Sci-Fi Saturday Night

What do the following people have in common:

Gary K Wolf

In not too simple terms the correct answer is Gary K. Wolf, author and creator of Roger Rabbit. In this episode we literally fall down the rabbit hole of Gary’s inventive mind to talk about the stories behind the inception of Toontown, the Roger Rabbit movie and almost everything else in the wonderful mind of Gary Wolf.

Join us for a  fun freewheeling off the wall conversation and be sure to enjoy the chaos.

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Who Censored Roger Rabbit

Who P-p-p-plugged Roger Rabbit?

Who Wacked Roger Rabbit?

C.T. Phipps

In this edition, we get to reconnect with CT Phipps, who discerning listeners might remember from his series, “The Rules of Supervillany”. He comes by to talk about another of his amazing passions, the Space Opera, a segment of Science Fiction that requires the writer to figuratively AND literally build almost everything from the ground up. His newest series with protagonist Cassius Mass, who is “royalty” and heroic starfighter pilot within the Crius Archduchy, who finds out that not only was his home world destroyed but he was also fighting for the wrong side. Lucifer’s Star is book one of this trilogy and C.T. along with co-author Michael Suttkus is meticulous in painting a broad canvas of the societies in which his story takes place. The Commonwealth, the Crius Archduchy and life afterwards hiding aboard an interstellar freight hauler come alive with  clarity, purpose and intent. The main characters in book one (this being the book we talked about and thus far the only one I have read) are never one dimensional, and that makes this book a very thick read, which quite frankly is a huge part of its charm. It is a constantly evolving twisted plat reveal with complex characters in increasingly intricate worlds and societies.

One wonders as this book plays out, is Cassius a good man? My suggestion is , find out for yourself but first enjoy the conversation. At the end of the ‘Cast there is a small excerpt from the audio edition.

Enjoy the chaos, I did.

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Lucifer’s Star by C.T. Phipps and Michael Suttkus

Peter Vinton Jr.

It was Ben Bova who said that “Science Fiction is simply history that hasn’t happened yet”. In this edition, we get a true glimpse of that as we talk with our old friend Peter Vinton Jr. Artist, writer, historian and bibliophile, Peter joins the ‘Cast to talk about Volume two of his social allegory passion project,

The Monitor’s Guild – Book Two:The Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Part history, part science fiction part urban fantasy, part spy thriller and part political parable, Volume Two of his dystopian cautionary tale has just come out. We got the chance to talk about the myriad aspects of past present and future that, from a writing standpoint, make this book wonderful. We also talked about his artwork in the book and the depth and detail in each panel.

In other news, Peter and I reminisced about out first meetings at the former Boston Comic Con and what has happened since then. He also spoke about some signings he had done at some of his childhood comic stores including The Million Year Picnic.

It was a wonderful conversation, I hope you enjoy it.

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The Monitor’s Guild Book Two

Scot Noel

In this episode we get another look behind the curtain of Dreamforge – A Magazine of Science and Fantasy Fiction. Once again wed get to speak with Scott Noel about how this project has evolved as Issue #3 comes out this month and work begins on Issue 4 in the never-ending cycle of publishing a quarterly magazine. The passion project begun by Scot and his wife Jane grows more involved with each issue: with a myriad of new story’s, exquisite artwork and glimpses in the mirror world of  what is currently trending dystopian science fiction.

This is due in no small part to our second guest, “Senior Advisor & Creative Consultant” for Dreamforge and

Jane Lindskold

world-renowned writer Jane Lindskold. While Jane began her writing career in 1992 her volumes of critically acclaimed work is simply amazing. She has written a number of Novel series including

Volume 3 of Dreamforge includes a new (and the only) short story in The Firekeeper universe and is simply wonderful. It works very well as a stand-alone and provides the reader with a glimpse into a truly magical future that resides in the novels.

Join us for a fun evening  with two very bright and interesting friends of the show.

Enjoy the chaos.

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Dreamforge

GraniteCon 2019

In this episode we get a chance to have a quick conversation with Chris Proulx, mastermind extraordinaire behind Granite State Comic Con. With less than a week to go, he took a few moments from his busy schedule to sit down with us at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, NH (where all good Granite Cons come from) and get the word on what’s new and different this year.

Then we got to speak with another long time friend of the show (with yet another unpronounceable name), Richard Paolinelli.

Richard Paolinelli

Ostensibly Richard was here to talk about a multitude of new projects he is currently involved in but , as usually happens , we got a bit sidetracked , so we spent most of the time talking about his new “not really a Sci Fi novel, not really a Fantasy novel”, When The Gods Fell. This is a fantastic piece of work and making the interview spoiler free was one of the most difficult interviews I have done in a long time, but well worth the effort. We also had a few moments to talk about his experience with Patreon and what he is now doing to bring readers in to his Scifiscribe website.

Richard is always fun to talk to. Enjoy the chaos.

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When The Gods Fell

Adam Wilson

In part one of this episode we get to speak with Adam Wilson who runs an organization aptly  called

CalmPassion

Calm Passion. The purpose of CalmPassion is to allow helps make events sensory friendly to support Autism and Neurodiverse families. I got the chance to meet Adam at Plastic City Comic Con and we spent some time talking about what his mission statement was and I must admit, I was more than a little intrigued by the idea. Adam and the cast got the chance to sit down and talk about all the whys and hows and their plans for the future of this unique and wonderful group. In the upcoming months you will be able to find them at Granite State Comicon, Rhode Island Comic Con and Kids Con in Portland, ME.

The Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera

In part two, we bring another segment from Colby Elliot’s wonderful new audio book, The Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera ( I got your bill for the new flooring in the Area 51 studio. The czech is in the mail.)

Enjoy the controlled chaos.

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Colby Elliot

My real purpose of going to conventions is networking (actually, the real REAL purpose is to find cool stuff to buy but more about that another time). Plastic City Comic Con is one of those one day Micro-Cons where networking is easy, fun and enjoyable, getting to see old friends and meeting new ones as well. So, Imagine my surprise when my friend Colby Elliot of Last Word Audio Studios sauntered by the booth and we gabbed liked we hadn’t seen each other in months (actually, we hadn’t seen each other in months , so…)

We talked for a while and then said this conversation would make a good show and so, welcome to 420. In this episode we talk about his newest audio creations The Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera, his upcoming travel plans, his own personal podcast ‘Geekery and Wine‘, his newest ideas and he even brags about helping to renovations in Area 51.

(Thanks for the help with installing the new flooring)

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The Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera

Welcomed to TalkCast 410. This episode is a “clip show“. What, you may ask, is a “clip show“? Well, to put it in non-podcasters terms, a “clip show” is a show with a bunch of clips, in this case audio, that we haven’t used before (seems kind of obvious now the I explained it, huh?). Just how did this “clip show” come about, you ask (my, you do ask a lot of questions, don’t you?)? This came about because of two things.

Barbara Friedlander

First, at Plastic City Comic Con we had a perfectly lovely interview with one of their special guests Barbara Friedlander, A DC Comic legend from the Silver Age. When the interview finished and we realized we didn’t have a guest for ‘cast 419, our convention crew, Cam and Trav, said hey, why don’t we use an audio clip of this interview. After much consideration (less than 30 seconds) I said, well yeah, it was really fun so lets do that but we don’t usually do a short ‘cast.

Which brings us to the second happenstance, Colby Elliot and his new audio book ‘The

Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera’.  We had scheduled Colby to be on ‘cast 420 (no pun intended) and he had said “feel free to use portions of the book to kind of showcase what it’s all about, in fact maybe even at some point use some of the audio book I did for Sci Fi Saturday Night, ‘My Peculiar Family’ if you want to.”

So, I did!

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The Mad Scientist’s Cabinet of Curated Chimera

Karen Gosselin

In this episode we get to visit with one of the shows oldest friends, artist, writer and astonishing creative talent Karen Gosselin. We get to talk with her about her second year attending the Illustrators Master Class. Based on her description of the week, it would seem as if she has both a wonderfully creative time. If you want to see some of the end result of what she accomplished there be sure to check out the SFSN Table at Plastic City Comic Con on July 13th.  and say hello to our very special guest.

You will also get the opportunity to see and meet some other amazing people and vendors, including:

And a gajillion or so others…

Please head on down for a fun day.

Any conversation with Karen is always fun.

Welcome to the 5 Timers Club Karen.

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Official Five Timer’s Club Member

Joseph Paradis

When you go to Author Expo’s or conventions you can meet tons of diverse people and if you’re foolish enough to “judge a book by its cover” or in this case “an author by his looks”, you may sometimes ‘have gravely misjudged the situation’.

Meet Joseph Paradis. We spoke at a meeting a few months back and I’m not sure what it was that I expected when I received his book but what ever my expectations were it was most certainly NOT Saving The Dark Side – The Devotion. To explain, when you listen to our conversation on this ‘cast, Joe is a very likeable, dynamic, personable kind of guy with a genuine warmth and pleasant air about him. The conversation we had at the Expo was very nice and relaxed, albeit brief, as conversations in this type of setting usually are.

So Joe created this universe and introduces us to its main character, Cole. When he was 3 years old he began to “disappear”. First for hours and then days at a time and never had any idea where he had gone. Joe slowly brings the reader jarringly through his childhood to the point at which Cole disappears from earth completely  into a series of events that continue to test and teach him about what he is truly capable of.

Some books take your hand and gently guide you through a plot; others drop you in the middle of nowhere and force you to figure it out. This book punches you in the face again and again, and is compelling enough to make you want more and more. I warn you now; the reader will be coerced to root for Cole no matter what and you should. The book is that well written.

Enjoy the book

Enjoy the conversation

Enjoy the chaos

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Saving The Darkside
Book One – the Devotion

Click HERE for a free copy of his introductory short story to this universe Her Gift For You