Next weekend, I will be heading up to beautiful Ottawa for Can∗Con 2016. I haven’t been to Ottawa in YEARS and this will be my first time ever at Can∗Con, so I’m thoroughly stoked about this despite the eleven-hour round trip by bus. (Hey, I survived the twenty-four-hour round trip to New York City for a long weekend with my dear friend and fellow writer/editor Vanessa Ricci-Thode. Amazingly, we didn’t kill each other, not even once!)

The convention is put on by The Society for Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature and features Canadian authors and publishers. They have a wide variety of panel topics, and of course numerous authors, editors, publishers, and various  members of the publishing and science communities will be there to talk about the hot topics in science fiction and fantasy.

I was a bit of a late-comer to the party, so I’m only speaking on one panel this year, but it promises to be a good one:

What if vN is Just the First Circle of Hell? The Dark Future of Sexuality: Madeline Ashby’s Machine Dynasty Series is a very dark prediction of how sexuality and technology could combine to change society, taking as a starting point how our society’s sexuality has already been altered by technology. Our panelists go dark from this launching point. Suzanne Church, Kris Ramsey, Una Verdandi, David Nickle

I attended Ad Astra 2016 with Suzanne Church, had a brief Twitterchat with Kris Ramsey about assigning bonus points for freaking out the panel audience, and I am very much looking forward to meeting David Nickle and many of the other guests and panelists.

Be sure to check out the panelist profiles and event schedule—I know you’ll find something you like. See you there!