Embrace your community while you still have one

I’ve been thinking about community a lot lately. I mean, it’s hard not to as a Canadian and a writer. The various communities I have considered to be a part of my entire life are under threat from various forces: Trumpism, AI, tech fascism… I could go on but you’re probably reading this to get away from all that anyway.

I’ve spent part of the summer trying to embrace community more — no easy feat for someone whose life is largely being locked in a room arguing with imaginary people! I joined in the soccer celebrations during the World Cup, despite all of FIFA’s attempts to turn me against soccer. I’m shopping local and Canadian where possible, and I’ve chosen to revisit some of my favourite places in BC for my vacations. Hello, Rathtrevor Beach!

You may have noticed I’ve been making a greater effort to promote Canadian writers and publishers. Interestingly enough, some of them have been focused on the idea of community as well. I wrote about Todd Babiak’s What Gentlemen Do, which is very concerned with how we navigate the lines of division created by social media and other technologies and make our physical communities healthy again. I also wrote about John Degen’s Seldom Seen Road, a Canadian mystery that is as much about small town Ontario life as it is the mystery itself. Earlier this year I shared my thoughts on Katie Welch’s Ladder to Heaven, which focuses on what kinds of new communities evolve in the aftermath of disaster — in this case a catastrophic earthquake on the West Coast that leaves people with some magic powers. Around the same time I finished The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan, which follows a cast of characters in Toronto as the city is infiltrated by a weird, sentient mold. It’s a horror tale for the generations raised in the nightmare of the unaffordable housing market.

I also wrote about the urban fantasy community in the essay “Conjuring a Magical Canada,” published on the new House Style blog from Wolsak and Wynn.

“Canadian urban fantasy is like Canada itself. It is diverse, complicated and ever-changing. Like Canada, it refuses to be one thing and instead offers a mosaic of tales that transform our world into something truly magical. Canadian culture is all the better for it.”

If you want to read about some of the most interesting authors in Canada today, then check out the essay.

(Also a reminder that Wolsak and Wynn is having a summer blowout sale. You can buy Has the World Ended Yet?, my collection of apocalyptic stories, for 50% off until the end of July. Discount applied at checkout.)

The emergence of AI and the sudden proliferation of book scammers has also focused my thoughts on the importance of community. In “The importance of writing communities in the age of AI” I wonder if the rise of AI slop will lead publishers of all sorts — and perhaps readers — to take fewer chances on unknown writers with no presence and instead embrace those who take more active roles in their communities.

This actually played out a little in real life for me recently, when Arthur Slade published his LitRPG novel Metaloria: Highway to Hades, a metal-infused D&D style YA adventure. Slade populated the book with characters named after real-life people he’d played D&D with, including a “Metal Ball minstrel” named Darbyshire whose hair “would make rock gods weep with jealousy.” It’s like he saw my high school yearbook photo.

Speaking of D&D, I had the pleasure of doing a radio interview with HOWL radio about my latest book, The Wonder Lands War, where I talked about how the collaborative storytelling aspect of D&D has affected my writing for the better.

I’ve even found myself growing nostalgic for communities I’ve had in the past, such as my short but wild time in theatre. I’m not about to trade in my job for the stage, but I did buy some tickets to Bard on the Beach this summer, so there’s that.

And I am deeply grateful for those who see me as part of their community, such as when Shawna Lemay gave The Wonder Lands War a shoutout on Transactions with Beauty!

I could probably go on more about this but I have to plan a D&D session for my gaming friends!

As always, thanks for being part of my community.