Category Archives: IRL

xpost: Mental Residue – Balticon 49 Panel: Podcasting 101

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Featured-Balticon49Balticon 49 Panel: Podcasting 101

Here you can listen to the raw audio from the Balticon Podcasting 101 panel, thanks to Scott Pond for recording and producing. You can find his podcast  Mental Residue here.

Featuring: Scott E. Pond (moderator), Veronica Giguere, Nunuche “Nutty” Nuchtchas, Doc Coleman, and Jason G. Banks

Topic: Podcasting 101 – Discuss the basics of developing a podcast. What is your target audience? What are you trying to market? How do you grow a style to call your own that draws in fans?

Panelists

  • Veronica Giguere -Veronica “V.” Giguere is a narrator, author, and educator. In love with her microphone for nearly nine years, she has voiced spoiled supervillains, tempting demons, Communist metahumans, fierce pirates, anxious technomancers, secret agent archaeologists, suspicious journalists, foxling pirates, enchanted princesses, and a young woman facing an odd spider infestation. She is a coauthor of the Secret World Chronicles podcast novel series and her other writings include inner-city cyberpunk, psychological thrillers, and zombies. When she isn’t telling you your favorite stories, Veronica masquerades as a mild-mannered academic whose specialties include time management and academic resource instruction.
    Website: http://www.voicesbyveronica.com
    Website: http://www.dawningsky.com
  • Nunuche “Nutty” Nuchtchas – Artist by day, blogger and podcaster by night, Nuchtchas (nicknamed Nutty — artist, blogger, podcaster, gamer, role player, and self professed “Geek Queen”) is the chief editor and director of nimlas.org and NIMLAS Studios. While currently based in New Brunswick, Canada with spouse and Dragon, Nuchtchas is often traveling back where she came from, New York and all around the United States.
    Website: http://nimlas.org
  • Doc Coleman – Inspired by the creative voices of new media, Doc Coleman is an emerging figure in the podiosphere. After a tour as Galley Table’s regular stow-away, and producer of his own podcast The Shrinking Man Project, Doc has broadened his scope to include voice acting and writing. His voice acting credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Pirate’s Cove, Absolution from Scrivener’s Circle, the YA novel Ginny Dare, and live performances of Metamor City at Balticons 45 and 47, and Stargazers at Balticon 46. He is part of the newly formed League of Extraordinary Vocalists. His stories have appeared in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences’ Tales From the Archives, the Way of the Gun anthology, and the Steampunk Special Edition of Flagship magazine. He is self-publishing his first novel, The Perils of Prague, the first novel of the series The Adventures of Crackle and Bang.
    Find out about all of Doc’s projects at Swimming Cat Studios (SwimmingCatStudios.com). When he isn’t juggling projects, making a living, or mainlining podcasts, Doc is a gamer, an avid reader, a motorcyclist, a home brewer and beer lover, a fan of renaissance festivals, and frequently a smart-ass. He lives with his lovely wife and two cats in Germantown, MD.
    Website: http://www.doccoleman.com
    Website: http://www.niftytechblog.comWebsite: http://theshrinkingmanproject.comWebsite: http://swimmingcatstudios.com
  • Jason G. Banks – Jason has been a voracious reader since he was a kid, and started listening to podcasts in 2006 after his reading led him to Scott Sigler’s work while on deployment to Iraq. Then it was one thing after another; he met Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine in 2010 after he left the service. They suggested Balticon and doing his own podcast. He said he could never do that. Two years later he started The Talk Nerdy 2 Me Podcast and participating in Balticon as a panelist on the anime track and in the viewing room, instead of just attending the convention.
    Website: http://bigbearsden.wordpress.com
    Website: http://talknerdy2mepodcast.com
  • Scott E. Pond – Scott E. Pond is the owner/proprietor of Scott E. Pond Designs, LLC. He is a creative powerhouse in the realm of digital and print publications, art, and graphic designs, boasting diverse experience in eBook and traditional print cover art, cover layout and graphic design, interior layout and desktop publishing, digital and traditional illustration, photography, marketing and promotional branding, personal branding, and general design services. He also likes cheese, especially Swiss.
    Follow him on Twitter: @ScottEPond
    Website: http://scottpond.com
    Website: http://scottepond.com

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:29 — 49.0MB) | Embed

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Balticon Art Sale!

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Balticon Art Sale!

I’ll be bringing some of my art cards with me to Balticon. If you saw something you liked this year during Daily Creativity, you may be able to get your hands on the original! I will charge only $5 per card, first come first serve basis.

If you aren’t going to Balticon but would like one, I can mail it to you for $5 plus shipping.

Your choice, Rory as various avengers, as Rincewind, Neptune or Jupiter, or any of these Love Your Body pieces.

SOLD Print Only
SOLD Print Only
SOLD!
SOLD!
SOLD!
SOLD Print Only
Original UNAVAILABLE Print Only
Original Available for Purchase
Original Available for Purchase
Original Available for Purchase
Original Available for Purchase
SOLD!

Balticon Headshot Special!

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Balticon Headshot Special!

Each year I have a Balticon Special where I will take professional headshots for podcasters, writers, whomever needs one.  The special rate is only $50, for this you get the best shots from our photoshoot (large resolution files and smaller icon sizes) and complete ownership of the photos so you may use them without permission.  It is implied that your headshot may be used in portfolio, but if you’d like me not to, as some have, then I will not include them, free of charge.

To get a session booked, hit me up on twitter @nuchtchas (or other social media or email avenues) and we can work out a time.  Or find me at the con, first come gets first booking.  Day time is the best for natural light.

Below are a just a few shots I have taken in the past.

Balticon 48 thoughts

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Balticon48_MG_1615Last week I attended Balticon for the sixth year in a row and was a guest for the second year in a row.  Balticon is always an amazing experience for me, it fills me with creative energy and the desire to do a million projects.  Balticon is a time that I get to meet up with my podcasting family, and that is always great.  I never have enough time for everyone, or anyone.  Never enough pictures, and never enough sleep, not even close.  This year I even violated the 3-2-1 rule (don’t worry, I violated the 2), which is normally a hard and fast rule for me.

I realize after this Balticon, instead of jumping to do all of those new project ideas I have that I need to finish the ones I haven’t finished yet.  That is my first priority.

I also come home to the crunch of just a little more than a month in this location.  Tek and I will be moving to Ontario this year which brings the highlight of being closer to some of the Balticon family, but further from the friends and community we built here, also, moving away from the radio station is going to be a big adjustment too.  So I have less time to jump on this creative energy.

This year Tek wasn’t able to come to Balticon, as Pip said, the Queen needed him more.  So the drive down and back was much more difficult.  We got in 11am Thursday, and after a nice nap got to see all of the other early birds.  Every year Balticon has more and more people arriving on Thursday.  Thursday is a day with no programing and a moment to get ready for the con.

Friday brought a nice ease into the con, programing doesn’t start till the afternoon and it’s time that you get registered and set up, also, this year it was the day we had the new media cookout, titled the new media Meat and Great :)  That was a blast as always, I LOVED not having to plan or do anything for it this year.  This year we must have had 100 people there, and it was a blast as always.

Saturday was full swing con, I was dressed as a TARDIS and part of a time war photoshoot, I regret not having someone take my camera and snap pictures, but based on some of the pictures I have from handing off my camera from the weekend, I’m not sure I would have gotten much.  More highlights are the concert by Kim the Comic Book Goodess (She has an album out, go buy it!!!), Podcasters Against Humanity, and of course, Balticon Beats!  The New Media Party (Rave), which was awesome.  I haven’t danced that hard since I was in my twenties.

Sunday was a blur for me, so many panels, so little food.  I had fun though, even for the two panels I was on that only had 4 people in the audience, everything was worthwhile and fun.  Beyond the Wall Live was that night as was Nutty Bites Live.

Monday is the day we all say goodbye and just don’t want to.

Every night I was out late and not wanting to go to bed no matter what my body was telling me, I knew I only had these brief moments to see these people.

All in all, a great Balticon, I can’t wait for next year, and next year Tek will be back.

Dragon*Cant: Cover Art Panel – How to visually represent your audio project

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Nutty Bites and The Weird Show cover art shows how to get your brand and your show idea across to all platforms

September 2nd, 2012 I held a panel (Google Hangout) in conjunction with Dragon*Cant, How to visually represent your audio project.  Below is the full video with the tutorial and discussion, in addition to the dos and don’ts you will be able to see a demonstration of Photoshop and GIMP, two of the most popular image editing programs out there.  One is free (GIMP) and anyone can use it, and one costs butt loads of money and needs a lot of skill to learn.  In the video I also cover some other image editing choices.

For the TL;DR crowd:

Do’s:

  • Include your brand.
  • Show name, episode title, and episode number.
  • Make sure to post your album art in both the mp3 file AND in your blog post so facebook and google plus will generate an image preview to the episode link.
  • Make two sizes of your art, 1400×1400 for iTunes and smaller for your webpage.
  • Make your art square.
  • Have you art relevant to the topic of the episode.
  • Ask for help.
  • Use the same image style and brand on your website, your facebook page/group, your G+ profile, twitter account, and all other forms of social media.

Don’ts

  • use bizarre color combinations
  • get in over your head (if you have little knowledge with image editing, don’t buy photoshop, start simple)
  • ignore cover art
  • ignore social media sites, you need to get your podcast in people’s faces, that starts with the cover art that links to the website.

Do you have tips or suggestions to add to this?  Please leave it in the comments, thank you.