Category Archives: Event

The 2011 Mississauga 24-24 challenge

Last October 2nd and 3rd , the Mississauga Bookfest was celebrating the Central Library’s 20thanniversary. As I was among the guests, I attended, meeting with fine local authors : writers, historians, poets… and even a robot (what an occasion for a SF author!)

A robot was even present!

The robot is on the left.

Local Authors signing tables at the Central Library

Even our mayor Hazel visited! The writers were supposed to be outside, but the harsh winds forced the organizers to set our tables inside.

Image Collections table at the Mississauga Bookfest

Local bookshops like Image Collections were present, too. We can see Todd, the manager (long hair) at the table. Next to his was the Celtic Shaman table.

On to the 24-24 at the Image Collections comic shop of Streetsville!

In the evening, I packed my boxes and went to the Image Collections shop, to partake of the 24-24 challenge under way since midday! I goThe artists on Saturday evening, 8 hours into the challenge. t there around 18h.

The artists at 20h Saturday, eating pizza and pondering their stories. Todd always feeds us well! The challenge is to produce 24 comic pages in 24 hours, and is done everywhere in the world on that week-end.

A 18h20, I sat at the table, « for a few minutes  of doodling», telling myself that if I got too tired (after my full day at the Mississauga library), my husband could drive me home from the shop.

I eventually found a story corresponding to the « Species Change » theme, set in my own Science-fiction universe. At ten o’clock, I was confident enough to tell my husband: I stay here for the night!

Then, I worked all night, one page every 50 minutes, with my blue pencils. Had some trouble with the 0.7 mm blue mechanical pencil, always breaking, so I switched for a more classic pencil.

The morning after

The artists at seven the next morning. Tiffany have given herself totally to the challenge… note the superb coloured pages she managed to produce!

Of course, as I was late, this was a 24-18 rather than a 24-24 for me. So I opted out of a fully completed comic, as I did last year. I manage the full night with only two coffees (meaning, a brisk walk to the Tim Horton at 4 am) and one chocolate milk carton.

Todd did play some awful or bizarre music to keep us awake!

A nice pencilled page

Here is one page pencilled in my trusty bleu pencil. In the notebook under it, some rough break-ins and sketches. I am still working my personal manga style.

I made the thumbnails and draw some lay outs of my story, then worked hard to realize a good pencilling of 22 pages, detailed enough to make the inking part easier. I kept an eye to the overall balance, so that the panels flow smoothly. Todd took pictures of all our pages at the end.

Triumphal Trio

The triumph : Sunday Artist, Paul and Carolyn (Tiff had to leave earlier).  Paul is a pure amator who never did a comic before. Carolyn is an accomplished artist who had fun scenarizing her first comic. This is the fun of the 24-24 challenge!

Tiff has a strong talent, and you may glimpse part of her work in last year 24-24. To see my first impressions of the  24-24  in 2009, go here!

The Free Comic Book Day at Streetsville

The Free comic book day at Steetsville

Well, I totally missed the TCAF, but my experience at the 2011 Free comic book day at Streetsville was a happy one. The artist tables were on the parking next to the Image Collection shop at Streetsville. The artist under the white cap is Christopher Yao, supported by his wife.

Superman and Gilles

Our families play a great role! My husband with Superman. Up, up, and away!

Michele and Tiff with Joker make-up

It was a place to meet colleagues of all ages and places! Here Tiff, who participated in the last 24-24 at Image Collection. She was making Joker-inspired make-up. I don’t sport my Quark’s Bar T-shirt often, so enjoy!

Daniel Wong

The open port-folio of Daniel Wong, co-creator of Celtic Shaman, with Chris McQuaid

Mark and the supporting family!

My table neighbor, Mark Bertolini and his portfolios.

Mark BreakNeck

Mark Bertolini, creator of Breakneck

.one signing

One drawing on my comic book The General’s Garden

Richard Comely, creator of Captain Canuck!

Richard Comely, creator of Captain Canuck!

CaptainCanuck & Michele (love the T-Shirt!)

As it was getting cooler, I put back my 24-24 red-black polar fleece.

Todd with a super-Todd drawing

Todd and super-Todd! with a glimpse of Chris Mc Quaid in the Canada shirt.

 SuperTodd drawingAn enlarger view of the drawing.

The Green Lantern

And the Green Lantern was here! In person!

Random pics from the last Spec Fic colloquium

The format of the Toronto Spec Fic colloquium, (one day, one track of presentations, then one evening of readings) was perfect for my busy schedule. The setting was very Gothic, at the Hart House, in the center of Toronto.

Inner Court of the Hart house

There, I finally met Peter Watts. I read his fiction via Nimbus, a story he published in a Solaris (issue 143), then later came in contact with his online fiction, which prompted me to buy the books!

Sunday artist with Peter Watts

The Sunday artist meets Peter Watts.
Nooo, don’t look below!

Props!

I used a prop for the photo, but reaching his level of SF writing will take a lot more time and efforts! Peter Watts is a specialist in marine biology, and is not afraid to consult and do extensive research for his novels. And he is also a proud squid overlord! (The squid term now refer to us SF writers, from a rather disparaging comment made about Science Fiction by Margaret Atwood. And I was in the room in 2003 when she uttered a similar comment!)

Julie Czerneda and Michele

Julie Czerneda, another Science-fiction writer who does not forget the science in Science-fiction. We look so nice from my arm’s length (and it did not need  climbing on a chair) !  I came back from the Spec Fic with her cool Trade Pact Universe trilogy.

Tony Burgess and Brett Savory at the Chizine table

Tony Burgess (He gave an ominous talk about raising young children while writing horrible things. We were treated to his recent horror novel trailer ) and to the right, Brett Savory, at the Chizine table. I also met David Nickle, whose dark fiction I discovered this year.

Karl Schroeder, Brett Savory and friends

Karl Schroeder with Brett Savory and friends.

Claude Lalumière gave a challenging speech, on when too much researching and science conformity can deter the creative sparks. Ahem. I myself tend to sink in the research for my SF novels… so as a budding writer, I was sensible to the arguments. But, as a former mad scientist, I like my science to be as up to date as possible in my novels

I bought his Object of Worship collection, and discovered a new and rich voice in the weird and fantastic. (More on my Goodread thread later!)

*

I took a few hours to walk at the Tightrope books office to assist to a very useful workshop on writing for children (and young adults), given by Marina Cohen. Her last novel, Ghost ride, is on the shortlist for the Red Maple Award given by the Ontario Library Association. She gave us tips on the craft, and also the business aspects of writing for a younger audience.

Tightrope Books office

Then, I walked back to the Hart House, on this fine autumn afternoon.

Election Boards

Or did I mention “on this fine municipal election day”?

Murale

A nice mural on the way.

Weeping willow

A weeping willow…

cats in their vantage  look out

And cute cats in a window, yaay!! Spying on the passer-by…

The nice hostel where I took the dozen or books from the Spec Fic for the night (as the event lasted until around midnight)! I began reading Maelstrom, by Peter Watts, then Object of Worship.

Pembroke Hostel

Splendors and miseries of the signing table

Another bookfair is coming at Montreal! And, if you are a lesser-known author, you might experiment this:

One hour at the signing table.

One hour at the round signing table

I drew this page after some signing sessions for my novel Piège pour le Jules-Verne, my table close to the Harry Potter stand.

Jean-Louis Trudel, my fellow SF writer, had accepted to figure in the comic, and even contributed to the scenario.

This page was originally published in a fanzine, (MensuHell) and found an echo with many friends and comic creators, among them, Christ Oliver , who did a piece on it (coming on my next post).

My profound sympathies to the all writers who will experiment that desertic bookfair at the Salon du livre de Montréal , very well frequented. When there are more than 800 writers vying for the public’s attention, it is bound to happen…

Meet my fans: the paranoid fan!

Another close encounter at a bookfair…

The pananoidal fan

It really happened to another science fiction writer. I took some liberties towards the obvious flying saucer conspiracy theory…

It is more difficult to manage than the Zombie fan, or the angry fan (to come) because you want to stay polite, but the obvious awkwardness of the paranoid fan pushes other visitors away from your signing table!

And yes, there is a direct X-Files influence on that one! I loved the series despite the dark angle, for reasons too numerous to cite here. The humor, among them.

24-24 in Streetsville

Here are some pics of this global event, 24 hours of continuous creation at the Image Collection Comic Shop in Streetsville, October 2-3 . We started at noon this year. It took us an hour to decide what to draw, so it was around 1:30 that we got started!


An idea of the atmosphere at 9:30 PM.

Left, Daniel Oshino, our hero of last year, made a visit with her small daughter, hopefully as talented as him! Behind at the right, our fourth member and the only guy of 24-24 this year, Mike, 14.

The themes this year, (at least one):

– Conflict, internal or external

– Growth of an idea

– I do not remember the other themes!

I took the characters who were in the Japanese Brush, and developed a science fiction adventure. I planned eight pages before plunging into the production.

Also, we had friends visiting, to chat and draw!

at 9h30 PM

We tease, at 9h30. The two guys are visiting; the left one guy has passed the first 24-24 complete (he inked his 24 pages) three years ago. We see Todd, the manager of the shop, back with long hair, he has grown a beard since last year.

Kim started strong, deciding that she would produce more written pages, a bold approach. She left around 11 am. Mike and Tiff, being minors, are returning home to sleep around 11:30, planning to return in the morning. This means that I had sometime alone in the night with my drawings. It helped me because the drawing is not fast when we gossip!

This time we worked on a smaller paper format, like manga, so this helped!

TiffPage

A page very red by Tiffany

Tiff’s work: here is an artist to watch for! She was just 15 years, and she looks inspired by Tim Burton in its atmosphere. Her full story covers eight to ten pages. Mike produced a funny story of zombies, with 4 small panels per page, which allowed him to complete his 24 pages and even put some red on it.

Me, I let go of the color, those who know me know why! I was a little stressed around 4:00 AM because I  suddenly realized I had a chance to finish my ink, but only if I worked non stop!

Last Minute ditch

Page Last MinuteAt 11:40 AM, I finished my blanket, when, at 15 minutes remaining, Daniel, who came back to haunt us, told me about an unfinished page!

Needless to say I worked harder to finish on time!

3 Authors with their Comics

The three authors (Kim is not back yet) pose with their pages! Besides me, Mike and Tiff  rose to the challenge!

My 24h comic book!

My 24-page new comic, inked!

My inking is not perfect, but it surpasses what I did last year. A new adventure of the Otaku Ladies!

Nature’s gifts

Those days, our raspberry plants gave us oogles of little berries! A generosity I wish humans could imitate…

Framboises

This stick bears at least 300 fruits (I counted them!) hence, the shack was put to contribution!

utilité du cabanon utilt du cabanon

We had a morning visitor on the June 24 St-Jean: an oppossum making his rounds on the patio. Our two cats were anxious…

Opossum

At the end of the afternoon, another family member tastes the fruits!

Cueillette

I won the 2010 Solaris Prize!

About one year ago, a Britannic webzine asked for short texts, one or three hundred words max, describing the future in one hundred years, and in the spirit of “mundane” SF. Mundane is a term coined by author Geoff Ryman to describe a “down-to-earth” approach to science-fiction stories.

I jotted a few ideas of a bleak future from which grew an embryo of text. I reworked it… and exceeded the word limit. So I left the text alone for a while.

One or two months later, I took the text back and managed to fold it into a story, with a bird-eye point of view by an unlikely character.

As the Solaris Prize deadline approached, I decided to work on it again, and polish it. The story finally grew strong and mature enough. So, like a child that I am proud of, I let it go…

And I received the good news last week. I’m a proud mother! The Prize includes a generous sum, plus the publication in the Solaris magazine.

The official communiqué (in French) is here

My first English SF workshop

Last Saturday, I took the bus and subway to go to a workshop.

The wookshop took place in the Tightrope books office, with a river of coffee with biscuits and strawberries. It was a very convivial setting, near a subway (excellent for me transiting from Mississauga).  Author and poet Sandra Kasturi was our host.

Sandra took the time to explore the preoccupations and favourite topics of each participant beforehand, so the workshop was well attuned. For me, it was my first English-language workshop (all my published books are in French), and I found out that I like to write in English!

Sandra’s sharing of her writing was deep felt. The writing exercises were short but intense, with the added incentive of submitting what we produced to various venues. Each of us, from first time writers to published ones, or hoping to, was well received. Francine is working on her novel, Johanne, an engineer like I was, is negotiating the hurdles of a first hard-SF novel , I had already read some of Kate Riedel’s texts in ON SPEC

I hope to see them again soon.

Sandra’s vision is that there shouldn’t be hard “rules” in writing, because each of us has a different lifestyle or occupation. She provided us with a lot of practical resource informations, plus a taste to continue to create and share our stories with the rest of the world.

Now, I must work on my flash-fiction…

Views of Saskatoon in late Autumn

P1060589RiviereRochesPont The rocky side of the Saskatchewan River.

For the event Lire à tous vents, I had the joy to discover a Saskatchewan, visiting schools in Saskatoon and Prince-Albert. Prince-Albert was under snow, but I received a warm welcome from the staff and students.

The Saskatchewan River divides in two parts the Saskatoon city, founded in 1882.

Le bord de la riviere Saskatchewan Autumn reflection

Saskatoon had been named after the little Saskatoon bay which grew there. Seven bridges were built to reunite the two part.

Freshly disembarqued from the plane, I had a grand afternoon for visit the Mendel Museum with a nice mini-botanical garden, and the Art gallery.

PlantesP1060518 PlantesMuseeW

I was impressed by the portraits by James Henderson, realized between 1914 and 1930.

Henderson painted Indians, and was nicknamed  Wicite Owapi Wicasa: the man who paints the old men.

Galerie Mendel - portraits Portraits of chiefs with landscapes. Those faces are marked with dignity.

And, since for one I had the time, I took my tablet to copy some of the portraits.  The museums offered a lot of folding chairs for artist and art students. Here is on of my efforts.

DreamerW

(Guess which one from the murale…)

I visited 6 schools from threee different School boards who collaborated to make the event a success.  A few pictures of the visits, where I explain with caricatures the differences between the flavours of the literature ice cream, to introduce the students to science-fiction

P1060592 MicheleNarutoHKelseyWeb One Naruto in 30 seconds at Henry Kelsey school, Saskatoon

P1060563 TechnologieHolyCrossWebTechnologie salvatrice ! This smart board can keep the drawing in memory! (Holy Cross school, Prince-Albert, SK)

Séance impromptue de signatures après la présentations Signings at École Sister O’Brien (Ann Gordon O’Brien, social worker, helper of families and education)

 

The organizers made me discover the nice aspects of Saskatoon, among them, the Bessborough hotel.  Bessborough

With the Mendel museum, I found good restaurants, and never did I ate so well in a Tour! Among the new meals, The salade de poires et de fromage bleu, asperged with a vinaigrette aux Saskatoon berry, well balanced. Also, at my hotel Sheraton (near the “Bess”), The restaurant offered a lasagne au Ricotta et à la courge “Buttercup”. The dessert was, a Saskatoon berries pie.

Some hotels boast a nice interior garden, like this one.

Jardin Interieur