I’m feeling inspired after attending Better Futures Through Solarpunk with Andrew Dana Hudson, presented by Clarion West, March 16-30, 2024. “The planet is in unprecedented trouble; mobilizing to fix it will require telling new stories about its potential future. There is a growing hunger for fiction that thinks deeply about the climate crisis and offers a vision of a sustainable world. This class will take up that challenge, exploring the evolution of climate fiction and the solutions-oriented genre of solarpunk.” I submitted my hope- and solarpunk YA novel in progress and received some beautiful feedback. A big thank you to all the attendees.

I’m excited to be participating in the Quebec Writers’ Federation Masterclass with hopepunk author Su J. Sokol. Sokol is the author of three novels: Cycling to Asylum, long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and optioned for a film; Run J Run; and Zee, a finalist for the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Les lignes invisibles, the French translation of Cycling to Asylum, was published in 2022 by VLB Imaginaire. Sokol's short fiction and essays have appeared in various magazines and anthologies.

I attended Good or Evil?, the Inaugural Event of the Cambridge Research Network for Fairy-Tale Studies. The event explored representations and remediations of fairies and witches in Italian popular culture from the nineteenth century to the modern day from an interdisciplinary and transmedial perspective. Participants heard talks from early-career and senior scholars working at the intersection of women’s and gender studies, media studies, popular culture, children’s literature, folklore and fairy-tale studies with guest of honour Prof. Jack Zipes.

I attended the International Gothic Association (IGA) Gothic-Without-Borders conference, Progression, Regression and Transgression in Gothic World Lit and Film, from September 29-October 2, 2023. The event was hosted by the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver and co-sponsored by the IGA. Topics covered a wide range of media including Gothic literature, drama, film, television, cyberspace, and other art-forms, exploring how Gothic-themed productions in all of these modes can augment recent efforts to decolonize, ethnicize, indigenize, and degender academic fields of study.

I took part in THE SEASON OF THE WHALE at The Storied Imaginarium with Carina Bissett. THE SEASON OF THE WHALE is a twelve-week, five-module series of interactive and generative workshops offering writers the opportunity to explore fairy tales, myths, and other traditional tales, paired with strange and marvelous concepts. Participants workshop five new stories, essays, and/or poems, and a portfolio piece revised based on the workshop discussions. This is a supportive and generative workshop that combines reading, discussion, writing, and feedback.

I workshopped in this four-session craft seminar taught by New York Times-bestselling, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning novelist, translator, and dramatist Maria Dahvana Headley. Headley is the author of Vergil: A Mythological Musical, Beowulf: A New Translation, and The Mere Wife.
This seminar was a deep dive into the techniques, forms, and tropes used in a variety of well-known epics – Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, The Mahabharata, The Aeneid, The Monkey King, The Epic of Delhemma, and Beowulf – combined with in-class writing exercises to enable students to use these techniques on the ground, transforming basic narrative into vivid, memorable, and thrilling epic storytelling.

I reserved my ticket for online access to StokerCon 2023. StokerCon is the annual convention for authors in the horror genre — an all-inclusive event where writers “convene to share ideas, pitch their new projects, and revel in their weirdness.” This year’s guests of honor are Jewelle Gomez, Alma Katsu, Owl Goingback, Cynthia Pelayo, Wrath James White, and Daniel Kraus. Looking forward to it!

I attended the virtual sessions of the Historical Novel Society North America Conference from June 5-10, 2023. I’ve been a member of HNS for years and got so much out of the online mini-conference Taste of HNS in 2022. I’m a big fan of hybrid conferences, which better include disabled, geographically remote, and marginalized people, as well as caregivers, COVID cautious, and precarious workers. Support HNS diversity scholarships here.

I booked a Nebula Airship Premium Cabin at the 2023 SFWA Nebula Conference. Thanks so much to SFWA for 2023 Nebula scholarships! The SFWA Nebula Conference provides professional development, community building, and celebration of the Nebula Awards. This year features Grand Master Robin McKinley and inaugural Infinity Award Nominee Octavia E. Butler.

I was so grateful to match for a place in the 2023 Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association Mentoring Initiative. My mentor was wonderful YA science fiction author, LJ Cohen. LJ was so generous and supportive. We discussed breaking into SpecFic as a woman of a certain age, and we also talked about our mutual interest in permaculture (Grow a Little Fruit Tree). Worth it!

"The SFWA Mentoring Initiative is an all-volunteer service provided free of charge. It aims to connect writers who have questions, whether they are emerging writers or have expansive career experience, with each other with the objective of providing community, sharing knowledge, and offering networking opportunities. This endeavor is focused on professional development rather than artistic development.”