Wednesday 20th Sword School

On Wednesday I flew in to Helsinki airport where my gracious host Jukka met me. Merja Polvinen from the University of Helsinki had arranged for me to visit the School of European Swordsmanship run by Guy Windsor, swordsman, martial arts specialist and stickler historian.
Sword School: click for more
There are more photographs in sequence here.

I was most impressed by how a knowledge of other martial arts and the dynamics of the body allowed Guy to reconstruct the sequences written and illustrated by masters of defence from the fourteenth century onwards. It’s much better than a dry academic commentary, because when you’re actually doing it you realise details like: holding the hilt slightly wrong causes pain so you soon discover the correct position, pommels and swept guards make effective knuckledusters, and how to keep the sharp edge of your sword towards the enemy’s.

Then we moved from rapier to longsword, which I preferred as I could sweep through larger movements, and the guards had memorable names like ‘the iron door’ and ‘the long tail’. The motions were every bit as fluid and natural as an Eastern martial system and I was lucky enough to see experts in free play with plastrons and armour.

Guy’s achievement in working all this out is stunning, and more so when you consider the amount of work involved in founding and running the school. I thoroughly recommend his books which make sequences clear for the beginner even when there’s no instructor present. He has written on rapier and longsword. He has a lovely collection of swords and daggers too, originals and experimental reproductions showing what can be done with medieval techniques – including one damascened blade which I wasn’t allowed to touch. Not surprised.

Thursday 21 Pizzas of Unusual Size

Stayed the night with Jukka and Sari in Helsinki, then took the train to Turku impossibly early in the morning, and the ferry to the Åland Islands, a wonderful crossing through the archipelago which took about three hours. Once at the hotel we opened the con with a welcome by Karoliina and straight into a panel ‘What’s Innovative in SF/Fantasy?’ That was my best panel because I’d only had two nights without sleep rather than six as was the case by the end.

The panel chairman was Jarmo Puskala, who worked on Star Wreck, the most popular internet film ever, and is now developing Iron Sky, an internet film in which the Third Reich, having escaped to the moon at the end of the Second World War, are preparing to invade Earth. It has a wonderful 1940s aesthetic – I was enchanted by the music and timing of the trailer, which you really must see.

Then to the hotel restaurant, which served the most gigantic pizzas I've ever seen. I could only eat half of one, but could have safely gone parachuting with the other half.

Room party

Friday 22 Happy Salmiakki

Maija introduced me to Salmiakki which is a very gothic black liquorice liqueur. I got hooked on it and bought a couple of bottles to take home.

I went for a walk in the woods and realised this was the furthest north I have ever been. Åland is quite like Shetland or the Outer Hebrides but with more birch and pine forests which the Finns are infinitely better at managing, both practically and aesthetically, than the Brits are.

The daylight hours are longer too, which has a weird disorientating effect. The sky never really gets dark, even midnight is only dusky grey, and the evenings are so bright that I kept thinking it was two or three in the afternoon when it was really nine pm.

The Finns do so many things better than the Brits. I’ve already mentioned the woodland that segues into the cities, so their cities are so much greener and more pleasant than ours. But theirs is also a more educated culture. Nearly everyone I met was connected with university in one way or another; many were doing doctorates. Finland has the highest proportion of university study in Europe and I wish I’d been more prepared for the fact that this con was more intellectual and literary than those I’ve attended in the UK. It was definitely more my style.

Marianna gave me a graphic novel The Sands of Sarasvati which I recommend. It’s an eco-sf story set a few years in the future when the ice sheets are melting. I have never seen so much theory packed into a story before, with the underlying chill that it (or something similar) could happen. The beautiful artwork, glaciology and ‘it serves humans right’ worldwide catastrophe I like, but I also think the book is too short – I wanted to see more of the characters between all the theory and crashing ice. That would have made the novel longer, with a better, slower pace and a chance to identify with the characters and build up some tension.

The best panel today was ‘World building – how is it done and why do we do it?’ Then there were games with host Jukka.

In the bar

Saturday 23 Moss and A Green Man

Otto took me for a drive to Hammerland in the north of the island, to a Russian gun installation from 1914. There wasn’t much left of the battery, but I got to see more of the island, with its magical wood houses, dyed red with white windowframes, nestling in the woods.
All the country is open to walk in owing to ‘Everyman’s Law’ i.e. there is no law against trespassing. Anyone can hike and camp in the woods. So fishing and collecting wild foods are more popular pastimes than in this country; I think it’s safe to say Finns have a better understanding of the outdoors. Hopefully they’ll like Shira Dellin in my next novel.

Don’t laugh, but I was really surprised by the amount of moss and lichen in the woods. We don’t have these vast soft carpets in English woodland, so when studying the Palaeolithic I had always wondered at how reindeer find enough moss to survive. Of course, they eat this stuff. I took so many photos of it, Otto thought I was crazy. But I could just imagine the trolls, and packs of wolves running silently over it.

Moss

Back at the hotel I had an interview with Toni Jerrman, the ubiquitous editor of Tahtivaetaja. This magazine has incredible coverage of SF and F. Toni keeps up with all sorts of film, graphic novels and books. The interview will probably come out in the December issue of Tahivastaja, hopefully at the same time as the Omnibus edition of all three Castle books will be published in the UK.

More roomparties, oh, and Johan got painted green.

Sunday 24 Pommern and Return

This morning we played pirates on the Pommern sailing barque. Built in Glasgow, 1903, she trailed grain around the world for forty years. At last the weather was now Baltic blue and I was still thoroughly enjoying myself despite sleepless nights and too much whisky abuse.

Pommern

We boarded the ferry at about two o’clock for Turku. On the train back to Helsinki I was pretty exhausted but still had some interesting conversations.

on the ferry

Monday 25 What Moomin Character Are You?

Gracious hosts Jukka and Sari and a Lancashire Heeler dog whose name escapes me put me up for the night. In the morning I had two hours to get a feel for Helsinki city centre before heading to the airport.
Jukka and Sari

So Taimi 'The Lovely Candy' and Maja gave me a lightning tour, past the art galleries and cathedral. I particularly liked the rough-hewn stone on the main shopping arcade – it looked like a cliff with relief carvings of trolls and bears.

Amazed by the amount of Moomin merchandise everywhere I headed to the Moomin shop in the airport to remind myself of the stories. I stood there for an hour, reading. They're most like Winnie the Pooh in that the characters also stand for human archetypes. Apart from hattifatteners, I guess, which are just weird. So Moomintroll himself is easy-going but gullible, like Pooh Bear. I think I am heading for Hemulen-hood.

I was dipped in ink and into nightmares
He was my windburnt darling
Who lived in a customised ambulance
Played the atlas as a game of chance.

We were driving fast off the motorway onto country lanes
Where anything has happened
And I thought: shit, someone's stolen half the moon.
But it was only clouds
I think
So now I am very careful what I drink.

A number of people have asked me whether I fully worked out the Rhydanne fortune cards - the ones Jant uses in The Modern World. Yes! Continuity and realism aren't the only reasons for figuring out background elements such as the cards. I do it because it helps me imagine the characters, for example Jant and Genya sitting at a table in the Filigree Spider, playing cards at lightning speed, even though the scene may not be used in the books.

Rhydanne fortune cards are a reaction to some of the nonsense I’ve heard about fortune telling. For those who are interested in the full set of 25 cards, more follows:

ICE SUIT

1. glacier
2. firn patch
3. cornice
4. crevasse
5. snowhole shelter

ROCK SUIT

1. mountains
2. cliffs
3. boulders
4. pebbles
5. grit

EAGLE SUIT

1. dead eagle
2. soaring eagle
3. ‘treading’ eagle (i.e. mating eagle)
4. nesting eagle
5. eagle chicks

GOAT SUIT

1. dead goat
2. pastured goat
3. randy goat
4. mother goat
5. kid

ALCOHOL SUIT

1. jug of beer
2. bottle of vodka
3. ‘jack’ of gin (leather bottle of gin)
4. dram of whisky
5. cask of whisky

Rhydanne fortune cards don't have a set meaning: they can symbolise good or bad luck depending on the user's interpretation with respect to their situation. Some Rhydanne prefer particular cards depending on their own experiences. For example Shira Dellin (who will appear in Above the Snowline) likes the Eagle Suit as a symbol of freedom. Most prefer the Alcohol suit, for obvious reasons.

Rhydanne play card games with these too, which Eilean Dara does in the flashbacks in No Present Like Time. The cards then do have a definite order and sometimes this influences the way they interpret the cards as lucky or unlucky when fortune-telling. Within each suit card1 is the least important or most unlucky (deuce) and card5 is the most important or sought-after (ace). The suits themselves are in this order of worst to best: Ice is worst, then rock, eagles, goats and alcohol is of course best. They are also used to play something like ‘stone, paper, scissors’ where rock crushes goat; goat drinks alcohol; ice covers rock; goat walks on ice and so forth.

Above the Snowline, the fourth Castle book, is finished and with the publishers. At last!

What's it about? Here's the blurb:

Awian exiles are building a stronghold in the Darkling mountains, where the Rhydanne hunt. Their clash of interests soon leads to bloodshed and Shira Dellin, a Rhydanne huntress, appeals to the immortal Circle for justice. The Emperor sends Jant, half-Rhydanne, half-Awian, and all-confidence, to mediate. As Jant is drawn into the spiralling violence he is shaken into coming to terms with his own heritage and his feelings for the alien, intoxicating Dellin.

It's available for pre-order from Amazon now, although the wheels of publishing grind exceedingly slowly so it might be some time before you receive one...

I'm now starting another book, also in the Fourlands, but with a fresh voice and a new setting.

I will be Guest of Honour this year at Åcon in Finland and Constitution in Cambridge, UK.

Åcon3, Thursday 21 May - Sunday 24 May

Åcon will be held in Hotel Adlon on Mariehamn, an island between Finland and Sweden. The hotel is near the ferry port, and you can arrive by sea from Turku (Finland) or Stockholm (Sweden). All the programming is in English and the membership fee is 25 Euros. Rooms should be booked by April 21.

Finland is an incredibly beautiful country and the fans are intelligent and warmly welcoming. I'm really looking forward to it.

Constitution, Friday 31 July - Sunday 2 August

Also called Unicon23 and including the 2009 British RolePlaying Convention, Constitution will be at Murray Edwards College, ('New Hall' to those of us over 16) in Cambridge.

I'm looking forward to meeting another of the Guests of Honour: Dr. Henry Gee, palaeontologist and Senior Editor of Nature, the lucky, lucky man. Will he get sick of my talking about the Burgess Fauna, I wonder...?

Like Acon, Constitution is fairly relaxed. At both events I will be doing interviews, panel discussions, and meetings over coffee or beer. I'll bring Castle books for sale and a range of anecdotes for free.

I will report on both events here, with lots of photos for everybody who can't make it.