SpecFicMedia
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.
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.
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.
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.
Viv 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.
Nathan Lowell is one of the Writer Guests of Honor for TuacaCon 2011 (along with Philippa J. Ballantine and Tee Morris).
Nathan Lowell has been a writer for more than forty years, and first entered the literary world by podcasting his novels. His sci-fi series, Trader’s Tales from The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, grew from his long time fascination with space opera and his own experiences shipboard in the United States Coast Guard. Unlike most works which focus on a larger-than-life hero (prophesized savior, charismatic captain, or exiled prince), Nathan centers on the people behind the scenes–ordinary men and women trying to make a living in the depths of space. In his novels, there are no bug-eyed monsters, or galactic space battles, instead he paints a richly vivid and realistic world where the “hero” uses hard work and his own innate talents to improve his station and the lives of those of his community.
Dr. Nathan Lowell holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology with specializations in Distance Education and Instructional Design. He also holds an M.A. in Educational Technology and a BS in Business Administration. He grew up on the south coast of Maine and is strongly rooted in the maritime heritage of the sea-farer. He served in the USCG from 1970 to 1975, seeing duty aboard a cutter on hurricane patrol in the North Atlantic and at a communications station in Kodiak, Alaska. He currently lives in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains with his wife and two daughters.
Nathan has one two Parsec Awards for novels from his “Share” Series.
Not playing this up too much since TuacaCon is sort of a drinking event disguised as a live author/musician share your work sort of thing, but during the live-streaming event I will be mentioning a charity that I and many podcasters have supported in the past, The Leiomyosarcoma Direct Research Fund.
Joe Murphy (Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas, Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It) was an early podcaster that inspired many of us to get out here and do our thing. He passed away from Leiomyosarcoma in 2007. If we can raise a little money for cancer research while we drink and share some great fiction and music with you guys, it’ll be a great evening.
Phil 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.
Abigail 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.
Starla Huchton released her first novel, The Dreamer\\™s Thread, as a full cast production beginning in August 2009. Her first foray into podcasting went on to become a finalist for the 2010 Parsec Awards. Since her debut, Starla\\™s voice has appeared in other podcasts including Weiner Blut and Erotica a la Carte.She is also a voice talent for DarkFire Productions, and narrates several of their projects, including The Emperor’s Edge, This Path We Share, and others. Her writing has appeared in the Erotica a la Carte podcast, the Farrago Anthology and, most recently, the Tales from the Archives podcast. Starla\\™s artistic endeavors continue into music as her dulcet tones have provided sweet crooning for various podcasts produced by Alex White, Koru Studios, and Imagine That Studios.From beautiful Monterey, California, Starla pursues a degree in Graphic Design while agent shopping her new Steampunk project, Antigone\\™s Wrath.Starla will provide an author reading as well as sing during TuacaCon.
