A podcast about science fiction and SF fandom from John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty.
Episodes
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Thursday Jan 06, 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
- 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
- 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
- It always has delights on it and this year is no exception
- Octothorpe was almost nominated for the Hugo Awards
- Sponsorship
- 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
- 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+)
- Alison: The Expanse (Amazon Prime)
- Music credits
Thursday Dec 23, 2021
Thursday Dec 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
- Chengdu in 2023 won
- Hugo Awards
- Picks
- Picks for Christmas song
- Music credits
Thursday Dec 09, 2021
Thursday Dec 09, 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
- 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?
- John: Playing board games with friends
- Alison: The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime)
- Music credits
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
Thursday Nov 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
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
Thursday Nov 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
- 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)
- This is probably due to increased risk and not enough Government guidance
- There was a thread on the future of Eastercon venues
- Redemption 2022
- Picks
- Alison: Dune (outside) and Black Widow (Disney+)
- John: Unfathomable and the Ludoquist
- Liz: The Empress of Salt and Fortune (epub, Kindle, paperback)
- Music credits
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Thursday Oct 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
- Papaya carving
- COVID policy roundup
- Smofcon Europe
- Corflu Concorde (in PR5)
- Theme songs
- Guests of Honour
- Disinvitations
- Reflections on Racefail
- Ghosts of Honour
- Paul Cornell suggested the “foetus of honour”
- Picks
- John: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney+)
- Alison: irrelevant waffle [Alison wrote that—Ed]
- Liz: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)
- Music credits
Thursday Oct 14, 2021
Thursday Oct 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
- High-school movie round-up: people on Facebook, Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn
- Karen Schaffer
- Smofcon Europe
- Douglas Adams content!
- Chris Garcia
- Alex Holden
- Everyone else
- Liz had these covers
- The BBC Big Read
- Dublin 2029 was announced at Octocon
- 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
- Picks
- John: Lovecraft Country (on Now)
- Alison: Foundation (on Apple TV+)
- Liz: Children of Ruin (epub, Kindle, paperback)
- Music credits
Thursday Sep 30, 2021
Thursday Sep 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
- Ignyte Award winners
- Picks
- Music credits
Thursday Sep 16, 2021
Thursday Sep 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
- Mark Plummer
- Convention COVID-19 policies
- John forgot to mention the NHS Covid Pass last week
- 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
- 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
- The Needles Old Battery and New Battery is maintained by the National Trust
- Music credits
Thursday Sep 02, 2021
Thursday Sep 02, 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
- Fran Dowd
- Chris Garcia (twice)
- Pat McMurray
- Caroline Mersey
- Karen Schaffer
- Peter Sullivan
- Erle Korshak has died
- 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
- 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
- This does not appear to have led to any at-con transmission
- By which we mean, we haven’t found any reports thereof
- DisCon III have released a new COVID-19 policy
- 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
- Music credits