First Day in Croatia
yes, yes, I finally did it, it's a subscriber-only post
I’m in Croatia!
You can read this first Croatia post with your free subscriber link. It’s just a taste of the sort of content I’ll be posting during my month of travels. Check mmdevoe.substack.com frequently for the entire archive.
I’ll be continuing to post the regular newsletter on Sundays.
Watched a truly bizarre movie on the plane: Adam Driver in a contemporary opera - the entire film is sung-through. I(t sounded like it had been written by Steve Reich.) Also there were two murders, a marriage, and a very important puppet.
I do love a good art house movie. Even on a flight.
Landed in Paris to change planes, bought a café au lait just so I could say “I stopped over in Paris for a coffee.”
Smaller plane, two hour flight, in Zagreb the airport looks like a metal tube.
There are absolutely no people anywhere. The writing conference is less than ten people and I haven’t run into any of them accidentally in this vast, splendid, luxurious, heavenly five star resort. We did, however, have a giddy toast on the ferry we took to get to the glamorous hotel on the remote and very lush island where we also shared a welcome drink this loosened up a lot of stories —everyone at the conference has kids, though no one brought them—but I’m so sorry, what is spoken of in Lošinj stays in Lošinj. (broadly speaking tho: we discussed book marketing and publicity, numbers of copies sold, and advances, agents and other things that are absolutely vital to a writing career and have really and truly nothing to do with writing…don’t believe me? you can hire out everything on this list to a professional who hasn’t read your book and can still probably do a better job at this stuff than you can alone.)
I know you’re eager for photos. I can’t wait to show you this place - it’s absolutely the lap of luxury.
Dinner was on our own. What did I do? I left the hotel looking for this burger joint called Kaktus. It was closed. The steakhouse further down was hopping though—I walked over there and it was a private party. So I pull out Google Maps and look for food open near me and the closest place is called Restaurant Rosemary.
The restaurant was outstanding. Gourmet! I ordered handmade pasta, and the waiter fluently spoke to me in English, the man at the next table in Italian, and to the couple on the balcony in Croatian. I asked if he spoke German and he laughed and replied (in German) just enough to get by at a table. He didn’t speak Lithuanian either. He did speak fluent Russian however.
I had a truffled cream langostino soup. OH my friends. What a welcome meal.
(I returned the slightly longer route that did NOT bring me through the unlit forest)
Well I best get to bed - I’m running a generative writing event tomorrow - and tomorrow is also Mother’s Day! So I am getting a massage - the conference attendees get a discount.
Thank you for being a paid subscriber. My weekly writing news will stay on the free Substack, but I hope you subscribers enjoy getting just a little more access to my travels.
Tomorrow there is a free breakfast, the planning for the event, my massage, I have to finish editing the pages for the upcoming workshops, run the creativity spa and then I get to indulge in a three-course welcome dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant. Come along with me!
Random Final thought:
Why are executives called executives when most have no executive functions? They should be called idea men or managers and their assistants should be called executives.