2024 was a tough year. Full of joy and satisfaction, but also of sadness and frustration. Yet here I want to concentrate rather on the positive aspects, as this is what I want to keep remembering. I managed to visit 15 conventions – all except one I attended in person. There were also many other things happening last year!
The Year of The Worldcon
With no doubt I can say that Glasgow 2024 has somehow dominated last year for me. I don’t know how many hours I spent on preparations. For sure a lot, but also certainly less than many others. It was challenging to do all of the things that had to be done. At the same time it was also a very interesting journey. Shortly after the convention I wrote about how it was for me to be a part of the ConCom. Now, after a few months, I still don’t know whether I want to step up to DDH role again but I am very tempted to do so. With no question though, I know that helping at Worldcons is something I want to continue doing in the future.
The dream team without whom I worked a lot!
Apart from preparing Glasgow 2024 I also attended it and it was a very important convention for me. Back in 2014 I have fallen in love with Worldcons after attending my first one – Loncon 3. Since then I managed not to miss any Worldcon that took place in Europe (Helsinki, Dublin, and Glasgow). The convention became a kind of central part of the year for me. And Glasgow 2024 did not disappoint me. I won’t try to give it an objective mark. It is not in my rights to try doing so considering the level of my involvement. Yet I know that for me it was a good con. A tiring one, way different than the previous few, but nevertheless good. When I was in Glasgow, walking around SEC, listening to panels (and talking in them), I didn’t regret the time spent on making that happen. Could I have done more? Sure! Could some things be better – of course! Still I was happy with what I saw and experienced. Knowing that I added something to the event was a blessing.
The Other 14 Cons
Glasgow 2024 was not the only con I visited nor the only one I enjoyed! I wrote some summary about each of the conventions I attended. All are available in the archive here so I won’t repeat my impressions here. Still there are some events I want to mention. Some of the cons were new experiences or very important to me.
Among the cons I visited, two were furry events (Krakowo Zimowo and Krakowo Budowo). I was curious about the furry fandom and its dynamics for some years. Those events allowed me to get some level of understanding of this fandom. For sure it was just a tip of an iceberg. I was even told that the feeling of most of the furry cons is different as they take place in the hotels. Still it was an interesting experience. I am not sure whether I’ll come again to such events in the future, but I achieved my goal of getting some understanding.
Group photo at Krakowo Budowo.
Another special convention was Bilcon 2024. Some years ago I made a plan to visit a convention in every European country. Yet in a few recent turns around the sun I was only coming back to countries I already knew. Visit to Bilovec was a first “new European country” on my list since 2018! Still this was not the most important aspect of Bilcon. I wanted to attend it for some years and hoped to do so with my late friend – Raku. As he passed in 2023 I started to treat the visit to Bilcon as a tribute to him. Attending the con was a magical experience. I enjoyed it even though it was challenging as I don’t speak Czech. Still the friendliness and openness of Czech fandom was amazing and I felt welcomed. I would love to visit Bilcon again.
Bilcon made a tribute to Raku.
Unfortunately I missed Imladris last year and I regret it deeply. I got some cold and thus decided not to attend the con. It was a pity as I had two programme items planned. In one (where I was supposed to be a moderator) Seji agreed to replace me. The other got cancelled (not sure whether something else took place at the time). Imladris is one of the most important cons for me every year, and missing it was hard. I do hope that in 2025 nothing would prevent me from attending.
Fanzines and Other Writings
I was hoping to publish more this year. Yet this may have been unreasonable considering all the other thing I did. Still I managed to publish three fanzines. When it comes “A~Zyn” in 2024 we released issues 8 and 9. The latter was a second special – English issue. The third fanzine was easier in making – mainly because of its length. For Worldcon’s WOOF I prepared the first issue of “Forged Zine”. It was only ~3.5 pages long but making it was fun.
Works on forthcoming publications are quite advanced, and I hope to publish an ish rather soon. My plan is for the first quarter of 2025 to bring the tenth issue of “A~Zyn” and second issue of “Forged Zine”. At the end of 2023 I started to write a one-shot fanzine treating about my trip to Japan. Last year I managed to complete the writing and I plan to finalize editing it this year.
The cover of 9th issue of A~Zyn.
I submitted my articles to two fanzines – “Idea” and “Journey Planet”. The latter was already published. It was fun to work on those ad I hope that other will find my writing interesting. 2024 was also an opportunity for me to do some LOCcing. I still don’t feel very confident with that sort of writing, but maybe this will come with time. Unfortunately I did not manage to read (and comment) on as many zines as I hoped to.
Apart from fanzines I did some more writing for other places. Here, on this blog, I posted 24 times – bot great, but also not bad. Writing reviews did not occupy me as much as in some other years and I wrote only a few. I also managed to contribute to the publication about conrunning. (Yet instead of writing about the cons I submitted a piece about fanzines).
Fannish Moments
In January I was voted as a chair of Krakowska Sieć Fantastyki. 2024 and 2025 should be my last years in this role. When I look at 2024 I have a mixed feelings about my term. On one hand we managed to develop the club, but on the other I made some mistakes and I regret those. Hopefully 2025 will bring more development and fewer mistakes.
For whole year I kept meeting with my friends on an (almost) weekly basis and we played RPGs. Instead of having one very long campaign we rather have shorter ones and even some one-shots. Those meetings are a great way of both playing and bonding.
My friends got married this year and they made a very fannish weeding. It was, in fact, a wedding con. Being there to celebrate with them and with many of our friends was awesome.
Just after receiving Śląkfa.
Lastly I should mention that Śląski Klub Fantatsyki awarded me with Śląkfa Award in the Fan of the Year category. It is still somehow difficult to believe this, but the statuette at home keeps reminding me about it. I want to thank the ŚKF again for this honour.
Reading and Planning
I am not reading as much as I used to but at the end of the year I sped up a bit. Not sure how long will it last but I was glad to finish a few additional books. Surprisingly to me quite a few of the books I read were not SFF nor publications related to fandom. My fascination with Japan played a big role here. When it comes to fanzines I read a comparable number to that in 2023. I was hoping to read more, but did not manage.
Now I am looking forward to 2025 and making plans. I didn’t make New Year’s Resolutions – they would not work, and then I would be angry at myself. There are things I want to do – and there is a chance that I’ll even manage to do, but I am not sure. The closest to such resolution is the challenge I announced end of 2024. I want to write 52 articles. Still it is not a resolution – just a thing I aim to achieve. (As a matter of fact this text counts as number 1 of 52).
The 52 articles challenge
I made some convention plans but am sure that more will pop-up in the months to come. For now I have no idea how many cons I will visit, but what I can promise is that I will do my best to have a great time attending them. I should be also able to keep posting about them on this blog.
With a last glimpse at 2024, I am satisfied with the fannish aspect of that year. It was hard on many levels, but still I survived and managed to enjoy many beautiful moments. Now my goal is to keep all of them in my memory.
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