Author: Jan@HSFCon

Hotel rooms 24 and 25 March 2023

Are you coming to HSFCon and do you want to stay at the con hotel? Use the link below to book your hotel room(s) for Friday 24 and Saturday 25 March 2023.

https://www.hotelsneek.nl/valk-event/horror-science-fiction-fantasy-conventie/
(in Dutch only)

Enter the code: HSF2023

Please note: this link will take you to a special booking environment where you can book a non-refundable room. You will be required to pay at once, but it is possible to cancel without any additional costs up to 8 weeks before arrival.

Guest: Martijn Lindeboom

Martijn Lindeboom made his debut as an author with the historical fantasy De Legende van de Zwarte Wolven. Ten more books by him have appeared since then. Five historical stories (based on archaeology and/or history), a thriller, a collection of fantasy stories, a collection of horror stories (published by Luitingh-Sijthoff), two books around a specific theme (a collection of climate fiction stories and a book on witches) and a non-fiction book on writing fantasy and science fiction (published by Atlas Contact).

His book Lagen in Stad (written in collaboration with archaeologist Gert Kortekaas) won the title Best Book from Groningen in 2014. Besides his books Martijn has had over ninety short stories published in magazines, anthologies and as audiobooks or e-books. His new collection of speculative fiction, entitled De Komeet (edited and partially written in collaboration with Vamba Sherif) is due out in February 2023, published by De Geus.

Since 2010 Martijn has been involved in the organisation of the largest writing competition for science fiction, fantasy and horror stories in the Low Countries: the Harland Awards (formerly known as the Paul Harland Prize), in later years acting as the co-ordinator for writing competitions at online readers’ community Hebban.nl, for which he also acts as an editor.

Together with Heidi van der Vloet and other people he helps organise the Middag van het Fantastische Boek (Afternoon of Fantastic Fiction) at the Utrecht City Library.

He has been giving workshops and classes on writing fantasy and scifi since 2013.This experience, combined with the huge pile of books he has read, prompted him to write a book on how to write fantasy and scifi (Hoe schrijf je fantasy en sciencefiction?) for publishers Atlas Contact. He did this together with his partner Debbie van der Zande, who as an editor and avid reader, brought her own experience to writing the book.

As a teacher of creative writing at the Dutch Writers’ Academy Martijn specialises in ‘Writing fantasy and science fiction’ and he teaches the subject ‘Other Worlds’ at ArteZ Creative Writing University.

Apart from being an author, editor and creative writing teacher, Martijn is also a legal expert and a Teakwon-do master (7th dan) with his own school in Groningen: Sung Zang.

Guest of honor: Kees van Toorn

Kees van Toorn discovered Science Fiction as a phenomenon in the mid-1960s, after his father had given him the book Bram Vingerling: het Geheimzinnige Horloge (written by Dutch author Leonard Roggeveen) as a birthday present. That was the time when Perry Rhodan started his rise to fame, and – unhappy with the rate of new releases in the Netherlands – Kees soon found himself travelling to friends in Cologne, where he scoured the second-hand bookshops, to return home with bags full of Perry Rhodans to read.

After all, publications of Perry Rhodan in Germany were ahead of the Netherlands by a decade. All this led in 1970 to a visit to the first Worldcon on the continent, in Heidelberg. His (inter)national network of scifi friends grew rapidly and that is how SFANcons, Eastercons and the subsequent Worldcons in England became part of his regular visiting schedule.

Very early on, he started his own semi-pro sf magazine, called Orbit. Many years later, with help from many of his good friends, came the organisation of the Worldcon in The Hague.

The ‘old team’ was planning to have a Reunicon to mark 30 years since ConFiction, but covid put a spanner in the works not once, but twice. This goodbye party is now scheduled to take place at the Glasgow Worldcon in 2024.

Kees is married with two children, and will probably keep working tirelessly until the day he dies, on translations, conventions at home and abroad… although his wife and children have already come up with his epitaph: no more translations!

HSFCon 2022 photos

All photos below were taken by the organization and can be used freely.

Do you want to use a photo where other people are recognizable elsewhere? Please ask for permission through us.

Sharing your own photos from the convention? Our hashtags on all platforms are #hsfcon2022 and #hsfcon

Problem with one of the photos? Please contact info@hsfcon.nl

Gallery here.

Results of the HSFCon Quiz

17 people participated in the first edition of the HSFCon quiz.

The winners were announced during the closing ceremony:

3rd place: Jo Smith

2nd place: Eddie van Dijk

1st place: Marco Dingjan

Well done!

The full list can be found below:

 NaamAantal goede antwoorden
1Marco Dingjan27*
2Eddie van Dijk27*
3Jo Smit25
4Erwin van Ballegooij24
 5Harm-Jan24
 6NJH Lieshout24
7John van Duin23
 8Saskia Appel23
9Klara Lammers22
 10John Conahan22
 11Jan Jelle Koerts22
12Edwin Mathlener20
 13Wietske Beeksma20
14Frank Groenendijk18
15Marije Sanders16
16Thijs Scholte11
17Hendrik Scholte10
*) Good thing we had a tie-breaker…


Most people knew:

  • That Clive Barker’s ‘Abarat’ was not made into a movie
  • what Kylo Ren’s scar looks like
  • that Tom Bombadil wasn’t in the Lord of the Rings movies
    what the abbreviation HSF stands for (luckily 😉)

    But only 1 person knew that the spaceship from question 16 was from Lexx.
    The questions about locations in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, the titles of short horror stories and the characters from The Expanse were also unknown to most.

The best answer to question 14 was ‘Thingy from The Expanse’.

About half of the participants should have taken a closer look at the posters for the Eurocon / the pennants that were distributed: it will take place in 2024, not 2023 😉

And did you know that…. If you simply guessed 123,456 on tie-breaker question 40, you would actually come quite close to the correct answer? The difference is only 13,775 words.

Curious about the rest of the answers? You can find them all in the attached file.

HSFCon-Quiz-Answers-ENGDownload

HSFCon 2023: Feedback

The first HSFCon is barely over, but we continue at full speed with the preparations for the second HSFCon.

We would like to make HSFCon 2023 even better. What do you expect from the next HSFCon? What can be done differently? What needs to be done differently? Which guests of honor and guests would you like to see (again)? Do you have suggestions for panels, lectures or workshops? Do you want to help / participate in the next HSFCon? Constructive criticism is, of course, also more than welcome.

We look forward to receiving your e-mail, via info@hsfcon.nl.

Team HSFCon
#HSFCon2023 #WeLoveItLiterally