JOHN MEANEY

12.4.14

GÖTEBORG ROCKS!

Loved it. I absolutely loved it.

The convention in Göteborg, aka Gothenburg, was magnificent. Huge thanks to everyone who was there.

Helena and Lars-Göran and Janne (cheers, mate) and the magnificent Mats looked after me. John-Henri provided fascinating information about Stieg Larsson's fannish activities, in addition to being his usual excellent self. And J-O taught me some really interesting things about Norse mythology, and is an all-round cool guy to hang out with.

My fellow GoH Caroline and her demonic husband were terrific. Socialist-Simon almost managed to make our panel go in a sensible direction. Sandra made a genius point about maps in books. Stefan was another cool guy, and I'm going to have to learn Swedish to read his books. Fourteen volumes eventually in the sequence, right?

Our excellent MC for the banquet was Patrik. Good man. I spent some time chatting with Sören about wood, with Roger about... stuff (at the con and in Starbucks), with Tommy about commentless code, and loads more. And with Peter about... something.

The Dead Dog Party was particularly tremendous. Arina and Martin (who knows more about English than I do) were awesome company, along with the lightning-witted Johan, while Bellis and Kat and Henrik were putting the universe to rights, and Mats above all - thank you, my friend - looked after me and made sure I got back to my hotel instead of wandering the streets, pretty and cobbled though they are.

Glenn from SF-Bokhandeln was marvellous company once more, and Ylva too. Lovely people.

And there's a bunch of people I've not mentioned... Thank you all, and thanks to Suzy Jenner at Orion. My lovely publisher arranged and paid for the flights, and the magnificent SF-Bokhandeln did likewise for the hotel. Marvellous.

After all that, you cry, what did you actually talk about? Well, we discussed Nordic mythology in literature (on and away from the panel), fictitious cities and near-future dystopias and anything else that sprang to mind. It was fun. And congratulations to Klub Kosmos on six decades of existence!

Swedish fandom is wonderful.