Castle Corsetry owner-operator and cat-lover Lauren Matesic has designed and built hundreds of corsets as well as custom costume orders specialising in expertly tailored spandex suits and impeccable cosplay recreations.

As a geeky girl herself, Lauren's enthusiasm makes her work truly exceptional, and fellow geeks have come to know Lauren as the go-to girl for commission cosplays for conventions across the country every year. Her designs have been worn by geek-culture celebrities like Team Unicorn, Ivy Doomkitty and Adrianne Curry!

On top of all that, Lauren's latest project is an upcoming web series Pawsplay, which launches on the AWE Me YouTube channel Monday, July 18th!

Lauren and I have a great chat about the challenges of working with spandex, how the makers' collective that Lauren lucked into sharing office space with inspire and challenge her (and made her the most awesome office space in the world) and about how keeping your child self's imagination alive after when people say the days of dress-up ought to be over is at the heart of getting paid to play.

Board game marketer Brittanie Boe, known to pretty much everyone as Bebo, is an example of paid to play success for those of us who feel like life has locked us into the nine-to-five. She is a single mother and lover of board games who had a day job working in the marketing department of an insurance company.

Now, Bebo is the marketer for a board game distributor, managing multiple social media channels with a team of fellow enthusiasts, attending industry and fan conventions and generally helping enthusiasts find the right games for their tastes. On top of all that, she works from her home!

And if that’s not enough, Bebo joins forces with my guest for episode 77, Teri Litorco; together, they are the blogging, YouTubing and podcasting duo of tabletop gaming, The Board Dames!

It was great chatting with Bebo about how she transitioned from day-job dullness to work-from-home wonderment, how Bebo’s friends and family help stop her from losing herself in work and what her next steps will be – as well as her not-so-secret desire to form a country music band!

Independent film maker Travis Bain has been in love with movies and the making of them most of his life. His day job is filming weddings and corporate videos, but he pours his spare time into movies like the indie horror film Throwback, the upcoming disaster thriller Landfall, and a currently in preproduction love letter to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Starspawn.

We chat about how a Mexican singer led to Travis committing to the course of his life, the difference between producers and directors, how hard it is to get your hands on the works of H.P. Lovecraft outside a major city and how kids these days substitute ambition for genuine love and curiosity.

Self-published author of urban and erotic fantasy Kimberley Clark is determined to make sure that every item on herbucket list is crossed off. One of those items was to write a novel – yet after completing that project, Kimberley discovered that rather than moving on to the next thing, she had to keep going as a writer.

Kimberley is now the self-published author of a trilogy of erotic urban fantasy novels, the Battles in the Dark series, which are on sale on Amazon. We had a great chat about pursuing your dreams, the struggle in finding a good editor and the choice between self-publishing and seeking out a traditional publisher.

Though she’s only 21 years old, Elle Sommerling has almost ten years of experience behind the microphone, the majority of which is as a working voice artist. She’s soon to graduate university in the United States with a degree is in Education, but her passion lies in voice acting.

Elle - who, when this chat was recorded, was still using her real name of Ann Tworek in her voice work endeavours - has completed work for international companies as well as small-time amateur character projects and currently has ongoing projects in both the commercial and character acting fields.

As an aspiring voice talent myself, it was great to chat with Elle about how her family helped her get started in voice performance, how she juggled study with freelance voice work and how boxes and closets can be vital to good sound recording!

Tabletop roleplaying game GM Adam Koebel is at the forefront of an explosion of RPG popularity online. Though the creative storytelling hobby of tabletop roleplaying games have been around since the advent of Dungeons & Dragons in the mid-seventies, it’s only in the last few years that people have been able to harness live streaming and YouTube videos to present their play for others’ entertainment.

Adam is currently the Game Master in Residence at Roll20, a platform for playing tabletop RPGs across the Internet, and GM of the RollPlay: Swan Song and Rollplay: Balance of Power campaigns for Twitch live-streaming channel itmeJP.

Adam also co-designed the award-winning Dungeon World tabletop roleplaying game and streams analytical content and video game play from Vancouver, Canada. Join me as I have a great geek-out over a shared hobby and chat about how modern technology is enabling not just RPGs as entertainment, but all us hobbyists a chance to improve our skills and find our audiences!

Sim Lauren is in a position that we wish were less unique than it is; not only does she have two hobbies that she gets paid to play with, but she’s also working at a day job that she quite enjoys!

Sim has been a gamer for as long as I’ve known her (since the late nineties), and has turned painting miniature figures for wargames into an income stream, having recently completed a sixteen-inch-high Chaos Reaver Titan for commission. Not only that, though, she indulges her love of knitting and creating clothing by doing consignment work for stores across the UK!

Technologist for hire Shane Gibson has loved technology since he was a kid, and when he was made redundant from a full-time IT job, he decided to put his skills to work for himself as a freelance consultant, helping folks integrate their computers and electronic gadgets into their lives.

Shortly afterward, however, he discovered that the paperwork requirements for being self-employed weren’t for him, and he leapt on a job opportunity with a multi-state radio network that allows him to keep plying his skills with technology and computers for a full-time wage!

Shane and I have a great chat about not just how well (or not) new technology works, but also how it could help those with impairments due to age or disability overcome those handicaps. We also discuss the struggle of setting and keeping to your own rate, knowing what kind of work is right for you (including nine-to-five or on-call employeedom) and some of the perceived potential negative effects of being surrounded by so much wireless technology.

It’s probably the dream of every comic fan to work for one of the major comics brands, and Brisbane boy Wayne Nichols has made it real; he is a penciler, the person creating the line art that forms the base of a comic book’s pages, who has worked on The Incredible Hulk and the official comics for the Orphan Black TV series. His work is not only critically acclaimed; it has also made him a guest at Australian pop culture conventions, where he gets to both be a fan and meet the fans of his work.

Wayne also uses his skills in visual art as an illustrator, creating art work for projects and story boards for videos.

It was fantastic to finally catch up with Wayne after meeting him at Tropicon and chat about his favourite titles as a reader of comics, his dreams of making it as a bassist in an alt-rock band and just what it’s like to do comics and visual art for a living!

Teri Litorco is keen on all things tabletop gaming, but ferociously so on wargames using miniature figures, from the big kahunas of the scene like Warhammer 40,000 to heavy-hitting newcomers like WarMachine. Her goal is to demystify the at-times complex hobby for newcomers and ease them into assembling, painting and playing.

Teri has been assembling, painting, playing and sharing her passion for these figures and games online for years via text and video, but for the past few, geek culture website Geek & Sundry has been hiring Teri to add her enthusiasm to their brand!

Brace yourselves for a solid geek-out episode, folks! I got to share a fantastic hour and a half with this incandescent Canadian to talk about her favourite WarMachine side, being possibly the first female Games Workshop store employee in Canada, hanging out with geek luminaries like Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton and adapting the techniques of makeup and fashion vloggers to enhance your geek vlogging skills!

YouTube

Teri Litorco

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Official Teri Litorco Website

The Board Dames

* Podcast

Miniature Market (reviewer page)

Gigs

Geek & Sundry

* Geek & Sundry Video Logs

* TableTop

Games Workshop (previous employer)

Games

Pathfinder

Star Trek: Attack Wing

StarCraft

Warhammer 40,000

* The Tyranid Army – Teri’s boyfriend (now husband)’s college miniatures

WarMachine

* The Cygnar Army

* Steamroller Tournaments

Geeks

Amy Dallen

Felicia Day

Jaded Gamercast – Teri’s husband’s podcast

Penny Arcade

* Acquisitions Inc.

Wil Wheaton

Events and Conventions

Adepticon

CoolMiniOrNot Expo

GenCon

International Tabletop Day