Usva Horror Camp

The Usva zine will organize a weekend for writers and readers in Otava (near Mikkeli) at the end of January. The weekend theme is horror and ghosts.

The programming will include an introduction about ghost stories in the Finnish folklore from a writer’s point of view, story telling, and relaxing with food, movies, nature walks, etc.

The event has no admission fee; there is still room for a few more attendees.

Swedish-speaking Sf Society in Turku

Enhörningen reports that the “Society for strange interests” (Förening för underliga intressen vid Åbo Akademi) had their inaugural official meeting on December 12. The society has been active for over a year (some of their members have visited the Turku pub meetings), but now they’ve decided to become an official, registered society.

First Pub Meeting of the Year

It’s again time for the Turku area sf pub meeting. So welcome to Bar Bremer (we’re nowadays at the yard-side room of the bar) this Thursday (January 3rd) starting at 6 PM!

(A new issue of the Mafia Zine should be finished by then, and will of course be available to the attendees for free.)

Sf on the Radio

The science fiction radio play Pieni suuri koodinmurtaja (Little Big Code Breaker) produced by the Espoo sf club ESC will be broadcast by Radio Helsinki on Christmas Eve at 6 PM. It can be listened to over the air (in the Helsinki region), or over the internet (link is on the station’s site).

I wish you all happy holidays and a great new year 2008!

Susi Vaasjoki Wins Portti Competition

The results for the Portti short story competition 2007 (the biggest annual sf short story competition in Finland) are in. The winner is Susi Vaasjoki for Taruntekijä. Mari Saario was second for her short story Kenkänaula. The third place was a tie between Heikki Nevala for Vaiettu and Tiina Raevaara for Gliesen lapset. The full list along with honorable mentions is available on Netticolosseum.

Cuban Visitation

Markku Soikkeli reports on Bruno Henriquez’s visit in Tampere.

December Mafia Report

There was definite holiday cheer on the bus to the pub meeting today. It was full of young people carrying loads of booze and a real-honest ghetto blaster with them, so the bus trip was one big party. (I was later told that they probably were chemistry students from the Uni, back from a cruise.) What better way to start an evening? Even if they would have deserved some kind of a cruel (and hopefully unusual) punishment for their criminally poor taste in music. But I digress…

Despite the non-traditional date, a dozen or so people found their way to the mafia today. This was the second time we gathered at “the new place,” and I think it is definitely more comfortable and versatile for our purposes (and the others seemed to agree), so you’ll probably find us there from now on.

The day’s smoffing concerned mainly the Christmas party (that seems to have progressed on its own while we were at the pub)—it’s next Saturday. There was also speculation about a possible Finncon in Turku in 2011—a thought that doesn’t sound as completely impossible now as I would have said only a month ago. We’ll see. Ben and Pasi discussed their sekrit project, very sekritly, but it’s a sekrit, so no more about that for now.

Before the topics went into politics and religion (as they not uncommonly do), we discussed some sf stuff also. Really, we did! Although more about tv than books, but anyway. Torchwood began on Finnish tv yesterday. Based on the comments of those who had seen it, it didn’t gather any new fans (at least not yet), but on the other hand wasn’t as reviled as in the British discussions I saw when the series originally debuted. The ‘comment of the day’ honorable mention goes to Ben (wondering about the new Bionic Woman), “Why on Earth would anybody be interested in watching a new version of a crappy 80s sf show… oh, wait: Galactica… I’ll shut up now.”

Here’s a photo of today’s gathering (with most of the people present):

Let’s have a competition: I’ll buy a beer at the next mafia for the first person who correctly identifies all the zines on the table. (Those who were present are naturally not eligible to participate.) Any takers?