Editorial – April 2023

Well, that’s a month I do not want to repeat, ever. Having my first case of COVID and crashing my car in the same week is not fun, especially as the former meant I had to miss out on a GoH gig at a convention in Luxembourg. Aaargh!

The COVID was a result of Eastercon, of which I’ll be saying a lot more in the con report. As for the car, all I’ll say is that I’m fine (my only injury was a broken nail) and that by taking one for the team I avoided getting t-boned by an idiot and thereby avoided a much more serious incident. But I now need a new car. Aaargh!

I’m not at all happy about missing Luxcon. That’s twice now that I’ve been hoping to go and not made it. I’m sure it went well without me.

I’ve been testing negative since Saturday (22nd), so hopefully I am clear now. I was able to attend some of the writing workshop that Jo & Roz had organised for that weekend, which was good. Amongst other things, we’ve been doing some plotting for a Sekrit Projekt that you will hear more of in due course.

This issue is online a bit early. That’s because I will be spending the coming weekend in London attending HistFest. As some of you may know, I have done some work with them in the past, giving online presentations about trans history. My friend, Dan Vo, is one of the speakers on Saturday. The people I’m hoping to get to see include Caroline Dodds Pennock (whose fabulous new book is reviewed in this issue), Sunny Singh and Bettany Hughes. I will report back next issue.

Being early, I have another opportunity to remind you that I, and this fanzine, are eligible for the Hugos. Rather more importantly, I would love you to consider the following:

• In Best Series, the Green Man books by Juliet E McKenna (Wizard’s Tower)
• In Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form, Doctor Who: Redacted, directed by Ella Watts (BBC)
• In Best Professional Artist, Ben Baldwin who keeps turning in knock-out covers for Wizard’s Tower

Also there has been a bit of a panic behind the scenes over the Astounding Award. As you may recall, eligbility for that award has historically been based on works published through SFWA Qualifying Markets. However, SFWA have recently changed the criteria by which writers can qualify for membership, and SFWA Qualifying Markets no longer exist as such. Thankfully the good folks at Dell Magazines have taken it upon themselves to maintain their own definition of a Qualifying Market. The updated eligibility requirements for the Astounding can be found here.

Please note that this was nothing to do with WSFS. The Astounding is not a Hugo, and WSFS has no control over eligibility. All WSFS does is count the votes.