the Tartan Turban Secret Readings #5. I honestly don’t know what to expect. There could be 5 people in the room or 50! Looking forward to connecting with local authors and seeing if they know more secrets about success than I do.

I had a talk with the organizer who asked me about where I published other than self-publishing. I said only Ricepaper Magazine and their anthology. Then after hanging up, I realized that I had either written or contributed a bunch of stuff to rather large outlets such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Women’s Health, Book Baby (blog), Authors Helping Authors, etc. I’m just not used to taking credit for stuff. The lesson from my MBA marketing prof: ‘ if you don’t toot your own horn, no one will do it for you!’ obviously didn’t stick to my brain that much.

Over the weekend one of my American friends told me about some course on selling millions of books. I told her that at the end of the day, I believe it’s about creating a good quality story. Marketing/selling is a different skill set than writing, but first you have to write something worth selling!