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News Podcast Website News

Sorry For The Dump

keep calm and take a dumpAfter moving hosting accounts, updating software, configuring software, re-configuring software and re-re-configuring software – it seems that everything is working the way it’s supposed to.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the Beyond The Wall and Consumption feeds have both puked pretty much all of our episodes into the feeds. In the short term, this just means that you may have seen a bunch of old episodes show up like they’re new (or your podcatcher may have actually downloaded them all). Behind the scenes some statistics may be donked up. Overall not a big deal.

In the long term, this shouldn’t impact anything at all. Moving forward, all episodes should post the way they’re supposed to and there shouldn’t be any more episode dumps.

I’m really sorry about this. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a dump like this from somebody’s feed, and it’s always annoying.

Categories
Audio AudioConsumption Beyond The Wall Consumption Events Podcast Website News

PG Farewell Stream Announcment

#BecausePGH

Edit: Here is the direct YouTube link to watch the recording

 

Hello SpecFicMedia listeners,

On Wednesday, October 8th, 2014 at 9pm Eastern, the Beyond the Wall crew will be recording a live podcast show in which we will bid farewell to our good friend, P.G. Holyfield.

There is also an in-person gathering and a Memorial Service occurring on Oct 11th and 12th, respectively.

If you would like to attend one or both of those events, please check the links on this post at SpecFicMedia.com.

Of course, we understand that not everyone will be able to attend in person.

For so many, these podcasts are how they knew him.

So, the show on Wednesday the 8th will be a way for us, and for you, to express your feelings about this man, who brought so many people together.

We on the crew will be sharing our feelings and memories, but, we would also like to hear from you. If you have words, audio or video that you would like to share, please email it to us at BTW@SpecFicMedia.com.

Even if you have already sent something, please re-send it if you would like it to appear on this show. If you would like to send something that is just for family or any other private audience, please indicate this in your email.

And of course, if you are reading this too late or are just unable to put your feelings together before we record, please send anyways.

Also, please help us boost the signal, both for this announcement and the show event links that will follow, so that everyone that would like to can participate.

P.G. Holyfield founded a great community at SpecFicMedia, but now his watch has ended.

Our watch continues and so we will carry on our sacred duty, which is to talk about things we love – and people that we love – with all of you.

Thank you, from your friends at SpecFicMedia.com.

 

Farewell video stream on October 8 at 9pm (YouTube Hangouts on Air)

Gathering in Charlotte, NC on October 11 Facebook event page

Flying Saucer Restaurant
9605 N. Tryon Street, Suite A
Starting 6:00pm

Memorial Service in Charlotte, NC on October 12 Facebook event page

Embassy Suites
4800 S. Tryon Street
(shuttles available from Charlotte Douglas Airport)
Starting 12:00 pm, in the banquet room

Donations to the Patrick G. Holyfield Children’s Fund – GoFundMe

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Website News

SFM Special Announcement

A brief audio announcement on our loss of PG.

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors News Website News

PG Holyfield Health Announcement

PG and Kim, July 2014

EDIT: P.G. passed away on August 20th, 2014. Thank you so much for the past and continued support!

 

Beloved friends, family, and fans of P.G. (Patrick) Holyfield,

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that PG was recently diagnosed with cancer. We apologize that you have to find out this way, but this has surprised us all.

Over the past two weeks he has had extensive testing at his local hospital, as well as another round of tests and confirming opinion from a second hospital.

What it comes down to is that there are no treatment options, primarily because the cancer has spread to his organs. It has moved silently and swiftly and only presented symptoms in the last month. The disease has already taken a heavy toll.

Sadly, communication is already very difficult for him, so if you have called, texted, emailed, PM’d, or reached out in any other way in the last few weeks and haven’t heard back, this is why. It’s not because he doesn’t want to, it’s that he cannot. Please take no offense.

Organ failure and the pain meds have made it hard to communicate as clearly as we’re all used to. He has been focusing on rest and nutrition to fight this battle, and now we focus on time. The brief time for PG to experience the width and breadth of all of the lives he has touched.

As ever, Patrick has his special lady friend Kim (as he likes to introduce her) as well as family and close friends helping him get through this. If you would like to see him, please contact Vivid Muse immediately to try and work out details. The sooner, the better, as we’re told.

If you would like to send a brief video or audio greeting, or an email message (all to choochus@gmail.com) we will make sure he hears and sees it. If not video, please include a picture we can show as we read it to him. These messages of support and hearing how much he has meant to people gives a huge lift.

We’re by his side for moral and physical support. We’ve set up a GoFundMe Page for donations to help defray the mountains of medical bills this sort of thing results in, and to help PG with the other expenses in comforting him and his family in the coming weeks. We’d appreciate you sharing the link far and wide, and donating if able.

With your help in spreading the word, we can rally more support around him. Your well wishes will greatly lift his spirits.

 

Sincerely,

Viv and Chooch

Questions and Answers

Q: What kind of cancer is it?
A: It is called Cholangiocarcinoma. As is common with this form of cancer, the exact location of origin is not known. It is aggressive and spreads quickly before symptoms are experienced.

Q: What “stage” is he at?
A: There hasn’t been an official designation, however, it is “late” stage. It has spread to his lymph nodes and organs, and is inoperable. Patrick went through one chemo treatment, but the disease did not respond as well as was hoped. His organs have begun to shut down. The doctors have been talking in days and weeks, rather than months and years.

Q: Where is he, can I send something?
A: Patrick is being cared for at home in Charlotte, North Carolina. In lieu of sending cards or flowers, please donate to his GoFundMe Page.

Q: How long has he been sick? This seems fast.
A: Extremely fast. Early in July Patrick began feeling “run down”, and shortly thereafter had some minor pain. He went in for a check up and the doctors initially thought he may have gall stones. After initial blood tests they knew there was something more serious. Two weeks ago they knew it was cancer and started more testing. Two days ago we learned there were no treatment options.

Q: Can I call him? How can I get in touch?
A: PG is currently unable to talk on the phone. You can send email or a Facebook message which we’ll read to him and show him your picture if we have one. Better yet, record a quick video or audio message! You can send a private YouTube or Dropbox link, Google Drive share, or attach to an email (to choochus@gmail.com).

Q: Is this a secret? Can I re-Tweet this or share it on Facebook or forward this to a friend?
A: Yes, please do! We want everybody that has read his stories, heard him on a podcast, or attended one of his convention panels to get the word. We feel that he could use all of the kind words and support possible.

Q: What can I do to help?
A: Send that encouraging video or message. Please share the donation link, shout it from the rooftops, and donate if you are able. Since we know posts get filtered, re-share in coming days to get the word out. Depending on your beliefs; sending prayers, positive thoughts, white light, good vibrations, noodly appendages, and rainbows are all greatly appreciated. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, he needs all the help he can get.

Q: Who the heck are you, anyway?
A: Viv and Chooch are friends of Patrick, as well as co-hosts on some of his podcasting and video endeavors. As parents, gamers, and dog lovers of similar age and interests, we’ve become very close over the past seven years. Our hope is to bring folks together in support of PG as quickly as possible.

Categories
Consumption News Website News

Matt Wallace\\¦ and J.C. Hutchins

Matt Wallace had to drop off early on last week’s Consumption Live Show, so he has graciously agreed to return for this Wednesday’s episode.

And next week, on January 29th, we will be joined by author, transmedia expert, and “super-creative” J.C. Hutchins. J.C.’s print work includes Personal Effects: Dark Art and 7th Son: Descent. More recently J.C. has worked on online projects tied to X-Men: Days of Future Past and Almost Human. We’re going chat with him about what media he’s been consuming lately, of course, but we’ll also focus on his new fiction project, “The 33.”

We’d love to have you join us on Google+ for the show Wednesday night (9 pm) Eastern, but if you can’t, and you have questions for Matt (this week) or J.C. (next week), post them here or over at our Facebook page.

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors News Website News

P.G. Holyfield “Novelette” Pre-Order

canary_ebook_cover_400x600

“Canary in a Coal Mine”

A few years ago I wrote a short story (short for me, in any case, around 8K words) for Matthew Wayne Selznick\\™s The Sovereign Era: Year One anthology. It was called \\Every Breath You Take.\\ It\\™s the story of high school senior Christian Murphy, who has it bad for a foreign exchange student named Stacey… \\˜but in a world where thousands of people are learning they possess unique, incredible powers, what exactly stands in the way of Christian getting what he wants?\\™

Last Fall, Matt did a Kickstarter for his second novel set in this universe, and I offered to write a \\˜sequel\\™ to my first story as a pledge reward for his fans. Matt allowed me to play in his universe once again, and this story became more of a \\˜novelette,\\™ with a word count of nearly 14K. Now that Matt has fulfilled his Kickstarter obligations, we\\™re getting this puppy out as an e-book on Amazon and B&N for $3.99. The name of this novelette? \\Canary in a Coal Mine.\\

It will be available at online retailers on Friday, but if you are an .epub or .mobi consumer, you can pre-order it now for $2.99 until 11:59 PM PST, tomorrow night.

Here are the pre-order links:

https://gumroad.com/l/canary-coal-mine-epub

https://gumroad.com/l/canary-coal-mine-mobi

For that $1.00 off, enter coupon code – sfmfan

So, more about \\˜Canary,\\™ which can be read as a standalone story (although there are characters from the first story that appear in this one as well, so go get \\˜Breath\\™ for 1.99 at Amazon or B&N… it\\™s good)

\\Sovereign Conduct Enforcement Team (S.C.E.T.) investigators Adoette Smith and Joshua Wolff team with a local police officer to investigate what happened at the end of \\˜Breath,\\™ and the disappearance of the potential Sovereign, Stacey Miller

When circumstances bring Adoette\\™s violent, troubled past to the surface, will she be able to utilize her own Sovereign abilities in time to find Stacey?

I had fun with this story, and doing it got me back in the writing mood, in a big way. I hope you enjoy it. And if you enjoy the setting and haven\\™t read Matt Selznick\\™s Sovereign novels, please do!!

Categories
Beyond The Wall News Podcast Video Website News

In case you missed it…

Here is the video from the Hangout-a-Thon: The BTW discussion of “weather in Westeros” starts around the 2:23:00 mark.

During the recording of the special BTW discussion during CosmoQuest’s Hangout-a-Thon in June, I made the announcement that any profits from SpecFicMedia.com’s Spreadshirt Store for the rest of this year will be donated to Citizens Science Project: CosmoQuest.

So, if you needed a reason to purchase a shirt from our Spreadshirt store… 

 

Categories
Consumption News Podcast Website News

Podcast Announcement – SFM Presents: Consumption

SFM Presents: Consumption is a new podcast/Google Hangout/YouTube show we’re starting this week.

specficmedia_logoSpecFicMedia.com Presents: Consumption

Some of us are media content creators; others are creators of a different type, make, or model… but all of us are media consumers. SFM Presents: Consumption will be a show where the hosts and a guest will talk about what media they are consuming (with a focus on speculative fiction media, of course). Movies, television, games, books, comic books… they’re all on the table.

As with BTW, the bulk of the show will be spoiler-free (as some of our discussions will be about things that some of the hosts may not have played, read, seen, or heard). But unlike BTW, we will have a spoiler section at the end of each podcast where all topics are fair game.

Our first episode/live show will be Wednesday, July 31st at 9 pm Eastern time. Viewer Q&A will be done through YouTube. I will post the link here when the time comes, but the best place to find our content is our YouTube channel.

Hosts:

P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list here, but you can check out all things Christiana at her site).
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, Girls\\™ Rules Podcast Host)

Our first guest will be Matthew Wayne Selznick, author of Brave Men Run and the recently released sequel, Pilgrimage.

Categories
Events News TuacaCon 2011 Website News

TuacaCon moving…

The online streaming convention I’ve coordinated for the last two years will be delayed until Spring 2013. I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year, and there’s just not enough time in the month to do both. Also, the convention will be rebranded, as I would like to move away from the Tuaca name. Fireball Con, anyone? We’ll see.

If you are a writer, musician, artist, etc. and would like more information, there are a lot of videos from TuacaCon 2010 and 2011 over at UStream.tv

If you would like to participate, please send an email to pgholyfield at specficmedia dot com

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011 Website News

TuacaCon 2011 – Richard Ragan

Richard Ragan writes for a living (writing software that is, for a very large Internet Auction site). Richard was weaned on reading science fiction and by 4th grade had exhausted the genre at the school library. To deal with the shortage, he soon scored library cards at all five town libraries.

Entranced by computers in high school, he achieved notoriety by writing one of the earliest computer programs to write poetry and saw it featured in the New York Times, Washington Post and Scientific American. Not bad for a computer made of vacuum tubes with software on punched cards. Sadly a professor of modern poetry had this criticism:


 


“Legitimate and interesting sort of operation … too much of the old notion of poetic diction; it was too limited in nature… has no satiric force against modern poetry”


After grad school, a career in computer software beckoned and this has kept him amused and challenged since. Bike riding, geocaching, photography, hiking and travel to UNESCO World Heritage sites keep him occupied when not working. Eventually, once retired, he hopes to see if writing and podcasting is for him.


Richard attended the inaugural Tuacacon 2010 and was pleased to have his suggestion for the improv section adopted — “The Voyages of the Starship Tuaca”.