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.

Festival of Living Literature

On February 14 there will be a Festival of living literature in Tampere (in Sampola).

The Tampere fandom organizations (Spektre, smial Morel, FSFWA Tampere, Tampere Science Fiction Society, and the Risingshadow and Kontu net communities) will take part in the event with a joint table to introduce themselves and tell people about their activities. There will also be a couple of panel discussions with sfnal topics, and among the participants are Risto Isomäki, Johanna Sinisalo, Maarit Verronen, and Tiina Raevaara. There will also be a fandom party in the evening at Telakka.

The event is free, so go take a look if you’re in Tampere that day! If you want to have more information or help out with the table, contact Liisa Rantalaiho.

YA And Quality

Sari Peltoniemi wrote in Grafomania about her irritation with using the term “young adult” as a pejorative, often meaning naïve literature that aims purely for entertainment value (the post is not fantastic fiction–specific, but I’m linking here because a significant portion of YA fiction can be classified as sf). I have to admit that my first impression when I hear something classified as YA is also that the narrative probably is rather straightforward and the themes rather simple. On the other hand, even if that is the case (and of course it’s not for all YA literature), what’s wrong with that? And furthermore, paraphrasing Jukka’s comment on the subject, “and most of the rest of literature isn’t like this?”

The Grafomania post has generated quite a few comments, so head over there if you want to take part in the discussion!

(As a sidenote, I’m writing reviews of a couple of YA books at the moment. I enjoyed both very much, and promise to avoid characterizing them as “young-adult-ish”.)

Sf Writers’ Blog: Planning

The earlier discussion on the FSFWA forum has produced a plan for the sf writing groupblog. The idea is to get Finnish sf fen and writers to take turns blogging about writing, sf, and other things they find interesting.

The plan was just posted on the forum—comments are welcome! (The most current version, which is at the moment the same but can be updated in the future, is also available.)

Finnish Sf Starting Package

Anne has in her blog a getting started book list for reading Finnish fantastic fiction. The list was gathered at the Jyväskylä pub meeting a couple of days ago. The list comprises almost exclusively books by young writers, published in the last few years (for example, Leena Krohn is missing from it), but it’s a good starting point for what’s being written at the moment.

(The list is of books in Finnish. If you want to see what’s available in English, I posted some examples a while ago in Jeff’s blog, including some links to online texts.)

Link: Baby Doll

An English translation of Johanna Sinisalo’s short story Baby Doll appears (as mentioned here before) in the Year’s Best SF 13 collection, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The book is online with HarperCollins Browse Inside. No way (that I see) to point to a specific page inside the book, but just select “Chapter 1” from the table of contents (or search for “Baby Doll”). The story is creepy (especially if you have small children) but excellent, so go take a look (and of course if you like the story you can support the publisher by buying the book).

Fanac Meeting in Turku

The Science Fiction Culture Cabinet at the University of Turku and the Turku Anime Society will organize an info-sharing and getting-to-know-each-other meeting on Saturday January 24. The meeting is open for everybody interested in science fiction, fantasy, anime, RPGs, comics, peculiar movies, etc.

The first part of the event is held at Turku-sali (Yo-talo A) and starts at 2 PM with introductions by the local associations and the next Turku Finncon project. At about 6 the happening moves to the TYY sauna, and the rest of the evening is informal: meeting people, nibbles and coffee, and sauna. More info from Kati Oksanen.

I’m also participating in the event—I’ll be talking about the Finncon association. Come say hi if you’re in the vicinity!

PS later in the night I hear there will be birthday cake at the Tutka clubhouse—the little club I started way back when turns 14 on the 25th.