Octothorpe

John thought of something, Alison is educational, and Liz reads contracts.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Money (chapter 3)

• Please remember that we have recused from consideration for the 2025 Hugo Awards


• Letters of comment
  
  
  
  • Chris Garcia
  
  
  • DC
    
    
    
    • On Blind Chance (skeet, requires sign-in)
    
    
    • On picking books (skeet, requires sign-in)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Doug Faunt
  
  
  • Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)
  
  
  
  


• Eastercon 2025: Reconnect in Belfast
  
  
  
  • Cancelling non-refundable hotel rooms does not net one a refund
    
    
    
    • We get ourselves into knots trying to work out what’s happened here and we’re not sure
    
    
    • Alison taught John and Liz about complaining about cancellations
      
      
      
      • Cancelling goods or services
      
      
      • Make a court claim for money
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Worldcon 2025: Seattle
  
  
  
  • Virtual Business Meeting details
    
    
    
    • Lumi Global
    
    
    • The meetings are all at 09:00–12:30 (PDT/UTC-7) on 4, 13, 19, 25 July
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Hugo nominations are open
    
    
    
    • How to nominate
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Picks
  
  
  
  • John: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak
  
  
  • Alison: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
  
  
  • Liz: Nova by Samuel Delany
    
    
    
    • John Nielsen-Hall’s article, “Running up that Hill: or Life with the Brunners” appears in Prolapse #7
      
      
      
      • Prolapse
      
      
      • Motorway Dreams, a collection of Nielsen-Hall’s writing which includes the article
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Credits
  
  
  
  • Cover art: “Thailand Positioning Service” by Alison Scott
    
    
    
    • Alt text: Words read “Octothorpe 129: Can you pin Thailand on the map?” above a black-and-white world map. The backs of John, Alison and Liz’s heads are shown. John is thinking “Yup!”, Liz is thinking “100%”, and Alison is holding Thailand and thinking “???”.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)