Category: News

TuacaCon 2011 – Vivid Muse

Post author By P.G. Holyfield
Post date November 11, 2011

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.

Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011 Website News

TuacaCon 2011 – Nathan Lowell

Post author By chooch
Post date November 11, 2011

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.

Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011 Website News

TuacaCon 2011 – Charity Element…

Post author By chooch
Post date November 11, 2011

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.

Tags Cancer Research, Charity, Element, Joe Murphy, Kick Ass, Leiomyosarcoma, Money, Music, Musician, Mystic, Podcaster, Podcasters

Author News/Announcements Author Video Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Phil Rossi

Post author By P.G. Holyfield
Post date November 10, 2011

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.

Author News/Announcements Author Video Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Abigail Hilton

Post author By P.G. Holyfield
Post date November 10, 2011

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.

Tags Abigail, author, fitcion, Hilton, Nurse Anesthetist, Rattlesnakes, Taiwan, Traveling Nurse, tuacacon, TuacaCon 2011, Veterinary School

Author News/Announcements Author Video Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 – Starla Huchton

Post author By P.G. Holyfield
Post date November 10, 2011

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.

Articles Author News/Announcements Authors Events News TuacaCon 2011

TuacaCon 2011 \\“ Nicole Gugliucci

Post author By P.G. Holyfield
Post date November 10, 2011

Nicole Gugliucci is a graduate student at the University of Virginia, working also at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. She has wanted to be an astronomer since seeing \\Contact\\ in theatres as a kid, and tries to find ways to bring the wonders of astronomy to everyone.

She engages in hands-on outreach with elementary school children through a program called \\Dark Skies, Bright Kids,\\ has taught a class at UVa called \\Life Beyond Earth,\\ and blogs for Discovery Space News.

Inspired also by Carl Sagan\\™s \\Demon-Haunted World,\\ Nicole considers herself a critical thinking advocate, getting involved in local skeptics groups and blogging at NoisyAstronomer.com and SheThought.com.

Nicole will be featured in a video interview during TuacaCon.

Author Video Beyond The Wall Events News TuacaCon 2011 Website News

TuacaCon 2011 – Musical GOH – Ditched By Kate

Post author By chooch
Post date November 10, 2011

We are proud to announce that Ditched By Kate is the Musical Guest of Honor at TuacaCon 2011.

Ditched by Kate is an alternative rock band that exploded onto the Washington DC scene in 2010. They have been winning over crowds with their unique blend of emotion filled lyrics and melodic riffs that can sway from blues to grunge to driving rock.

Members include horror author Phil Rossi, SpecFicMedia Podcaster Chooch Schubert, Dennis Kapoyos, Jenn Taylor and Keith Taylor.

Music videos of the band will be featured throughout TuacaCon including songs from their upcoming album that have not been heard anywhere else before.

Gaming News

Gaming News – Felicia Day

Post author By chooch
Post date October 4, 2011

Yeah, I admit it. I’m in platonic love (okay, maybe not so platonic, but I’m a realist) with Felicia Day. She once did a quick intro for one of the episodes of my podcast novel (Murder at Avedon Hill) and when I later met her at DragonCon, she actually recognized me after seeing my name on my badge. Not to mention, I got to witness her hold off her handler/bodyguard so she could talk to a young girl that had been waiting in line for twenty minutes, even though the “Walk of Fame” was closing, and even made the guy take the photo below even though he just wanted to get the heck out of the hall… 😉

Felicia Day has had great success with her webseries The Guild, as Penny in Joss Whedon’s Doctor Horrible, and has had appearances/stints on shows such as Eureka, House, and Lie to Me. Heck, she even starred in one of the more bearable SYFY Saturday movies, Red: Werewolf Hunter.

And this fall she is featured in two forms of media for Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age 2: Mark of the Assassin is DLC for Dragon Age 2 that will be available on October 11th, and on that same day the live action webseries, Dragon Age: Redemption will also be available on XBox Live.
Redemption was written and stars Ms. Day, and I’m looking forward to both very much.