2016 WWC Guest of Honour Speech

Dr. Robert Runté speaking at When Words Collide.

The When Words Collide writers' conference (held each August in Calgary) has a podcast page on which they release Guest of Honour speeches, panel discussions, and interviews. These are generally well worth a listen.

My Guest of Honour speech August 2016 was just released: "WWC 2016 GOH speech finds the curmudgeonly, retired professor Robert Runté questioning English teachers and praising fan fiction".

My Schedule at When Words Collide Festival, Calgary, August 11-14, 2016

As mentioned previously, I am one of the Guests of Honour at When Words Collide Festival this year. In contrast to my limited participation at Limestone Genre Convention in Kingston (see previous post) I'm pretty booked at WWC, so thought I'd post my schedule in case any of the topics are of interest, and also to show typical workday of a GoH at writers' conventions.

Note that the Friday AM Masterclass is a 3 hour workshop that requires prior registration and a small fee in addition to membership in the WWC convention; the Five Rivers pitch sessions are free to convention members but require signup for a time slot on first come, first served basis; Festival Guest readings, Book Launches, the autograph session (8-10 Saturday), and the merchant's room are open to the public; all other events are restricted to registered WWC attendees.

1. Thursday Aug 11 Guest Dinner [Private Function for Convention Committee]
2. Thursday 7-9 PM Fish Creek Public Library GoH Readings - Open to Public (2 hours)
3. Friday 9-Noon  How to Work with an Editor (3 hours) [Master Class workshop - requires prior registration & small fee]
4. Friday 1-3 PM Festival Guest Readings (2 Hours) Open to the Public
5. Friday 4 PM   Five Rivers Pitch Session (requires signup)
6. Friday 5 PM    Common Manuscript Problems (panel)
7. Friday 7-9 PM Festival  Guest of Honour Keynotes (2 hours)



8. Saturday 10 AM How to Write a Good Pitch & Query (panel)
9. Saturday 11 AM Five Rivers Pitch Session (requires signup)
10. Saturday 12 PM Live Action Slush - Science Fiction (panel) 
11. Saturday 2 PM  Five Rivers Publishing Presents (Double Book Launch; open to the public)
12. Saturday 3 PM  An Hour with Robert Runté (presentation)
13. Saturday 5 -6:30 PM  Steampunk Banquet (90 minutes)
14. Saturday 6:30-7:30 evening Aurora Awards Ceremony (
15. Saturday 8-10 PM  Private meeting with Essential Edits client (2 hours) [not part of WWC, just part of personal schedule!]
16. Sunday 11 AM   What Makes for Good Non-Fiction (panel)
17. Sunday 12 PM   Five Rivers Pitch Session (requires signup)
18. Sunday 1 PM   Publisher's Panel: Novels (panel)
19. Sunday 2 PM   Live Action Slush - High Fantasy (panel) 
20. Sunday 3 PM   Five Rivers Pitch Session(requires signup)
21. Sunday 4-5 PM  Laksa Media Book Launch (open to the public)

 

So I make that out to be 21 scheduled events for 28 hours over three and a half days. So toss in putting in an appearance at the after hours parties and the usual convention socializing, and that's pretty much full on for the whole convention. Which is as it should be, and pretty much what I would be doing anyway if I were not a GoH, because I love all this stuff.

Editor Guest of Honour at When Words Collide / Canvention 36

I am deeply honoured to have been chosen as the Editor Guest of Honour for the When Words Collide Festival (Calgary), August 12-14, 2016; which is also that year's Canvention, the Canadian national SF&F convention at which the Aurora Awards are presented. Previous Editor GoHs at WWC have included Adrien Kerr (Editor of Commercial Fiction at Penguin Canada) and super literary agent, Sally Harding, so I feel I am in very distinguished company.

I have been Fan GoH at various conventions back in the 1980s and 90s, culminating in Fan Guest of Honour at the Worldcon, but this is the first time I've been invited as a pro Guest, so that's pretty special to me. I had always dreamed of being a pro GoH, though back in the 80s I assumed that it would be as a writer, not an editor. (But apparently, you have to actually finish your novel to qualify as an author guest.... as I have admitted many times, editing a novel is a lot easier than writing one.)

I find it fascinating how many of the fans I did zines with back in the 80s have subsequently gone on to become pros. We were just kind of goofing around, but I can count four with published novels, two who became editors, and one who became a prominent book designer. I can't help wondering if Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr will produce the same % of next generation authors....

Anyway, excited but a little intimidated by the opportunity--Sally Harding's GoH speech at this year's WWC was wonderful: funny, insightful, and uplifting. Tough act to follow!

I'll do my best.