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! So, in 2011, the SFera fanzine Parsek won Best Fanzine, the literary SF magazine Ubiq Best Magazine and the talented Ivan Mavrovi? Best Artist.

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.

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  Croatian nominations – ESFS awards 2014

Dimension6: Issue #2 out now!

As you may have noticed, I am a sucker for free fiction online. There was a time, when Irena Rašeta and me were doing NOSF.net a lot more zealously and when it was not that easy to find legal free fiction online. Sometimes, doing the Thursday Reader, was a real nightmare. Now, it’s an altogether different nightmare – so much stuff, so little time. Recommendations are more important than ever. So let me introduce you to Keith Stevenson, the man behind Dimension6, a very cool new project of free online SF.

 

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.

***

Keith Stevenson is speculative fiction writer, editor, reviewer, publisher and podcaster who was born in Scotland but emigrated to Australia in 1990. From 1999 he was submissions manager for Aurealis Magazine – Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction and later became editor of the magazine from 2001 to the end of 2004. During that time he was also organising convenor of the Aurealis Awards for several years and has since served as a judge on a number of occasions. In 2005 he formed coeur de lion publishing with fellow Melbourne-based writer Andrew Macrae. In 2007 he became science fiction and horror reviewer for Aurealis Magazine. In 2008 he commenced the Terra Incognita Australian Speculative Fiction Podcast. In 2014 he launched Dimension6 magazine and became a speculative fiction reviewer for the Newtown Review of Books. He lives in Sydney with his partner.

Dimension6: Issue #2 out now!

Thou Gild'st the Even at Fantastic Zagreb

Everybody loves a good soap, Croatians no exception. There was a craze for Spanish soaps some time ago, but recently we’ve gone east for that. Turskih soaps are the thing nowadays. So, a Turkish horror movie is no more of a surprise than a romantic horror movie. The romance explains the title: Thou Gilds’t Even.And Shakespeare is not the only classic quoted – the movie opens with another, classical this time, quote: Man is created from anxiety. (Euripides in case you are wondering.)

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

Seems that this summer, other than it being exceptionally cloudy in Zagreb, for which I am very grateful because I do not suffer heat gladly, I am also destined to spend a lot of time on rivers.

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.)

Well, Korana is the 83 miles long river that forms the Plitvice lakes. And it is no less stunning in its flow before it forms them. When one travels through Lika, usually rushing to get to the sea-side, on what the natives call the “old road”, meaning the D1 and not the highway, there are many signs for room rental², not that many for interesting nooks.

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.

Luckily, I have inquisitive friends. Who went to see what kind of camp the nearby Camp Korana is, once when they were going to their Lika place during winter. And walking along the river, they stumbled upon this small waterfall with an old mill. Now, there is even a sign, just before the turn for the Camp Korana. It has Mlinica writtten on it.

And leads to a true little oasis. Especially if you are traveling down D1, in a car without air-conditioning, at 11 am, and stuck behind a really slow driving foreigner who thinks the speed limit’s been written in stone. Then the water is not just cool, but heavenly. The spot is pristine, there are two very nicely done info point and, most importantly, almost no people. In fact, we were the only visitors that day.

Next to the swimming nook, there is a renovated mill that is also a small Ethno Museum, today, open daily from 4 pm. We did not stick around long enough for it to officially open, but we were lucky enough to peek inside nonetheless. Because sometime in the afternoon, a tractor showed up and the great grandson of the guy who built the mill in 1939 was the one driving it. They still live on a nearby farm and had come to turn some corn and barley into flour. Yup, the mill still serves its original purpose, although in a diminished capacity and for private use only. My kid, under the influence of last weekend’s visit to Skradinski buk, asked if there was a power plant here, too. To my surprise, the man told him that there used to be, a small one.

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

A film on top of a hill - Fantastic Zagreb

The only genre film festival in Croatia (and the region), Fantastic Zagreb features a number of interesting titles (as I’ve mentioned before). Even when they happen not to really be genre ones. Last night’s screening of Cold in July might not have offered much in the film department as far as genre goes, but in mood – a whole different story. For the first time ever, an evening film screening was held at the medieval fort Medvedgrad just above Zagreb. Red-robed attendants with hood across their faces and real torches lit the windy, cobbled way for film aficionados climbing the last few  meters from the narrow paved road in the Medvednica Park.It was an awesome site and a lot of fun! In its fourth year currently, the festival that started last Friday and will end tomorrow, is improving every year. The film selection is not always great, but they can’t please everyone. I get it. This year, they did please me.

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

The magical river Krka: Skradinski buk

Croatia is rich in a lot of things. Today waterfalls are on my mind. I spent Sunday at Skradinski buk, the lowest of three sets of waterfalls formed along the uniquely beautiful Krka river, in Dalamtia. Consisting of 17 waterfalls whose wealth and variety of geomorphological forms along with lushful vegetation, Skradinski buk is famed for being one of the most beautiful calcium carbonate waterfalls in Europe. For me, it is stunning both for the effects light and water cause (where else would the world worst photographer catch a rainbow shot?). Also, not less important, you can swim there.

It is speculated that Krka, which I realize looks like a nightmare to pronounce if you are an English speaker, derives its name,, from the Greek Catarbates, meaning”steeply falling”. Ancient Romans called it Titius, Corcoras, as well as Korkoras.

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.

Šibenik harbour, Photo from Wikipedia Commons

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.

During World War II the plant was was heavily damaged but since it is a huge part of history – the successful operation of first AC hydroelectric plants led to adoption of alternating current and to its eventual dominance worldwide (or in short to Tesla beating Edison in the “War of the Currents”) – that they did not dismantle it. It is still there, to be seen and admired, five minutes walk up a hill from the first waterfall at Skradinski buk.

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