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The Summer Novel Workshop: Crafting Your Novel From Start to Finish in Three Months

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summer novel workshopWe’re pleased to announce a new offering from Can-Con: online workshops!  We’ll have more announcements regarding other online workshops leading up to Can-Con this fall (have you bought your ticket yet?), but today marks the day we launch our first online workshop, offered by Can-Con co-chair and multi-published author, Marie Bilodeau!

Marie’s already offered this workshop to great success and demand for more, so we’re thrilled to host her here!*

Space is limited and it … Continue reading →

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Aurora Nomination

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As Co-Chairs of Can*Con, we are overwhelmed to have received our third straight Aurora Award nomination in the category of Best Fan Organizational. Can*Con is a little con that is consistently punching above its weight. Can*Con 2016 was proud to feature four Guests of Honour: Tanya Huff of DAW Books (Author), Sheila Williams of Asimov’s Magazine (Editor), Sam Morgan of the JABberwocky Agency (Agent), and Eric Choi of the Canadian Space Technology Field (Science).

The entire ballot of the 2017 Aurora Award is very strong and we are humbled to be sharing the ballot with so many luminaries. … Continue reading →

Announcing our 2017 Agent Guest of Honour

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Continuing our tradition of bringing New York publishing to meet Ottawa, Can*Con 2017 is delighted to announce that Kim-Mei Kirtland, a new agent at the Howard Morhaim Agency in Brooklyn, will be our Agent Guest of Honour. This is the second year that we’ve flown an Agent Guest of Honour to Ottawa, because we believe it is invaluable for Ottawa writers to meet agents, and to hear directly from them how traditional publishing works.

Ms. Kirtland is looking for clients, and some time will be set aside for her to hear pitches, so we advice those who are interested to … Continue reading →

Announcing our 2017 Writer Guest of Honour

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We are delighted to welcome Steven Erikson, New York Times Bestselling author of the Malazan epic fantasy series as our 2017 Author Guest of Honour. We’ve had a number of science fiction guests over the past few years, and we wanted to make sure we also showed some of the extraordinary work being done in the fantasy field. Mr. Erikson is a key part of that for 2017, and in addition to our normal science expert programming, we’ll be trying to find local history professors to talk about fascinating parts of the past from which so much of the epic … Continue reading →

Announcing our 2017 Editor Guest of Honour

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Can-Con is very pleased to announce our first Guest of Honour. Sheila Gilbert, Hugo Award winning editor of DAW Books, will be flying in from New York to be our Editor Guest of Honour for 2017. She will be involved in programming on editorial voice, novel acquisition, working with authors and other topics. We’re so delighted that she accepted our invitation. DAW Books has published thousands of fan-favourite fantasy and science fiction novels over the years. And as far as developing Canadian talent, we feel it is tremendously valuable for writers to be able to meet the senior editors of … Continue reading →

Mark your calendars!

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Ottawa’s twice-Aurora-nominated literary science fiction, fantasy and horror conference will run 13-15 October, 2017 at the Sheraton in downtown Ottawa. The Sheraton is more accessible and has more space for us to grow, and we especially worked hard to get a larger dealer’s room. The Sheraton is 4 blocks from Elgin, 4 blocks from Parliament and the river, 7 blocks from the market, and is right on the bus routes!

We’ll be announcing our Guests of Honour over the coming months, but you may want to book your room now. Our room block last year filled and we had to … Continue reading →

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Can-Con – The Campaign!

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We decided to try something a little different this year, a sort of in convention game. Can-Con is now not only a convention, but an RPG Game! Your name badges are now character sheets. There will be stations with dice so that you can roll up your character. And even a couple of monsters to fight!  Who will gain the most experience points and find the best loot?

Can-Con 2016 Adventure Campaign – Rules

Character Creation

Write your name and pronoun of choice.

Write in your class, if not already filled in (based on your registration): Attendee, Panelist, Vendor, Special … Continue reading →

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Science Workshops – $20 each!

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Can*Con is pleased to announce two new science workshops this year! This is part of a programming pattern designed to help Ottawa writers have the tools they need to write great science fiction. Since 2012, we’ve had a strong science track with practicing Canadian scientists and science journalists.

For three out of the last four years, we’ve had Editors Guests of Honour from the science fiction field to expand the networks of aspiring scifi writers: Bundoran Press, Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.

Those editors are looking for science-grounded science fiction because high-tech and visionary futures … Continue reading →

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What Can*Con Offers Science Fiction Writers at Can*Con 2016

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Are you a science fiction author looking to get published? May I offer a recommended package of programming activities at Can*Con to anyone gunning for the next level of their science fiction writing career?

Friday

  • Friday 7pm: Ursula K. Le Guin: Contributions and Legacy – this is a no-brainer. Ursula Le Guin’s impact on the field is still enormous.
  • Friday 8pm: Tough choice. Do you want to hear what Sheila Williams, the editor of SF’s most famous magazine talk about story structure, or do you want to hear from biologists and MDs talk about recent advances in disease and … Continue reading →
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Workshop Registration Now Open!

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After last year’s successful workshops, Can-Con is happy to be offering four new workshops this year from some of our fantastic panelists, special guests and guests of honour!

Learn how to create underwater civilizations from Nina Munteanu; strengthen your plotting with Julie Czerneda; or delve into the mythic in a modern context with Derek Newman-Stille. Still to come is a workshop about aerospace from Eric Choi and Gillian Clinton (registration for this one will be available after the workshop description has been finalized).

Find out more and get the link … Continue reading →