Octothorpe

48: The Things You Nominate Are All Extremely Unpopular

January 6, 2022

John and Alison are watching cutting-edge TV, and Liz is hungry.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: genocide (chapter 2); war and defence contracting (chapter 4)

Letters of comment
- Farah Mendlesohn asks “but what did you think of DisCon III?”
- Doug Faunt asks about the opening ceremony’s Christmas music
- Flick asks why we didn’t mention the Xinjiang region
  - UK House of Commons motion
  - Tahir Hamut Izgil writing at The Atlantic
- We’re sorry to Ira Alexandre for mispronouncing their name in episodes 20 and 21
Hugo Awards
- Octothorpe was almost nominated for the Hugo Awards
  - Octothorpe was the last fancast to be eliminated from the ballot!
  - We were surprised and very thrilled and thank you so much for nominating us
- E Pluribus Hugo
  - Helsinki’s explanation of how this works
- Nicholas Whyte analyses the Hugo Awards in detail
- Camestros Felaptron’s Hugo posts: 1, 2, 3
- The Hugo Awards long list
  - It always has delights on it and this year is no exception
    - Best Series: Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London
    - Best Related Work: The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom 2021 (presumably it was actually 2020 that was nominated now that we think of it)
      - 2022 open for your suggestions now. Get those fanzines and fan writers and fan artists and fancasts that you think are absolutely great on there!
      - Direct link: https://bit.ly/hugoaward2022
    - Fanzines just below the line included Bill Bowers’ Outworlds, William Breiding’s Portable Storage and Chris Garcia’s The Drink Tank
Sponsorship
- Shaun Duke points out that Raytheon was one of the contractors that was employed in launching the James Webb Space Telescope
NASFiC
- File 770 reports that Winnipeg are pivoting to a 2023 NASFiC
- Orlando in 2026 is also pivoting to a 2023 NASFiC
  - File 770
  - Official site
  - This leaves the 2026 field
    - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
    - Los Angeles, CA, USA
    - Nice, France
      - Brice de Nice
Glasgow has launched a lovely "move 500 miles poster
- John can walk 804.672 kilometres
- Earworm
- A fantastic edit
- Play along on Strava
Picks:
- Alison: The Expanse (Amazon Prime)
  - OK she is a bit behind but it is a 2022 Plan
- Liz: Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey (paperback, epub, Kindle)
- John:
  - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Coco (Disney+)
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

47: Authors Eating John

December 23, 2021

John is sleepy, Alison is talking to Chinese fans, and Liz went to the Hugos.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 (chapter 2); racism (chapter 3); foreign policy and sexism (chapter 4)

Letters of comment
- Farah and Fran talking about masking at Novacon
- A big discussion about BSFA
  - You can get by just NOT TELLING THE BSFA your address (DON’T TRY THAT WITH THE WORLDCON)
- Chris Garcia
Site selection at DisCon III
- Chengdu in 2023 won
  - File 770’s reporting on the win
  - Chinese fans seem nice!
  - The livestream was good, and had 106,000 viewers
  - Lots of different Chinese university SF societies encouraging the bid; spot the flag in Gallifreyan and the monolith
- WSFS Business Meeting
- There are legitimate concerns about China
  - John found he generally agreed with these tweets from Jeannette Ng
  - The guests are Liu Cixin, Sergei Lukyanenko and Robert J. Sawyer
    - A File 770 commenter outlines the issues with Lukyanenko
Hugo Awards
- If Fanzine had 53 fewer votes and Fancast had 42 fewer votes they would not have been awarded
Picks
- John: The Psychopath Club by Sandra Bond (paperback, Kindle)
- Alison: Sibilant Fricative by Adam Roberts (paperback, Kindle)
- Liz: The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (epub, paperback, Kindle)
Picks for Christmas song
Music credits
- Our theme music is It’s Christmas Time by Frank Schröter, used under the Simplified Filmmusic.io Standard License

46: Is My Head Extremely Solid, Or What

December 9, 2021

John is afraid, Alison is in Portugal, and Liz is an absolute unit.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 (chapters 1 and 2, but particularly chapter 2)

Thanks to Stow Shirts for sponsoring this week's episode! Use code OCTOTHORPE for a 10% discount.

No letters of comment this week, we will do them next week!
Smofcon Europe
COVID round-up
- World Fantasy Convention
  - The person who got COVID Tweeted
- Novacon
  - Alan Bellingham
  - Tony Cullen
  - Dave Lally
  - Caroline Mullan
  - Colette Reap
  - Nicholas Whyte
Worldcon site selection
- Deadline on 14 December for returning PDF ballots
- PDF ballots are available here
- Future Convention Q&As from Worldcon/Eurocon/Smofcon bids
Join the BSFA
Picks
- Liz: Did Alison already have Hades or can I have Hades?
  - Roguelikes vs Roguelites
- John: Playing board games with friends
- Alison: The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime)
  - Based on the Philip K. Dick book (paperback, ebook, Kindle)
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

45: A Fistful of Dongles

November 25, 2021

John, Alison, and guest Marguerite Smith are live from Novacon 50!

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: women’s body shapes (we are very positive about all body shapes but we wanted to let y’all know we touch on it)

Novacon
Worldcon
- DisCon III
- Glasgow in 2024
- Dublin in 2029
Picks
- John: Voting in the Hugo Awards because he’s insufferably smug about having done the reading
- Alison: Daangerous Visions: A Faanfiction Faanthology, 1939–2009
- Marguerite:
  - A book by Joseph Elliott-Coleman (and apologies that we got the surname wrong in the episode)
  - Burning Brightly: 50 Years of Novacon
How to pronounce the word “grimace”
Music credits
- Our theme music is Rattlesnake Railroad by Brett Van Donsel, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

44: Quite a Lot of Big Buts

November 11, 2021

John might hire a camper van, Alison might wee twice before bed, and Liz might not plot enough graphs.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 (chapter 4), sexism (chapter 5)

We’re doing Octothorpe Live at Novacon at 1pm on Sunday!
Letters of comment
- Carved turnip
Eastercon
Eastercon in a post-coronavirus world
- There was a thread on the future of Eastercon venues
  - UK Eastercon Community Group
  - Not to be confused with the old Future of Eastercon group
- Eastercons may need to move beyond hotels
  - University accommodation
  - Camp sites such as Butlins or Pontins
    - Electromagnetic Field (EMF)
    - It was pointed out that this has issues with dates
      - Easter may be cold/windy/rainy
      - Bank holidays and warm weather are a busy time for these sites
    - SFX Weekender already does this sort of thing so it is feasible!
- Some hotels have been asking for huge deposits
  - This is probably due to increased risk and not enough Government guidance
    - It might go away again when these change
    - Would a central Eastercon organisation help? (Probably not)
Redemption 2022
Picks
- Alison: Dune (outside) and Black Widow (Disney+)
  - Liz’s comment on the Dune soundtrack
- John: Unfathomable and the Ludoquist
- Liz: The Empress of Salt and Fortune (epub, Kindle, paperback)
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

43: Clip That Out, John

October 28, 2021

John is critically bereft, Alison made a mistake, and Liz is carving papayas.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 (chapter 4) and problematic behaviour such as racism, sexism, and abuse (chapter 6).

This episode is sponsored by Stow Shirts. Use promo code OCTOTHORPE for 10% off!
We’re doing Octothorpe Live at Novacon at 1pm on Sunday!
Letters of comment
- Facebook: Ali Baker, Dave Mansfield, Ang Rosin
- Bridget Bradshaw
- Chris Garcia
Papaya carving
COVID policy roundup
- Smofcon Europe
- Corflu Concorde (in PR5)
Theme songs
Guests of Honour
- Disinvitations
- Reflections on Racefail
- Ghosts of Honour
  - H. G. Wells’ speech at Beccon (the 1987 Eastercon)
- Paul Cornell suggested the “foetus of honour”
Picks
- John: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney+)
  - Always Be My Maybe (Netflix)
  - Dune
- Alison: irrelevant waffle [Alison wrote that—Ed]
- Liz: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)
  - Some pretty cutscenes from Uncharted 4
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

42: I‘m Up for Running Controlcon

October 14, 2021

John used to have a different face, Alison is going to Smofcon, and Liz is in disguise.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 discussion (chapter 2)

We’re doing Octothorpe Live at Novacon on 1pm at Sunday!
Letters of comment
- COVID: Jonathan Baddeley, Ali Baker, Bill Burns, Chris Garcia, Ang Rosin
  - Dragonmeet’s COVID policy
- High-school movie round-up: people on Facebook, Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn
- Karen Schaffer
Smofcon Europe
- C heap flights by Fascinating Aida
Douglas Adams content!
- Chris Garcia
- Alex Holden
- Everyone else
- Liz had these covers
- The BBC Big Read
Dublin 2029 was announced at Octocon
- File 770
- Ed Fortune’s Tweet
Sara Felix is bidding Texas (in 2031?)
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia
- Edited by friend of the show Dave Langford and John Clute, with Graham Sleight as managing editor and remembering the late Peter Nicholls as founding editor
- The new fourth edition is now self-published, having moved on from Gollancz and SF Gateway
Octothorpe Live will be at Novacon
- How to get from Thailand to London by train
Picks
- John: Lovecraft Country (on Now)
- Alison: Foundation (on Apple TV+)
  - Women
- Liz: Children of Ruin (epub, Kindle, paperback)
  - Arrival (on Netflix)
  - Embassytown (epub, Kindle, paperback)
  - The Embedding (epub, Kindle, paperback)
  - Native Tongue (epub, Kindle, paperback)
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

41: Leaves the Beans In

September 30, 2021

John is going on holiday, Alison had a cold, and Liz is sleepy.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Letters of comment
- Bug Bradshaw
- Dave Coxon
- Fran Dowd (in the Octothorpe Facebook group)
- Chris Garcia
- Emily January
Novacon has a COVID policy
FantasyCon has two webpages
- FantasyCon 2021 on the FantasyCon 2022 website
- FantasyCon 2021 on the HWS events website (which has the programme with the karaoke on)
Ignyte Award winners
Picks
- John: Constelación #1
- Liz: Nailed It! on Netflix
- Alison:
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

40: Very Exuberant and Very Dangerous

September 16, 2021

John is listening to podcasts, Alison is reading stories, and Liz is watching TV.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 discussion (chapters 3 and 7)

Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Roman Orszanski
  - Heathers
- Mark Plummer
Convention COVID-19 policies
- John forgot to mention the NHS Covid Pass last week
  - NHS page (for England and Wales)
    - Scotland
    - Northern Ireland
- Eastercon Community Facebook group post about convention COVID-19 policies
- BristolCon has released a COVID-19 policy
  - Please wear a mask if you can, no requirement for vaccines or negative tests
- Corflu has updated their website
  - They will announce a policy but not until closer to the time
Upcoming conventions
Picks
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
  - The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (paperback, ebook, Kindle)
  - The Lovecraft Investigations: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
    - iPlayer
    - RSS for all good podcast apps
- Alison’s pick
  - The Otherwise Award
  - Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora (paperback, ebook, Kindle)
- Liz’s pick
  - Star Trek: Lower Decks (on Amazon Prime in the UK)
File 770 reports the UK has a new National Film and Sci-Fi Museum
The UK’s rocketry programme
- The Needles Old Battery and New Battery is maintained by the National Trust
  - Alison notes “they are super misleading – the [page] has a photo of Woomera on it."
- Black Arrow Replica at the Wight Aviation Museum
- High Down Rocket Test Site
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

39: Bar Cookies

September 2, 2021

John is at his usual podcasting setup, Alison is in a cauldron, and Liz is on Plague Island.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: death (chapter 3) and COVID-19 discussion (chapter 4).

Coded messages appeared in This Here… #45
Letters of comment
- Ali Baker
  - Alison appeared on episode 3 of Ali’s podcast
- Fran Dowd
- Chris Garcia (twice)
  - American Vandal
  - Brick
- Pat McMurray
- Caroline Mersey
  - Recipe for f ifteens
- Karen Schaffer
  - Recipe for bar cookies
- Peter Sullivan
Erle Korshak has died
- John’s TAFF trip report, Best. Trip. Ever.
Convention COVID-19 policies
- DisCon III have released a new COVID-19 policy
  - Vaccination required (no exemptions)
  - Masks required
- Liz found Dragon Con’s COVID-19 policy
  - Vaccination required (medical/child exemptions mean you can test instead)
  - Masks required
  - 50% maximum capacity
- Novacon are planning to have a COVID-19 policy
  - Dave Hicks will be in charge of this
- Corflu do not have a policy on their website and did not respond to a request for comment
- Fantasycon do not have a policy on their website but responded to a request for comment
  - No vaccination policy (!)
  - Asking attendees to wear face masks and socially distance
  - Encouraging attendees to take lateral flow tests
- UK Games Expo
  - There was widespread criticism of the early-June plans
  - They capitulated a week later in the face of the gaming fandom
- CONvergence had a similar policy to DisCon III
  - File 770 linked to CONvergence’s Twitter thread outlining a COVID case in a convention attendee
  - There are also reports on Facebook
    - First
    - Second
  - This does not appear to have led to any at-con transmission
    - By which we mean, we haven’t found any reports thereof
The mysterious case of the toilet on the plane
Alison is officially part of an Eastercon 2023 bid which is forthcoming!
- Caroline Mullan is the chair
- If selected, the convention will be called Conversation
Futurecon 2021 is coming up
Aftershow: Horizon Zero Dawn is quite good
- Aloy and unrealistic depictions of beauty
Music credits
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Octothorpe

Octothorpe

48: The Things You Nominate Are All Extremely Unpopular

47: Authors Eating John

46: Is My Head Extremely Solid, Or What

45: A Fistful of Dongles

44: Quite a Lot of Big Buts

43: Clip That Out, John

42: I‘m Up for Running Controlcon

41: Leaves the Beans In

40: Very Exuberant and Very Dangerous

39: Bar Cookies

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