It is almost Balticon time again! But it isn’t too late for another Balticon 50 interview. Today I’m talking with the winner of last year’s Compton Crook Award, Alexandra Duncan.

Alexandra is an author and a librarian. Her Young Adult Science Fiction story Salvage took the Compton Crook Award last year, and she’s followed it up with a second novel, Sound. She also has a number of Short stories and one novella in print. I hope you’ll enjoy my talk with Alexandra, and look for her at Balticon.

Interview time again! Next up, we have this year’s musical guests, filk artists Bill and Gretchen Roper.

Bill has been active in writing, recording, performing, and publishing filk music for over 20 years. His particular sense of humor and his writing style have earned him the nickname “the Grim Roper”. If Bill’s singing alone, it’s not going to be good for the person he’s singing about.

Gretchen has likewise been promoting filk for over 20 years, but when her voice enters the music, things take a decidedly comical bent.

Another busy week means… another reading! This time from yours truly. This episode features a reading from the first draft of my novel, The Perils of Prague, book 1 of the Adventures of Crackle and Bang. I’m sorry to say that I’m still revising this book, but I’m much closer to having it ready to publish. If this reading has your interested, be sure to keep an eye out for new developments over at Swimming Cat Studios.

And now, for something a little different. After so many panels, it is time for a reading! And we have a previously unreleased reading by Yoji Kondo, using a stunt reader. Mr. Kondo is an astrophysicist as well as a fiction writer, and has worked with NASA for over 15 years. His fiction has been published under the pen name Eric Kotani. The reading is from his novel, Legacy of Prometheus.

This week it is time to take a look at copyrights. We’ll be joining John Taylor Williams, Thomas “Cmdline” Gideon, Suzanne Rosen, and panel draftee Randy Chirco as they look at what Copyright is, how it does and doesn’t apply to writing and music, what is and isn’t protected, and some of the pitfalls one can find in contracts. Of particular interest is how the Google Scholar program ran into problems with copyright by trying to declare books as “orphan works” without any investigation, the impact of SOPA and other “anti-piracy” acts that over-zealously attack end users, copyright trolls who attempt to extort money from people for rights they don’t even own, and how the digital economy is changing the concept of copyright.

This is important information for anyone who creates content, or wants to know what they need to do to stay on the right side of copyright law when referring to others work. We hope you’ll enjoy it.

Balticon 50 starts here! The first panel is over a month away, but we’re proud to get things started by brining you interviews with some of our returning guests of honor and other notables. First up in our hit parade is returning Guest of Honor Jody Lynn Nye, and her husband, Bill Fawcett.

Jody is an author with a remarkable career in her own right, as well as her collaborations with Anne McCaffrey, and Robert Asprin. Bill is an editor by trade, but he also is a military historian specializing in how mistakes on the battlefield have turned the course of war.

Both of them were present at the beginning of Dungeons and Dragons, and have seen the rise of gaming culture.

Listen in as we explore the worlds of writing, editing, gaming, conventions, and other things with Jody and Bill!

All has not been going smoothly over at Swimming Cat Studios, and I’m afraid that this week’s episode will be late. We apologize for the delay, and we want to assure you that the wayward episode will be out as soon as possible.

Audience participation time! We’re going to take pieces of classic erotica, cut out the author’s carefully chosen words, and ask you to replace them with your own.

Moderator: Patrick Scaffido

Speakers: Starla Huchton; Doc Coleman

I mentioned several episode ago that there would eventually be changes in the podcast, and here is the first one. I’m changing the numbering convention used for the episodes. Up until now, the episodes were numbered this way:

BC48.150

BC = BaltiCon

48 = number of the Balticon the recording is associated with

150 = number of episodes in the podcast.

This has been a little confusing because you can potentially have BC49.154 followed by BC47.155. The last number becomes increasingly meaningless.

Going forward, the first two portions of the episode numbers will stay the same, but the number on the end will be the number of episodes associated with that particular Balticon. So BC50.5 is the fifth episode from Balticon 50. Balticon 46 will continue to be numbered the old way, but from Balticon 47 on, the numbers will reset with each new convention.

Home Brewing — How to get started and excel at making your own craft beer, wine, etc.

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin

Our panel of novice and master home brewers take you through the basics of making your own craft brews at home. They will also explore the DIY philosophy that got them involved in home brewing, podcasting, open source software, etc.

Moderator: John Taylor Williams

Speakers: Doc Coleman; Thomas Gideon; Scott Roche