The Billibub Baddings Podcast

(in order of appearance)

Tee Morris (writer and voice of Billibub Baddings, host)

Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. Tee then appeared in Dragon Moon Press’ 2003 release, The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy. 2004 saw the releases of Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword and The Fantasy Writer’s Companion.

Tee entered 2005 with an idea, and that idea — podcasting MOREVI — went on to become the first book podcast in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra on Podcasting for Dummies. Along with that title and Legacy of MOREVI: Book One of the Arathellean Wars, Tee’s article “Dear John” appeared in BenBella Books’s Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets. In 2006, Tee appears in the podcast anthology VOICES: New Media Fiction (edited by Mur Lafferty), and in BenBella Books’ So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Tee continues to explore podcasting with The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy, a podcast about the marketing and self-promotional concepts for published and soon-to-be-published authors. He also hosts the companion podcast for Podcasting for Dummies and Wingin’ It’s “MicroBrewed” with Phil Rossi.

Dani Cutler (Wizard’s Voice, Daphne)

Dani Cutler re-discovered her love for all things audio through beginning a fan blog for The Sonic Society in 2005. It has since morphed into The Audio Addicts, encompassing the entire audio landscape, with a leaning towards audio cinema. She stepped further into the audio realm in March 2006 with the start of her own political podcast, Truth Seekers. She contributes to the Pickle News team and SFF Audio. You will occasionally hear her doing a podiobook review through Podiobooker, and she is the overnight announcer with kwss 106.7 out of Phoenix, AZ. She also does voice acting for Dream Realm Enterprises, as well as editing of their radio plays.

In her spare time, Dani is a mother of two (four, if you count husband and dog), plays the viola occasionally, and chats online WAY too much.

Leann Mabry (Julia Lessinger)

Suckered into it against her will, Leann Mabry has been lighting up the podosphere since early 2006 and no one has demanded she stop yet. Her show, Tag In the Seam, has become a fantastic example of the creativity inherent of the podcasting community and is now lead to offers (respectable ones, mind you) of her life-long dream: voiceover work.

Leann can be heard in episode 20 of Pseudopod, “What You Wish For”; the upcoming podcast novel Murder at Avedon Hill by P.G. Holyfield; the promos for podiobooks.com and Geeklabel.com; and has also done IVR work for the US office of Presence Technology, a Voice over IP software company based in Barcelona, Spain.

Leann co-owns Table 9 Studios with her geek enabler, fiancé, and frequent crash-test dummy, Clair. Her hero is Billy West of Futurama fame which completely explains why she wishes to be a cartoon when…or if…she grows up.

Resisting her geekness is futile.

Phil Rossi (Mick Nowinski)

Phil Rossi — writer, musician, and podcaster — has always enjoyed hearing himself speak. He embarked on the podcasting journey in early 2006. Since that time, Phil has been actively producing Filling the Page — a PodCast about his experience juggling music, writing, and life in general. He also co-hosts a monthly podcast segment with Tee Morris called MicroBrewed, which has appeared on Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It and Speaking of Beer. Additionally, Phil’s velvet voice can be heard on episode 11 of the Barfly podcast. Phil is also the winner of PodCast Pickle’s Pickletales competition.

Presently, Phil is recording an album with his band Phil Rossi and the Bad Habit and is in the process of writing a multimedia tour de force with his other band, the Pharmacy Prophets. Both bands perform regularly in the Metro DC area. Additionally, Phil is neck deep in the production of his first podcast novel Crescent which will go live in the spring of 2007, preceded by a series of shorts from the Crescent universe starting in February.

Phil lives in Virginia with his loving, beautiful, and supportive wife and seven pets.

Victor Cajiao (Lou)

Victor Cajiao is an IT manager by day and podcaster by night…all hours of the night. He is the host of the Typical Mac User Podcast, and the Immigration Tales Podcast. Victor is passionate about audio production, music, teaching technophiles…and cigars.

Joe Murphy (Eddie)

Sweet little Joe from Illinois awoke to the horrid sound of a twister one morning. After the storm passed, he was deposited in the alien landscape of Arizona and a vague feeling of homesickness. That quickly vanished when Michael R. Mennega and Evo Terra offered him piles and piles of free books, and killer desserts when in the studio.

Appreciating science fiction and fantasy in all forms, Joe went in to the profession of…Audiology? His Bachelor’s came from Illinois State University and his Master’s from Western Illinois University, and with these degrees Joe help people hear the world around them. Joe reviews books for The Dragon Page, remains the sober voice of Wingin’ It, goes old school on The Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas and voices his opinions on Slice of SciFi.

In 2007, Joe makes his byline debut with Dragon Moon Press in The Author’s Grimoire: Volume Three of The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy. His article is about reviewing books, the gig that got him into podcasting.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Joe Murphy passed away April 1, 2007, after a battle with leiomyosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer. He was a terrific podcaster, a great guy, and an even better friend. Please give to the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund in order to increase awareness of this devestating disease.

Scott Sigler (Benny Riletto)

Scott Sigler wrote his first monster story in the third grade and hasn’t stopped since. A creator of novels, short stories and screenplays, Scott’s work revolves around modern science’s dichotomy of simultaneously producing good and evil.

Scott reinvented book publishing when he released EarthCore as the world’s first “podcast-only” novel. Released in twenty weekly episodes, EarthCore harkened back to the days of serialized radio fiction and picked up 10,000 subscribers along the way.

His next podcast novel, Ancestor, drew 30,000 listeners and saw 700,000 episodes downloaded by fans. The Ancestor buzz caused Sirius Satellite to pick up the novel, making it the first audiobook serialized on the satellite network. Combined with Scott’s other two podcast novels, Infection and The Rookie, Scott’s fans have downloaded over 3 million files of his fiction.

Scott’s innovative use of technology puts him at the forefront of modern-day publishing, and has garnered brand-name exposure among hundreds of thousands of fiction fans and technology buffs. He’s been covered in The Washington Post, Business Week, CNet, The Book Standard, MacWorld and the nationally syndicated radio show The Dragon Page.

Michigan native, Scott lives in San Francisco with his wife Jody and their two dogs, Mookie and Emma. And no, he’s not as scary as he looks…or sounds…or thinks…or writes…

Philippa Ballantine (Secretary, My World Book entry, Apprentice)

Philippa Ballantine holds Tee Morris responsible for a lot of things: pointing her in the direction of her publisher, dragging her into podcasting, and getting her into bookshops for her first book signings. As punishment she demanded a role in Tee’s next audio production where she could inflict her New Zealand accent on the world where it will probably be mistaken for British. (But please not Australian…)

When not podcasting she spends most of her time writing. So far she has had two books published; Weaver’s Web (which she’s turned into a podiobook) and the award-nominated Chasing the Bard (the sequel of which will be out in the near future). Her show Whispers at the Edge is where she talks about living at the bottom of the world and passes on what she’s found out about writing. Currently she is working on a series of fantasy novels set in New Zealand as well as a dark and turbulant fantasy trilogy.

More can be found out about Pip at The Pen and Sword online.

Chuck Tomasi (Dr. Samuel Hammil)

By day, Chuck is an IT Manager for a contract electronics company. By night he is a glutton for podcasts and anything to do with podcasting. “Podcasting is a great way to exercise my creative side, learn new skills, and establish relationships with a lot of terrific people.” says Tomasi.

Since December 2004, Chuck Tomasi has been the host and producer of several podcasts. Technorama takes a lighthearted look at science, technology, sci-fi and all things geek. Gmail Podcast is a short format show offering hints, tips, and tricks to users of Google’s web mail application. Freestyle is Chuck’s personal audio blog. Finally, Radio Yesterday is a collection of old time radio shows.

Chuck has also appeared as a regularly on several other podcasts including This Week in Tech, Jimmy Jett, Vobes, Wingin’ It, Slice of SciFi, and In The Trenches. He has also been a speaker at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, is an active member of Friends in Tech, and is a regular contributor to Podcast User Magazine.

Tracy Hickman (Chief John O’Malley)

Tracy Hickman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 26th, 1955. He graduated Provo High School in 1974 where his major interests were in Drama, music and Air Force JROTC. In 1975, Tracy began two years of service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). His initial posting was for six months in Hawaii before his visa was approved and he moved on to his final calling in the nation of Indonesia. There, he served as a missionary in Surabaya, Djakarta and the mountain city of Bandung before being released honorably in 1977. As a result, Tracy can still speak conversational Indonesian and occasionally bases his magical phrases on that language.

It was in 1981 — between jobs and wanting to buy shoes for his children — that he approached TSR about buying two game modules that Laura and Tracy had self-published . . . and ended up with a job instead. Laura and Tracy packed up their family and moved to Wisconsin and to a new career. That job lead to Tracy’s association with Margaret Weis and their first publication together: The Dragonlance Chronicles. Since that time, Tracy with Margaret jointly authored over forty book titles including the original Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragonlance Legends, Rose of the Prophet and Darksword trilogies as well as the seven-book Deathgate Cycle. Co-authored and solo, Tracy has over fifty books currently in print in numerous languages world-wide.

Tracy remains highly active in their church and pursue a number of hobbies including guitar, singing, piano, models, DVD movies, computer games, television production and animation. Tracy loves to read biographies, histories and popular science books. Bitten by the podcasting bug, he also hosts Tales of The DragonHearth and The Immortals.

Mur Lafferty (Eva Rothchild)

Mur has written for over 15 role-playing games, one textbook, one book on podcasting, and several magazines. Her column, Geek Fu Action Grip, appears regularly in the magazine Knights of the Dinner Table, and her column Dice Totin’ Mama appears regularly in Games Quarterly Magazine. She has published fiction with the podcast Escape Pod and Scrybe Press.

In 2004 Mur picked up a microphone and decided to try podcasting, a hobby that has eaten more time than she’d like to admit. Her podcast Geek Fu Action Grip hosted an original story, “Heaven,” which evolved into a trilogy of adventures in the afterlife. She also prodices a writing podcast in August, 2005, targeted at people who strive to be writers but are held back by doubts and self-constructed barriers. I Should Be Writing has proved to be quite popular as well. Mur consults for podcasters as well, including Senator John Edwards’ One America Committee podcast.

Christiana Ellis (Comedy Review performer, Illudria)

Christiana is an award-nominated writer and podcaster. In 2006, she released her humorous fantasy novel, Nina Kimberly the Merciless as a podcast audiobook, reaching an audience of thousands. Her podiobook was also a finalist for both a Parsec Award (Best Speculative Fiction, Long Form) and a Podcast Peer Award (Best Podiobook). As a direct result of podcasting her work, negotiations are now underway for a print edition of the novel.

Christiana is also the creator and host of numerous other podcasts, including Pickle Tales, a competition for audio storytelling, and Sci Fi Smackdown, where icons of science fiction are subjected to hypothetical battles.

Orion (Alphonse Capone)

Orion first met Tee on the (now defunct) Webchat Broadcasting System, and then months later was his tour guide through New York City. He eventually moved south after many road trips to Tee’s parties, and is now making his debut in the podosphere through The Billibub Baddings Podcast and appearances on Speaking of Beer’s MicroBrewed. No stranger to the stage, Orion brings his vocal talents and love for music, drama, and really cool Apple software to this podcast.

Tony Mast (Mario)

Tony works best when there are a million things going on. He is currently working with three podcasts, The Fanboy Smackdown (a light-hearted film review and analysis podcast), a writing podcast to be named later, and a genre comedy podcast to be named later. He’s doing final edits on a short story for the anthology that he is co-editing for the local writing group he organizes. He is editing a dramatic script draft of “Fighting Back the Tears”, his short story from the charity anthology, “The Sorrow” which he edited. The proceeds from that book all go to the National Association to Protect Children. Tony is working on the first draft of his first novel, “The Glass Crown.” He recently competed in and was a finalist in Pickle Tales, only to be beaten out by Phil Rossi (see above) and others.

Tony lives in a suburb of St. Louis with his wife, and sometime co-host, Julie, his son, Holden, and two dogs. Tee gave him 200 words for this bio, and never one to waste an opportunity to pimp something, Tony suggests you check out Fanboy Smackdown for info on his upcoming podcasts and for the release of the new Anthology.

Indiana Jim (Bruiser the Doorman)

Jim Perry in high school was voted most likely to host a talk show. While he’s waiting for that to happen, he hosts a podcast, Things Are Looking Up. He also fancies himself a writer of Fantasy and Science Fiction, longing for the day when he has the guts to send something out into the big bad marketplace.

For three years, Jim was a music major. In his sophomore year at Central Arizona College in 1997, he was awarded Most Outstanding Creative Arts Student. In Jazz Band, he played bass primarily, but also trumpet and drums at various times. He also turned an instrumental version of “If I Never Knew You,” a song from Walt Disney’s Pocahontas, into a vocal, and sang the male part in a performance at the Disneyland Hotel. He sang, danced, and acted in Jazz and Community Choir. He played two roles in the spring play while manning the pin rail in between, and also built sets and hung lights in stagecraft. Most fun for him, however, was arranging and conducting The Indiana Jones March for the Concert Band, in which he also played trumpet, bass, and percussion at various times.

Paul Levinson (Michael Ahern)

Paul Levinson’s The Silk Code won the 2000 Locus Award for Best First Novel. He has since published Borrowed Tides (2001), The Consciousness Plague (2002), The Pixel Eye (2003), and The Plot To Save Socrates (2006). His science fiction and mystery short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards. His eight nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), and Cellphone (2004), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, WIRED, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into nine languages. He appears on “The O’Reilly Factor” (Fox News), “The CBS Evening News,” “Scarborough Country” (MSNBC), the “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS), “Nightline” (ABC) and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. He is interviewed about media issues every Sunday, 7:20am, on KNX1070 Radio in Southern California. He is Professor and Chair of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.

Paul has also embraced the world wide web, blogging, YouTube, and — of course — podcasting.

J.C. Hutchins (Agent Miller, Agent Jackson)

J.C. Hutchins has written for The Palm Beach Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.), and Wizard: The Comics Magazine.

Specializing in features and entertainment reporting, he has interviewed comic book industry icons such as Alan Moore, Will Eisner, Warren Ellis, Kevin Smith, Mark Waid and Neil Gaiman. During a 2001 controversy sparked by B.C., a popular American newspaper comic strip, one critic considered Hutchins’ feature on the topic “the single best piece of journalism generated by the controversy.” He left the journalism business in 2002 to write his 7th Son thriller novel trilogy, currently in release in free serialized audio form at JCHutchins.net and Podiobooks.com.

7th Son is the most popular “podiobook” series in history. 7th Son is the #1 most-popular program at the podcast directory PodcastPickle.com, and is listed as a Top 20 podcast in iTunes’ Literature category. The novel has been featured in The New York Times, and on such popular blogs as BoingBoing.net.

Hutchins lives in South Florida with his girlfriend, and their cat, Chester.

Paul S. Jenkins (Henry Lesinger)

Since March 2005 Paul has hosted The Rev Up Review podcast, a mixed-format show comprising SF and other speculative fiction reviews, an occasional interview, some podsafe music and readings of his own original short fiction, early examples of which also appeared in Mur Lafferty’s podiobook anthology Voices: New Media Fiction. Recently he has been podcasting his debut novel, SF thriller The Plitone Revisionist, available at Podiobooks.com. His appearances in other podcast fiction include narrations at Escape Pod and Pseudopod, and a bit-part in Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff’s Number One with a Bullet. So it’s clear that an invitation to appear in Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Paul is currently at work on his second novel, set in the same universe as The Plitone Revisionist. Amongst his other writing projects is the forthcoming Podzone column in the UK’s premier SF magazine, Interzone.

And interfering with all of the above is his day job, at a Hampshire UK architectural practice.

P.G. Holyfield (Franklin Rothchild)

P.G. Holyfield had the pleasure of meeting Tee Morris at Morris*Con (otherwise known as Dragon*Con). While at D*C Tee showed P.G. the ropes of being an author at a convention (i.e. he let P.G. carry his backpack of books). P.G.’s fondest memory of Dragon*Con? — learning from Tee that there’s never a time when “I’ve got books for sale following this session…” isn’t the right thing to say.

P.G thanks Tee Morris for the opportunity to add his voice to the character of Franklin Rothchild—if only because because from this day forward P.G. will only refer to himself as “Mur Lafferty’s Daddy.”

P.G. Holyfield is the author of Murder at Avedon Hill—a fantasy podcast novel starting in February 2007. MaAH can be found at http://pgholyfield.com P.G. lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and family.

Beth Wojiski (Glenda)

Beth Wojiski has been performing as a singer and musician since she can remember. Having gotten her start as an alto for select chamber choirs in the northeast United States, she turned her sights on acting — and voice acting in particular — in 2004, and has been involved in a variety of audio and film productions since. Beth recently appeared in the Dancing Cats Studios production of Serve It Cold by Ronnie Blackwell, and in the Ad Hoc Singers spring concert, “I Maestri delle Cappelle”. See her livejournal at http://wojiski.livejournal.com to keep up with her shenanigans.

Paul from Des Moines (Cab Driver #2347-5)

On May 12, 2007 Paul From Des Moines walked across a stage and received his MBA, completing six years of higher education. If he has his way, the world will never be the same. Masquerading as an Accountant by day, Paul is currently editing his first manuscript, which he hopes to have started on the publisher/agent rounds before the end of the year. Although he is currently without a podcast of his own he can be heard as a frequent voice mail caller to Michael and Evo’s “Wingin’ It” and “Slice of SciFi”, Tee Morris’ “Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy” and most recently a recurring guest on “Hey, Wanna Watch a Movie”. Paul from Des Moines would like to thank Tee Morris for his feedback on Paul’s manuscript as well as for allowing him to participate in the Billibub Baddings podcast.

TD-0013 (WPOD Newscaster)

He is the ultimate Working Man’s Stormtrooper and host of a podcast not to be missed. Originally aired as a segment for the Dragon Page Wingin’ It podcast, A Different Point of View is a series of essays about the Star Wars Universe as seen through the eyes of lowly sandtrooper. It takes everything you thought you knew about the Star Wars saga and flips it around to expose the ugly underbelly of the Rebellion, The Jedi, and everything else.

TD-0013 is everyone’s favorite Stormtrooper (AUTHOR’S NOTE: And a huge favorite of mine!), not just for his different look on the Empire’s current strife but for his work with the Arizona MS Walk and the countless charity events he and his brothers in the 501st host and attend.

George Hrab (Dwarven Elder)

George came on to the podcasting scene at Dragon*Con 2006 at a live recording of Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It!, the acoustic concert he gave showcasing the ground he covers in his music. His smooth and sultry “Think for Yourself” sold itself as a terrific theme for the Billibub Baddings podcast.

George has made it a lifelong obsession to challenge the image usually associated with drummers. It was as a drummer that he performed for President Clinton at the White House, entertained 5000 fans at the Astrodome during Super Bowl XXXVIII’s festivities, played gigs at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center and New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, and even shared the stage with Elton John at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.

George, however, frequently steps outside his role as a drummer. He has released his fifth independent album titled “Interrobang”, once again writing and performing on guitar, bass, keys, vocals and drums. This award winning album was premiered and performed in its entirety by George’s ten-piece rock-fusion-funk-classical-jazz band, The Geologic Orchestra.

George’s efforts have not only been noticed by the New York Songwriters’ Circle, where he successfully performed at their famed Bitter End showcase, but have also been recognized by various radio and television stations, including performances and interviews on NPR affiliate WDIY, WZZO, RCN-4, WLVR and on XM’s Slice of SciFi.