Author: Jan@HSFCon

7 days to go: food

Don’t forget to prepare. Sign up for lunches and dinner through May 8, 2022.

Dear HSFCon member,

Due to the large number of participants we expect at HSFCon, we recommend that you book your packed lunch and/or your dinner beforehand. You are not permitted to bring your own food and drink for use inside the hotel.

This is why we offer you this early opportunity to arrange your meals directly with the hotel. Payment is possible during the con itself by means of tokens that you can buy at the hotel reception. A packed lunch will cost 4 tokens and a hot meal will cost 7.5 tokens (the tokens can be broken in two). The packed lunch is a standard selection, but for your hot dinner we offer you a choice of meat,
fish or a vegetarian meal. You can make your choice on the day.

You can make your reservation by sending an email to sales@sneek.valk.com stating the following:
Name:
Number of persons:
Lunch Saturday – Yes/No
Hot dinner Saturday – Yes/No
Lunch Sunday – Yes/No
Hot dinner Sunday – Yes/No
Comments:

Please note: if you do not book your meals beforehand, it is possible that you have to wait longer for you lunch or dinner due to the pressure of demand on the day itself.

Reservations for lunches and dinners can be made until 8 May 2022.
We thank you for your co-operation.

Staff and management Van der Valk Hotel Sneek

#HSFCon2022 #WeLoveItLiterally

Guest: Frank van Dongen

Frank has been making up stories and creating things for as long as he can remember. As a child he created games that were so complicated that there could never be a winner. He painted and drew exotic and dystopian landscapes in the style of Don Lawrence and Frank Frazetta. He wrote stories about adventures on strange planets, stories that never ended because there was too much going on.

Frank has always had a fascination for fossils. To him, fossils are a window into the history of life on Earth, a story that remains almost as strange and unfathomable as that of the future of life on Earth, and beyond.

A major source of inspiration for the author are books and films in which humans travel to other worlds. The promise of human exploration of distant and unknown worlds, and that in the near future, is something that gives a wondrous and profound new dimension to life. In 1969, as a five-year-old, Frank saw this ‘dream’ come true in front of his eyes, via a small black-and-white television. The first man set foot on the Moon.

After finishing secondary school in Dordrecht, Frank went on to study evolutionary biology and palaeontology in Utrecht. He started work in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. In his time off he is always busy creating things: painting, making furniture and most of all writing. Frank has been working on the SF series Ontdekking van de Mens every day since 2016.

If there is one word that characterises the author, then it has to be creating. Making something out of nothing. And most of all, that something has to be different, thrilling and mysterious, adventurous and unpredictable.

Frank has three daughters and lives with his wife Diana among the trees of Almere-Hout.

Guest: Roderick Leeuwenhart

Roderick Leeuwenhart (1983) mainly writes science fiction, with the occasional diversion into other types of speculative fiction, such as dark fantasy and horror. Typical for his work is a fascination with Japan and East
Asia. His latest SF novel is De Heren XVII (Quasis Uitgevers), in which the question is asked: what if the Dutch East India Company had never ceased to exist? Roderick is a winner of the Harland Awards, the top award for speculative fiction in the Netherlands. His work has been translated into many languages, even Chinese.


At HSFCon Roderick will lead a workshop on Flash Fiction, including feedback after the convention. So be sure to bring that one brilliant idea that you’ve been playing with for ages, but that never fit in the rest of your work.

Guest of Honor: Kim ten Tusscher

Kim ten Tusscher was born in Twente in 1979 and never really left. She lives with Björn in a house from 1902, and she shares with him a passion for history, travel and adventure. Together they crossed England along Hadrian’s Wall from west to east by bicycle (sleeping in a tent along the way), made a road trip across the southwestern US and camped next to Icelandic waterfalls. On her own, she visited the Lakota Indians. All these trips have one thing in common: they all give Kim loads of inspiration.

Writing stories is Kim’s passion and fantasy is a great way to explore the world around her. She does not shy away from tough subjects, because they challenge her to think without prejudice about what happens in the world around her. It’s no coincidence that Kim’s stories are known for their characters
who are neither ‘good’ nor ‘evil’. Her books are thrilling rides, but also show great depth and feeling.

Once Kim had introduced Lilith’s world in 2010, it would not let her go again. She is just as curious about the world in her stories as about the real one. What is behind those mountains? How did this culture grow into what it is now? Each of Kim’s questions turns into a new story. And she can promise you this: there is much, much more to tell.

Kim’s most recent work (‘Vertellingen van de Ondergang’) is a five-part fantasy sequence with a dark edge. English translations of her books are available.