July was all about working hard and the Hugos. It was hot, and ocassionaly very rainy, and the first July in a long time I mostly spent in Zagreb. I loved it.
The month kicked off with Fantastic Zagreb, a local scifi film festival which usually features an awesome streak of genre classics in an open-air cinema set in some lovely woods in the middle of Zagreb. I have loved it since the first year and not only because they chose to launch their PR campaign that first year at SFerakon.
Alas rain ruined my chance to see Terminator on the big screen again, but seeing Alien under the night sky made for an awesome Friday night. I never did see it in a cinema anyway and it was ages since I watched it.
Fantastic Zagreb also held a genre movie forum a few years back where I got to know some regional movie people who do not shy away from the genre. It was there that I particularly like a pitch from a Croatian director whom I then approached, because my mentor told me to – that was the next step after winning a script grant from the Croatia Audiovisual Centre. He said yes to me sending him my script, but never got in touch afterwards.
But he did remember me and came up to me in the first week of July at a coffee shop where I was having a drink after a workshop I did for Impact Hub Zagreb. So July brought a meeting with him which went well and was possibly the best thing to happen in July. I floated on his vision of my story for a week, loving that feeling of someone seeing what I see without being explicitly told.
Summer reunions continued throughout July as people who are dear to me pass through Croatia during summer. Seeing offspring of friends one grew up with is a sobering experience for the most part, and also a lot of fun. As is an exchange of gossip and memories.
Working hard over the week while husband and child are at the seaside meant I went out to socialize almost every evening. More fun than I’ve had in ages outside a convention or a workshop, it also made me a bit antisocial with family over the weekends when I went to the seaside. And back to work on Monday mornings – Croatia is small and flexible and I love that particular weekend commute, even if I do spend half of it in a sweater because airconditioning.
The last week of the month I spent working less – I developed an elbow inflammation and a terrible cough – so I had to. I also spent it at the seaside, swimming and binge reading and re-reading Hugo noms. I must have changed my mind a thousand times. I voted half an hour before deadline. And sent one story out about 3 min before the call closed.
July was pretty awesome. I made progress on all my goals, socialized plenty, put in a helluva lot of work, found time for sauna, swimming and walking – an almost perfect month. Summer is my favourite season when I can spend hours and hours in the sea, and there is no better way to close a month than swimming all day in the Adriatic.
