Contents May Vary

Last October, I got to yet again attend Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con, formerly known as Comikaze. My second time attending, this time I only went one day. This convention, now in its sixth year, was Los Angeles’ first major comic convention. As with any convention, there were plenty of panels, celebrities, and artists and vendors to go about. 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Back in April, I attended the 2017 Writers of the Future Awards. While there, I was lucky enough to connect with author Nancy Kress, who was one of the judges. Author of 27 novels, 3 books on writing, and many, MANY short stories, she’s won 6 Nebulas and 2 Hugo Awards. I managed to do a phone interview with her, where we talked about her writing process, the differences between science fiction and fantasy, and her advice to new writers. 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 On August 22, in partnership with the online fundraising platform Omaze and Make-a-Wish, there was a live tribute to him. Hosted by Chris Hardwick, Extraordinary: Stan Lee boasted a wide range of celebrities coming out to honor the creator. I managed to get on the red carpet and get some interviews down with some of them.  

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Back in late April, I attended the 2017 LA Times Festival of Books. The largest book festival in the US, this free annual event celebrates the written word. With panels on a variety of topics, readings and interviews with authors, and even music performances, there’s always something for everyone. This was my third year attending. While I was there, I interviewed many of the people in the various vendor booths throughout the festival.

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 "Hey: it's that one guy!" It's the cry of many a character actor (so much so that it's got its own page on TV Tropes, and for actor Stephen Tobolowsky, that's fine with him. Appearing in over 200 films and/or television episodes, you may know him as the insurance salesman in Groundhog Day, the substitute teacher Sandy Ryerson in Glee, or from any number of various roles. 

In 2014, I had the chance to interview him. He was going to be at that year's LA Festival of Books. He's coming back to this year's LA Festival of Books, promoting his newest book, My Adventures with God, and so I thought it was a great chance to bring this interview out from storage. 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 On April 2, I attended the 33rd annual Writers of the Future Award ceremony. With a dragon gracing the red carpet and the stage. the ceremony had a keynote from the co-founder and president of Dragon*Con Pat Henry, and presented this year's Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Resnick.

The 12 writers and illustrators received this year's awards, with Jake Marley winning the Golden Pen Award for his submission "Acquisition", and Michael Michera winning the Golden Brush Award for his illustration that went with C.L. Kagmi's story, "The Drake Equation".

The podcast combines some of the interviews I managed to get while attending and excerpts from the award ceremony. 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Marco Beltrami is no stranger to composing movies in the sci fi and superhero world. His first major breakthrough was doing the score for Wes Craven’s Scream, and you may recognize his music from such genre favorites as Hellboy, Mimic, The Faculty, and even worked with Philip Glass for the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. He's been nominated for an Oscar for his scores for both 3:10 to Yuma and The Hurt Locker.

In early March, I had the opportunity to interview him over the phone about his latest project Logan, the latest — and possibly last — Wolverine movie starring Hugh Jackman. 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 While at the 2016 Wondercon, I also had the chance to talk with some of the people at another panel, "Streaming Success: Behind-the-Scenes of Your Favorite Binge Worthy Shows".

The panel discussed the original content of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and some of the people that work on the various shows produced by them. My associate Hope Donoghue and I first talked to James ("Jimmy") Levine and Sean Callery. We then talked to David Van Dyke, VFX producer and (at the time) vice president of Shade VFX (he's now president). 

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Last March, I attended WonderCon here in Los Angeles. I (and a few others) covered it for SciFi4Me.com, and I had a lot more content that I never had time to do anything with.

One such item was a chance to meet up with some of the guys that were on the "High Scorers Panel: Star Composers of the Video Game World". The panel was, obviously, music composers for video games talking about their work. I managed to get a chance to interview some of them before the panel. I first talked to Gordy Haab and Niels Bye Nielsen, and then I talked to Bill Brown and John Kaefer.

For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Last September, I covered an agent’s roundtable event for Camera Angles. The event was part of the Emerging Cinematographer Awards, a way to bring advice for how to make it in the film industry to the award winners. The chair of the awards is cinematographer Jimmy Matlosz, and he gave the up and coming honorees some great advice during the event.

I sat down with Jimmy at his home to discuss what exactly a cinematographer does, his work process, and his latest project.  

See the accompanying article here.