Oh Wow!!! First off - I can't believe how LONG it's been since I last
did one of these little blog entries. I mean, I know I've been in a bit
of a literary funk ... but six months??? Yikes! I promise, I'll do
better!
Which brings me to my next point, Doing Better, Writing wise! And the
Why, of course, is that When Words Collide 2022 just concluded yesterday
- and all I can say is - WOW! I want to chat about that first, then I'll
get to the Doing Better part!
For the third year the conference was virtual, which meant many things.
Mostly, that it didn't include the long drive to and from Calgary. And a
rather expensive hotel bill. It also included a few new things - first
off, the organizers allowed professional and past partners to set up and
be responsible for their own tracks of programming. Mostly publishers,
big and small. And as such, they considered Prairie Owl Publishing - our
own tiny little imprint - as a past partner! (So cool!!!)
Since the first virtual year, I have mantained a zoom licence, and kept
it because it was handy for a few different things through out the year
(mostly having to do with my volunteer Guiding life, but also as a way
to connect with non-local family), so setting up the zoom links was old
hat. Being told that we can fill a full track with however many sessions
we wanted, well, let me say - Challenge Accepted!
The "Prairie Owl Publishing" track had scheduled - out of a possible 29
tracks - 13 sessions! Please keep in mind, that POP has a grand total of
TWO individuals associated with it - myself and founder Amanda Witow. Of
those 13 tracks we'd scheduled, we were directly involved with 12
sessions, one of which was a panel, which I moderated and Amanda was a
panelist. When the idea of that panel (On Being an Indie Author) came to
me, I reached out to S.C. Jensen - author of the Bubbles in Space series
- and asked if she'd be interested in being on the panel, and maybe
doing a session on her own. She was quite happy to say yes to both - and
our 13th session was Sarah's How to Increase Your Speed and
Productivity. To round out our panel, Amanda reached out to D.N. Brynn,
the author of more than a few awesome novels (Odder Still and Once
Stolen, just to name a couple!). And I must say, it was a lot of fun! So
glad we did it!
There were, of course, some more negative challenges to overcome this
year, most notably the presence of Zoom Bombers at most sessions :(
What's a Zoom Bomber you ask? These were invidivuals just getting their
kicks out of signing into a session with the sole purpose of being a
nuisance, by interrupting with noise of all sorts. To be distracting.
Like - really? Are you guys 12????? No - that's doing a disservice to 12
year olds!!! As a result, sessions right across the board instituted a
few zoom rules to curb these guys - most notably Muting participants as
they entered, and using Moderators who did some quiet gatekeeping of
sessions, removing offenders.
My first session I had a volunteer from the group of legit participants
step up to gatekeep - which was awesome! Thanks Val!!! After that, I
tapped my hubby to be our Moderator, and he went a step further in that
he removed the ability to Unmute themselves for all participants, as
well as the ability to use the Whiteboard. One thing he didn't do was to
remove the ability for participants to Rename themselves. But other
sessions, who hadn't also instituted the universal Mute everybody and
keep them that way rule, got hit by bombers who'd rename themselves to
match another legitimate particant. That way, once they got noisy and
rowdy and the moderator removed them from the session, the legit person
got kicked out as well! We didn't have that issue as since they couldn't
unmute themselves, there was no way they could be disruptive, so they
just left on their own. Or stayed and enjoyed the session. Anything is
possible, right?
Once the bombers were kept under control things got back on track and
went quite well for us! Well ... that is, until covid reared its ugly
head! Yes, even at a virtual conference covid was able to impact things
when it got its hooks into poor Amanda :( I did what I could in taking
on two of her remaining four sessions, but we did have to cancel the
other two :( I won't go into all the unhappy emotions associated with
being a mommy who can't really do anything to help her child ....... But
I will say, that part really sucked :(
But other than that, the conference went really well! Which brings me to
the Doing Better part!
Actually - no it doesn't! At least not right now. I think that will have
to be rolled over into the next blog entry, where that will be the main
focus!
And that's a Promise! So - stay tuned! Anyone want to run a side bet on
how long it will take for me to write and post the next one???? Anyone?
No????
Lol! Okay, my dear meeples ... my sweet cherubs .... my... friends. Yeah
- that one works better!
Until later Friends! But not too much later .... maybe even tomorrow!
Lisa.