Usva Camping

The Usva summer camp for sf writers was last week. Anne has collected notes from participants’ blogs (and has a few of her own too).

Finncon Products at Viikinsaari

 If you’re coming to the Viikinsaari picnic a week from now (and why wouldn’t you be), you will have an opportunity to purchase some official Finncon 2007 merchandise there (see pictures). The friendly Finncon organizers are bringing some over just for you.

Although this was the first Finncon shirt ever I didn’t purchase myself (because I think they are just fugly), you should of course judge for yourself. And if you like them, seize the opportunity and get some!

Risingshadow in English

The (probably) most active Finnish sf forum, Risingshadow, has just published a sister site  in English. Like its Finnish counterpart, the site is going to host sf news, discussion forums, and a sf book database. It’s not quite clear—at least to me—what the site is hoping to achieve (the book & writer database won’t concentrate on books published in Finnish; I’m not sure why the world needs yet another sf book listing, and I remain sceptical that the Risingshadow users would want to discuss things in English on another forum in addition to their usual hanging-out place), but hopefully that will become clear in the future. It remains to be seen also, if the discussion forum will focus more on sf than the Finnish one (where you have to wade through a bunch of general-interest-to-young-people topics to get to any discussion related to sf at all), but I’d say that this might be a promising place if you want to get in touch with Finns who read sf.

The English-language site can be found at en.risingshadow.net, and the Finnish one has moved to fi.risingshadow.net.

Tamfan 2007

Tamfan is the sometimes-annual-and-sometimes-not fantasy minicon, held in Tampere and organized by the Smial Morel. This year’s con date is Saturday, September 29, and the place is Tampereen Yo-talo (Kauppakatu 10).

The guest of honor this year is the Kuvastaja-award-winning author Ilkka Auer.

Roadside Picnic 2007

The traditional findom picnic to Viikinsaari will take place on Saturday, August 4. The boat to the island leaves from Laukontori at noon (plus on the hour, if you want to arrive later), and you’ll find fandom barbequing at the gazebo on the far end of the island.

The picnic is a long-standing tradition in the Finnish fandom, and is an excellent opportunity to meet fen and get into touch with people from other cities, so I warmly recommend attending!

The return-ticket to the island costs 7 euros. Fandom will pretty certainly move to a bar somewhere around 5 PM at the latest—otherwise we would be in great danger of having to watch a tango performance by Eino Grön…

Fantastic Society at Åbo Akademi

For a little while now, there’s been a “society for the weird” at Åbo Akademi, founded by Vilgot Strömsholm. It covers science fiction, fantasy, anime, hacking, literature, etc. They have around 30 members, and new ones are welcome. Those interested can contact Vilgot via e-mail.

(via Enhörningen)

Åcon 2 in May

Åcon was so much fun that we’re going to do it again next year. The (tentative at this point) dates are May 1–4, 2008 (yes, it starts on May Day). More info will follow later, but mark the dates on your calendar now. The membership fee will be the same as last time, 20 €.