New Fandom

Congratulations to Saija & Eemeli who yesterday evening succesfully brought two new members to fandom! The little girl and the little boy were described by Ipa as “ridiculously cute and perfectly perfect”.

May Is Here

All of a sudden, May is upon us, and the Tähtivaeltaja Day minicon is this Saturday. If you’re going and have room in your car, or if you’d like to go but need a lift, come to the Turku pub meeting tomorrow (Bar Bremer at six) to find others who are going there. Or just to have a couple of beers and talk sf!

Top Short Shorts Online

The results and the top three stories from the FSFWA & Risingshadow short short story competition from 2006 are available online at Risingshadow. The top entries were:

1. Marika Riikonen: Liikuntatunti
2. Markku Penttilä: Jäiset unelmat
3. Heli Määttä: Mänty

Reserve Your Finncon Accommodation Now

If you’re going to Finncon 2007 (and why wouldn’t you be?), it’s time to reserve your accommodation. There will be other seminars in Jyväskylä at the time of the convention, and there will be a shortage of available hotel capacity.

The convention has quotas and special rates at a couple of hotels (Amis, Rentukka & Hostel Laajari), ranging from 17 €/person/night upwards, but if you want to take advantage of those, you’ll have to act before May 20. Better yet, do it now in case the quotas will be filled by then!

There will also be low-cost accommodation organized by the convention (bring your own sleeping bag) for those who don’t want to spring for a hotel room.

More info available on the con site.

Finncon Wants You

The Jyväskylä Finncon is looking for volunteers. The largest sf event in Scandinavia is organized entirely with volunteer effort, and everybody is welcome to help.

The organizers promise everybody a lot of experience in organizing large events, an opportunity to meet Finnish and international fandom, and of course an invitation to the dead dog party at the end of the convention. There are also free t-shirts and lunches to those doing a lot of work for the con.

All the volunteers get thorough orientation and tasks suitable for their skills—previous experience is not required. If you are interested, contact the organizers and tell them about yourself.

Finncon 2007 is July 14–15; volunteers are needed on con days, and also already on Friday.

ParaCon in Tampere in May

As the “Kupittaa section” of the sf writers association moved to Tampere, so did their minicon tradition (unfortunately for all of us in Turku). ParaCon is a parasite-themed minicon that will be held in the newly founded “Kaleva section” of FSFWA on May 26.

There will be a presentation of parasites in art, a new issue of the Kosmospenaali fanzine (that accepts parasite-themed texts until May 18), a movie, and discussion.

More information about the event available from Markku Soikkeli.

Tove Jansson up for Eisners

Tove Jansson is one of the nominees for the 2007 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (the “comic book Oscars”) thanks to the Drawn & Quarterly hardback collection Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book One. The collection is up for the award in two categories, Best publication for a younger audience, and Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips.

The results will be announced on July 27 at the San Diego Comic Con. (Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer for the tip.)