In the morning I had a panel on untranslated books, which I ended up moderating because I was the only monoglot on the panel. I have a lot of recommendations from that, but I’m going to save posting them until after the other international SF panels today.

In the afternoon I interviewed Guest of Honor, Ylva SpÃ¥ngberg. She’s a fascinating person. She joined the Swedish Tolkien Society at the age of 11 and was editing their fanzine a few years later. She’s chaired four conventions, and as a translator has brought a wide range of different English-language fiction to Swedish readers. We managed to fill up around 3/4 of the generous 2 hours that we had been given for the panel.

In the evening there was the traditional fan party. This year it was somewhat hobbled by a decision of the hotel, just a couple of days before the con, to not allow unwrapped food or alcohol over 40%. This meant everyone ended up serving candy and beer. Given that most people would have been in transit when the rule change was announced, other things may well have been available. I have no idea how strong the Ukrainian honey pepper vodka was, but it tasted great, in small quantities.

I have also managed to spend time talking to people, which is a vast improvement on the madness that was Worldcon.