Newsletter

Progress report no. 2 - Marts 2007

Dear all,

Welcome to Eurocon 2007 progress report number two - the first one in 2007.

As from now on we hope to be able to release a progress report more often, as we will have a lot of news to tell. You are also advised to check out the website and/or the web forum once in a while in order to stay informed.

Now over to the news:

ANNOUNCEMENT OF FAN GUEST OF HONOUR
In keeping with tradition, we are proud to present a Fan Guest of Honour, a tower in the Danish literary landscape, who has done more than anyone, in Danish, to place sf in a socio-historical and a literary context.
Niels Dalgaard (born 1956) is, undisputedly, the most knowledgeable sf enthusiast, with a Ph.D. in Nordic literature specialising in sf, to prove it. Since the early 1970s he has been active in Danish and international fandom and written countless books and articles on sf and related topics.
In the late1970s Dalgaard himself was a publisher (in 1978-1980 with Ellen Miriam Pedersen). Tohubohu Press published short story collections, author presentations, conreps and satires, and much more. Given the times, very professionally too, although printed on duplicator.
Dalgaard has been editor of Proxima, the flagship of Science Fiction Cirklen, (the oldest sf society in Denmark) and Scandinavia's longest living sf periodical, founded in 1974 and still in print (No 85 was the Spring 2007 issue). Of all these, ND has edited more than half.
1999 saw Dalgaard's Fanmarkshistorien, which in words and graphs narrates the history of Danish SF fandom from its humble, although enthusiastic, beginnings in the early '70s.
Among Dalgaard's most recent publications are Fra Platon til Cyberpunk, sf history and themes in a Danish perspective, and Rumvandringer ('Space Trekking'), articles on topics ranging from 'Magazine sf' to 'Danish poets and sf' and 'Juvenile sf'.

PROGRAM ALMOST FINISHED
Work has been done on the program for Eurocon 2007 for quite some time now, and it's very close to be released as the first version. There will be amendments along the way as well as detailing, but the program as such is practically finished. It will be a very varied program with participation from known Danish and international writers, fans, scientists, media people, artists etc.

WEBSITE UPDATED
Since the previous progress report, we have updated the website in order to make it more usable. Several pieces of information have been updated, and if you have any changes or comments please contact the webmaster directly at
webmastereurocon2007.dk. Our web-forum has undergone a slight change as well because of spam. If you have any questions about this, please contact the administrator at
admineurocon2007.dk.

AEON AWARD
From the Irish Aeon Award comes this message: "It has been decided that the winning story will be announced during the prestigious European Science Fiction Convention, in Copenhagan in September of 2007. Remember that our EUR 1000 short story contest is still open to submissions until the end of June 2007. Stories entered in this round (Jan 1 - March 31) will be annouced here and added to the shortlist at the beginning of February. Thirteen stories have already been listed. Yours could be one of those in a few months time! Once the contest closes, we will pick the top six stories and send them to respected SF author Ian Watson for the final verdict. The top three will have gauranteed publication in Abledo One, and the winner will receive the EUR 1000 euro prize."

EUROCON ANTHOLOGY
As mentioned in Progress Report #1, the Eurocon 2007 comittee is planning an anthology of recent (preferably 2006-07) European fantastic fiction (science fiction, fantasy and supernatural horror). The anthology will be published in English in time for Eurocon 2007. We would like to get stories from as many European countries as possible, and we invite fan or writer organisations in all European countries to select a story. If no such organisation exists, we hope the Eurocon agents will select a story, and we will also accept individual contributions if they meet the standards of the other stories in the anthology. Only one story will be accepted per country, and the maximum length is ca. 10,000 words.
Please note that this is a fannish publication, meaning that we can't offer any payment for inclusion except a few copies of the finished anthology. The individual authors will retain all rights to their stories for all purposes other than publication in the Eurocon anthology. Also, we would like to receive the stories in English, since we don't have the capacity to translate them ourselves. Stories should be sent to anthologyeurocon2007.dk in electronic format (preferably Word, PDF, RTF or txt) no later than June 1st 2007.
So far, we have received an official contribution from Belgium: Frank Roger's "The Dying Man". Organisations in Finland, Spain and Denmark have promised to select and translate stories. We also have individual contributions from Sweden and the Netherlands; but since these aren't 'official' selections, we are still open to contributions from these countries.
As you can see, we still need contributions from many major European countries. We would in particular like to see contributions from Eastern Europe, which so far isn't represented in the anthology.

BALTCON
Eurocon has also been designated the 2007 Baltcon, which will be a sub-theme with a number of program items each day. This will cover fantastic literature and fandom from the countries around the Baltic Sea, with speeches and panel debates. If you have program ideas and/or if you have a subject yourself that you want to talk about, please get in touch with Ahrvid Engholm (ahrvidbredband.net). A traditional item is "Meet Baltic Fandom", a panel with representatives from as many Baltic Sea countries present as possible. On the Sunday there will be the Baltcon Meeting, which will be important since it is planned for discussing and updating the by now ageing Baltcon statutes.

MEMBER INFORMATION
Eurocon 2007 has had a change in the organisation, as Carl-Eddy Skovgaard has taken over the position as treasurer. The treasurer is as always available at treasurereurocon2007.dk. Please be aware that the bank account number has changed as well. We are now well above one hundred members and more join each day. If you are not member of Eurocon 2007 yet, sign up at the website online or talk to one of our agents, who are now listed at the website as well. The list of members is now online so you can see who else is coming. We will only show name, city and country in this list - nothing else.

PAYPAL
You can now pay your membership or any donation to Eurocon 2007 via PayPal. Check out the website for details.

HOTELS
We have now added information about the hotels at the website. You are recommended to reserve rooms well in advance, as we only have a limited amount of rooms available at each hotel. The prices are however guaranteed as long as we stay within our quota. The Guests of Honour will be staying at the Scandic Copenhagen, Vester Søgade 6. This is centrally located, very close to the Vesterport S-tog Train Station. We are currently working on travel deals, but cannot publish anything definite yet.
We have now also added a link to a map of restaurants etc. in the neighborhood of Valby Kulturhus (Eurocon 2007 site).

STANDS AND SPONSORS
We have been working on a room plan, and we are now able to take in orders for stands and the like. In order to plan ahead - and because we want to be as flexible as possible - we will make individual agreements in all cases. You are recommended to contact us as early as possible at this address:
sponsoreurocon2007.dk as we work by first come, first serve principles. The same e-mail address should be used if you want to advertise in any of the publications that are being printed in connection with Eurocon 2007 or if you wish to be a sponsor. Eurocon 2007 does not get grants from the state or any other public organisations, so we depend heavily on sponsors and the like in order to get the funding we need.

With kind regards
Eurocon 2007