FSFWA Library

The Finnish Science Fiction Writers Association has a new library. Most of the books have been donated to the association in Leena Peltonen’s will and by Juhani Hinkkanen. The old library will also be incorporated in the new one that will be available to members in Tampere (the local section at Henriksson & Soikkeli, plus at local events and conventions by request).

(By the way, FSFWA needs to re-think their web strategy—or start to think about having one. Having info scattered on two separate sites plus additional pages on members’ personal home pages is just so 1990s.)

March Mafia

Back from the pub meeting (early because it was my turn to babysit). There was quite a crowd this time, I counted some twenty persons in total. Talked about this and that, including the possible new membership options for TSFS, the state of Spin, the coming Atorox award, results from the “Finsmofcon,” the book fair, a planned sf exhibition in the library, and many other things, including a lot of unofficial topics I’m not going to repeat here. Bough a beer to a fine young gentleman who took part in the demonstration against the absurd censorship laws introduced in Finland a while ago. Ate a burger. Drank beer. Had fun. And hopefully convinced a couple of persons that they really, really want, no, need to go to Åcon.

Pub Meeting on Thursday

First Thursday again, so welcome all to Bar Bremer tomorrow at six!

Atorox Nominations Deadline Less Than a Week Away

It’s time to send in your nominations for candidates for the Atorox award. The deadline to send your candidates is March 9.

Everyone can participate at this step—no membership of TSFS (or any other society) or other formal qualifications required. Also, you don’t need to read every short story published in Finland last year: as long as you have read at least one short story that you think is good enough to be an Atorox candidate, you can nominate that story (or stories).

Details on the announcement on the TSFS site. There’s now also an Atorox FAQ, which answers some questions about the nomination process (inspired by the questions posed at the findom meeting last weekend).

Yhteistyökokous

• print out needed materials: check
• arrange car pools: check
• make list of Important Things Need To Talk To People About: check
• find a prize to donate to the raffle: check
• buy snacks + things to roast on the barbeque: check
• buy cigars: check
• buy beer: check (if only a couple, since I’m drivin this year)
• pack things: check

Findom’s annual co-operation meeting, “Finsmofcon,” is tomorrow. See you there!

Finncon Gets Cultural Grant

This year’s Finncon has received a grant of 5 000 euros from the government cultural funds. Yay!

Danish Fan in Helsinki Tomorrow

Olav, a friend and fellow fan from Copenhagen (and chair of Eurocon 2007), will be staying in Helsinki for a couple of days. I've got his phone number in case someone there would like to meet him on Wednesday evening for some beers or such.