CAN-CON: Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature

Can-Con 2025 Starts Today!

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Hello Readers!

This weekend (Starting today!) is the wonderful Can-Con: Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature.

Jen and I will be in the vendors room (FREE to the public!) most of the time, selling awesome coffee, crochet, and books.

Vendor’s room hours:
Friday Oct 17: 5-8
Saturday Oct 18: 10-6
Sunday Oct 19: 10-4
Jen’s Schedule:
Saturday 4-4:50 pm – You Got Dragons in my Romance Novel
Sunday 11:30-12:20 pm – The Bond of Brothers: Writing Sibling Relationships

Hope to see you there!

Éric

Come say hello at Can-Con 2024

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Hello Readers!

This weekend is the wonderful Can-Con: Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature.

Jen and I will be in the vendors room (FREE to the public, masks are optional) most of the time, selling awesome coffee and crochet.

Here are the vendor’s room hours

  • Friday 5-8
  • Saturday 10-6
  • Sunday 10-4

Jen will be on the “”The Pros of Being a Ghost (writer)” panel on Saturday morning (Nov 2nd) from 10:00-10:50.

Éric will be at the booth and chatting with people.

Hope to see you there!

Éric

See you at Can-Con 2023

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Hello Readers!

This weekend is the wonderful Can-Con: Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature.

Jen and I will be in the vendors room (FREE to the public, masks are required) most of the time, selling awesome coffee and crochet.

Here are the vendor’s room hours

  • Friday 5-8
  • Saturday 10-6
  • Sunday 10-4

Jen and I both have signings in the vendors room on Saturday the 14th:

  • Jen is at 10:30-11:00
  • I’m at 3:00-3:30

And come see us at the Renaissance Party 1-4pm in room 1703! We won’t be there all the time, but we’ll be popping in sporadically.

Hope to see you there!

Éric

‘Nathan Burgoine

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‘Nathan was a joy to meet at Can*Con! He was nominated for an Aurora Award for his YA novel Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks, incidentally up against my husband. I voted for both of them. 🙂

Learn more about ‘Nathan here, and you can buy his nominated book (and others) here!

(PS I just realized you get to see ‘Nathan twice in a row on our blog! Unintentional I assure you!)

Can*Con Report 2019

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

This past weekend the entire JenEric family went to one of our favourite conventions; Can*Con. The people were lovely and the event was wonderful, but boy am I glad it’s over.

It’s definitely the most stressful convention for me. Most conventions, my job is to stand there, look pretty, and sell coffee. At Can*Con, I’m also an author and need to talk about my books and my experience. Often times, with people I respect and am in awe of.

This year I had a panel about multiple point of view narratives with Tanya Huff and Kevin Hearn. Both amazing writers and extremely intelligent panelists. I think, to my surprise, I didn’t come off as a complete fool, so yay. (A personal fanboy moment was when Tanya chided me for not mentioning my Aurora nomination.)

I also had a signing with Charles De Lint. I spent half the time chatting with people in line to talk with him and half the time chatting with him. He’s a really nice person and we chatted about book formatting and support structures.

Now all that was stressful but awesome. Unfortunately, all 4 of us came down with a cold just before the convention. So doing a convention with a 3 year old and a baby while being sick was… exhausting.

Despite all of us being exhausted, we decided we needed to go to the Aurora awards banquet (we were both nominated but didn’t expect to win). Dragon wanted to dress up and we were just too darn tired so we didn’t. We were the schlumps in t-shirts and jeans but we had a great time.

On the Sunday I had a reading and took Dragon to ensure I had an audience. To my surprise, there were three other people. At least one of which was there to hear me read. Yay, I have a fan! Thanks S!

Doing conventions with kids is hard but totally worth it. Pegasus mostly slept, but Dragon was as good as possible. She listened, didn’t touch things, and only melted down a few times. I’m really proud of them.

Doing conventions with kids isn’t easy, but what makes it infinitely better is doing it with people who love them and like to entertain them. S. M. Carrière being the godmother spends a lot of time helping us at almost every con. Nathan of Renaissance was amazing despite being busy 99% of the con. Heather Chambers was absolutely fantastic with Dragon. She drew with her, played, and spent lots of time laughing.

There are more people that helped then I can name.

Thank You!

To everyone who helped, chatted, bought something, listened to me read or rant, or just made this convention amazing. Thank you so much!

I’m exhausted but happy.

Thank you again,

Éric

The Travelling TARDIS was Pinned

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On the Sunday of Can*Con, Jen Desmarais (who writes and runs TravellingTardis.com, Blush, and Fandom Travel) received her Aurora Awards nomination pin from this years winner for short story Liz Westbrook-Trenholm.

Everyone was laughing when Jen mentioned she’d already been felt up that day… by Child Dragon. Pictured in the back is the wonderful Marie Bilodeau.

The excellent Brandon Crilly was pinned at the same time.

Can-Con Post con review 2018

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I’m still recovering from the awesomness that was Can-Con. I really need to plan taking time off after.

Most of my weekend was spent at the table selling stuff and giving away coffee samples. It’s great to hear and see the joy coffee brings some people. For those that didn’t like coffee I sent them 3 tables down to the fantastic Heart Tea Heart.

I was on one panel about heroism in Star Wars and it was a great discussion. The panelists were inteligent, well spoken, and made great points. (I rambled and agreed a lot.)

Other than that I loved the opportunity to talk coffee and books with all the fantastic attendees. The organizers and venue are always fantastic. Thank you and I look forward to next year!

I’m drained… enjoy these pictures of the Child Dragon.

Later Days,

Éric

Can-Con 2017

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

This weekend was Can-Con. If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you’ll know that we’re big fans.

It’s a fantastic convention for two reasons. The first being how attentive and open the organizers are and the second because of everyone who participates.

I spent more time chatting in the dealer’s room than attending panels this year. There are a few panels I wish I had been able to attend, but was either too burnt out or doing something else.

Highlights from Can-Con 2017

Waiting to sign books. Picture from Lesley Donaldson‏

  • The Ottawa Writers community being awesome as usual.
  • Listening to Steven Erikson being interview by Black Gate.
  • My first signing session (didn’t sign anything but I was sitting next to S. M. Carrière, Steven Erikson, and Robert Sawyer, so I was in fantastic company.)
  • Watching S. M. Carrière geek out about Steven Erikson.
  • The Renaissance reading that had a whole lot of people in it.
  • Getting to Pitch Everdome to Kim-Mei Kirtland.
  • Having Kim-Mei Kirtland like my pitch for Everdome.
  • The Asexuality panel which was so full I had to tuck myself into a corner. It was really interesting and illuminating.
  • The look of pure joy on an audience member when they learnt that Keladry (from the Protector of the Small) was confirmed by Tamora Pierce to be Asexual.
  • Watching Dragon walking around smiling at everyone.
  • Learning that Tanya Huff really likes our coffee.
  • Meeting people that I’ve only ever interacted with online.

Conclusion

Can-Con, for me, is about basking in the love this community has for genre writing and stories. I’m still a fledgling author and I never feel like anyone is judging. They are supportive, loving, and so kind.

Thank you to everyone who was there!

Éric