Everybody’s been telling me about The Hunger Games lately. Sure, I’ll get around to reading and watching it… But today I would really love to re-watch the dystopia action I loved as a kid: The Running Man.
Or perhaps Robocop.
The Running Man :)
srijeda, 3. prosinca 2014.
ponedjeljak, 1. prosinca 2014.
Feminist rage: an excercise in positive thinking
I am angry person: I grit my teeth, I get upset over everything. I am female.
Sometimes I turn it into action, sometimes I feel very, very helpless. I admit it, it also turns into me eating chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. (Considering my girth, that is not good).
End the silence, because hospital staff rarely get reported. Because women almost never talk about it. Because in Croatia they tell you that the most important thing is that your child is alive (if not entirely healthy in all cases, but that’s another story) even if you cannot piss or shit like a normal person ever again or if there were complications that resulted in your uterus being extracted? And women believe them.
It’s true, in a manner of speaking. After a birth at a Croatian hospital one is unlikely to want to ever repeat the experience even if they get to keep their uterus. Birthing mothers here get to be called vile names, threatened, abused, restrained, given medication without being told, vaginally examined, left alone for hours on. To think I was angry as hell when one of the doctors used my first name without introducing himself first or asking permission to use it, asking me how I was. I am spoiled. I have no horror birthing story. Mine went better than I ever thought it would and in the most notorious of Zagreb hospitals.
But reading thru the experiences of all these women has left me shaken, teary and sooo enraged. Not one of the hospital staff is ever held accountable. Outdated and unnecessary procedures on women giving birth in Croatian hospitals are routinely performed. When challenged about it, most will say “because this it the way we do it”. This particular answer was given to me as a reason for a mandatory shaving before childbirth that is one of those routine procedures. (I wish all of them were so benign).
Having had a child I have often wondered in the last five years why not have another. And why I did not decide to have one sooner. These stories have reminded me how much I feared to give birth in Croatia. Not because I fear giving birth but because I am in no condition to have a home birth, even if it were not illegal in Croatia. Nor do I have the financial means to go do it someplace civilized. Where the way we’ve always done it is not the alfa and omega of obstetrics practice and women are treated like human beings.
RODA has always proved me wrong when ti comes to the ability of Croatians to change. RODA’s relentless work actually changed a lot of things in Croatian hospitals that allowed for my own experience not to be one of the horror stories. (Well, that and a bit of luck.) I hope they can do it again. So the positive exercise is not mine. It is theirs.
Feminist rage: an excercise in positive thinking
srijeda, 26. studenoga 2014.
The FFANZ race is on!
The FFANZ administrators, Dan Rabarts (NZ) and Edwina Harvey (AUS) are very pleased to announce that we have a nominee for the 2015 FFANZ trip from Australia to New Zealand. Voting is now open for David McDonald, Australian fan and writer, to attend Reconnaissance, in Rotorua, Easter 2015.
This is David’s platform:
You can find out more about him at dan.rabarts.com. His nominators are Norman Cates in New Zealand and Cat Sparks in Australia.
If you are wondering how to vote, details can be found here!
The FFANZ race is on!
petak, 21. studenoga 2014.
Time to read?
I have a habit – as many avid readers do – of reading more than one book at a time. (I had better not look at the number of books under currently reading at Goodreads I might get discouraged by the number since I am sure I am reading at least two more I have not gotten around to putting up there.) This used to be my advantage but lately I have been frustrated by the habit.
Switching worlds has become something I am suddenly aware of. I forget my audio book and do not have the same title in my Kindle and I get annoyed. Maybe it’s my preference for short stories that’s doing me in, it does require more world switching than reading a novel series. I have not been working more lately. Less, I think. And yet I feel I am lagging behind on my reading.
All of this would probably not matter to me so much, but it is a really lovely true autumn day in Zagreb today. I know most books get sold and read during the summer, but for me autumn days were made for reading. Tea, a good book and an overcast day. My favourite time to read. I think I might go book-hop for a while now.
(photo credit: Lance Catedral via photopin cc)
Time to read?
srijeda, 19. studenoga 2014.
Free Croatian SF Fiction: Parsek 125 is online!
In case you somehow managed to miss out on the Worldcon & Eurocon 2014 issue of Parsek, the Croatian SF fanzine, you can download it here (.pdf)!
Parsek is the fanzine of the Zagreb based science fiction society SFera and one of the oldest fanzines in the region. It’s been coming out in various forms and under various editors for more than 30 years now. In 2o11 it was voted the best European fanzine at the Eurocon in Stockholm.
What I love about it is not only that it publishes new genre authors in Croatia but that it is the venue in which some of our youngest writers get to be published for the first time. Parsek has a special SFeraKon edition in which all the SFERICA winning stories are published. Alas, not in English. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any Parseks in English.
Petra Bulic and I took an issue to Denvention in 2008 and the late Boris Švel, who was editor-in-chiefa and the person who stubbornly insisted the paper form did not wither away into oblivion, made sure that (almost) every Eurocon since and some Worldons had a special, English edition. (You can find them – marked “in English” here).
Free Croatian SF Fiction: Parsek 125 is online!
ponedjeljak, 17. studenoga 2014.
New Zealand
You say New Zealand, most people think The Lord of the Rings. I think a special shade of green, horizontal rain, icy wind, breathtaking views, very scary weta, bilingual sings, kids in short sleeves and short pants when I – who am always so hot and under-dressed at home doctors have been sending me to check up on my thyroid all my life – was wearing 3 to 4 layers of clothes and still not feeling warm, haka and Once Were Warriors. And NZin2020, of course. I knew about the possible Worldcon bid when I was going for my GUFF trip. And am sooo glad they decided to go for it! It is comforting, this possibility that I will go back some day. Especially since I managed to get enough money together to go to Loncon3 and Shamrokon this year despite the fact that it often seemed like there was no way we were going to pull it off, financially. So, saving for the New Zealand Worldcon has commenced.
I spent five days in the southernmost city in the world, Wellington, during my 2013 GUFF trip. In late autumn. Without any idea of how interesting the weather can be. In retrospect, it was waaay too little time to spend there. But, coming so close – Canberra – I simply could not NOT go.
A Croatian fandom couple with kids had recently moved to New Zealand and when my NZ host had to go away for the weekend, I stayed with them. Other than showing me around, I learned a lot about parenting. Again. The year I got accidentally pregnant I was terrified. It was happening at the same time as SFeraKon, of course. Running around the hall, trying to put whatever was the fire of the hour, I met Jurica and Diana, who was carrying her infant boy in a sling. To a con. With a huge smile on her face. It was a revelation! A year later I was doing exactly the same thing. I figured if Diana could do it with a second child, I could handle just the one. Later on, during GUFF which was also the first time I spent away from my kid, I learned both how to be a more patient parent from her and how to take motherhood in stride.
The public talk I gave at Booksa a month ago today made me realize how much of New Zealand I have left unseen. A few older ladies showed up to my talk and were a bit disappointed that I had not had more to say about New Zealand. They have been on my mind lately – I am quite sorry not to be able to take for coffee to hear about their New Zealand. I suspect there is a number of New Zealand aficionados, people of a certain age, living in Zagreb, that I have not discovered yet.
In New Zealand I saw a newly hatched kiwi – I was quite lucky, it was the last hatchling of the season and an unsually late one, at that. A friend drove me around the wine country. He was very patient with me – I do not drink – but I enjoyed the scenery and the cake. The mountains were stunning. So much green. (And such cold win. And don’t even get me started on the rain!)
I did not take a LoTR tour, but I did see the movie theater Peter Jackson restored in Wellington. I took an enormous amount of bad photos that I have misplaced since. I have trouble breathing when I think about being unable to find them. I am writing this post to prevent panic. I also went on a tour of WETA digital, where photos were not allowed, so that is why there are none to go with this post.
New Zealand
srijeda, 12. studenoga 2014.
Bosnian genre author Adnadin Jašarevic wins Little Prince regional award
Every writer in the former Yugoslavia used to be eligible for the SFERA Award. So there are, among the early winners, some Slovenian and Serbian genre writers. Today, SFERA is a national award (and no longer the only one!). I think almost all the other literary awards in ex-Yu have been either ceased or transmuted into national ones.
All is, however, not lost. New awards have been established, regional ones. Baby steps, of course, so one of the first regional awards was in children’s literature, established ten years ago, in the third largest city of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Tuzla. Its name is Little Prince, it was founded by the Tuzlan publishing house „Bosanska rijec“ iz Tuzle and is given out annually at the 11th children’s festival Vezeni most.
This year the coveted bronze statue of the famous character imagined by de Saint-Exupery and the 1 500 euro award have gone to my good friend, Adnadin Jašarevic for his first excursion into children’s lit for the fantasty book Tamo iza (“Behind there”). I am immensley proud and pleased, not only because he is my friend, but also because the best book, for kids, across the region was one that belongs to my favourite genre.
Adnadin Jašarevic is the man who wrote the first epic fantasy novel in Bosnia and Hercegovina. I know him as the organizer of the Fantastic Literature Festivals in his hometown of Zenica. These have been the only thing akin to an SF convention held in B&H. Regardless, this Bosnian author is not a stranger to SF cons – he has been a member of almost all Croatian cons at one time or another in the past decade. And he has donated a signed genre story for GUFF! When not writing, Adnadin earns his living as a journalist and director of the Musem of Zenica. He has edited all the short story collections that accompanied the Fantastic Literature Festivals in Zenica and some that were published as part of the Fantastic Literature Festival in Montenegro. He has won other mainstream awards for his writing, but I should not be surprised if this one makes him the happiest.
Bosnian genre author Adnadin Jašarevic wins Little Prince regional award
utorak, 21. listopada 2014.
Women in fandom 0.1
Thing is, I probably live, day in, day out, in a far more misogynistic society than members of anglophone SF fandom do. And yet, my fandom is anything but freaked out by having women in it. This is a topic I will be coming back to, in depth. Now, I just want to share a video report of this year’s SFeraKon (the biggest Croatian con, which is, incidentally run mostly by women) by Nicholas Lloyd, who was Special Guest. The title of his video and the sentence at the end made me remember I have been thinking about posting on this topic for a long time.
Btw, the title of the this video is true – geeks are the same the world over. And yet, it’s not entirely true: if it were, than women in anglophone SF fandom would be as many as they are in my home country, and as welcome.
*It took me forever to choose a picture for this one. I went with the one of SFeraKon 2011 organisers and GoHs. There are plenty of pics of women only, but this one seemed most appropriate. Women may run things in Croatian fandom, but not to the exclusion of men. Only later did I notice that the three (male) guests of honour that year also happened to have been Serbian authors. That makes it a bit meta for me: tolerance all around.
subota, 30. kolovoza 2014.
LIburnicon GUFF aukcija
Otkako je prije godinu dana GUFF aukcija doživjela hrvatsku premijeru upravo na Liburniconu, postala je izuzetno popularno doga?anje na svim hrvatskim SF konvencijama, a Mirko Karas, koji je inace (fantasticno!) vodi, bio je toliko uspješan u vo?enju aukcije na Shamrokonu prošli vikenda da su ga zadržali u Irskoj! Te stoga na žalost ne može biti s nama veceras! Zamijenit ce ga Mihaela Marija Perkovic i Gillian Polack. Koliko mogu.
I zato ce Liburnicon biti jedina hrvatska konvencija na kojoj ce trenutna GUFF delegatkinja, australska spisateljica, povjesnicarka, profesorica i fanica, Gillian Polack, koja je na Worldoconu bila jedan od prezentatora najprestižnije žanrovske nagrade, Huga, sudjelovati u GUFF aukciji.
Fanovske aukcije u Velikoj Britaniji, SAD-u, Australiji i Novom Zelandu uobicajen nacin prikupljanja sredstava za fanovske fondove i incijative, a GUFF je fond pomocu kojih australski fanovi putuju u Europi, a europski u Australiju. Mihaela Marija Perkovic tako je 2013. provela šest tjedana u Australiji, a Gillian Polack je vec druga Australka koja je u svoje GUFF putovanje uvrstila Hrvatsku! (Tko pogodi tko je bila prva i na kojem se konu pojavila – neka dodje tijekom Liburnicona reci Mihaeli i dobit ce nagradu! First come, first served!)
Na fanovskoj aukciji možete sudjelovati kao kupac, ali i kao prodavatelj! Primamo žanrovske knjige, filmove, kostime, potpisane price, slike, crteže i stripove, bookmarkove, stvari koje su izradili poznati ili manje poznati autori, hranu iz svemira, hranu za svemir i još koješta. Ukratko sve cega se želite ili morate riješiti, a želite da završi kod nekog tko ce te cudne SF stvari voljeti jednako kao i vi.
Svi koji žele sudjelovati kao prodavatelji mogu donijeti stvari u subotu, 10 minuta prije pocetka aukcije te predati Mihaeli i Gillian. Ako ih zele nazad ne prodaju li se, potrebno je popuniti formular koji ce biti tamo.
Odlucite li sudjelovati u aukciji kao kupac, kupljene stvari placate odmah nakon kupnje pojedine stvari, stoga vas molimo da pripremite sitni novac!
Dobro nam došli!
četvrtak, 28. kolovoza 2014.
Croatia wins two ESFS Awards
I am equally proud to have lost the title of best promoter of SF to Dave Lally. After all, am in very good company among the losers in this category! (And squeee! I did manage to chat to Brian Aldiss at Loncon and take some messages for the Istrakon people from him).
The winners of the the 2014 ESFS Awards are:
European Grand Master:
- Jim Fitzpatrick – Ireland
Hall of Fame:
- Best Author: Wolfgang Jeschke – Germany
- Best Artist: Jim Fitzpatrick – Ireland
- Best Publisher: Angry Robot – United Kingdom
- Best Magazine: Cosmoport – Belarus
- Best Translator: Ms. Kersti Juva – Finland
- Best Promoter of Science Fiction: Dave Lally – Ireland
These Awards are granted just once by the European Committee by secret ballot from the nominations submitted by the National Delegates.
Spirit of Dedication:
- Artist: Alexander Prodan – Ukraine
- Best Performance: Adaption of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – Croatia
- Best SF Website: Geek Ireland – Ireland
- Best Fanzine: Darker – Russia
- Best creator of children’s science fiction or fantasy books:
- Oisín McGann* – Ireland
- Vladimir Arenev* – Ukraine
*A tie occurred and both creators are awarded.
Encouragement Awards
- Marco Rauch – Austria
- Victor Martinovich – Belarus
- Genoveva Detelinova – Bulgaria
- Irena Hartmann – Croatia
- Míla Linc – Czech Republic
- Anthea West – Ireland
- Robert M. Wegner – Poland
- Rui Alex – Portugal
- Eugen Cadaru – Romania
- ????? ????????/Roman Shmarakov – Russia
- Lenka Štiblaríková – Slovakia
- Igor Silivra – Ukraine
These Awards are granted according to the suggestions from the National Delegates to a young writer or artist from each European Country
četvrtak, 24. srpnja 2014.
Croatian nominations – ESFS awards 2014
Croatian fandom proudly takes part in the running for the European Science Fiction Society Awards. We have won some back in the 80s in the Best Magazine category and have been wanting more ever since! 
The following year, the Spirit of Dedication Awards for Best Artist went to Zdenko Baši?, whose work it is impossible not to fall in love with and to the Rijeka fanzine Eridan. Croatian speculative fiction writer Katarina Brbora won an Encouragamenet award and the president of the Rijeka based SF society 3. zmaj, Nela Dunato wan Best Artist.
Here are this year’s nominees:
HALL OF FAME
BEST PROMOTER – Mihaela Marija Perkovic
Mihaela Marija Perkovic is a Croatian writer, science fiction fan and con-runner, currently serving as the European GUFF administrator. In 2013 she was elected by the members of European fandom as the GUFF delegate. She spent 6 weeks in the spring of that year traveling in Australia and New Zealand, visiting SF fandom down under where she took part in two fan-run science fiction conventions, Swancon 2013 in Perth, WA and Conflux 9 / Natcon 52 in Canberra. She spent her time in Australia and New Zealand talking the ears off everyone about the fabulous European fandom, with a special emphasis on non-English European SF literature and fandom. The topic of large European conventions, such as Finncon and the Polish Pyrkon that reach 4000 and 24 000 members respectively, came up frequently, as did the fact that Croatia boasts seven annual conventions and one dedicated Festival of Fantastic Literature.
Since 2006, through her work as PR manager of the Zagreb-based SF society, SFera, and SFeraKon, the central Croatian convention that boasts more than a thousand members, she has placed domestic and international SF literature and its writers and fandom in all the major media venues in the country, creating a strong presence of Croatian SF fandom in the local and regional media. Her hard work culminated in the excellent press she got for Eurocon 2012, held in Zagreb in April 2012 under the name Kontakt, for which she was praised by Cheryl Morgan.
Despite having visited Eurocon and being in touch with other European SF fans, Mihaela still felt she knew very little about non-English speaking fandoms in Europe. To further this conversation, she initiated a special track at the Zagreb Eurocon dedicated to the representation of the multitude of European SF fandoms and literatures. The resulting Kontakt Special Track at Eurocon 2012 was very successful: eight European countries were featured in eleven presentations. An e-book edition of the material is forthcoming in 2014.
Mihaela earned her BA in English with a thesis on “Science Fiction Tropes in Peter Carey’s Short Fiction” and her Journalism degree with a thesis on book PR in Croatia, which featured examples from small SF presses. She is adapting her thesis into a non-fiction book on PR. Enthusiastic, cheerful and chatty, she earns her living like any true writer – by her wits and words and odd jobs thrown in the mix. Between cons and continents, she continues to blog about European SF literature and fandom at www.rantalica.com. You can find her on twitter as @rantalica.
SPIRIT OF DEDICATION
AUTHOR OF A PERFORMANCE – Ana Miljanic and Co: Adaptation of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along blog
Joss Whedon produced hit webseries Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along blog premiered on the Internet in 2008 and has been continually inspiring fans the worldover ever since.
With its zany story and catchy musical numbers it became a staple of many a science fiction convention. Who would expect less from the awesome people who have brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Fringe and the Avengers?
At this year’s SFeraKon, the largest Croatian convention, the touching tale of Dr. Horrible, evil genius extraordinaire, caught in a love triangle between the girl of his dreams and his arch nemesis, was brought to life by a band of intrepid Croatian youngsters! This was a first in Croatian fandom, and what a first it was: an event that spanned three days thus keeping close to the true spirit of the concept of a series. Being performed live at SFeraKon 2014 made the excellent performance Meta since the audience served as extremely enthusiastic extras that did not mind joining in.
Based on the idea by Marija Turkovi? and brought to life by the firm directorial hand of Ana Miljani?, the show starred Juraj Beloševi? as Dr. Horrible, Tea Križanec as Penny and Dejan Frankovi? as Captain Hammer gave an excellent performance – it was a sight to be seen live, cameras were on sight for those that weren’t lucky enough to be there and for those that insist on going through this roller-coaster of a thrill ride again. The whole show can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5eyKPuB5Pk
BEST WEBSITE – Inverzija
Inverzija (http://inverzija.net) is presents itself as news portal for everything related to science fiction and all of its derivatives and branches. It is not just a news portal, but also a place where latest books and movies are reviewed and latest fandom events discussed. What separates this site from others with similar M.O. is exposure of “small” authors and “small” movies lost in the wast landscapes of the internet. This is a place to find about fresh and unknown short movies, latest unknown & hot authors, events that might end lost in the shadows of the big movie franchise announcements. On Inverzija, everybody have their share…
Their mission: To Mars!
Their Vision: Robot Vision by Isaac Asimov
Encouragement Award:
Irena Hartmann
Irena is, in her own words, a geek above all, and then a budding writer and emerging programmer. She loves to write with one exception: her own biography.
We’ll just say she is in her early twenties, but already has dedicated fans and followers of her work.
Themes of her stories vary, but stories themselves always come with a fresh twist, from classical space operas to humoristic fantasy.
Irena is the winner of 2014 SFERA award for best short story.
petak, 11. srpnja 2014.
Dimension6: Issue #2 out now!
How did Dimension6 come about and why now?
A lot of different things coming together led me to Dimension6. The last couple of projects I’d worked on – Anywhere But Earth and Pyrotechnicon – both took a couple of years from start to finish I was after a bit of instant gratification for a change The whole process for Dimension6 from initial read to publication only takes 12 weeks!
I’d also had a lot of fun in the past with the Terra Incognita Speculative Fiction Podcast (www.tisf.com.au). This was a series of podcasts by authors reading their published stories. TISF was about archiving and preserving short stories that are – by there very nature – transitory: they’re published then they’re gone. Like TISF, Dimension6 is instantly accessible and will be available now and into the future. There’s no ‘going out of print’ in the digital age.
The other aspect of TISF I liked was the fact it was free. This was about promoting Australian authors and writing without a paywall. That really appealed to me, ensuring maximum access to author’s work. It’s also true (as Cory Doctorow would tell you) that giving stuff away for free is a good tactic for an author. It increases the chance of being read and it increases the chance that people will seek out and potentially buy something else you wrote, because they are predisposed to you. Dimension6 is about promoting the authors who appear in it and, by extension, coeur de lion. Making it free is the best way to do that.
Why three stories per issue?
Well, coeur de lion is a one person operation. I do all the story selection and editing and layout and publish Dimension6. Three stories an issue is a manageable number to make sure I have enough time to meet my publication deadline. And it allows me downtime between issues to focus on my own writing.
Did you get any feedback on Issue #1?
A lot of people tweeted about it and we have a mailing list which is growing and growing. We also have a lot of other individuals and groups who are making Dimension6 available through mirror sites. Being free means it’s easy for people to do that.
Is Australian speculative fiction well appreciated in Australia or do Australians prefer American authors?
I think like any other country what people really want are good stories. They don’t really care where the author comes from. It’s true to say that Australian speculative fiction is up there with the best from any other country you care to mention and we have a lot of world class authors like Sean Williams, Trudi Canavan, Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan (and I could go on and on).
Having said that, there is a core Australian speculative fiction community that is very supportive of local authors and want to see them succeed. Coeur de lion has always been a part of that and Dimension6 is just one way that we contribute to that support.
Do you take submissions only from Australian authors?
Our focus is on Australia but like everyone else we want the best stories possible, so why limit ourselves? All or submission information is on the website at www.coeurdelion.com.au and we open again for subs in November.
What do you like about the stories in Issue #2?
It’s a great mix of stories from established and relatively new Australian authors. Each one builds a compelling world against which the action is set, and each one lives past its final sentence. Memorable stories are what Dimension6 is all about.
What is coeur de lion publishing?
We’re an independent Australian press started in 2005 out of a simple desire to find and promote original Australian speculative fiction to as wide an audience as possible. So far, we’ve published three anthologies, a collection by Terry Dowling and a novel by Adam Browne. I’m proud of all the titles we’ve produced but I guess our proudest moment so far was when Margo Lanagan won the World Fantasy Award for her novella ‘Sea-Hearts’ which appeared in our book X6 – a novellanthology. You can find out more at www.coeurdelion.com.au.
***
Dimension6: Issue #2 out now!
srijeda, 9. srpnja 2014.
Thou Gild'st the Even at Fantastic Zagreb
And proceed to tell a beautiful love triangle story, shot in black and white movie by Turkish auteur Onur Ünlü (1973.), very famous in Turkey for his TV work and outside of it for award winning films like Police (2007.) and Celal Tan ve ailesinin asiri acikli hikayesi¹ (2011.).
Thous Gild’st Even does not lack awards either – at the Istanbul Film Festival it won awards as in the categories of Best Film, Best Script and Best Editing, as well as the International Film Critics Award.
I truly did not expect to much like a romantic horror but then, I am a bit conditioned to connecting horrors with the American prodution, so it does bring about images of teenagers dying bloody deaths. This was a funny, ironic and poetic movie about the ordinary, everyday troubles – life, love and loss – of some not really entirely ordinary people.
I will not retell it, lest I spoil it, but I will gladly recommend it. See the trailer here.
I would also love to hear what Australians, Americans and the British think of the movie as Turkish culture is closer to mine than theirs is.
***
¹Tragic story of Celalu Tanu and his family
Thou Gild'st the Even at Fantastic Zagreb
The magical river: Korana
After barbecuing with friends last Saturday, in the haze of having stayed put for an afternoon, we decided on the spur of the moment, to go with join them on a one-day trip to Lika¹. They needed to check their house and pick peas, carrots and salads that have grown since they were last there.
I figured, since their place in Lika is only an hour away from the Adriatic, there would be time for a quick swim. There was not. Because we found a much more magical swimming nook on the way there – Mlinica at Korana.
You may not have heard of Korana, but surely you’ve heard of the Plitvice lakes, the famous Lika lakes arranged in cascades that are the oldest Croatian National Park as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Lika you may have heard of because it’s the region of Croatia Nikola Tesla was born in.)
Even when they are a recently renovated old mill – the only thing I could find online was this, and it’s not much. Does not do it any justice what so ever and it focuses on the walking trail rather than on the mill and the river. You need to know where they are.
It was an awesome way to spend a Sunday.
***
¹a three hour drive in any direction (with a presumed three hour drive back) is not something most Croatian will decide on lightly, cognitive distance for us being quite different than for Australians, as I’ve written here.
²that’s what the Zimmer frei stands for.
The magical river: Korana
petak, 4. srpnja 2014.
A film on top of a hill - Fantastic Zagreb
Watching a movie, at night, under the starry skies was an experience I hope to repeat. Preferably, at the same festival. A blanket, some popcorn, a cool summer evening, the stunning for wall under glimmering lights. And a crowd of film lovers who will shush talkers and actively try to let you enjoy the movie. A perfect ten.
Even if I did not like the movie. Maybe I was tired, maybe I just like to be different from everyone else, but I remain unimpressed. The plot was unconvincing (and no, I haven’t read the book), and a few good jokes and an awesome performance by Don Johnson will not make me say it was great. The screening was. The film was not.
Going back down, after the screening, I was thinking of all the films they had on their program this year and could not help but think what a scary experience it would have been to have watched The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and then have had to go home down an unlit mountain at 2 am. I am still undecided whether I should thank them for not doing or chastise them. Or even tonight’s Alien – I would have totaly loved that. But the venue it’s playing at is not (much) less impressive: Summer cinema Tuškanac.
A film on top of a hill - Fantastic Zagreb
srijeda, 2. srpnja 2014.
The magical river Krka: Skradinski buk
The river’s Skradinski buk waterfalls are not only famous for their stunning beauty. It also happens to be the place where the first European hydroelectric power plant was built and used, connected to a lighting system using alternating current. Krka Power Plant put into operation just two days after the world famous Adams Power Plant on the Niagara Falls.
So, on August 28th, 1895, at 20:00, the aptly named Krka hydroelectric plant made history, not only by being the first in Europe but also by providing power via 6. 8. miles long transmission line that was made of wooden towers to the street lights in the nearby coastal town of Šibenik. This beautiful Dalmatian town today proudly boasts of being the birthplace of famous basketball player Dražen Petrovic and the first city in the world with street lights powered by a polyphase system of alternating current (AC) using Nikola Tesla’s AC system patent.
Did you know that Nikola Tesla offered making Zagreb the first city in the world to have street lights powered this way? The city council kindly refused him so the man emigrated. Lest they or we should forget just shortsighted they were, there is plaque on the wall of the building today, commemorating the mistake.
It took me four and half hour to drive back to Zagreb from Skradinski buk and I am currently so very sorry I cannot fit this place into Gillian’s GUFF tour of Croatia for lack of time. A teleporting device would come in so handy, didn’t Tesla work on one of those as well?
The magical river Krka: Skradinski buk
ponedjeljak, 23. lipnja 2014.
My first SFerakon
I had and innocently said so and was thus immediately put to work as the driver of that year’s guest of honor, Ken MacLeod, on the grounds that even though I was a complete newbie, a Mercedes was a much nicer car than Vlatko’s own Yugo and a GoH must be treated nicely.
The complete newbie part did not turn out to be irrelevant. It was my first year in fandom. I had heard of SFeraKon, of course, but for all the hearing and invitations, had never gone. It was part loyalty, part ignorance. One of my best friends in high-school had dated (and later married) a man who went every year, mostly to play games. He and his gaming friends knew I read SF and they would always invite me to SFeraKon. Their girlfriends and wives, however, would always shoo them away. No one, SFeraKon press at the time included, stressed the literary aspect of it so I remained ignorant(1). And loyal, since my friend’s birthday is in April and would fall generally at the same time as the convention.
Photo by T. Jambrišak
So, even though Vlatko knew me and the car I drove – because I had come into fandom to sit on the SFERA Award Jury and he was actually there for that-hilarious-in-hindsight-but not-fun-at-all-at-the-time meeting – few others did. This meant that, once I collected the GoH from the hotel and got him to the con, I was denied entry.
The Security team refused to believe me it was Ken MacLeod – why would anyone in their right mind give such a task to a complete stranger? In their defense, getting into SFeraKon without paying was something of a national sport at the time and people did get very elaborate and inventive about it. Vlatko was nowhere to be seen, I can’t remember if I had a mobile phone then, but even if I did, I did not have his number. It was roughly 5 minutes before Ken’s first speaking engagement at the con. I decided to buy a cup of coffee for him and wait outside for Vlatko to start panicking and come and find us, so I started to simply lead Ken out again.
All who have been to SFeraKon know how long the lines are on Friday evening and there was no way I was letting the GoH get into one. Lucikly, when Security saw that I was actually leaving and not getting into the line, they let us through. Once I deposited the GoH at his Q&A session, they actually came to find me and escort me back into the line to buy a membership. I thought them strange, rude and not a little insane. Never in a million years did I think I would become just like them.
Photo by T. Jambrišak
I do not remember much from that year. I know it rained – because I was still smoking and that had to be done outside, there was not much room. I met Goran Konvicni, who turned out to be the weirdest person I ever met: an awesome writer and an incredibly reticent man who endured my chattiness remarkably well. I remember taking a picture of Darko Macan looking miserable that I would love to find and post here but am afraid is now lost forever. I did not visit a single item of programming other than the SFERA Award Ceremony and I got my first Croatian SF writer autograph from Ivan Gavran (the entire jury did). There was no party on the first two evenings but there were interesting conversations – Boris Švel springs to mind.
In the past ten years I did not miss a single one, even timed my return from Australia to fall on the SFeraKon weekend so I could attend. I did a number of different jobs at SFeraKon over the years and I think helped improve it. A decade after my first one, I had a strange one. I gave a lecture for the first time. (Yes, I know, most get sucked into fandom by being a lecturer and a panelist. What can I say? I have this tendency to do stuff backwards.) And, also for the first time ever, I attended a large chunk of SFeraKon programming and loved it. Can’t wait for the next one!
There are some more pictures of SFeraKon 2004 here.
(1) And in my ignorance, missed out on the two previous years when Lois McMaster Bujold (2002) and George R. R. Martin (2003) were Guests of Honour. As SFera’s PR manager, I am never allowed to forget it, as both authors are translated, quite popular and widely read in Croatia. Meaning, every so often someone rings me up to ask when SFeraKon will invite one them to be GoHs.
My first SFerakon
četvrtak, 19. lipnja 2014.
RIP Daniel Keyes
I work for a publishing house that is just launching the Croatian translation of The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. A colleague who works with me and is not a voracious reader, despite working where she does, was delighted with the texts we were preparing for the press and is very keen to read the book.
We have not been having many conversations, bookish or otherwise, during the last couple of weeks, since work has been quite busy, but I just had to mention Flowers for Algernon to her. She had never read it. Or even heard of it. Although the story is translated, I think the novel might not be. But, even if it is, this book is not part of the school reading in Croatia.
That same day, while doing a book promotion for work, I read on Twitter that Daniel Keyes had died.
I admit, I never did manage to seek out his other work but I did teach English in a private Croatian school for a year or so and there are at least two generations of Croatian kids out there today, twentysomethings and well off, who not only speak excellent English but have heard, read and discussed Daniel Keyes and his most famous work.
RIP Daniel Keyes
srijeda, 18. lipnja 2014.
Marsonikon 2014: Report and GUFF auction
At Slavonski Brod, however, things are a bit different. The town used to be an important strategic and traffic center. Not only did it connect main commercial routes hundreds of years ago but it was also one of the towns in which the border crossing towards Turkey were controlled. I am talking about the 18th century here, a period when Austrians built a large imperial and royal border Fortress of Brod on the Sava River. Designed by Prince Eugene of Savoy in the first half of the 18th century, it was meant to be part of a great defense system on the border towards the Turkish Empire. Today, some of the Fortress is restaured (alas, not all!) and it’s used for a number of purposes, a budding science fiction convention is just one of them.
Although the main event, a panel Alternative history and SF had only three panelists announced – Goran Skrobonja, Marko Fancovic and local Ivan Lutz, Serbian writer Darko Tuševljakovic and Milena Benini joined them, making it a wider discussion which towards the end, as panels often do at cons, drifted into the business of writing and publishing in and outside of 
Milena Benini and Goran Skrobonja did not disappoint at all. (I presume Osmanagic did not either, his lecture was packed but I did not attend it.) Milena holds interesting lectures and her Alternative futures of the alternative pasts was informative and fun. Goran, who makes his living as a translator and small press owner is also a very talented genre writer and he presented his new book, All Tesla’s Children, a prequel to his very successful hit The Man Who Killed Tesla.
Marsonikon, just like Istrakon, follows the SFeraKon example by publishing an annual collection of SF stories. It is called Marsonic. Their first effort three years ago was written by local authors in great need of an editor and some writing workshops. They have been improved immensely since, as writing does with practice, but also in the fact that the annual collection now puts out a call for stories from authors all over Croatia. I did get the sense not all members of the inner circle of people organizing the con and producing the collection are thrilled with this – during one of the discussions a woman explained how the first collection was “done without the short story contest and all that bullshit”. Her aim was to stress that local authors only were in the first collection – which I thought was a fine idea – but I felt the remainder of her comment expressed some resentment toward the selection process as it stands today. I have yet to read the new collection. With a typically big Slavonian heart, all the proceeds of the sale of this year’s collection went to the aid of people hit by the recent floods.
The GUFF auction, which was fun and which received many wonderful donations by local fans, including a hardcover copy of V for Vendetta in English, also donated half the money it raised to the same cause.
The latest news is that the organizers of Marsonikon are currently busy trying to set up an award in the SF field, so Croatia might be getting a third genre award soon!
Marsonikon 2014: Report and GUFF auction
utorak, 17. lipnja 2014.
nedjelja, 15. lipnja 2014.
Rikon 2012 Report
Rikon is a two-day Croatian con that has been around for 15 years. This year it was held on October 12-13 at the Rijeka Faculty of Humanities and visited by some 400 people. It is the venue for a Croatian genre award Artefakt, established by some Croatian SF fans and authors displeased with the work of the SFERA Award Jury.
Photo by Nela Dunato
First thing on Friday – to the disappointment of many who had to travel to get to Rijeka and could not get there as early as five – was a robot making workshop where robots were made out of old computer parts. Then there was a magic wand workshop for school kids and a chain-mail workshop held by one of a number revived history societies that has ties to Croatian fandom,”Ordo Sancti Viti” from Rijeka.
Lectures are a staple of Croatian cons, some running well over the 90 minutes, which is the usual time allotment. Topics vary – from pop culture, like Jelena Kopajtic’s lecture on the phenomenon of vampire movies and TV series to genre literature such as Marko Fancovic’s lecture on the connections and similarities in the works of Ray Bradbury and Harry Harrison.
University professor and politicians join in
University professors, politicians and minor celebrities in Croatia do not shy away from participation in fandom activities. So, at this year’s Rikon former Croatian Minister of Ecology, Mirela Holy, held a lecture on ecofeminism, while a number of uni professors made the program very appealing. Sarah Czerny, Assistant at the Cultural studies department of University of Rijeka, talked about the role of trees in various mythic worlds, and works of fiction, and the symbolism of trees while her colleague, Benedikt Perak, lectured about the role of computers in sculpting the human reality, touching on issues such as the cognitive function of technology in forming the identity of the individual, as well as culture and society.
Scientific lectures tend to be especially well received at Croatian cons – SFeraKon, for example, does a Scientific Sunday program track -and all other cons feature lectures by scientists. Rikon this year had quite a few. Dijana Dominis Prester teaches Astronomy and is currently working on detecting extrasolar planets. She spoke about the different methods scientists use to detect planets, focusing on the one used to detect potentially habitable Earthlike planets. Predrag Dominis Prester works in the area of particle physics and is involved with CERN so he focused his lecture on the peculiarity of black holes. Sven Maricic, from the Faculty of Engineering, explained explained his method of work with prosthethic implants in which patients are throughly scanned, implants are modelled on the computer to fit the patient as close as possible after which the implant is printed on a 3D printer. His lecture also discussed the issue of cyborgs and their effect on culture.
Evening fun
There are no Croatian cons where programming starts before noon and this is due the fact that members tend to party late into the night and the program is geared that way. Anywhen between 10 and 11 pm the last of the program will be rapped up, and then the fun starts. Geek fun, so this means trivia quizzes, ranging from literature, games, movies, music to popular TV series all kinds of goofy contests, all with prizes such as books, T-shirts, movie posters, bookmarks and free drinks & muffins.
This year Rikon had the best food in all of Croatian fandom and we sincerely hope this is a start of a beautiful new tradition. Food was prepared right there, prices were very affordable and vegetarians and vegans were not forgotten, which is quite something in a country where that tired old joke where saying you are vegetarian gets you some chicken, lamb and fish still very much holds true.
Some Croatian cons have concerts on Saturday evenings, and Rikon 2o12 was no exception. But they flipped that concept, announcing a “surprise concert” for after the award ceremony, making us all wonder where they got the funds for a band when there is no Guest of Honour. They produced a delightful eight-year-old gitarist Frano Živkovic who quickly charmed all who came to hear him play.
The Artefact Award ceremony was short and sweet. Artefact has three categories only: best novel, best novella and best short story. This year’s winners are Enver Krivac, for the novel Ulica Helen Keller (Helen Keller Street), Igor Rendic for “Jednom, negdje” (“Once, somewhere”) and Andrina Pušic for “Otok ispunjenih želja”. (“Island of wishes that came true”)You can see a short clip of it here. Cosplay awards are also announced at the award ceremnoy.
Gaming goes on during the entire con, and I know there are RPGs, LARPs and even simple old games from my childhood, but I do not attend and therefore do not know much about this part of the con. Conversations, informal coffees and talks all happen in the hall, around book stands and seller of trinkets or in front of the venue as Croatians tend no to take lunch or dinner breaks while the con provides the bar with plenty of refreshments. Which, I will write it again, was just awesome this year. You can take a look at the photos from the con here.
Rikon 2012 Report
subota, 14. lipnja 2014.
Call for Papers FAFNIR 3/2014 - Last chance tomorrow!
Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research invites authors to submit papers for the upcoming edition 3/2014.
Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research is a new, peer-reviewed academic journal which is published in electronic format four times a year. The purpose of Fafnir is to join up the Nordic field of science fiction and fantasy research and to provide a forum for discussion on current issues on the field. Fafnir is published by FINFAR Society (Suomen science fiction- ja fantasiatutkimuksen seura ry).
Now Fafnir invites authors to submit papers for its edition 3/2014. Fafnir publishes various texts ranging from peer-reviewed research articles to short overviews and book reviews in the field of science fiction and fantasy research.
The submissions must be original work, and written in English (or in Finnish or in Scandinavian languages). Manuscripts of research articles should be between 20,000 and 40,000 characters in length. The journal uses the most recent edition of the MLA Style Manual. The manuscripts of research articles will be peer-reviewed. Please note that as Fafnir is designed to be of interest to readers with varying backgrounds, essays and other texts should be as accessibly written as possible. Also, if English is not your first language, please have your article reviewed or edited by an English language editor.
The deadline for submissions is 15 June 2014.
In addition to research articles, Fafnir constantly welcomes text proposals such as essays, interviews, overviews and book reviews on any subject suited for the journal.
Please send your electronic submission (saved as RTF-file) to the following address: submissions(at)finfar.org. For further information, please contact the editors: jyrki.korpua(at)oulu.fi, hanna.roine(at)uta.fi and paivi.vaatanen(at)helsinki.fi.
This edition (3/2014) is scheduled for September 2014. The deadline for the submissions for the next edition (4/2014) is scheduled at 31 August.
You can read the first issue here.
Call for Papers FAFNIR 3/2014 - Last chance tomorrow!
petak, 13. lipnja 2014.
GUFF delegate 2014 is Gillian Pollack!
We are looking forward to seeing Gillian at Loncon 3 and at Shamrokon were she will be representing the awesome Australasian fandom! You can find our more about her on her website and you can follow her on Twitter.
We would like to thank all the candidates for running an excellent and very exciting race!
After voting closed and Monday, June 9th, and all the print out ballots collected by our representatives and past GUFF winners Sue Ann Barber and Justin Acroyd were scanned and emailed to Kylie Ding and me – for which we owe them a great thank you and a few drinks, too! – we were left with a very delicate and touchy job!
I would like to put “sticky” there but it just does not sound right in English! There is an awesome adjective in Croatian that would fit perfectly here – pipav [pipav] from the verb pipati, which means to touch, to feel up. The adjective however carries the implication that whatever you are doing that is pipavo is likely to easily stick to your fingers in an uncomfortable or annoying manner or create a mess if you do not approach it with care and great attention to details. (Incidentally, I learned this word from Petra Bulic, the Kontak chair who is heading up the volunteers at Loncon 3!)
Let me tell you, counting votes in the Australian voting system is very confusing. Had I been by myself, you’d probably be still waiting for the results! Luckily, Kylie was there to explain everything and demonstrate immediately, as well.
Both Kylie and myself would also like to thank James Shields for his Google Docs vote-counting spreadsheet. We found it to be a very useful resource.
And now on to preparations for Worldcon and Eurocon!:)
GUFF delegate 2014 is Gillian Pollack!
utorak, 10. lipnja 2014.
GUFF Voting is now closed!
A big thank you to all who voted and donated to the fund!
For all of you who have arrived too late to the party, you cannot vote but you can donate to the fund – just find the Paypal link in the right column of this blog!
It was very exciting to watch the online votes roll in! We ask all of you for a little bit more patience as far as the result go: although Kylie and I have the results of the online votes, we still have to count the Continuum and other printed ballot votes and check (and recheck!) all them.
Thank you!
While you wait, you can read this!
GUFF Voting is now closed!
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