So, it looks like I shall be off traveling again in August. I really enjoyed my time in Zagreb last year, and wanted to go back. I’m pleased to report that I will be doing so. I’m going to Liburnicon.

I hasten to add that this is not a result of my supposed vast wealth. I am able to go because I still have a reasonable collection of United frequent flier points, and though the extreme generosity of the Croatian fans who are providing me with transport and places to stay when I am in their country. I am enormously grateful to them.

Liburnicon is held in Opatija, a seaside town just to the east of Istria. It was apparently a favorite holiday destination of the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I. Guy Gavriel Kay has been there as a guest, and warmly recommended the convention to me when I met him in Toronto in June. Oh, and the convention has a pirate theme this year, complete with a “pirate boat party” to one of the offshore islands. How cool is that?

While I am there, I expect to be announcing the winners of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards. That, of course, is dependent on the jury, and I apologize if I have just dropped them in it, but I was told that this would be feasible.

I shall, of course, take lots of photos while I am there. I’ll also try to blog as much as I can about the event. I want to do my best to repay the generosity of the Croatian fans. I am so very lucky.