LitCon 2023!

HOW IT STARTED

On Saturday, March 18th at 6:30am, I left my house to start the drive to Moose Jaw. The point of my trip? Going to the LitCon 2023 one-day conference. The road was (mostly) clear, I had snacks, and a full tank of gas—life was good.

I was still almost late.

Also on the list of things I was shocked by that seemingly no one else is, you apparently don’t have to pay for parking in downtown Moose Jaw on the weekends. I, of course, only learned this after I’d paid to park in a lovely little parkade.

Luckily, I ran into friends who were down for the conference as well which was nice. Workshops are always more fun when you know that you can sit with someone else.

SESSION #1 - NEIL AITKEN

The first session was Neil Aitken leading a workshop about sci-fi poetry. It was a great time. We discussed what exactly makes a poem “sci-fi” and determined it is very open to interpretation. We also did a neat exercise where we wrote a person, place, and action on little cards and then shuffled them up and redistributed them. Then we were given a few minutes to make a poem using the words as inspiration.

I won’t write my poem here as it wasn’t anywhere near good, but I will happily share my prompt as well as a line I do like:

Prompt: Queen Elizabeth I skateboarding at a courthouse

Line: She was left down here / When they burnt the buildings.

SESSION #2 - HEATHER O’WATCH

The second session was a talk with Heather O’Watch discussing weaving lessons into children’s books. It was interesting to hear Heather talk about her journey to publication as well as her method for figuring out what lesson, moral, or feelings to focus on when writing a children’s book. It also prompted a lively discussion at the end that, while I didn’t have much to contribute, was great to listen to.

SESSION #3 - MARK ALLARD-WILL

The third session was with Mark Allard-Will about writing for comics and graphic novels. Mark gave a great technical overview of what writing for comics takes. As well as going over the added considerations that are needed in order to give your illustrator enough to work with to bring your vision to life.

The discussion after his official presentation was also a ton of fun to listen to as people asked questions about both his work specifically and graphic novels overall.

As well, I got to ask him afterward if he'd be willing to do an interview for Tales After Tolkien as he draws from both Tolkien and Tolkien’s own sources in his work. I’m happy to say, he’ll be our Apr 6th interview!

SESSION #4 - HELEN POWER

The last session was with Helen Power on writing mystery/thrillers. She had a wonderful presentation on the most important elements for building a mystery/thriller, as well as the difference between the two. She had a great PowerPoint that she was kind enough to forward along the slides to us. It was nice to hear the basics of a genre I’m not very familiar with laid out in an easy and digestible way.

BONUS ONE-ON-ONE SESSION - JILLIAN BELL

I also managed to snag one of the time slots for a 15 minute one-on-one chat with Jillian Bell. Due to unforeseen circumstances, this chat was actually rescheduled for a few days later but I’m counting it!

Jillian was a wealth of knowledge and was kind enough to give me lots of advice and things to think about relating to Print-On-Demand, good indie marketing, suggestions for indie editing services, and a recommendation for a way to brush up on my own editing and to learn more about it. I’m very happy I got to speak with her and it was a great finish to the convention itself.

POST CONVENTION

After the sessions, I met up with friends and took a dip in the Moose Jaw spa. I’ll be real–I’d much rather go to Manitou Springs given the choice between the two. Don’t get me wrong, this was really nice. Manitou is just still a world away. That being said, the fact that you can swim under the wall to sit in the heated water outside was wonderful and I spent basically all my time out there.

HOW IT ENDED

I had a bit of a fiasco (that we will not discuss) getting food for my return trip but I did manage it and I drove home. I arrived around midnight and basically flopped into my bed. It was an awesome day but I was definitely wiped out at the end!

Overall, I learned a lot, made a few new acquaintances, and had fun. What more can you really ask of a one-day conference?