Making Your Own Fandom

Maul Junior, also known as Venja Suntila, age two weeks. Is this the one who brings balance to the Force?

Alastair Reynolds at Book Fair

Alastair Reynolds appears at the Turku Book Fair next weekend. (October 1–3). He can be seen on Saturday at noon (stage A) and again at 15:45 (The New Coming of Space Opera, Seminar room 4). Other programming of interest includes: Where Finnish fantasy is going (Saturday 13:00, Seminar Room 4). A discussion about E-books and electronic publishing in Finland just might be interesting too. (Friday 15:30, Auditorium 1).

Finnish science fiction and fantasy fandom (in Turku, anyway) has a stand in hall C (C39 b). Stop by if you happen to be at the fair.

Update: If you're one of those unfortunates who happen to live in the Helsinki region and are thus unable to attend the book fair, according to Babek Nabel Mr. Reynolds will visit the Arabianranta library on monday October 4 at 17:00. He will be interviewed by Antti Mäkinen.

AnarCon 2004 Next Saturday

AnarCon is a mini con for people interested in political science fiction. It is held in Turku next Saturday (September 25^th).

Tamfan04 Approaching

Tamfan, a biennial fantasy convention in Tampere, is held next weekend. This year's GoH is Sari Peltoniemi, who just came in fifth on this year's Atorox awards.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to attend, but hope you'll have a good time there.

Atonova 2004, part 3

Part 1 Part 2


Afterwards, the event continued in Cosmic Comic café.




Congratulations to the 2004 Atorox winner!

And thanks to the organizers of this event. Much fun was had by all.

Others: M. G. Soikkeli has a report of the event with some pictures.

Atonova 2004, part 2

Atonova 2004, part 1


The Nova results were announced by competition secretary Kirsi Saaros and member of the jury Markku Soikkeli.


This year's winner, Jenny Kangasvuo.


Mari Saario (second place. )


Miina Supinen (third place).


After the awards ceremony, there was a very interesting panel discussion about the competitions, writing and sf in general. Members of the panel were (from the left): Sari Peltoniemi, Pasi Karppanen, Anne Leinonen, Petri Laine and Jenny Kangasvuo.

Next: after the ceremony

Atonova 2004, part 1

Atonova 2004 took place yesterday in Turun kirjakahvila. At the event, the Atorox award for the best Finnish sf short story published last year, and the Nova short story competition winners were announced.


About 30 persons gathered in Kirjakahvila for the Atonova event.


The coveted Atorox prize.


The Atorox winners were announced by Hanne Martelius (the Atorox organizer for the year) and Maarit Lamminen (acting head of TSFS).


The author of the best Finnish sf short story published in 2003: Anne Leinonen.


Boris Hurtta, a long time contributor to Finnish sf literature, took third place, losing only by one vote to the second place.


Petri Laine (fourth place).


Sari Peltoniemi (fifth place).

Next: the Nova competition

Atorox 2004 Results

Atorox winners were also announced yesterday. Atorox is a prize given to the previous year's best Finnish sf story, voted by members of Finnish sf societies – a sort of Finnish short story Hugo. This year, the prize went to Anne Leinonen for her short story Valkeita lankoja, which also won the Portti short story competition.

The top ten for short stories published in 2003 is:

1. Valkeita lankoja by Anne Leinonen (Portti 4/03)
2. Kuten ihmiset tekevät by Tero Niemi and Anne Salminen (Spin 3/03)
3. Seikkailujen junat by Boris Hurtta (Portti 1/03)
4. Taivaan kaikki värit by Petri Laine (Portti 4/03)
5. Kultainen omenaby Sari Peltoniemi (Portti 2/03)
6. Originaalit by Hannele Hakala (Portti 2/02)
7. Komposti by Mari Saario (Portti 3/03)
8. Uurnajaiset by Juha-Pekka Koskinen (Portti 3/03)
9. (tie) Sonian laiva by Carita Forsgren (Portti 1/03) and
   Orfeus, Orfeus by Katja Salminen (Portti 2/03)

As you can see, this year's results were heavily nominated by Portti, although it was delightful to see a short story published in Spin in the top 10 – for the first time in a really long time, if I remember correctly.

Nova 2004 Results

The prizes for Nova 2004 were given out last night at Atonova. Nova is a short story competition organized by Turku Science Fiction Society and The Finnish Science Fiction Writers Association.

The Nova 2004 winners are:

1. Vaativat arvet; tai, Kertomus saumoistani by Jenny Kangasvuo
2. Karhunkaataja, kaskenpolttaja by Mari Saario
3. Alkumereen by Miina Supinen
4. Hermokytkös by Noora Huhtanen
5. Tarina yöstä, tarina yhdestä ainoasta päivästä by Sanja Malinen
6. Mettä makeampaa by Mari Saario
7. Torni by J. K. Miettinen
8. Jäätynyt by Hanne Martelius
9. Huuru by Katja Salminen
10. Muuri by Petri Laine
    

Snorfcon, here we come

Just got word that Snorfcon accommodation is arranged. If everything goes according to plans, Denmark calls in October.

Turku is back!

After a few years' pause, the mafia (regular or semi-regular sf fandom meetings) resumed in Turku on September 2^nd. Local fen gathered in Bremer for drinks, food and fannish chatting.

Ben has some pictures of the evening. Funny how I somehow always manage to seem more tired and drunk in pictures than in real life (I hope).

It was agreed to meet again next month, and on the first Thursday on every month. Here's hoping the tradition will last!

* * *

PS Some people stubbornly insist that the fandom meetings in Turku – unlike all the rest of Finland – should not be called mafia. Fine, don't call them that. A "mafia" by any other name is still fine with me.

Random fandom blogging

This is my blog for occasional commenting on (mainly Finnish) fandom and fannish thing. Mainly this is for sharing pictures from fandom events with friends.