Finncon 2024

It is great to be back. One of the worst things about the pandemic was that I could not make my regular trips to Finland. I have been suffering sauna-deprivation.

This year Finncon was in Jyväskylä which meant that my good friend Irma Hirsjärvi was involved in the organization. I absolutely could not miss that. Also one of the Guests of Honour was Ursula Vernon, and I’ve been wanting a chance to chat to her about the Sworn Soldier books, and about weird animals.

Talking to Ursula was easy. It turned out that she and her husband, Kevin, were taking the train from Helsinki to Jyväskylä. I needed to do the same, so I volunteered to go along as a “local” guide. As it turned out, we only made it as far as Tampere, but that was because Irma came to collect us and take us to the Moomin Museum. They have done a lot of work on it since I was last there. I warmly recommend it.

First up for me at the convention was the academic conference, which is how I ended up reading Ghost Stories for Darwin (reviewed elsewhere in this issue). That was Friday morning sorted.

In the afternoon I headed off to the Writers’ House for the traditional “On Writing” panel. This part of the con is supposedly aimed at professional writers, but a lot of fans come along too. I got to interview Ursula, which meant that we got to talk about Sworn Soldiers and weird animals in public. As I recall, Ursula knew about the paper nautilus, but the Spanish mole story was new to her. I live in hope of it turning up in a Hugo acceptance speech one day. (If you are not familiar with these animals, you need to buy Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction from Luna Press and read my essay on “Worldbuilding with Sex and Gender”).

Finncon proper was very much as expected. There were lots of young people in costume. There were many interesting panels. The good folks from Rosebud had tables groaning with books. It was all very pleasant. I gave a lecture entitled “Wales in the Time of Arthur”, which had an audience of around 120. I also participated in the LGBTQ+ Fiction panel. And of course I got to help judge the masquerade.

Much fun was had. Much sauna was had. I got to eat at Harald. And I went to a really interesting panel on Hopepunk, which I shall write about separately.

After the con I delivered Ursula and Kevin back to Helsinki Airport, and then spent a week at an Assyriology conference at Helsinki University. That was also fun, but in a very different way.