Those of you who had a great time in Mariehamn this year, or who wished you could have been there, may be interested in next year’s Ã…con. As regular readers will know, Ã…con is a very different event from Archipelacon. It is very small — capped at 100 members — and it only has one guest, and one stream of programming. This gives it a very intimate appeal. Of course there is still the whole thing of needing to get a ferry to Ã…land, so it is not the cheapest convention either. But if you like a small, friendly, bookish convention then it may well be for you. If you like the Guest of Honor that may be an additional attraction, because this is not a con where the guests get whisked away between panels.

This year’s Guest of Honor is Zen Cho. She’s already been a Campbell finalist (in 2013) and won the Crawford Award, all for her short fiction. Her debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown, is due out in September and has already been getting rave reviews. She sounds like she’ll be a very interesting guest.

If you are interested, membership details are available here.

I’d love to go, but I’ve already promised Kisu & Karo that I’ll be at Finncon in Tampere next year. I’m not sure that I can afford two Finnish conventions and the Barcelona Eurocon.