Finland

Wipe Out

~ Cheryl

Today I seem to have been able to do little except sleep. This suggests to me that I had a great time in Finland. Hopefully I’ll be able to remember some of it and write about it. But not now. Zzzzzzz.

Hello World

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Yes, I know I have been neglecting you. It’s not my fault that I am having too much fun, honest. The Finns kidnapped me and dragged me here, you know.

Anyway, last night we hired the local cinema and gave ourselves a showing of Iron Sky. I’ll try to write something more formal about it later, but for now suffice it to say that it both demonstrates that film making is much more complicated than it might look, and that Timo and his crew are far better than they have any right to be given the resources at their disposal.

This morning’s program item was a trip to the local chocolatier. Unlike at the Jersey SMOFcons, Ã…con’s source of fine chocolate is a substantial drive away. In fact it is technically on a different island, albeit one connected to the one on which Mariehamn sits by a road bridge. We hired a bus. The chocolatiery (if there is such a word, because “chocolate factory” sounds way too industrial) is located in the old post office established by the Russians when they conquered Finland in the early 19th Century. Ã…land was a vital link on the post route from Sweden to St.Petersburg.

None of that, of course, has anything to do with chocolate. The present day owners of the building, Peter and Mercedes, have less dangerous and more delicious, if perhaps less necessary work to perform. Mercedes is from Venezuela, and is one of those amazing people who can talk about cocao in the same way that expert vintners talk about grapes. We had a tasting of different types of chocolate. Then we sampled some of her pralines. I died and went to heaven.

Unfortunately the Finns want me to do some program items later in the weekend, so they resurrected me and brought me back to the hotel.

Cat has done a fine Guest of Honor interview. We crashed the hotel’s wifi network, presumably through overuse.

Now it is getting on towards evening. I have persuaded Otto & Paula to take me in search of Baltic sushi. There will be herring, and perch, and eel, and hopefully other interesting fishy delights.

Talking of fish, Aloysius the squid is enjoying his visit to the Far North. He says that the Baltic is a nice little pond, but not deep enough to have food in it. Somehow I don’t think the sushi bar will have sperm whale on the menu.

Also I have been conspiring with Kisu and Karo about the Finncon program. And if all goes well the Translation Awards short lists will be announced tomorrow evening.

In The Islands

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Hello again. I am safely arrived in Mariehamn. Ã…con 5 is due to start in a few hours. But I owe you a couple of days of blog posts, so let’s go back a day.

Otto, Paula and I drove to Turku yesterday afternoon. It is a holiday weekend in Finland, and the entire population of Helsinki appeared to be trying to leave the city. Thankfully Paula had some ideas about alternate routes. It only took us an hour to escape. Another car that left before us arrived after us.

We found Cat and Dmitri in Harald (where else). They had already been persuaded to try the tar ice cream. I got them onto cinnamon beer as well. I’m pleased to report that a branch of Harald will be opening in Helsinki soon, so all of the major Finncon venues are now covered.

I had perch in nettles for dinner. Perch have lots of little bones, but are otherwise lovely.

After dinner some of us repaired to the Cosmic Comics Cafe, a thoroughly geeky establishment funded by local comics creators. It has good beer too. But we couldn’t stay long as we needed to be up early to catch the ferry. I almost wrote “at the crack of dawn” then, but that would have been about 3:00am in Turku at this time of year.

There are two ferry services between Turku and Stockholm: Viking and Silja. We traveled on Silja, because Hanna works for them so arranging block bookings is nice and easy. Our ship was the MS Galaxy, which is a large ro-ro vessel. As with any such thing, it is a floating mechanism for relieving the resident humans of their money. There’s a casino, several bars, several restaurants, duty free shopping and so on. But it was very comfortable, and you didn’t need to spend money if you didn’t want to. Also, the lunch buffet was very good value – €12 for all you can eat.

Of course the usual ferry rules applied. There were plenty of young Swedes on board who had no intention of getting off in Turku. They were just there to drink themselves insensible for the best part of a day. Doubtless many of the young Finns who boarded with us were doing the same thing in the other direction.

Ã…land is a lengthy archipelago of small, granite islands that stretches out from Turku. It was foggy for much of the trip, but when we could see we were never out of sight of at least one island. It looked like a great place for a sailing holiday, or indeed for a pirate hideout. Aside from the more northerly vegetation, and the separation into islands, I found it very like Cornwall. Cat and Dmitri, of course, found it very like Maine.

I am now safely in the con hotel and listening to Test Match Special. Opening ceremonies are in 2.5 hours, and the main event of this evening is a trip to the local cinema for a special showing of Iron Sky. But first, a nap and a shower.

Oh, and the convention program is online here.

Finland in May

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

As I’ve said before, my convention travel this year is going to be very limited. Aside from BristolCon, my only plans are for Finncon and World Fantasy (and the latter only because I have airline points and Kevin is hoping to go). However, thanks to some very generous people (and a free companion ticket on BA), it appears that I will be going to Ã…con in May. This makes me very happy. I’ll get to see my Finnish friends twice in the year, and the Guest of Honor is none other than Cat Valente. It should be a great weekend.

News From SMOFcon

~ Cheryl ~ 19 Comments

SMOFcon, the annual convention for people who run SF conventions, is taking place in Amsterdam this weekend. Kevin and I had memberships, but neither of us could afford to go. Consequently news from the convention is a little light. (Some SMOFs take the “secret” thing much too seriously.) However, thanks to whoever is behind the Chicon 7 Twitter feed (Dave, Helen?), and the hard-working Petrea Mitchell, I do have some news on Worldcon bids.

The big news is an official bid for Montréal for 2019. René Walling presented it, so this is serious. Presumably René will have help from many of the people who worked for him in 2009, and they’ll all be a lot more experienced now.

The bid everyone is talking about, however, is Mariehamn in 2016. This is the location of Ã…con, a small Finnish convention that I hope to finally get to visit next year if I can find the money. The bid was presented by the indefatigable Eemeli Aro, who is well known in Finnish fandom for his ambition to run a Worldcon. I suspect that when he gets home they’ll sit him on the furnace in a sauna until he repents his foolishness. I’m certainly not backing the bid without hearing from anyone else because I want to be allowed back into Finland.

Of course a bid for a Finnish location would be a lot of fun, and will give people practice at working with Finnish fans. But I don’t think that the Kansas City folks should be too worried. (Update: see comments, the Mariehamn bid is indeed non-serious.)

Finally there was an announcement of a bid for a Boston to be held at Christmas in 2020. This is a hoax bid. If anyone from Boston says otherwise then the New Zealand committee will send a few large rugby players around to see them.

So the current state of bids is as follows:

Finlandia Prize

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

The Finlandia is Finland’s version of the Booker. Obviously the field is smaller, as there are a lot fewer Finns than members of the Commonwealth, but on the other hand the Finns don’t arbitrarily ignore some works because of their content. Johanna Sinisalo’s Not Before Sundown (Troll in the US) won the Finlandia as well as the Tiptree.

This year’s short list doesn’t include anyone I know, but it is notable for being all female. I have some hopes for this book:

Laura Gustafsson broke in to the list with her first novel Huorasatu (“Whorestory”), which was earlier seen as a play. The author rewrites ancient myths as she charts out the prehistory of women and constructs the perfect world.

Can any of my Finnish readers tell me more about it? It sounds rather like a Cat Valente novel.

Also of note is the fact that there is a “Junior Finlandia” for YA books. This year one of the nominees is Routasisarukset by my good friend Anne Leinonen and her writing buddy, Eija Lappalainen. Tero describes the book as “the first in a series of novels set in a dystopian 24th century”, and Irma tells me that the book reminds her of Le Guin. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them, both in the prize, and at the book fairs next year as this is the sort of recognition that helps sell translations.

Moon Nazis Invade SFX

~ Cheryl

My goodness, some brave individual infiltrated the secret Iron Sky HQ in Finland and has spilled the beans on SFX. I wonder who that could have been?

I have, of course, seen rather more of the movie than I reveal. If I said any more the Moon Nazis would have to kill me. But you don’t have long to wait. The movie is due out on April 4th next year. The latest news on what my mad Finnish friends are up to can, as always, be found here.

FinnCon Photos

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

This should make Kevin happy: photos of cosplayers and trains. 🙂

These photos were mainly taken at Finncon in Turku. There are also a few from the final day which was partly spent on trains. The Con report, which will explain all, should be online later today.

[shashin type=”album” id=”45″ size=”medium”]

The Long Way Home

~ Cheryl

Today I traveled from Turku to Helsinki, the long way, via Tampere. It is sort of like traveling from Bristol to London via Birmingham, except much more fun.

The first leg was a road trip through more beautiful Finnish countryside. Marianna, Karo and I were busily brainstorming ideas for next year’s Finncon for most of the trip.

In Tampere Karo handed me off to Jarmo, who gave me a guided tour of the Secret Base at which post-production on Iron Sky is being done. It is packed with processing power, giant screens and talented young men. Norm Cates would doubtless sniff with derision, because there’s no way the Iron Sky boys can match Weta’s money, but it was still very impressive. I wish I could tell you what I saw, but they’d kill me.

The second leg was by train through yet more beautiful Finnish countryside. I have photos for Kevin. It was a lovely train. Otto met me at Helsinki station (where we were just in time to see the daily Moscow train pull out).

Since then we have eaten curry and sat in the sauna. (Yes, Finnish homes often have their own saunas.) Tomorrow will be yet more travel, and if all goes well I will be back home in about 24 hours time.

In Turku

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Last night we had a little event at Jukka’s place, during which much sushi was consumed. Then this morning we packed up and lit out for Turku. These days there is a fine, modern freeway between the cites, complete with several very impressive tunnels, so it was a very easy drive. Huge thanks to Jari Käkelä for making a large Volvo available and driving us over. Apparently the car is the usual transport for Jari and his band, so it had plenty of room.

This afternoon we had the first day of the academic conference, including my good friends Irma Hirsjärvi, Merja Polvinen and Liisa Rantalaiho. Jari talked about his PhD on Asimov and American expansionism, while Mika Loponen talked about the use of stereotyped “evil” races such as orcs in fantasy novels as stand-ins for real-world groups that the author wants to other. They had a couple of last minute cancellations, so Merja and I filled in the gaps. She talked about teaching SF (including her forthcoming sojourn in Shanghai), while I read my Trans characters in SF&F paper.

This evening we ate and then headed to a local bar called The Old Bank. (UK readers please note it was a very nice pub, not a trendy wine bar.) Then it was back to the (very nice) hotel to check email and blog. Sleep next, as I have a breakfast meeting with a literary agency about publishing translated fiction.

Richard and Nalo have been out amongst the islands, and if all went to plan have been to the local Harald restaurant. Those of you who have been guests at Finncon before will know what that means.

Helsinki, Media, Jet Lag

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Here I am, safely arrived in Helsinki. It is warm and sunny — much nicer than the UK, I gather, having seen Al Reynolds’ tweet stream today — and Finncon is slowly coming together. This morning we did the traditional press conference. It was fairly quiet, but Jussi from Helsingin Sanomat (the most prestigious newspaper in Finland) did turn up and do an interview with Richard Morgan. Nalo Hopkinson’s books have not yet been translated into Finnish (and if you’ve read them you’ll have a good idea why) so she’s a harder sell with the national media, but I’m sure she’ll be a big hit with the fans.

After that we had a lunch meeting with a lady from the Finnish Cultural Institute to talk about how Finnish writers can get more exposure in the English-speaking world. Much to my surprise, we found Val Grimm in the same restaurant. She’s over here on business and won’t be able to make the con, so it was great to catch up.

Nalo and Richard have been whisked off to Turku by train in the company of the ever-efficient Tino and are getting a tour of the Ã…land archipelago tomorrow (weather forecast excellent, thank goodness). I’m staying on in Helsinki for another night to get some work done, and to try to get my head into Finnish time. Fortunately I have no problem cat-napping. Falling asleep is something I’m very good at.

Attention Helsinki: Gig Venue Needed

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Hello Finnish friends. Anyone in Helsinki know people who can help stage a concert for a fine musician?

The gentleman I am talking about is Jason Webley, who is a lovely lad and frequent partner in crime of the fabulous Amanda Palmer (they are, jointly, Evelyn Evelyn). Jason is arranging a long (and to my eyes potentially exhausting) tour, and he needs a venue for Helsinki, ideally on September 21st. Given what I know of the fabulous organizational ability and hospitality of Finnish people, I’m sure this won’t be too hard to arrange. Jason’s contact details are here.

And if you can’t help, do go along to see the show, which I am sure will happen.

Finncon 2012

~ Cheryl

Mostly the event invitations that I get on Facebook are for things in the US that I can’t attend. Today, however, I got an invitation for Finncon 2012. It will be in Tampere over July 20-22, and the Guests of Honour will be:

  • Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Liz Williams
  • Irma Hirsjärvi

I am so happy, especially for my good friend Irma.

VanderTour in Full

~ Cheryl

Jeff and Ann VanderMeer have done a wonderful job chronicling their adventures in Finland. Jeff has done a round-up post linking to all of their coverage here. Please do check it out. Finnish fandom is a wonderful thing, and they have some amazing writers there too.

VanderMeers in Finland

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

As you probably know, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer were touring Finland in April. I would have loved to get out there and see them, but I had other things to do here. Anyway, Jeff is busy churning out reports on the visit, and a couple of interesting posts went up today.

Firstly Jeff’s blog at Amazon, Omnivoracious, has the first part of an interview with Finland’s leading SF critic (and forthcoming Eurocon Guest of Honor), Jukka Halme. In the interview Jukka is wearing a replica shirt for the famous Tallahassee Tentacles ice hockey team, a marvelous Finnish joke which Jeff explains here.

And secondly, on his own blog, Jeff interviews Finnish fan, Tero Ykspetäjä. I’m sure you are fed up by now of my going on about how wonderful Finnish fandom is, but if you don’t believe me perhaps Jeff and Ann can change your mind.

Tero ends up by saying, about his involvement in Finnish fandom, “I like giving back to the community, and I guess I’m just the type of person who enjoys organizing things, but getting to spend time with such a wonderful bunch of people is the biggest reward.”

It certainly is; and Jukka and Tero are two of the wonderful people I have been lucky enough to meet there.

Finns Get Culture

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

On Friday morning I attended a press conference at the home of the Finnish Ambassador (a very splendid house in Kensington Palace Gardens). The purpose for the event was to launch the tenure of Turku as one of the two European Cities of Culture for 2011 (the other is Tallinn in Estonia).

The Cities of Culture programme is a splendid EU initiative that, each year, puts money into encouraging two cities to promote cultural events. Glasgow and Liverpool have both been beneficiaries. The Finns, as I have come to expect, take this very seriously. And I was there because I have cause to be in Turku in July and wanted to see what would be on offer. Others amongst you may also be heading there (I’m looking at you, Nalo).

Sadly we’ll miss the opening ceremonies, an extravaganza of acrobatics and pyrotechnics to be staged by a Manchester company that was also responsible for Liverpool’s opening event. Turku still has a thriving ship building industry, and the shipyards are an ideal venue for such a production.

What we should be able to see is Cirque Dracula, a new circus production from the Finnish company, Art Teatro, headed by Cirque du Soleil veteran, Pauliina Räsänen.

Sadly I think we will miss the Accordion Wrestling, but I did promise people on Twitter that I would explain what it was. It is essentially an accordion concert with “dancers” who get a little more physical than you would normally expect. It was invented by a Finnish musician, Kimmo Pohjonen, and you can learn more from his website.

Running throughout the summer will be a major art exhibition featuring the work of Tom of Finland. Touko Laaksonen, to give him his real name, was born near Turku and created a style for gay erotic art that pretty much established what most people probably now think of as the Freddie Mercury Look. Most of Tom’s work is now housed at a foundation based in Los Angeles, but a large amount of it is being brought over for the exhibition.

Of particular interest to me (because I’m still an oceanographer at heart) is the Contemporary Art Archipelago project, based in and around the beautiful islands off the Finnish coast near Turku. According to the folks at the press conference they are making a film speculating on the future of the islands. It will be called Archipelago Science Fiction, and as they are filming in the spring it may be available to be shown by July.

Finncon 2011 will take place in Turku over the weekend July 16/17 (with the usual academic conference preceding it). Confirmed as Guests of Honor are Nalo Hopkinson and Richard Morgan.