So I need to lose like a billion kilos, right, cos almost all of my activities are sedentary. I’m trying to fit in as much walking as I can to aid in the cause. Just did a six kilometre round trip walk to the local shopping centre in 28C sunshine. I am sweating like a porcine creature. Blech. Did I mention the blech? Blech.

One of my happiest discoveries last year was Tony C. Smith’s StarShip Sofa podcast. Each week the indefatigable Tony would sit down with some of science fiction’s luminaries and chat about what they were up to, the day-to-day issues confronting the science fiction field, and so on.

The podcast was bright and smart and funny.  I was delighted when Tony invited me to appear on it, and very disappointed when he decided to stop producing it before I could.  Now, I hear he also has a very fine audio podcast where he publishes audio versions of terrific stories, but the Sofa podcast was my favorite and I do miss it.

Now I hear that podcasts are eligible for the Hugo Award, which makes perfect sense to me, and it seems like StarShip Sofa is eligible for Best Fanzine. Produced by one man with a microphone, a Skype account, an awesome accent, and a love of SF, it should be eligible and I, for one, will be nominating Tony and the Sofa this year.

I’ll add, I don’t usually campaign for awards, but this is a little different.  A podcast up for a fanzine Hugo is a new thing, and I think we need to embrace such things, making sure the award remains relevant to what is happening in the field today.