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Participating at VCON 34 10/14/2009 7:46:04 PM
Lorna shares her experience at her first VCON event. On Oct. 3, 2009 I was invited to VCON 34 at the Marriott Pinnacle in downtown Vancouver to be part of a YA authors panel to discuss the challenges of writing in this genre.
This was my first experience with this event and what piqued my interest in the first place was that for the past two years while attending the Surrey International Writers Conference, I’ve had a number of people asking me if I’ll be at VCON.
To be totally honest, having spent so much time in seclusion while I write, I was rather clueless when it came to VCON. It was not until these people, past attendees and volunteers of this annual event, explained what it was about and why I should be a part of it that I thought I should check it out.
After doing a bit of research, I thought it might be a wonderful opportunity to introduce these fans of sci-fi/fantasy to the Imago series. Initially, I emailed Paul Carpentier, the Programme Organizer to find out if there was any possibility of doing a book launch of my latest title at this event. What started out as just a query became an invitation to participate on a panel after Paul did some investigating of his own, checking out my website.
He felt I had something valuable to contribute to this event and asked if I would be interested in participating in a panel about writing in the YA genre, as well as one on writing a fight scene. Unfortunately, the latter session I had to bow out of due to time constraints, but I welcomed the opportunity to be included on the YA authors panel.
I arrived prior to this 2:00 pm session. It was during this prelude to the panel session that I had the good fortune of meeting with Paul Carpentier just outside the designated meeting room.
The poor fellow was taking a quick breather. He was harried; rushing from room to room making sure planned events started on time and in the right place, with the correct people.
Paul was professional and gracious, welcoming me to this event and relieved that I made it with time to spare. During our discussion, he came to realize he recognized me from my stints on TV when I used to appear on CTV News with Tamara Taggart back in the days when I’d introduce her to rhinos, cheetahs and other exotic creatures when I worked in PR for a zoo and conservation centre (that was another life time ago).
The poor man apologized, stating that I must feel under utilized. I told him it was my first time and I was just grateful to be included in this wonderful event. Paul went on to explain that he didn’t want to overwhelm me and wanted to make sure this was going to be a pleasant experience for me in case there was a call back for next year’s event.
I felt even more privileged when he told me that he gets many requests each year from people wanting to be a part of VCON as a presenter or panelist, but it is by invitation only and he had to have good reason to extend this invite to a newbie like me. He also wanted to know how I’d fare, as past experience told him that not every person is meant to speak in front of an audience.
Thankfully for me, after many years of public speaking and TV appearances, I’m relatively unfazed by large audiences. Paul went on to invite me to act as moderator as well as a panelist for this session, warning me that he was not sure how well received this programme would be, as it was the first time it was being offered.
As I walked into the Kitsilano Room, the crowd was already building. When it was just after 2:00 I had the doors closed so we could convene without disruption from outside noise.
I started the session by having the panelists introduce themselves, starting with Tamara Sheehan, Linda DeMuelemeester, then Eileen Kernaghan and concluding with yours truly. After introductions and a brief history of our works; an explanation of what defines YA from middle grade; general words count for this genre; etc., the audience members were invited to jump in with questions.
We quickly established that about half the audience were writers hoping to get published one day. For this reason, many of the questions were pertaining to our individual writing styles, how to write for a YA audience without dummying down the contents, what is considered taboo subjects for this particular audience, etc.
We were also broached with many questions about seeking representation by a literary agent; query letters; submitting unsolicited manuscripts to publishing houses and more! And before we knew it, our time was up!
Although Paul Carpentier said that between 500-700 people attend this event, he braced me for the possibility that there was a chance of very low attendance. Fortunately, it was a full house with standing room only (unfortunate for those left standing against the back wall).
Given the number of attendees and the number of relevant questions posed to us, we probably could have easily spent another 30 minutes fielding questions from the audience. I believe Paul’s fears were laid to rest. Based on the feedback I received prior to leaving VCON, this panel session was very well received!
If invited to take part in this annual event again, I’d jump at the chance! Thank you to Paul Carpentier and the organizers and volunteers who made VCON 34 a great success! I do hope to be even more involved next year. And if Paul gets his way, I may be doing a programme on writing fight scenes along with a demo on unarmed combat and armed-against-unarmed fighting to spice things up!
