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”.



		
Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Justin Macumber

Born and raised an Army brat, Justin spent many years always on the move, always making new friends and trying to fit in while finding his own path. His greatest allies were books, and now he’s been given an opportunity to add his own stories to the shelves. In addition to books, he was raised on movies and video games across every imaginable genre and style, and the stories he writes reflect that. He hopes you enjoy the words he’s squeezed from his brain, and that you’ll not just read them, but reach out and tell him what you think. He don’t write just for himself — he writes for you, too. And, hopefully one day you’ll not only be reading his work in book form, but you’ll see it in film, television, perhaps even in a game or graphic novel.

On a more personal note, Justin is a happily married fella and has been for over a decade. He and Krista don’t have any children, but the love they shower on their many dogs and cats fills their lives with joy.

You can find him online at www.justinmacumber.com. His podcast, the Dead Robots’ Society is at  www.deadrobotssociety.com.

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – David Sobkowiak

David Sobkowiak is a voice actor, podcaster, writer, musician and avid collaborator. He is presently co-host of The Seekrit Projekt Podcast, Producer of Absolution along with long-time Partner in Crime Laura Nicole and working on a new novel entitled Omega Dawn. He is a founding member of BrokenSea Audio ProductionsScrivener’s Circle, and the upcoming writer’s site WriteForge.com, an online collaborative site for authors.

For all things related to David, visit www.davidsobkowiak.com and follow him on Twitter @dsobkowiak.
David will be reading from a new short story titled The Walk.
Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – James Durham

James Durham, composer and Parsec-award-winning podcaster of FETIDUS (The Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead and Supernatural), lives in the DC area patiently awaiting a major zombie apocalypse. His music has played at venues like the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, to wide acclaim on the radio, in indie-film, video and dance productions.
Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Tee Morris

Tee Morris is one of the Writer Guests of Honor for TuacaCon 2011 (along with Nathan Lowell and Philippa J. Ballantine).

Tee Morris has been writing adventures in far-off lands and far-off worlds since elementary school. Inspired by numerous Choose Your Own Adventure titles and Terry Brooks\\™ Shannara series, he wrote not-so-short short stories of his own, unaware that working on a typewriter when sick-from-school and, later, on a computer (which was a lot quieter\\¦that meant more time to write at night\\¦) would pave a way for his writings.

Podcasting MOREVI led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra and Chuck Tomasi on Podcasting for Dummies. It also won acclaim and accolades for his first solo title,Billibub Baddings and The Case of the Singing Sword, the podcast winning a 2008 Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama. While writing Fantasy is his passion, his journalism chops were still called upon when commissioned to write articles for BenBella Books\\™s Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets and So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of Battlestar Galactica. He was also tapped to write All a Twitter, a definitive guide to working with Twitter. With his diverse background in Science Fiction, writing, and Social Media,Tee has hosted presentations at venues across the country and around the world including The Library of Congress, BlogWorld, CREATE South, and Te Papa Tongawera.

Tee has now returned to writing fiction with The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series, written with his wife, Pip Ballantine. When Tee is not creating something on his Macintosh, he enjoys a good run, a good swim, martial arts (which he will start up again, someday), and putting together new playlists to write by. His other hobbies include cigars and scotch, which he regards the same way as anime and graphic novels: \\I don\\™t know everything about them, but I know what I like.\\ (And he likes Avo and Arturo Fuente for his smoke, Highland Park for his scotch!) He enjoys life in Virginia alongside Pip, his daughter, and five cats.

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Philippa J. Ballantine

Philippa J. Ballantine is one of the Writer Guests of Honor for TuacaCon 2011 (along with Nathan Lowell and Tee Morris).

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Philippa has always had her head in a book. For this she blames her father who thought Lord of the Rings was suitable bedtime reading for an eight year old. At the age of thirteen she began writing fantasy stories for herself.

She first earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Political Science and then a Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Science. So soon enough she found herself working in the magical world of libraries where she stayed for over a decade.

Her first professional sale was in 1997, and since then she has gone on to produce mostly novel length fiction. In 2006 she became New Zealand\\™s first podcast novelist, and she has voiced and produced Weaver\\™s Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic as podiobooks. Her podcasts have been short listed for the Parsec Awards, and won a Sir Julius Vogel award.

Philippa is the author of the Books of the Order series with Ace- the first of which Geist was released in October 2010. Spectyr (June 2011), Wrayth (2012) and Harbinger are to follow. She is also the co-author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris (her soon-to-be husband). Phoenix Rising debuted in May 2011 and Of Cogs and Corsets will be out in 2012. She also has the Shifted World series with Pyr Books, with the first book Hunter and Fox coming in 2012.

When not writing or podcasting, Philippa loves reading, gardening, and whenever possible traveling. Her two Siberian cats, Sebastian and Viola make sure she and the family stay out of trouble.

Categories
Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Laura Nicole

Laura Nicole, the Gypsy Pirate (add other titles here) of Flying Island Press edits stories, writes the Please Spay Your Tribbles column, and voices several stories for the audio version of Flagship. She is also the co-author of Prisoners of the Alliance and currently working on Absolution. Both of these stories can be found at www.scrivenerscircle.com. For all things Laura Nicole, visit her website www.GypsyLaura.com or follow her on Twitter @LN_Dragonsong.

Laura will be reading a story inspired by the #LessScaryHorror event from Halloween 2011 on Twitter.

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

TuacaCon 2011 – Vivid Muse

Vivid Muse photoViv is the co-host of the now four year old Into the Blender podcast with her husband Chooch, and her occasional all-female podcast is called Girls\\™ Rules. She is a contributor to the SpecFicMedia site, and co-host of their Beyond the Wall Podcast, which discusses the HBO Game of Thrones series. Her personal blog is called Vivid Musings.

Viv has been a panelist at Balticon for 3 years and Dragon*Con one year. She is the Manager of the TuacaCon Musical Guest of Honor, Ditched by Kate.

Viv started up Vivid Muse Creations, LLC this year to support all the amazing creative types she’s met over the years. The first major undertaking is launching a small publishing house that will release a breast cancer anthology next summer, with all proceeds going to breast cancer charities. They are accepting written and artistic submissions until December 15, 2011.

Pocket Mom Forever!

Viv will be providing a reading of the story that inspired the anthology during TuacaCon.

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

TuacaCon 2011 – Phil Rossi

Phil Rossi photographPhil Rossi — writer, musician, and embracer of new media — has a passion for story-telling matched only by the pleasure he derives from keeping his fans awake at night.

Crescent, Rossi’s debut novel, was originally released as a podcast in 2007 and has since lured thousands of listeners into a dark, twisted world of nightmares and things that go bump in the night. Crescent was released in print in 2009 and Phil’s next book, Eden, will be hitting bookshelves in late 2011.

Phil Rossi’s writing has been paralleled to Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, and HP Lovecraft. He has a flair for vivid and often chilling imagery that lends itself to engrossing narratives and an undertone of inescapable, creeping dread.

Phil is a professional musician in the Washington DC metropolitan area and is the front man for Ditched by Kate. He lives outside of Washington, DC in Virginia with his wife, daughters, and menagerie of rescued animals. He believes the need for sleep is a myth.

Phil will be providing an author reading for TuacaCon, as well as music videos of the band, Ditched by Kate.

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

TuacaCon 2011 – Abigail Hilton

Abigail Hilton pictureAbigail Hilton is a traveling nurse anesthetist. She has spent time in veterinary school, lived in Taiwan, and skinned rattlesnakes.

She\\™s also a self-published author with 10 books available, including the Guild of the Cowry Catchers series.