CanCon Ottawa Debrief

Hello Dreamers.

CanCon Ottawa was a lot of fun. It was also stressful.

Here is a breakdown of what happened throughout the weekend long event.

Day 0

I woke up in the early hours of Thursday to board the train for Toronto from my hometown. This had been because I screwed up booking the train for Ottawa to be the one that left Union Station at about 10:48AM.

I boarded VIA Rail with no issue. I had been worrying about my luggage weight for nothing. I even weighted it, and accepted the cart would be staying home.

I sit at my seat in economy class, chatted with the guy next to me. Like anyone who I tell I am a published author they get excited, and the excite does not go away even after breaking it to them that I'm self-published. Still, he thought it was neat that I wrote fantasy with some leaning into erotica and told me about his girlfriend who was into smut.

Four hours, some reading, and a $3.45 can of Diet Coke later I tell the gent about my website (couldn't reach for a business card in the chaos of disembarking) and went on my way to Ottawa transit.

It had been about 5:30 by the time I get to the hotel. When I go to check in my card gets declined. So I am on hold with the bank for an hour to get a CSR to tell my I just needed to reset my card's pin. Sigh.

I finally get into my room to settle in and grab some dinner. There was a pizza bar near my hotel that did just fine.

Some of the best pizza ever!

Tried to joke with the waitress when I discovered the jalapenos in my poppers were red. I think I scared her. Still, I get back to the hotel and wind down for the busy day ahead.

Day 1

I pry myself out of bed at 6:45 (bawls) and decide to check out this included breakfast. Considering that I usually don't eat breakfast I figured I would like to indulge. This is when I learn that its a buffet style all you can eat. The meat, eggs, and potato, were on a serving tray while there was a waffle iron with a batter dispenser.

Hallelujah

You bet I abused that!

So, after pigging out I get my gear and Uber my way to the convention grounds. There I find the vendor hall after some wondering about and I set up shop.

Hoping that people would step right up.

Still, CanCon is a literary event specialising in sci-fi and fantasy.

Yes, that is a TARDIS behind me. As is a makeshift Dalek and a face of the Silence.

Now, I make the effort to get there early and setup. 10:00 comes around and there is still no one other than vendors. At noon I asked when the vendor hall opens to the general public. 5:00...PM.

No panels that tickled my interest so I spent that time doing last minute checking. Course, 5'o'clock comes along and the people come in to look at all the cool stuff.

I was told that the Friday is a slow day, through I was able to sell one copy of Whispers of the Abyss.

At 8:00 I went to an afterparty with Toronto SFF. We went to a nearby bar that the one guy reserved a table for. I get back to my hotel room at 11:30 to go from a half-drunken sleep.

Day 2

After pulling myself out of bed, overeating at breakfast, and Ubering to the convention, I get ready for the Saturday. Now, as this on October 18th 2025, aka No Kings Day, I felt I needed to show my solidarity.

This had been taken later in the day, but it was better than the one I took that morning.

So now that I am not describing minusa, I can get into some more detail about the other vendors.

There was not only a good mix of authors and publishers of different styles and genres, but also book-adjacent services and artist.

I shared a table with a company called "Pulp and Paste" who sell custom, handbound, stationary. Notebooks and planners mostly, although the best selling item from them had been D'n'D organisers. These items were expensive mostly because they're:

• Handbound

• On high quality paper

• With pages that can be customise

• With the cover pattern of the customer's choice.

Now, to my right, at the adjacent table, I had the, uh, honour, of meeting Stephen Colghan. He's a fairly well known in the Con scene in Ottawa with a loud, energetic, personality. While he's written many other things he's most known for Fifty Shades of Neigh (its about centaurs). It would be interactions with him where I learn about the 'Spice Game.'

Fairly straight forward - a random person takes an erotic book, opens it to a random page, and the author gets:

• 2 points if on a sex scene

• 1 point if its foreplay/pillow talk

• 0 if anything else.

Once he learned of Whispers of the Abyss I'm playing the Spice Game with him, trying to see who gets the highest score, and therefore is the more spicy.

He had an artist with him, AJ LaFrance, who tended to paint nautical themed subjects (mostly mermaids) on plywood. He sold prints of his work at the table next to all of Colghan's books.

Like this one. More on it in the haul video.

Despite assurance that Saturday is busier than Friday, I only made a couple of sales: a copy of Whispers and $3 worth of merchandise to a guy placing a bit for WorldCon Edmonton. Outer Rim AF is my best friend.

The market on day 2 ended at 6:00. The afterparty with Toronto SFF that time ended up being a chaotic, no reservation, dash to an East Side Mario's. The company was good, but, of course, what do you expect from a restaurant whose main selling point is "All you can eat bread sticks" (Which I abused, of course). The adult mac and cheese I ordered, aka Fetitetine Alfredo, tasted ok.

The group left early on low energy. Sad I didn't get desert I ordered cheesecake on Door Dash once I got to my hotel room.

Day 3

The final day. Started with eating 2 waffles with my pile of protein and potato before grabbing an Uber. I picked out an outfit for Sunday that, to quote the chair of the Conference, "Looks both fancy and comfortable."

The forecast stated it would be ~15c so I figured I could get away with showing more skin.

Also just wanted to rock the LOZ scarf

On the third day I rearranged the table, hoping that I could squeeze some more sales before the end.

There was a lot of Spice Game rounds, complete with jiggles and disappointment. Chatted with someone else writing a story about someone, ahem, seducing the essence of vanilla extract (get it, its 'vanilla sex?') with readings of a parody of erotica Colghan had been drafting.

Weirdly enough, the Spice Game sold a copy of Quantum Songstress. The reader actually looked at the page and thought the sentences were well written and the interior book design looked up. Course, she wasn't interested in Lovecraftian Horror Romance Tentacle Porn, so I showed her the other 2 books I had, and she thought Quantum Songstress sounded interesting.

So the day came to a close with a drone flying overhead.

And it was time to pack up. Course, the bookplate used as part of the signing ritual left a casualty.

So after saying all my goodbyes and had the idea of the Monster F'er Antho floated, I was on my way via Uber to the VIA station, where I boarded the train back to Toronto for 6:00.

Unlike on the way there, I rode business class on the way back, seeing that the price wasn't that much more expensive for the departure time. When I boarded I learned why the upgrade wasn't that much more, for the car was half empty. I sat next to no one.

But eh? They included dinner at least.

Mmm, airplane food.

There was also an open bar. I drank a rum'n'coke, ginger'n'rye, red wine, and water.

Once I got to Union, where the VIA arrived later than expected, I had less than ten minutes to get to my connecting Ontario Northland bus to get to Barrie. A wrong turn later, and panic starts to set as I can't find where the bus terminal is. I start panting as I'm dragging around 48lbs in a luggage case, fearing that I would miss my bus. Staff at the station flag me down while asking if I need water. I tell them "I'm looking for the Northland back to Barrie!"

They take me to the ticket stand, where I learn the bus had already left, and the next one won't be til the next day. "Its cold, and raining, and this building is going to be locked up so I'm going to be stuck outside all night..." I weep while chugging water and holding my chest. Breathing became hard.

They convince me to Uber it to a later stop to catch the bus then. So $60 later I'm at Hwy 407 Station, and learning that the bus had passed that station by the time I got there.

So I call Mom at that point and ask for a lift. She agrees so long as I get to Vaughn Metropolitan Centre, the northernmost stop on TTC. I get there, eat chips and chocolate from the vending machine to calm myself down, and feel bad for a teen who missed the last subway train for the night and can't reach his own Mom.

I felt so terrible for Mom when she arrives, and I know she isn't happy as I am loading my stuff into the trunk of her SUV. While she insists its ok, I know it is not.

It was 4:00 AM when I actually get home. While I got some sleep, I wasn't functional until Thursday, when I wrote this post.

Overall

I'm debating if I should do it again. An email came stating that if I book a table before Halloween, I can get a discount for 2026.

In the meantime, I just have to hope the extra exposure pushes books and whatnot.

I did have someone suggest that I take commissions for short stories. I need to modify the site anyways, so it would be something I add to it.

Well, goodnight dreamers. Expect to see the haul video coming soon.