TORONTO INDIE AUTHOR CONFERENCE
Well, the first annual Toronto Indie Writer’s Conference has come and gone. There will be one next year, and I’m signing up for it the minute they hang out a shingle.
It was great!
Most writer’s conferences tend to focus on craft – how to write, what to write, the political and social issues of being a writer, the technique, and sometimes the fun stuff. It’s all very literary.
This was about Trade – how to do a Kickstarter, the techniques of Facebook ads, that kind of thing.
We do get a bit of that in occasional panels at regular conventions – but usually it’s a group of people who are very experienced on the panel talking shop with each other. It’s like listening to a lively discussion in Greek.
This, on the other hand, was really focusing on working trade issues, mainly single presenters, exploring topics at skill levels in systematic ways. It was fascinating. Of the eight sessions and four round tables, there wasn’t a single dud in the bunch. Everything was useful or interesting, even if I didn’t necessarily understand it or wasn’t in a position to take advantage of it.
Honestly, some of it, was just totally above my level, I could barely follow along, but even then, it was good – If I couldn’t handle it now, I picked up enough to have some idea of how to learn, and the feeling was that I could master it eventually.
CONVENTIONS UPDATE
All right, so tentative convention scheduling happening. I’m mainly doing this for myself, so I can keep track.
TORONTO WRITERS WORKSHOP – April 5 and 6, Toronto – Been there, done that, did the follow ups.
INDIE WRITERS CONFERENCE – May 4 and 5 – Happening in Toronto this weekend. Basically, there to learn about marketing and career development.
OHIO WRITING WORKSHOP – May 10 and 11 – Online pitching.
KEYCON – May 17 and 18, Winnipeg – Looks like I will be doing a few panels –
Do Books have a Future,
* Twilight of Echelon with Robert Pasternak and others, Saturday 3:00 pm
* Do Books Have a Future, Saturday, 8:00 pm
* Reading, Sunday 1:00 pm
* Alternate History, Sunday 3:00 pm
NASFIC – July 18-21, Buffalo, New York. Submitted for lots of programming, stay tuned.
WHEN WORDS COLLIDE – August 16-17, Calgary – Good news, I have been accepted as a programming panelist. Being run by a new bunch. Much harder to get in. Stay tuned.
WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION – October 17-20, Niagara Falls, Can. Programming not open yet.
CAN-CON – November 1-3, Ottawa. Programming not open yet.
That’s about it. If Fanquest is happening in Winnipeg this year, I might try for that. Or if something comes up. I’ve also volunteered to do presentations and workshops for the MWG. At this point, I’ve done three Presentations for the MWG and Writers organizations in Toronto and British Colombia. Well, if nothing else, I’m putting a lot of time and energy into pretending to be a writer.
I think that’s going to be enough. Next year, maybe just a couple of conventions, tops. Worldcon in Seattle, and maybe one or two others.
starlost, one more time
Another book I’ve been working on, just about ready to go.
Actually, I think I’ve got a backlog piling up, about eight books or more.
We’ll see if how many I can get out.
COMING SOON – SQUAD 13
[draft cover by Dean Naday]
SQUAD 13 – Suppose all those unkillable, masked slashers from the 80s and 90s were rounded up and enlisted into the army as a nightmare squad of unstoppable killing machines. Suppose you used them for problems just as terrifying – vampire infestations, zombie outbreaks, alien invasions, incursions from another dimension, all those supernatural paranormal nightmares. The situation is bad, the Squad goes in and they never leave survivors. Suppose they’re worse than anything they face. Suppose you’re trapped in their nightmare.
WWII IN SOUTH AMERICA – AN ALTERNATE HISTORY YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSFz0Phbi44
New Youtube video – Axis of Andes – an alternate history of a World War II in South America.
In 1937 a delegation from a small South American nation travels to Berlin to see Hitler, looking for assistance to defend themselves from a larger neighbor. Four years later, an entire continent is in flames.
2-24 TORONTO WRITING WORKSHOP
Back from the 2024 TORONTO WRITING WORKSHOP it was a bit of a whirlwind. Flyout Friday evening, do the workshop, and fly back literally immediately.
Literally immediately: The workshop ended at 5:00, took the cab to the airport, went through security and back home a few hours later.
So … the experience?
This was a bit different from other Conventions I’ve attended. There were two tracks of programming, a couple of morning sessions, a couple of afternoon sessions, but that was peripheral. What really drove this Convention was the opportunity to make pitches to Agents and Editors.
I did attend a couple of programming sessions. Marketing yourself and Ten Keys to Writing Succes – they were okay, mostly inspirational. There were some practical sessions I didn’t make because I was doing pitches that would have been useful. I’m sorry I missed those.
There programming sessions I couldn’t care less about. Twelve ways to start a story, crafting satisfying endings, that kind of thing. I’ve been writing thirty years; I’ve got multiple short story and book credits. Don’t teach grandma how to suck eggs.
The Pitches: It was like speed dating. Or what I’ve read speed dating is like.
NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
THE FUTURE COMING AT US – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND YOU.
Recently, I did a presentation on Artificial Intelligence and the future of writing for the Manitoba Writers Guild. It was based somewhat on a presentation I did last year for the North American Science Fiction Convention held in Winnipeg.
I think it was a good presentation, running over two hours, and amounting to an intense discussion of what AI was, the current issues and problems, and where and how it was likely to affect Writers.
Anyway, the Manitoba Writer’s Guild recorded it for Zoom, and since the Zoom was made available, my friend, Dean Naday, producer and partner for The Attick edited a half hour summary. I think he did a great job.
The discussions around Artificial Intelligence are huge, we’re barely even beginning to grasp the right questions to ask, even while it all runs away on us. It may literally change every aspect of our lives. The potential is undefined, and at its widest scope, terrifying.
Artificial Intelligence and Writers, how it affects us, how it affects our livelihood and our hopes for our craft is a small part of the story. Hopefully, I’ve done it justice and not gotten too many things wrong. I suspect that the future is coming at us very fast.
THE MUSEUM OF HUMAN RIGHTS, IT’S IRONIC
THE MUSEUM OF IRONY
That’s what we Winnipeggers call the Museum of Human Rights, that giant monument to the vanity of the Aspers. Some people call it the Museum of Tolerance, after the old South Park episode.
It might be a little cruel, but Manitobans are cynical people. It’s the winters, I think. Survive a Manitoba winter, the slush, the snow, the fifty degrees below zero freezes, the endless promise of warmer weather just around the corner, to be replaced by the next big freeze or snowfall… well, after that, you just stop believing in anyone or anything.
Still, I am a Maritimer by birth, and for all the innate ferocity, cruelty and enthusiastic brutality beneath our welcoming smiles, there is a tiny shred of moral decency beneath it all. So I feel just a little bit bad about what I’m about to write.
But not that bad.
I visited the Museum of Human Rights today. I was very impressed by their inclusion of Buffy St. Marie’s picture in their gallery of indigenous people, the inclusion of her music in the same gallery. It gladdens my heart to see that the Museum affirms the importance of that much overlooked indigenous group, the Pretendians, to the cause of human rights. Apparently there is no greater testament to cultural integrity than the theft of it.
Oh well, that’s the Museum of Human Rights for you. Honestly, it’s none of my business. The status of Buffy St. Marie to the indigenous community is a matter for the indigenous community to decide, not for me. I just accept their consensus. If the Museum has its own views on the matter, that’s a conversation between them and the indigenous community.
And I’ll say no more about it.
I might buy some popcorn though.
I’ve been to the Museum of Human Rights a few times though. My honest impression?
MOVIE REVIEW: THE BEEKEEPER GETS HIS BUZZ ON
Sorry about the title. I couldn’t help myself. Oddly, when I went to see it on a Wednesday evening after a few weeks running, the theatre was unexpectedly full, so it does seem to have a buzz.
Anyway, I walked into the beekeeper and expected it to be silly violent trash. And it was! Don’t get me wrong about that. Totally silly violent trash. Met all expectations in that regard.
But here’s the interesting thing.
It was actually about something. Not bees, that’s the excuse for a lot of silly puns.
There was stuff going on, thinking-type stuff: The central idea of the beekeeper, is that we’re all prey. That all of are literally at the mercy of predators looking to strip us bare, and that the people and agency we are actually relying on to protect us either aren’t doing it, can’t be bothered, or are actually in on it.
There are actually ideas here.
And a lot of violence. Crazy amounts of violence.
But yeah, dig down, there’s an idea powering all that violent energy, like a nuclear reactor with a pile of sweaty men on top of it.
The opening is all about this nice little old retired lady. She gets a pop up on her computer, it’s a phishing expedition, and before you know it, scammers strip mine her entire life savings. She’s us. She’s all of us. She’s everyone.
Most of us own a computer, a lap top, a smart phone or something, The one thing we all have in common is phishing attempts. Scammers trying to get through at us. Count them up. I’m probably getting a thousand phishing attempts a year, maybe ten thousand, on my phone, in my emails, sent to me through social media. I can’t go on facebook without fighting my way through a cloud of paid advertisers most of them running scams. We’re literally walking around in a blizzard of this stuff.
And you know what? You’re screwed. You hear about giant corporations, law firms, businesses of all kinds getting hit with scams and hackers. They have IT departments, they have teams of professionals up on the latest hijinx, and they get hit all the time.
Well, you don’t have an IT department. At best, you’re an average shlub wandering around, with a bunch of electronics we use but barely understand, in the middle of all this. We’re roadkill. Odds are, sooner or later, at some point in your life. You’re going to get hit, and hopefully you’ll be lucky. But none of us are safe.
And there’s no law enforcement to speak of. There’s no protection. If you get your credit card scammed, your bank account lifted, if you get held ransom by malware… no one is going to do anything. Not the police, not the NSA or CIA. You’re on your own, buddy. Outnumbered, outgunned, outthought, getting hit on a thousand or ten thousand times a year, year after year. And no matter how smart you are, you only have to make a mistake once, and they’re in.
This is what the beekeeper is all about. It’s about the fact that it’s wall to wall predators out there, people ready to strip you of your life savings, always prying and pushing, always waiting for you to make that mistake, and you’re… Alone. You’re prey.