Octothorpe

John is a Hugo Award finalist, Alison is a Hugo Award winner, and Liz’s mum got a folk award once. 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: classism (chapter 2) Hugo Awards We are a finalist for Best Fancast We are SO EXCITED John and Alison are almost certainly going to Chicon 8 (Liz is a “maybe”) We will be thrilled to lose to any of the other finalists (especially Hugo, Girl!) Letters of comment: Ali Baker A whole emergency episode of Fantasy Book swap! Malcolm Hutchison DC Duncan MacGregor Nick Gibbins Jonny Baddeley Eastercon We are live from Eastercon at 1:30pm on Monday! The fan funds are having “amazeballs” and a silent auction Auction catalogue Register to bid Place bids The Hugo Awards Do these all look Chinese? Liz has been listening to Lifewriting by Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes Brandon Sanderson Alex Holden’s concertinas Brandon Sanderson’s YouTube channel His confession They backed every publishing Kickstarter The project on Kickstarter It made $41m! Sanderson’s blog post about the Kickstarter Including details about how he wanted to have an alternative platform away from Amazon dominance His team is so big he has an HR director, he’s splitting that cash quite a lot of ways Tolstoy on wax cylinder Picks Rossum’s Universal Robots on BBC Radio 4 Liz: Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly (paperback, Kindle, John can’t find an alternative ebook vendor) Nice review from Lee Mandelo John: Moon Knight vol. 7 (comiXology, Marvel) Credits Cover art: WSFS/The Hugo Awards (!) Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is dancing, Alison is listening, and Liz is Batman. 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 (chapter 1), war and human rights (chapter 2) Letters of comment: Chris Garcia Everyone liked Sue’s art and everyone wants John to get better soon Liz saw a cat Jonny Baddeley is giving John his old Netrunner stuff Jonny Baddeley has questions about discos in COVID times Lori really liked Six Wakes and is going to try to convince her cohosts to add it to her schedule eventually Chengdu 2022 Human rights GoH Sergei Lukyanenko signed a letter on Ukraine Netflix distance from Cixin Liu Open letter to try and revoke the 2023 site selection Liz’s links to different indices for measuring this Democracy Index Freedom in the World Membership rates Cheap and cheaper But they are selling one without WSFS voting rights To the WSFS constitution, Bat-Liz! If you simply define a single programme item that the non-WSFS members can’t attend you don’t break the rules – win! FAAn awards The Incompleat Register has the results Congratulations to the winners! Thanks to the people who voted for us anyway even after we told you not to Picks: John bought a house Alison is listening to My Real Children by Jo Walton (paperback, epub, Kindle, Audible) Liz has read The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (hardback, paperback, epub, Kindle, audiobook) Credits Cover art: Alison Scott Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John has COVID, Alison wanted to do a podcast, and Liz had no better offers. 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: None Find a text version of our answers to Cora’s questions here! Cover art: Sue Mason Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John, Alison and Liz have been nominated for a BSFA Award! (Also, Liz is on holiday, naturally.) 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: None Letters of comment Chris Garcia The Flying Fantastical Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore Peter Sullivan Chris for TAFF Kin-Ming Looi Duncan MacGregor Lori Anderson Hugo deadline is March 15th We recommended some things on Cora Buhlert’s blog Tears of the Anaren by C. W. Longbottom Eastercon: What do you want from your bids? Liz: Who’s running it and why? Where and why? Are there significant drawbacks? Commitment to having code of conduct/access policies, even if they’re in progress Why will it be particularly fun? What bits of Eastercon tradition don’t you plan to implement (if any)? What are your plans for hybrid/virtual content? Do you have a good presentation that shows you have organisational nous? Alison: Expanding on who’s running the convention a little Are you running at Easter? (See Eastercon tradition) What about real ale? What are your provisions for children? John: How much will it cost? Picks Liz: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek (hardback, epub, Kindle) John: Android: Netrunner (eBay) Alison: I Didn’t Do the Thing Today by Madeleine Dore (paperback, epub, Kindle) The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (paperback, epub, Kindle) Music credits Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

John is a spoilsport, Alison is promoting and Liz might come to Eastercon. 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), Spider-Man: No Way Home casting spoilers (chapter 6) Letters of comment Chris Garcia Ali Baker Mark Plummer TAFF ebooks Geri Sullivan TAFF administrators’ FAQ COVID-19 Reclamation are requiring vaccination for all attendees Hotel bookings are open, and the booking code has gone out to members Podcast corner: The Incomparable Gameshow The Incomparable #600 Become the Teapot DisCon III Tweet from Mary Robinette Kowal The proposal for Game Hugo is out! Jason Sanford is doing a survey on SF&F magazines and the pandemic to compare to his pre-pandemic data Picks Liz: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson (paper, epub, Kindle) Alison: Loki (Disney+) John: Spider-Man: No Way Home (in cinemas) tick, tick… BOOM! (Netflix) Music credits Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

John is exchanging, Alison is rekindling her sensawunda, and Liz is watching the builders. Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media. We are fifty! That’s kind of unbelievable. Letters of comment Bill Burns Dave Coxon You can follow us on: BoardGameGeek (John, Alison) Goodreads (John, Alison, Liz) Letterboxd (John, Alison) Untappd (John, Alison, Liz) What’s our favourite beer style? Chris Garcia Peter Sullivan on Twitter Podcast corner: Liz has been listening to the Caribbean SF Podcast Brandon O’Brien Can You Sign My Tentacle? Karen Lord The Plague Doctors Convention corner: Redemption has been postponed by a year Corflu Pangloss has been postponed by six months The FAAn awards have not moved The TAFF Free eBooks page TAFF voting is here Alison says “Anders for TAFF!” John is pro-Dill Chips (Fia) Professor Esther MacCallum-Stewart’s inaugural lecture is on Dungeons and Dragons and is being streamed online The BSFA Awards Long List Thank you to whoever nominated us! The Vimes Boots index Picks John: Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey (hardback, epub, Kindle) Alison: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne (hardback, epub, Kindle) Tweet Liz: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (paperback, epub, Kindle) Music credits Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

John is demanding, Alison joined a Discord, and Liz knows a lot about the WSFS Constitution. 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 and war (chapter 1), racism and capitalism (chapter 2), sexism (chapter 5) Letters of comment Liquid of comment from This Never Happens (Cornish branch) Jonathan Baddeley: “Tedious NPC” would make a great badge ribbon Ali Baker Dave Coxon Chris Garcia Kat Tanaka Okopnik says Nice is not bidding for 2026 Crying movies Fran Dowd: Platoon Farah Mendlesohn: Fried Green Tomatoes Ang Rosin: Dead Poets Society Alison very much appreciated this sponsor read on Podside Picnic Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction edited by Otherwise Award-winning author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Kindle Direct Publishing took down Ekpeki’s account shortly before having to pay him royalties File 770 reports on the eventual end of the saga This is a continuation of Jason Sanford’s discussion of financial barriers to global authors The DisCon III Site Selection fiasco Salon Futura’s write-up of DisCon III File 770’s comment thread with a lot of inside baseball Steve Cooper has set up a mailing list on groups.io to look at Electronic Site Selection Chicon 8 says: “Hugo nominations will open later in January, and will run through mid-March. All members of DisCon III and anyone who joins Chicon 8 before the 31st of January 2022 will be eligible to nominate in this year’s Hugo Awards.” Section 3.7.1 of the WSFS constitution, fact fans Awards! Nicholas Whyte answers our questions Nerds of a Feather has recused itself from the 2022 Hugo Awards Commentary and interesting history courtesy of File 770 We listened to Hugo, Girl!, a fancast in which feminists read and discuss SF The FAAn Achievement Awards 2022 The Incompleat Register 2021 “A ‘fanzine’, for our purposes, is defined as an immutable artefact, once published not subject to revision or modification. The fanzine might not exist in a physical form. A PDF, for example, is an artefact.” “[A perzine is a] fanzine which typically has few, if any, contributors other than its editor(s).” Alison has joined the Hugo Award Study Committee which is a Discord server If you’d like to join then contact the chair, Cliff Dunn Their last report was in 2018 at the San Jose Worldcon New Year’s resolutions John: Publish more fanzines and make an app Alison: Have at least one SFF book a month ready to talk about on Octothorpe. Alison’s super nerdy iPad board game challenge Liz: Read 80 books on Goodreads (maybe) Picks Alison: Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction translated and edited by Xue Christine Ni (epub, Kindle) Liz: She Who Became The Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan (epub, Kindle, hardback, paperback pre-order) John: The Expanse (Amazon Prime) Music credits Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

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

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 The video of the session we discuss Kevin Standlee’s LiveJournal post about it File 770’s reporting on the session There are legitimate concerns about China John found he generally agreed with these tweets from Jeannette Ng Tweet Thread #1 Thread #2 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 Alison: Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton John: California Christmastime by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Oh Santa! by Mr.B the Gentleman Rhymer Liz: Bethlehem Down Alison’s playlist of Christmas songs which do not presuppose God or Santa Music credits Our theme music is It’s Christmas Time by Frank Schröter, used under the Simplified Filmmusic.io Standard License

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 Sushi Go Party! Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space Zombie Dice EXIT: The Game: Advent Calendar: The Mystery of the Ice Cave 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