Can-Con 2013 Round Up

The laundry has piled disproportionately to length of time I’ve been out of the house. I’ve forgotten how the oven works. The dog doesn’t recognize me. Side effects of con-going. Worth it.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Matthew Johnson, who always takes me under his wing at cons and introduces me to nice people. That’s right, I DO know where he lives, but he doesn’t have to be so damn accommodating. I bought your book, Matthew. I’ll have to get you to sign it.

I had to keep dipping out of Can-Con proceedings (and ridiculously good panels) to actually write. And not completely fun writing, either. Work-related writing. The entire museum universe has decided, all at once, that I must produce text. By Monday. So be it.

Even so, I managed to sneak in a couple of panels, a beer (thanks Chizine!), a quickly eaten meal at the con suite, and some great conversations “on the margin” (as I was taught to say at International Branch).

Ups

·      Perfectly awesome panel on blog tours. I learned so much. Thanks, Linda Poitevin.

·      Meeting a wonderful young man in the con suite, who told me about his musician half-brother, what it was like to be 15 years old, and how the mean kids from last year weren’t at school this year.

·      Panel on spirit possession/influence, in many permutations. Insightful dialogue between panelists Kate Heartfield, DerekNewman-Stille, and Sean Moreland. Why you go to these things in the first place.

·      Discussing feminism with Violette Malan. The only thing that would have made it better was more coffee.

Downs

·      Missing Marie Bilodeau’s paper airplane extravaganza. I had a cold, and it caught up with me. That’s not really an excuse, because I know vodka would have straightened a great many things out.

·      Work interfering with life.

·      My bio didn’t make it to the panelist list on the website. This makes me sad.

Thanks, con organizers. It’s a shit ton of work, so I hope you (all) got to enjoy it.