42: I‘m Up for Running Controlcon

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
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Election
    • The Faculty
    • Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
  • Karen Schaffer
• Smofcon Europe
  • Cheap 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

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:
    • Three Men in a Boat on iPlayer
    • Blast off at Woomera by Hugh Walters
    • Simon Plays The Witness on Cracking the Cryptic
      • GoodNotes for iPad
• 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

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
    • Edge of the Earth
    • Get your DisCon III virtual membership
    • DisCon III was unopposed
• 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
  • FantasyCon
  • FIYAHCON
  • Octocon 2021
• 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

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 fifteens
  • 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.

38: How the Sausage is Made

John, Alison, and Liz are recording around a dining room table.

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.

• Letters of comment
  • We didn’t discuss them again but we swear we will next week
• Apologies
  • Sorry we don’t really have any topics
  • Sorry for the bad sound quality
  • Sorry for the interruptions
• Being in person
  • Thank you very much to our hosts Steve and Giulia!
  • We went to the Double-Barrelled taproom
    • It does have a hyphen
  • Alison and John might go to Corflu and to Novacon
  • We will probably do another Punctuation but we have no firm plans yet
    • We might run an in-person Punctuation
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Surf Shimmy by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license.

37: When the Author is Dead

John, Alison and Liz didn’t record this week.

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

• There are no letters of comment this episode because we recorded this episode OUTSIDE LINEAR TIME.
• Retro Hugo Awards
  • File 770 post by Hampus Eckerman on the Retro Hugos
  • Cora Buhlert defends the Retro Hugos
  • Memphis in 2023 won’t run the Retros due to their diversity and inclusion policies
  • Nicholas Whyte discusses CoNZealand’s Retros from the perspective of the Hugo administrators
• Graham Linehan has been booted off Twitter since we recorded
• Ali Baker has started the excellent Fantasy Book Swap podcast since we recorded
  • The Magic Faraway Tree features in the first episode
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Surf Shimmy by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license.

36: Worldcon Fire Service

John is wrong, Alison is putting out fires, and Liz is in lockdown.

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.

• Letters of comment
  • Ang Rosin
  • Chris Garcia
• File 770 reports that Mary Robinette Kowal is the new chair of DisCon III
  • This piece contains links to some of the previous events which led to this occurring
• Convention communications
  • Alison has a role in the Glasgow in 2024 Promotions Division
  • No real links, but a lot of opinions!
  • Liz claimed not to have strong opinions before the podcast: fact
  • After we recorded, DisCon III renamed their Outreach Division; it is now called Communications
• Fantasy Book Swap (Ali Baker’s new podcast)
  • Facebook page
  • Podcast website
  • Link for your podcatcher (right-click or tap and hold, copy the URL, and your podcatcher should have an option for “Add URL”)
  • Books we read as kids:
    • Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation is on Audible for a credit
    • Books about boarding schools:
      • The Finishing School Facebook group
      • The series about ballet boarding school that Liz mentioned
    • Threads by Foz Meadows on why Anne McCaffrey is inappropriate:
      • First Foz Meadows thread
      • Second Foz Meadows thread
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Surf Shimmy by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license.

35: It’s Coming Home

John likes carrot cake, Alison is not resigning, and Liz is coming home.

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.

• Letters of comment
  • Chris Garcia
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Fran Dowd
  • Hal O’Brien
  • Peter Sullivan
  • Spike
    • ”Commas”
• DisCon III and the Hugo Awards
  • Jason Sanford’s first primer
  • Jason Sanford’s second primer
  • Mary Robinette Kowal helping at San Jose
  • CoNZealand’s programme woes
  • Mary Robinette Kowal was announced as the new chair of DisCon III after we recorded
• Online Business Meetings
  • Looking for people/suggestions for the working group on remote business meeting attendance
• ConSpire
  • John Clute’s interview
  • Tade Thompson’s interview
  • Alison Scott’s talk
    • For anyone who thinks the issue with Octothorpe is that John and Liz occupy too much air time
  • BSFA Discord
• Good Omens S2 with JOHN FINNEMORE
  • John Finnemore’s blog
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

34: We Are All Filing Cabinet

John, Alison, and Liz are live from Punctuation 2.

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.

• Letters of comment
  • Chris Garcia
  • DC
    • How to know when the pandemic is over
  • Roman Orzanski
    • Wild Goose
  • Irwin Hirsh
    • Procrastinations (John’s fanzine)
    • Lulzine (John and España’s fanzine)
    • Dante’s Cardigan (Alison’s fanzine)
  • James Shields
    • John’s new dice
• Food and drink
  • Fabrique recipes:
    • Cinnamon buns
    • Cardamom buns (US measurements, sorry folks)
  • The four stages of eating cheese
• Sponsored by Stow Shirts
  • Octothorpe merchandise
  • Punctuation 2 merchandise
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

33: Jigsaw Psychoanalysis

John can’t cope with any, Alison can cope with one, and Liz has excellent mental health.

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.

• Letters of comment
  • Ang Rosin
  • Chris Garcia
  • DC
  • Duncan MacGregor
    • Podcasts with adjacent communities you can join and interact with:
      • Drawn to the Flame
      • Mythos Busters
      • The Rebound
      • Relay.fm
      • Six Colors
  • Karen Schaffer
  • Maggie
  • Mark Plummer
  • Peter Sullivan
  • Phil Dyson
    • A YouTube link on which Alison insisted
• Fanzines
  • The MT VOID
  • Evelyn C. Leeper
  • The Shield of Umor
  • Fanzines by email:
    • Feedbin
    • Astrolabe
    • Transfer Orbit
• TorCon 2021
• SFSFC settlement
  • SFSFC
  • ~~Con Jose 2~~ Worldcon 76
  • File 770’s report
• CONvergence 2021 is going ahead
• Worldcon site selection is open, and the fee is $50
  • Chengdu in 2023
  • Memphis in 2023
  • Winnipeg in 2023
• Punctuation 2 is imminent!
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.