Glorious Golden October Alert!

It always sucks a little bit when the summer ends; the days get darker and shorter, the weather gets chillier, the city gets fuller, the leaves change colors... But pre-fall, September and early October, is still a nice enough time before hell ascends to Berlin and stupid winter begins. And this year it's an even better time than usual, because there's so much going on that it's head-spinning!

First we're off to Leipzig this weekend (Friday to Sunday September 27 - 29), to the local SFF convention Elstercon where you can meet local celebrities we love such as YA authors Boris Koch and Kathleen Weise and big names like Dietmar Dath, Ursula Poznanski, Nils Westerboer or Aiki Mira, all of them staples of the German science fiction scene, and even one star guest of international reknown: the award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky!

Speaking of Tchaikovsky, he will also stop by Berlin, and everybody's favorite SF bookshop Otherland, which on October 1st presents an author's event at the Wasserturm in Kreuzberg, it's basically around the corner and used to be a place where bigger Otherland events take place because of its sitting capacities. So grab your Children of Time books and come over, entrance is free, and get that signature.

Something else will happen in October, and it's something exciting for me! Although its release date is set on October 9th, you can purchase Über den Wolken, Science Fiction aus der Türkei, which I have translated, prematurely on Elstercon, at the Memoranda book table, and on Saturday October 12th, I'd be really happy if you came to the release party at the Otherland to celebrate! There will be champagne 👀.

An opportunity to chill out is given when on October 18th ugress will be back at youtube with another live stream.

I haven't been to the Creepy Crypt in quite a while because the films weren't really interesting to me and I managed to save and spend all my cinema money on the Fantasy Filmfest, but I'm excited to see there's a showing of In a Violent Nature on October 19th at 22.30h, which looks really creepy and this time I already bought my ticket ahead of its time. 

 

I'm generally not a person who has luck in life but every few years a nice thing happens to me too, and this year it did. I have a friend who works at Filmpark Babelsberg. And each year every weekend in October Babelsberg makes Horror Nights which feature dozens of actors walking around in horror costumes, scaring the visitors, and has various themed mazes you have to find your way out of. Even as a certified Scream Queen the thought of it is enough to freak me out, but I always wanted to go there and never did, because it is somewhat expensive. Well, my friend who works there gets one ticket for free and this year he decided to gift me that ticket, squeee!! October 25th is the date I'll finally be able to go there and I'll definitely go through all mazes and keep you posted as to how it was! My friend, by the way, is playing Pennywise, and should you decide to go and happen to see him, give him a hug - if you can!

The end of October and of the lovely pre-fall time is also its climax, namely Halloween. And that means the Final Girls Berlin costume contest and Halloween special showing of the best short films of the year, plus one feature film. I have no idea yet what the feature film is, but I'll welcome a good surprise. October 31, 2024 Final Girls Berlin Halloween.

You can also visit the Frankfurter Buchmesse from October 16th to 20th, but with so much going on around here, who wants to go there?

So, lovely friends, mark your calendars for all these awesome things happening and let's hope to meet great people and have great fun, before we pull back into our eldritch lairs to rest over the winter until the next wave of fun begins with the Berlinale 2025.