Johanna Sinisalo Nominated for Nebula

Science Fiction Awards Watch has the nominees for the Nebulas. And on the list is Johanna Sinisalo’s excellent novelette Baby Doll, which has appeared in the SFWA European Hall of Fame anthology (and other places too). Congratulations, Johanna!

Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominees Announced

The nominees for the Tähtivaeltaja award (for best science fiction book published in Finnish last year—both original works and translations) were announced today. Toni Jerrman, the chairman of the jury, notes that the selection process was difficult this time: so many good sf books were published in 2008 that some excellent ones were left out of the list. This is a very good thing, and so is also that there are two original Finnish books on the short list, he adds.

The nominees are:

• Nova Swing, by M. John Harrison (Like)
• Apina ja Uusikuu, by Viivi Hyvönen (WSOY)
• Tie (The Road), by Cormac McCarthy (WSOY)
• Pilvikartasto (Cloud Atlas), by David Mitchell (Sammakko)
• Karsintavaihe, by Maarit Verronen (Tammi)

The winner will be selected by a jury comprising journalist Hannu Blommila, critic Toni Jerrman, critic Elli Leppä, and journalist Vesa Sisättö. The results will be announced in late spring.

Break-in at the Turku Sf Club House

The offices of several student clubs belonging to the Student Union of the University of Turku were broken into last week. Among those are the university sf club Tutka and the anime club TAS. Tutka lost a significant sum of cash (over 500 euros, part of that was the income of a bake sale held last week), and TAS a video projector.

If you want to support the clubs, you can join them by paying the membership fee for this year (see details on Tutka and TAS’s web pages). Also, Tutka will have another bake sale tomorrow starting at 9, in the Juslenia building. Go buy something if you are in the area—you’ll get a tasty treat and are helping the local sf club at the same time!

Åcon Hotel Reservations Open

Åcon 3 has announced their hotel reservation information. The prices are the same as last year: 145 € for the whole con in a double (or twin) room, 115 € for a double/twin with an additional bed, and 260 € for a single. The room offer is valid until April 21, and as last year the hotel is divided in “quiet” and “noisy” areas, so you can choose whether you want to sleep or party all night.

Tracon Reporting

Mikko Järvinen reports (in Finnish) on Tracon IV, a fan-run role-playing convention that had about 3 600 members this year. Role-playing conventions seem to have the same issue nowadays as sf conventions, that is being overrun by anime cosplayers, and Mikko is speculating on whether the cooperation with the anime groups can continue in the future. Sounds kind of familiar…

Åcon 3 Site Alive

Åcon 3 is approaching, and the web site now seems to be properly launched—with most of the information still to come, but at least there’s an introduction of the GoH Steph Swainston there. Now awaiting the hotel booking info…

SFnal Fun

Last night’s pub meeting was one of the liveliest for a while. A good turnout of almost 20 people (though not all at the same time), and a couple of new ones too! (Well, I don’t know if you count as new if you were present when the local sf club was founded over 30 years ago, but a non-regular at least.) The library event was successful in bringing in at least one new person to check out fandom, which is great (there were two people who wanted to joint the local sf club—a pity nobody from the club was present). I hope more people will check out the exhibition at the library, because it is very nice.

The conversation flowed, and I’m sure there were many more topics than listed here, but at least some of them were: reading lists (both sf and non-sf), jobs (catching up with what people are doing), cultural history (related to environment, nutrition, and the development of humans), planning a scientific fandom excursion in the near future (more on that later), politics (a long and flowing conversation with surprisingly little argument), fandom getting older (a topic that arises every time someone in fandom falls ill), the fandom co-operation meeting at the end of the month (and arranging rides), upcoming movies (even some that were anticipated—and not with dread), and last (but not least) a long and fascinating discussion about conventions in sf storytelling that irritate people (and why) that carried on until way over midnight (not always such a good idea when you have work the next morning, but it was too much fun not to go on).

Finncon Has Program

Finncon 2009 has started listing some program items on its web site (only in Finnish so far, though).

February Pub Meeting

It’s again time for the traditional Turku sf pub meeting. Bar Bremer, on Thursday at six. Good food, drinks, nice company, and a new issue of Turu Mafia Zine. Welcome!

The Most Romantic And Tasty Finncon

In case you’re thinking of traveling to Finland for Finncon this July (and if you aren’t, you should be), here’s an additional incentive: The Times Online lists Helsinki as one of the most romantic cities and recommends it especially for the cuisine.

UniCon in Tampere

The Tampere section of FSFWA will organize UniCon on February 27. UniCon is a minicon with the theme of dreams and nightmares in fantastic fiction.

The program starts at 5 PM with an sf movie Electric Dreams from 1984. At 7 there will be a presentation about the meaning of dreams in sf, and after that there will be informal discussion about dreams and sf. The issue 1/09 of the Kosmospenaali fanzine will be published at the con.

The con is open for all interested. More information available from Markku Soikkeli.