Thursday Things

• zombie lemons are scary to some
  
• Åcon will be great and have many participants; we will probably have to fend off all the people wanting to join at the door; this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t join up right now, though
  
• people have strange experiences with the customs office, having tried to bring things like lightsabers or indian chief head gear into the country
  
• it can pay to pose as a royalty when traveling abroad (even a Finnish royalty)
• understanding the thing about the 30 euro bills can be difficult

Yes, today’s mafia was one of those evenings. In addition to the topics above, I present you some speculative fiction from our guest book; that is, titles for the Risto Isomäki bestseller book from alternate realities:

• Sarasvatin miekka (the jolly sword and sorcery romp)
• Sarasvatin keikka (the noir crime story in the style of Donald Westlake)
• Sarasvati breikkaa (the music industry–themed YA novel)
• Sarasvatilla leikkaa (the detective story)
• Sarasvati meikkaa (the chic lit book)
• Sairas vaatii Kreikkaan (the gripping drama)
• Sarasvuo feikkaa (the cynical analysis of trendy business world)

There were many more, but my fingers are tired, so I’ll spare you. Good night.

Tomorrow Is First Thursday

First Thursday of the month tomorrow, which of course means it’s time for another pub meeting!

So come to Bar Bremer at six to swap stories about the loot from the Book Fair, inquire about Åcon, ask about going to Swecon, or just talk about whatever else comes to mind!

Åcon in May 2007

Åcon will be held from Thursday, May 17 to Sunday, May 20, 2007 in Mariehamn, Åland. It will be a convention very different from a Finncon; a smallish (the target size is 100 members) convention, with a membership fee, and focus more on the fannish community and less on the general public.

Åcon’s guest of honor will be Hal Duncan, a British author whose debut novel Vellum has gotten quite a bit of attention in the sf circles. His second novel (and the other half of “The Book of All Hours”), Ink, will be published in February. Mr. Duncan should prove a very interesting guest to meet, I think.

The membership fee of Åcon is 20 €. All paid members can join the con info and debate e-mail list (if they want) and participate in planning the convention, so it pays to pay up early (more details on how to do this to be announced quite soon, hopefully). The con web site will also be up soon.

The Åcon committee is Eemeli Aro (chair), Jukka Halme, Ben Roimola and myself.

Update 2006-10-05: Added link to the con web site.

42 Moves

The web site of the Jyväskylä science fiction society 42 (organizer of Finncon 2007, by the way) has graduated from the university hosting to its own domain, scifi42.fi.

Authors and Vampires: the Turku Book Fair

The Turku Book Fair will be arranged for the 14th time this weekend, from Friday September 29 to Sunday October 1. The Finnish fandom has a stand, “Science fiction ja fantasia Suomessa,” at the Book Fair (booth A83), so if you happen to be at the Fair, come say hello and listen to contemporary Finnish authors talk about their books!

The speaker schedule at the sf booth is:

Saturday

• 14:00 Sari Peltoniemi
• 15:00 Anne Leinonen

Sunday

• 11:00 Anne Leinonen
• 11:30 Anu Holopainen
• 13:00 J. Pekka Mäkelä
  

There will also be a vampire symposium at the Fair on Sunday, organized by TSFS and STk. The symposium will be at meeting room 3 from 14:00 to 16:00. The topics will be:

• A vampire with feelings (Outi Hakola)
• The vampire: the lovely Anti-Christ (Markku Soikkeli)
• Vampires and sexuality (Tanja Sihvonen)
• The borrowed qualities of vampires in RPGs (J. Tuomas Harviainen)
  

At the same time with the Book Fair, there will be the Antiquarian Literature Fair, the Science Fair, and the Food Fair (the ticket to all these events costs 14 €).

Update: A few of us will be gathering at the Brewery Restaurant Koulu on Saturday evening at 7 for dinner and drinks. If you’d like to join us, contact me (phone 040 861 9326).

Tamfan on Saturday

The Tamfan 2006 fantasy convention will be held this Saturday (September 30) in Tampere. This year’s theme is fandom, and the guests of honor are distinguished Finnish fandom members Irma Hirsjärvi and Ben Roimola.

The con site is the student house of the Tampere university (Kauppakatu 10), and the doors open at 16:30.

(Unfortunately, the organizers scheduled the convention against another event, the Turku Book Fair.)

Smofia

Yesterday’s pub meeting was full of smoffing. There was a lot of talk about what to do with local sf activities and the local sf club zine. Too bad there weren’t too many persons from the club itself to take part in the discussion. (Have to try and remember some of the more feasible ideas and write them down for later use.)

Finncon was remembered fondly (some memories published in the mafia fanzine too). Ideas for the Turku book fair were thrown in the air; some will probably come to fruition. Talk about Swecon (a couple of potential members) and Åcon (some new members for that too). Some wild ideas for future mafia events as well—we’ll see if anything comes out of that.

All in all a bit different evening, but a succesful one, I’d say.