Contents May Vary

Petrea Burchard is an actor, author, audiobook narrator, and voiceover  artist. We met at a writer's group we both belong to, when Petrea did a  presentation on audiobooks. As someone who listens to audiobooks when I  have time in-between listening to podcasts, I was already intrigued. But  when she said she was the original English voice of Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo , she had me...

 For my second roundtable, we discuss shipping -- and some of the taboos that come out of it.   For complete show notes, go to my website.  

 Fangirling is an art. I talk to one of the women behind the podcast Your Biggest Fangirl, Victoria Male.   For complete show notes, go to my website.  

In the second of my ongoing series where I interview women in the geek community about their experiences, I talk to Baker Street Babe Sora Reyes. For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Hansi Oppenheimer is a filmmaker who has considered herself a fangrrl since at least the age of 6, but wanted to explore what it meant to be a woman in fandom. What was originally going to be a feature film turned into the ongoing YouTube documentary project, Squee! The Fangrrl Project. I sat down with Hansi and talked about what it means to be a fangirl, her approach to creating the documen...

 Nikola Tesla is considered by many geeks to be an unsung hero of the 20th century. The inventor of alternating current and many other ideas that we now use regularly, the man is hardly known outside of the geek realms outside of in a vague way. Composer Aaron Guzzo was fascinated by the man, and decided to write a musical based on his life. I sat down with Guzzo and discussed the musical, hi...

 There’s been a lot of talk in the last few months about the toxicity in the Star Wars fandom, specifically in the backlash against The Last Jedi. How it connects to women and people of color in fandom is not an accident. So, I got together with some women to discuss the female perspective on the issue.   For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Back in June, I attended the red carpet premiere for the short movie about Ulugh Beg, and had a chance to talk to some of the people involved. For complete show notes, go to my website.

 On June 7, I was lucky enough to attend the red carpet for the series finale of the Netflix show Sense8 . Much of the cast was there, and there was a sense of sadness and hope as I interviewed them.  For complete show notes, go to my website.

Tom Smith has been filking since the 1980s, and has a loyal fanbase ranging around the world. He’s been recognized by Dr. Demento and Larry Niven, and more. He’s been nominated (and won) a boatload of Pegasus Awards, which recognizes excellence in filking. We talk about what got him into filking, how he deals with the world today, and his process for writing music.  For complete show notes, g...

Back in 2014, I decided I wanted to start a series of interviews with women in the community to discuss what it was like. I finally am getting around to producing some of those interviews. Supriya and I met, as mentioned in the interview, thanks to a Facebook Sherlock fan group for those in Southern California. At the time, she worked for Geek and Sundry, although now she works for DeviantArt. Ori...

 If you know me at all, you know I've been a fan of Doctor Who for most of my life. I’ve written about it extensively on this website. So, when I had the chance at a ticket for this year's Gallifrey One, I jumped at the chance. Here are my thoughts.  For complete show notes, go to my website.

 In February, I had the chance to attend the red carpet premiere of Living Among Us, a movie shot in the style of a documentary that assumes vampires are real and just made themselves public. (Yes, I do bring up the similarities to What We Do In the Shadows, although as the trailer shows, it’s more in the vein of Blair Witch Project.) While there, I interviewed a wide range of people, both th...

 Last year, when I attended the 2017 Writers of the Future Awards, I got a chance to interview author Kevin J. Anderson, who was one of the judges. Alas, the audio went to The Bad Place, lost in the ether. However, he thankfully was happy enough to do a phone interview with me later that month. For complete show notes, go to my website.

Last October, I got to yet again attend Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con, formerly known as Comikaze. My second time attending, this time I only went one day. This convention, now in its sixth year, was Los Angeles’ first major comic convention. As with any convention, there were plenty of panels, celebrities, and artists and vendors to go about.  For complete show notes, go to my websit...

 Back in April, I attended the 2017 Writers of the Future Awards. While there, I was lucky enough to connect with author Nancy Kress, who was one of the judges. Author of 27 novels, 3 books on writing, and many, MANY short stories, she’s won 6 Nebulas and 2 Hugo Awards. I managed to do a phone interview with her, where we talked about her writing process, the differences between science ficti...

 On August 22, in partnership with the online fundraising platform Omaze and Make-a-Wish, there was a live tribute to him. Hosted by Chris Hardwick, Extraordinary: Stan Lee boasted a wide range of celebrities coming out to honor the creator. I managed to get on the red carpet and get some interviews down with some of them.   For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Back in late April, I attended the 2017 LA Times Festival of Books. The largest book festival in the US, this free annual event celebrates the written word. With panels on a variety of topics, readings and interviews with authors, and even music performances, there’s always something for everyone. This was my third year attending. While I was there, I interviewed many of the people in the va...

 "Hey: it's that one guy!" It's the cry of many a character actor (so much so that it's got its own page on TV Tropes, and for actor Stephen Tobolowsky, that's fine with him. Appearing in over 200 films and/or television episodes, you may know him as the insurance salesman in Groundhog Day , the substitute teacher Sandy Ryerson in Glee , or from any number of various roles.  In 2014, I h...

 On April 2, I attended the 33rd annual Writers of the Future Award ceremony. With a dragon gracing the red carpet and the stage. the ceremony had a keynote from the co-founder and president of Dragon*Con Pat Henry, and presented this year's Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Resnick. The 12 writers and illustrators received this year's awards, with Jake Marley winning the Golden Pen Award fo...

 Marco Beltrami is no stranger to composing movies in the sci fi and superhero world. His first major breakthrough was doing the score for Wes Craven’s Scream , and you may recognize his music from such genre favorites as Hellboy , Mimic , The Faculty , and even worked with Philip Glass for the 2015 version of Fantastic Four . He's been nominated for an Oscar for his scores for both 3:10 to Y...

 While at the 2016 Wondercon, I also had the chance to talk with some of the people at another panel, "Streaming Success: Behind-the-Scenes of Your Favorite Binge Worthy Shows". The panel discussed the original content of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and some of the people that work on the various shows produced by them. My associate Hope Donoghue and I first talked to James ("Jimmy") Levine an...

 Last March, I attended WonderCon here in Los Angeles. I (and a few others) covered it for SciFi4Me.com, and I had a lot more content that I never had time to do anything with. One such item was a chance to meet up with some of the guys that were on the "High Scorers Panel: Star Composers of the Video Game World". The panel was, obviously, music composers for video games talking about their w...

 Last September, I covered an agent’s roundtable event for Camera Angles . The event was part of the Emerging Cinematographer Awards, a way to bring advice for how to make it in the film industry to the award winners. The chair of the awards is cinematographer Jimmy Matlosz, and he gave the up and coming honorees some great advice during the event. I sat down with Jimmy at his home to discuss...

 On September 7, I had the opportunity to attend the red carpet for the world premiere of the parody science fiction film Unbelievable!!!!! Written and directed by Steven L. Fawcette, the movie stars or has cameos from 40 Star Trek actors, and follows the adventures of four astronauts, one of which is a marionette. I had the opportunity to interview several of the cast and crew of both the mo...