I think I have everything processed now. There is a con report available here, complete with photos of the event.

I should, of course, give huge thanks to everyone involved. To Mihaela, Bernard & Iggy, and to Milena, Marko & family for their hospitality; to Mirko for driving me around; to Igor and his committee for Liburnicon; to Jacqueline Carey who graciously allowed me to share the limelight with her; to Irena and to Žarko who also looked after me at various times; and to SFera for welcoming me to their meeting. I will have news related to discussions there in due course. The whole trip was amazing.

On the subject of SFera, I should note that, despite the club having lots of women members, and being mostly run by women, one of the discussions we had was about whether US writers would refuse to attend their cons due to concerns about sexual harassment. I’ve heard similar fears voiced in Finland. The problem is that what is deemed socially acceptable in a culture can depend very much on cultural attitudes to nudity, and on cultural attitudes to personal space. Finns are used to seeing close relatives and friends naked. Croatians are more touchy-feely than the British and Americans. I tried to reassure them that John Scalzi is a sensible fellow, and will take such things into account.

A potentially more serious issue is that many Croatians still smoke. I was OK with that, partly because it was their homes and their country; and partly because a few days of smoke exposure in Croatia will have minimal effect on my health compared to growing up in 20th Century Britain. Other people may be less tolerant.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time, and hope to be back sometime soon. I also hope to be able to introduce many of you to my Croatian friends at Worldcon and Eurocon next year (and maybe even at Eastercon).

Meanwhile, here are some photos.

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