I’d been forlornly noting mentions of UK LGBT Fiction meet and GRL all over my twitter account and was starting to feel left out and sorry for myself up here in the Great White North ™, when an opportune email from a friend stopped me in my tracks: “You going to Can-Con?”
I first heard about Can-Con (The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature) after the fact last year, made a mental note not to miss it again, and promptly forgot to note it anywhere. *sheepish look*. So the email made me immediately check their web page and, after brief considerations and cancelling of other plans, get a ticket.
Friday evening started with the usual finding of the place, registering, getting a program and looking around and saying hi to friends (it’s a small community).
The program offered a sort of con how-to, and, since I hadn’t seen this before and it was my first Can-Con, I thought I’d go. It boiled down to the usual welcome, don’t be shy, but don’t be a dick either, and now go and have fun; but it was a good ice breaker and first introduction of some of the panelists.
Next up for me was a lecture on planetary systems and how our knowledge of them changed over the last few years. Definitely worth going.
Hayden Trenholm gave the keynote speech on the Cutting Edge of Science Fiction and Fantasy – very good choice, insightful and fun.
The launch party for Blood and Water provided a break over beer and chips, and a welcome opportunity to stretch one’s legs for a bit before the next panel, which projected today’s tech into the future, or at least gave some thoughts and pointers on the matter.
At 11pm people were starting to get a bit tired, but still kept up a lively discussion on The Prime Directive: Altruism or Survival Strategy.
I stayed for the last panel, because I was (surprise!) interested in Sex in Fantasy and Science Fiction, but unfortunately the panel was somewhat derailed by a latecomer who was just sober enough to string together sentences, but too drunk to monitor content or volume.
I got home in the wee hours, tired, content, and resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t make it out of bed in time for the Maps panel the next morning (I didn’t).
