Book Your Room for Åcon

If you’re thinking of going to Åcon, but haven’t booked your hotel room yet, now is the time to do it. There are a couple of rooms left in the hotel, and they are keeping them reserved for Åcon members until Monday. (And while you’re at it, remember to sign up for the con as well.

Finncon Hotel Info

The hotel booking information for this year’s Finncon is now up on the con web site (in Finnish only, but the English version is coming soon). There are several hotels available in the center of Jyväskylä with quite inexpensive prices (starting from 55 € per night for a room for up to four persons), and also some cheaper hostel options.

Some hotel prices are only available for a limited time, and since Jyväskylä is usually quite booked during the Jyväskylä Summer festival anyway, it is a good idea to reserve your room early.

Rasecon ’10

Rasecon will be the first sf convention in the Western Uusimaa region. The Swedish speaking minicon will take place on Saturday 29 May in the Karjaa city library. The Guests of Honor of the event will be Swedish Finn writers Maria Turtschaninoff and Petri Salin, with special guest Ben Roimola, editor of Enhörningen.

The programming starts at 10, and lasts until around 2 in the afternoon. Attendance is free. More info on Enhörningen or on Rasecon’s Facebook page.

Linkage: BaCon II Report

Enhörningen has a report of the BaCon II minicon held in Turku last year. BaCon III will take place this Saturday.

Literary Evening in Jyväskylä

Tomorrow (Monday, April 12) there is a literary evening in the Jyväskylä Writers’ House (Seminaarinkatu 26 B), starting at 7 PM.

The “Readings and Discussions” evening features:

• “The Shapes of Stories: Confessions of a Structuralist”;
  Bruce Holland Rogers (author and teacher of creative writing)
• “Diaries of a drunk horse: Graves and Grapes”;
  Mohsen Emadi (Iranian poet and intellectual)

The event is free, everybody interested is welcome.

J. Pekka Mäkelä online

J. Pekka Mäkelä’s short story Thirty More Years (originally published in Finnish in Tähtivaeltaja) is available online at finnishwriters.com as an English translation. The story is set in the same world as his latest novel, Karsta. Go take a look!

Eurocon 2011 Membership Fee Rises

If you’re thinking of attending next year’s Eurocon, now would be a good time to pay your membership fee—you have until the end of the Easter holiday (April 5) to become a member with the current price of 35 €. After that, the price will be 40 €.

Eurocon will take place in Stockholm in June 2011. GoHs are Elizabeth Bear and Ian McDonald, fan GoH Jukka Halme. Plenty of Finns are attending and a group trip will be arranged so this will probably be the easiest way to attend Eurocon in a good long while.

BaCon III

FUI (Åbo Akademi university’s sf society) will host their third microcon, BaCon III, at Terrakoti (Yo-talo A, 2nd floor) on Saturday, April 24. The con theme is sf, fantasy, anime, and MEAT.

The nature of BaCon is very informal: watching movies, hanging around, and eating (food will be available at cost). Definitely bacon, but there will also be a vegetarian alternative.

Questions and inquiries to Vilgot Strömsholm.

Beer Today, Whisky Tomorrow

The monthly pub meeting takes place today at Teerenpeli, starting at six. Sfnal conversation over drinks and food. Welcome!

Tomorrow will be the second “whisky mafia” where we gather at Kerttulin kievari (around seven) to sample their fine selection of whiskies in good company. Everybody is welcome there as well.