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Some plums for your diary
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.
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I really look forward to meeting you in Åcon!
It's mutual, Sini. I'm really excited - it's going to be great!
I'm terrified!
Of me, or of Hallucigenia?
We have got the West Runton elephant in common, at least. I was there while it was being conserved by the wonderful Nigel Larkin, who also does a superb 2-day-long barbecue (bovid and mammuthus free).
Not you or Hallucigenia or the elephant, but this GoH lark. And Ive never even been to a con before..,
And aren't we all fans of Nigel?
Phew. Now I have managed to escape being pinned to the sofa by a golden retriever, my only connection to the world being my iPhone, I can attend to matters properly! Steph, I'd value your experiences about being a Guest of Honour. With the possible exception of Tolkien Soiety 'do's, I have never been to an SF con before (and have never played a role-playing game in my life, except for, well, 'real life') so can't imagine what being a GoH is like. Do they bathe you in asses' milk while force-feeding you with honeydew, or do they make you work for it? I'd also like to have a natter about archaeology. I have an ulterior motive, of course. Doesn't everyone?
Sure, let's talk about the con and what we can offer. It's best to talk by email so I've sent one to the address on your blog. There'll be some work involved but it's fun and everyone is usually knowledgeable and friendly. It's a chance to learn as well as to talk about our books.
I have a few suggestions for a panel discussion or interview we can do together - for example 'Science in Fiction - how far should it go?' We can suggest one or two programme items, but it's up to the organisers if they want to include them. There'll also be time for a coffee in town, and I'll probably get sucked into the Sedgewick again...
With my archaeology hat on: let's have a chat about that too. You're a pleistocene bison buff, I'm a pleistocene flint buff - we probably know a lot of the same collections, people and sites. In fact, some of my hunters probably speared some of your beef!
Great! I'll have my people talk to your people.
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