Yesterday we did another section of the Hardian’s Wall Path, just over a year from our first walk. We started in Newburn, where we left off last time, and walked around 22km again. This section had a lot less on it, passing through a lot of fields and farmland and with only one significant section of wall. We stopped at the Robin Hood Inn about 17km along and had a little sit down and a nice half pint along with our second passport stamp. The next section was all fields, with some admitedly lovely views but no real bits of …
Updating the Map for Worldcon
I’ve been adding things to the map in anticipation of being in Anaheim in August for Worldcon, I always make myself a little food and tourism guide anyway so it seemed silly not to. Here are a few cool things that caught my attention and I might feasibly get to during the con: There’s a stretch of West Broadway that has a fantasy-themed cafe, a romance bookstore, and an really cool-looking culture and art museum. Plus right around the corner there is a Japanese bakery with very cute sweet buns. And that’s not even counting lots of nice looking food …
TAFF Visit
Last weekend we hosted the 2026 TAFF delegate, Kat Templeton, on her way to Eurocon. I’ve linked to the explanation of TAFF, but short version is it’s an annual fannish crowdfunder to help a fan travel across the Atlantic. I met John while he was on his TAFF trip, so obviously we are quite fond of it. It’s also a sort of lifelong community sort of thing, people who win TAFF tend to be involved in it for the rest of their lives. There had been some discussion about going up to Edinburgh on Saturday, the city is a direct …
Hugo Watching: BDP Long Form
This is another category full of things I liked. There’s some horror, some superhero action, two musicals, animation, space adventure, comedy, originals, adaptations, franchises, all the things! But ultimately top of my list is going to Andor, which just knocked it out of the part in its second and final season. Logistically, I don’t know if it has a chance – yeah it’s Star Wars, but I don’t think a series has actually won in long form yet even when it was amazing (coughSeverancecough) and really deserved it.
Hugo Reading: Short Story
Best category so far… a variety of interesting themes and different tones. By far the most difficult to rank for me, except for the top spot. “In My Country” by Thomas Ha has been on a bunch of awards shortlists this year and I can see why, it’s a lovely, quietly masterful bit of writing. I’ve put his short story collection on my Xmas list.
Hugo Reading: Novelette
Intersting mix of subjects here; kaiju, vampires, magic, and self-aware machines (the old term is too loaded and too intentially muddled by llm-hucksters to be of any use to me now). The machines take the biggest slice, but each story has a very different focus, so that’s nice. Top of my ballot will go to Never Eaten Vegetables by H. H. Pak, which was wonderfully well rounded, using its relatively short length to pack a short novel’s worth of world-building and characterisation, and also delivers on the feels.
Achoo!
Well, this should have been a con report, or more Hugo reading posts, but instead I caught a cold and then maybe another cold, or a sinus infection, or some damned thing and missed out on the convention and a few other things as well. Satellite 9 was over the Spring Bank Holiday/Memorial Day weekend, but I was in no shape for it. I sent John off on his own, train tickets and hotel non-refundable after all, and to be honest the weekend was not too bad – it was sunny and I spent a little time in the garden, …
Hugo Reading: Novella
This year I’m going to try to be a bit better about my Hugo reading, instead of trying to speedread three novels and the entire short story category on a train to the airport or something. I’m not going to review in any great detail, but figured doing some posts as I go along to keep track might help a bit. Novella is the first one done and dusted, and a pretty good lineup this year I think. Half of them are retellings of classic stories, which is kind of interesting, and top of my ballot with probably go to …
Hugo Finalist!
Belated post about the Hugo announcements, I am on the list for Fan Artist again this year – which is lovely. The other finalists are Sara Felix, Richard Man, Terri Ash, Geneva Bowers, and Yummei. Some new, some previous winners, some old friends and some folks I’ll hopefully meet for the first time in LA! This is the first year I haven’t submitted any folding fans to the packet, which I guess might be a surprise, but none of my 2025 fans were what I consider fan art. My personal criteria for what constitutes fan art in the Hugo sense …
Eastercon 2026: Iridescence
(It says last weekend, but I left this in drafts for two weeks, sigh) (Aaaaand I posted an incomplete draft. I’m a hot mess.) Last weekend we headed to the Hilton Birmingham Metropole for Eastercon! We opted for the full, relaxed experience this year an took the train down on Thursday and returned on Tuesday – which explains why I’m only just recovering enough to write my report now. As ever I promised myself I would take notes and write a proper report but did no such thing and and am relying on my frankly terrible memory, so expect a …