At Eurocon

Greetings from Copenhagen! Arrived safely on one of the SAS flights that wasn’t cancelled. Found the con site with no problems and met a few friends there. Tried to have lunch but the Chinese restaurant and the Italian one were closed. Found some quite good Turkish food (with excellent dip).

I spent most of the day at the registration desk—got stuck there due to the lack of volunteers that managed to show up, but on the other hand met a lot of people there.

The Finnish this-is-not-a-bid-party seems to have been a success—at least all the feedback I heard was positive. Headed back to the hotel, and to a fun room party. But time to get some sleep now, I think. Wish us look for tomorrow when the ESFS business meeting votes on if the 2009 Eurocon will be held in Finland or in Italy.

Next: Saturday

Usva International 2007

The second Usva International, a special issue of the Usva zine, is out. It showcases contemporary Finnish fantastic fiction in English. The 2007 issue contains short stories by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, Juha-Pekka Koskinen, Anne Leinonen (the Atorox award–winning story The Otherling), Tiina Raevaara, Petri Salin, and M.G. Soikkeli. In addition the issue contains an excerpt of J. Pekka Mäkelä’s new novel Nedut.

The zine is a free PDF download, so go check it out!

Finncon 2008 Online

Next year’s Finncon (in Tampere, July 26–28) opened its website today at <2008.finncon.org>. Mostly general announcements and basic info about the GoHs so far, but more to come, of course.

Note to Swedish fen: you have an official agent for Finncon 2008. Contact Michael Pargman if you have any questions about the upcoming Finncon.

Finncon 2009 GoHs

Finncon 2009 in Helsinki is living up to their promise of being the biggest Finncon yet. They’ve announced their Guests of Honor will be George R.R. Martin and Alastair Reynolds. Both are already known in Finland and have fans here which should bring in some extra folk (what’s a couple of thousands more at a Finncon).

In the meantime, don’t forget next year’s Finncon in Tampere either.

Pub Meeting Reminder

It’s the first Thursday of the month again, so let’s meet at Bar Bremer at six. See you there!

Andy Sawyer in Jyväskylä

Andy Sawyer, course director of the science fiction studies MA program at the University of Liverpool and reviews editor of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, is speaking at the University of Jyväskylä this Thursday as part of the “Cult and Identity: Conference on the study of cults and audiences” event. His subject is “The Enchanted Duplicator and Other Fables: British Science Fiction Fandom in the 1950s”. Among other programming at the event is also a presentation by Irma Hirsjärvi on sex and gender in sf literature. Don’t miss this if you just have a chance to be there!

Åcon 2 Has Website

Åcon 2 (May 2008 in Mariehamn, Åland) has a web site at <acon2.wordpress.com>. Info is a bit scarce at the moment, but more will be added as the con approaches.