I’d been looking forward quite a bit to The Future of Urban Design, so maybe I could only be disappointed. The panel got bogged down with current local problems, and while those admittedly allow some extrapolation, it felt very much like one of our community planning committees or open houses and wasn’t what I’d hoped for.

The Realities of Space Travel on the other hand, was eye-opening for me as a non-physicist and only very marginally techy person. Glad I went.

Writers and Research confirmed what I’m already doing, and was a bit of a tide-me-over to the panel I’d been waiting for:

GLBTQ Reader: What is pushing the boundaries of gender in specfic? Honestly, this was ill prepared and almost had me walking out. All three panelists seemed to be convinced the aforementioned boundaries lay in gay characters and whether or not they were acceptable to publishers and/or readers. How disappointing. To their credit, they realized pretty quickly that their audience was way ahead of them in what problems drive the community today, so they mainly shut up and let the floor have it. In the end it was a very good discussion from which I took home another pile of book recommendations and some new friends.

In summary I really enjoyed this con. It’s small as cons go, which has the advantage of not having too many conflicting topics and finding venues easily. It’s also cozy and familiar and a good starter for con newbies. It was maybe not as cutting edge as it would have liked to be, but still managed to give me a lot of creative input and a pretty long book list.

If there’s anything I would have done differently it’s breaks. There were none. Panels started on the hour and were an hour long, which left no room for bathroom breaks, to get a coffee or a bite or to chat to anyone without missing at least part of the next panel. I think just 10 minutes between panels would be a good idea.

The panelist who stood out for me was definitely Marie Bilodeau, who was fun, helpful, thoughtful and approachable in equal measures and who put herself out there tirelessly. I’ll definitely be checking out her stories and books, and her blog feed is already bookmarked.

Managed to start my con day at noon with a panel on languages that managed to be academic and entertaining at the same time (go figure). I took lots of notes and jotted down numerous book recommendations. What can I say? This was my tribe.

The panel about what medium people use for their fiction books was pleasant enough, if not offering spectacular new insights. Same for the one on how horror works and what scares people, though it did manage to summarize some things more to the point than I’d been carrying them around in my head. The next panel on Gender Issues in Horror was more interesting and outlined the ongoing academic discussion very nicely.

The panel on Marketing again offered not much above the common sense rules, but backed it up with some useful numbers.

The Villains vs. Heroes panel was just plain fun and engendered a lively discussion and quite a bit of hilarity.

I held out for Female Characters which was interesting, if not exactly cutting edge. After that, I just couldn’t sit anymore. Plus, I was starving and really, really wanted to make it to the early panel on Sunday. So, homeward bound.

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).