Istrakon 2015: Sunday

Sunday is a very relaxed day at Istrakon – one can tell by the fact that everything is running a bit late and items keep appearing and disappearing from the schedule.

I somehow missed this year’s Coffee with the Organizers although I have no idea what I was doing at the time. Babysitting probably. My most vivid memories of this year’s con are of myself running after my son. He brought a toy shuttle he got at one of the Loncon3 awesome children’s workshop to Istrakon and spent most of the con attempting to fly it. There is a gallery at the Istrakon venue, pretty high up where people used to sleep when the con was very young and where now video games tournaments are held. It has practically no fence on one side – it’s designed that way and you don’t really notice it until you grow a fearless five-year old with a propensity for swinging. He kept sneaking away to fly the shuttle from the gallery and I kept stressing out about it.

I even went to the Game Room in an attempt to make him stop going to the gallery. Together, we managed to last about five and a half turns at a game called Takenoko a volunteer was teaching us. He asked for the sun and I could not say no.

The LARP in Croatia panel was quite interesting or so I gather, as they ran quite late and enabled me to run around in the sun outside with my kid some more. Thank you!

The Nightmares in Literature and Film panel was awesome. Author Marko Fancovic taught us a lot about H. P. Lovecraft, we established two people present in the room were not as crazy about Neil Gaiman as the rest of the world seems to be and concluded that good examples of nightmares as motives were difficult to find in literature, genre or otherwise. As device, there are plenty. As the main focus of a story, virtually none.

A few examples of dreams in books that made one feel as if one has just woken up from a nightmare there were however. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin, was such a one for me – I found it to be so very uncomfortable a read. But then again, that would be a nightmare that was solely in the eye of the reader.

The discussion predictably veered into comics, Sandman, of course. Writer, cosplayer and LARP-er Ivana Delac remembered the Italian comic that is quite popular in Croatia, Dylan Dog, named after the eponymous investigator of nightmares that is its hero. And film, where in addition to Freddy Krueger, Candyman was brought up.

Just as our panel got going, people started coming into the room in large numbers, unaware of the schedule change. Since the Zombie lecture enthusiasts outnumbered the Nightmare lovers, we went out into to sun for more coffee and further babysitting. After a short but delicious lunch, the drive to Zagreb was drowsy. The daylight savings time switch always has a weird influence on Istrakon Sunday.

Istrakon 2015: Sunday

Istrakon 2015: Saturday

I hate getting to a three-day con on the second day – it always feels like I’ve missed the best part. It’s especially true of Istrakon, which has a special Friday buzz for me. I think it’s because, unlike SFeraKon, they used to have a big to do for an opening ceremony (maybe they still so, the last two years work has prevented me from finding out) with performaces like live chess games and shots of local medica and biska brandies.

I hate that feeling of having to rush to do my part of the programming when I haven’t had a chance to say hi to everybody. I did manage to get some bean stew that Istrakon traditionally provides to all its members on Saturdays. It might be the first time I had some in the sixteen years of Istrakon’s existence. Istria has so much fantastic food that I would always end up at some restaurant or other, forsaking the quite tasty bean stew.

This year’s GUFF Auction was right after the lunch and a lot of fun: the audience joined our witty auctioneer Mirko Karas in fooling around in promoting the items that were brought for sale, like the two tiny solar power cars, weird candy eyes, dragon T-shirt and New Olreans Mardi Gras mugs.

I had the pleasure of apologizing to two lovely ladies from Kulturni front, the society that organizes Liburnicon, for failing to notice that the address I have from them is obsolete and thus not advising them about the TranSFerzala project on time. Which they are a part of. Now they know it too! They were very gracious and wonderfully nice, which I appreciate more than I can say, since the mistake was all mine.

There are no SF podcasts in Croatia. There was one but it did not last long unfortunately. I’ve been trying to find time to do one since Jonathan Strahan told me he would love to listen to one about Croatia and European fandom (I looove The Coode Street Podcast!). I hope to find some soon, but in the meantime, every now and then, I do a panel on the topic at some Croatian con. The first one was at Rikon, where I got Croatian SF author Igor Rendic and Mirko Karas into SF Squeecast. In the past two years these Mirko and Igor found more podcasts the like so they agreed to share them as my panelists.

“Three podcasts you simply have to listen to” was supposed to be a panel to which each of brought ONE podcast we love, to talk about. Of course, this did not happen. Each one of us has more than one to adore. Igor loves Tea & Jeopardy, as do I. (I am hoping this might turn into a invite to Emma Newman to their con some day.) It has a Whovian feel and it takes us both back to childhood when you could get into the exciting world of a scary story that also teaches you things about the world. The world of SF authors, in this case, which is its own kind of awesome.

Mirko talked about SF Squeecast, telling the story of how he learned to trust the recommendations he got from the podcasters, why he trusts them and how he handles the sheer volume they’ve added to his TBR pile. He also made me want to listen to Hey kids – Comics so very much. I talked about Writing Excuses, which made me fall in love with it via their tag line “Fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart!” Of course, The Coode Street Podcast, Galactic Suburbia, The Writer and the Critic, Escapedpod and Clarkesworld were also part of the conversation.

Time, as ever, went too fast, so a short coffee (Croatians call going to a coffee-shop for drinks and some conversation “going for coffee” even if there is no actual coffee involved) break and a lot of babysitting later, my five-year-old son fell asleep, exhausted, at a novel launch.

Award winning Croatian author David Kelecic launched his first novel. I love his stories, one of which you can find in last Parsek Worldcon/Eurocon 2014 edition and this novel promises to be even more fun. David wrote a story that follows a typical fantasy hero on the actual day after. What happens after you’ve saved the world and find yourself addicted to the healing potion that has saved your arse so many times but is now just one of the many problems that is not letting you deal with your PTSP? This being Croatia, with all its lovely and less lovely heritage, nothing is ever without PTSP, especially grim dark novels. I am sorely tempted to just let everything be and tune out to read the novel right now!

Istrakon 2015: Saturday

Istrakon 2015: Friday

  I have no idea how Friday went – for the second time in years I could not go straight after work at the end of the week. But I do know one thing did happen, even though I missed it: TranSFerzala. It’s a fun project cooked up by two Croatian SF societies, the Rijeka based 3. zmaj and the Zagreb based SFera in order to get more people to attend Croatian conventions.

Most cons have Dead dog parties, but in Croatia, I believe only SFera does. Istrakon has a Sunday morning Coffee with the Organizers, a combo of a feedback session that Worldcons have and Dead dog party while 3. zmaj’s Rikon has a late Sunday afternoon Post-Con Lunch. (Where the food is to die for.) At one such lunch in 2013, we cooked up TranSFerzala.

Croatian fandom is not only young, it is also atypical in so much as its geeks are also quite outdoorsy. Among out numbers hides the Croatian World Bronze Medalist in Precise Orientation, the SFeraKon chair probably has more orienteering medals than cons under her belt, SFera has a skating outing every month in winter and I think 3. zmaj hikes. In addition to lovers (and coaches) of skiing, swimming and underwater hockey, there are avid hikers and mountaineers among us – our own version of Smofcon, ŠTRUMF, typically takes place on top of a mountain!

So we named our project TranSFerzala on that warm and sunny day in October, after the long hikes mountaineers take looking for beautiful views and stamps which eventually get them a pin, should the reach all their destinations. Our SF fandom version is not very different – one purchases a card, attends cons and SF related events, collects stamps and turns the card in at what we call “the end of the fandom year” to get a T-shirt and a badge. In addition to this, three lucky people, whose names will be drawn at Rikon, receive free entry to all the Croatian cons that took part in that year’s, in the following fandom year.

Istrakon is the con that marks the beginning of the Croatian fandom year. TranSFerzala was, two year after we started talking about it at Rikon’s Post-Con Lunch, official launched two days ago, on the first evening of Istrakon 2015. It has already sparked controversy on Facebook, which I can only be happy about– noise does make one visible, which is the point of the entire exercise. Besides, we have all been getting along for so long, I’ve begun to miss the quarreling.

The first TranSFerzala is launched and I can hardly wait to see where this trail will take us! The beautiful design, of both the card and the website was done by Croatian artist and 3. zmaj president, Nela Dunato, whose awesome prints I will be bringing to the Dysprosium Fan Funds Auction next Sunday!

Oh, and the stamp? The stamp is a green koala, one of the stamps I brought back from my GUFF trip.

Istrakon 2015: Friday

Marching on...

The entire March has almost gone without posts here. But it has been an exceptionally excellent month for me. Being an anxiety ridden individual, now I am afraid the world will crash around me to ruin it all. But, inspired by this comic by Darko Macan, a great SF writer and the person who first made me gather the courage to call myself as a writer out loud, I will brag post an update.

Photo by Paula Borošak

At the end of February, I took part in a panel entitled What women read? and it was lively and interesting and I behaved in a thoroughly unladylike manner when things got heated while we were discussing that erotic Twilight fanfic movie. I did feel guilt pangs later but that all passed when I read an account of the panel in an influential Croatian portal that I like and read, wherein I was quoted as saying “When a woman say no, the man should stop. End of story.” Achievement unlocked! I was – don’t know why – more happy about that than about the fact that they also quoted me saying I would like to read more pregnant women in space. (And I would. Am writing some, too.) Some of the things I said that were borderline inappropriate were also mentioned, and quite kindly left unattributed. Egobooo!

The Croatian Ministry of Culture supported a novel of mine, so I will have a book published this year. EEEEEEK!

In a quite unexpected turn of events, that enabled me to pay bills for heat and other necessary things, a script proposal that I developed at SFera’s Scriptwriting Workshop run by the amazing Croatian scriptwriter Irena Krcelic, was selected for endorsement by the Croatian Audiovisual Center! EEEEEEK again!

Then, to top that, trough the kind help of former Australian GUFF administrator and the first GUFF delegate ever to visit a Eurocon, Kylie Ding, and a timely introduction to fan selling her membership via James Shields, I managed to get myself organized enough to attend my first Eastercon this year! I am beside myself with happiness. Dysprosium, here I come!

And you would think this is where it ends. Nope. I have a new part-time writing job that is very challenging but looks very promising.

And then there’s Pyrkon at the end of April. I will get to see the largest European SF con the Polish conrunner Radoslaw Kot and South African author Lauren Beukes have told me so much about.

It does mean I will not be at Eurocon to lose the ESFS Award for best SF promoter again, but hey, with my luck, this year I just might win!

And this morning I got into a writing workshop at Eastercon.

March is about to end. I am going to Istrakon this weekend and I aim to enjoy myself. And talk about nightmares in literature and film, podcasts, young fans screwing things up and books I have read and loved.

And I don’t care if I do get rid of these small red spots I got all over from being overly anxious due to all these good things happening to me. Not at all.

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Marching on...

GUFF Aukcija @ Istrakon 2015

Fanovska aukcija tradicija je koju SF fandom prakticira dugi niz godina, a sad je vec više i nije nepoznata ni hrvatskim geekovima! Iznimno zabavan nacin prikupljanja sredstava za fanovski fond koji omogucuje razmjenu ljubitelja SF-a izmedju Europe i Australije donosi priliku da za malene novce nabavite žanrovske knjige, filmove, kostime, potpisane price, kao i stvari koje su izradili poznati autori. Ukratko, sve ono što nam za aukciju donesete!

Mirko Karas, GUFF Liburnicon 2013 Photo by Cheryl Morgan

Aukciju, da bi bila zabavna, ce voditi Mirko Karas, koji nakon dvije godine vodjenja GUFF aukcija postao aukcijska legenda i izvan granica Hrvatske, nakon što je prošlog ljeta uspješno vodio i fanovsku aukciju na Shamrockonu, irskom Euroconu u Dublinu. Što je tocno tamo naucio mogli ste vidjeti na prologodišnjem Rikonu, a ako ste to slucajno propustili, nemojte da vam se zalomi opet!

Aukcija je odlican nacin da se riješite eseficnih stvari. Nije tajna da su eseficari hoarderi u duši, osobito knjiga i igara, od kojih se teško rastaju. Najlakši nacin za rastati se od stvari koje volimo i ne želimo pustiti, a realno ih više ne upotrebljavamo je upravo aukcija. Kad se geekovi krenu nadmetati, znate da ce vaši ljubimci u dom u kojem ce biti voljeni!

Svi koji žele sudjelovati mogu downloadati formular te ga popunjenog, zajedno sa stvarima, donijeti u subotu, 28. 3. 2015. u pola sata prije aukcije u Hol, pored pozornice gdje ce se održati GUFF aukcija. Prema trenutnoj satnici aukcija je u 15:00.

Odlucite li sudjelovati u aukciji kao kupac, kupljene stvari placate odmah nakon kupnje pojedine stvari, stoga vas molimo da pripremite sitni novac!

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GUFF Aukcija @ Istrakon 2015