Interviews Archives | Otaku No Culture

In Conversation with Fantasy Author Christian A Brown and Feast of Fates

Christian A. Brown is a fantasy author who wrote Feast of Fates (2014) and it’s received devoted legion of fans interested in following this franchise through.

You can buy his books on Amazon (USA)!

Christian A Brown is a fantasy author who understands how modern fiction works. Unless it evolves with the times, the work can look dated. To keep his own material refreshing, he’s not afraid to buck trends. His first novel, Feast of Fates, appeared on shelves in late 2014 and received a devoted legion of fans. The central character Morigan may well allude to the Morrigan of Irish Lore. Nestled in reference her importance in the tale is definitely the Three Fates. Brown calls them the Sisters Three — Eean, Elemech and Ealasyd — in his world, just what kind of ongoing role they play requires looking at the third book, Feast of Chaos, tentatively scheduled July release.

The fourth volume, Feast of Mercy, is in the works. This world Brown created is filled with an exploration into aboriginal culture and coloured with nods to mythological lore. Readers will find his exploration into gender equality interesting.

“One of the reasons why people have taken to my work is because you don’t see that a lot in fantasy especially, which is very trope-ridden,” said Brown.

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[VFF ’16] To Boldly Go Where No Elephant Has Gone Before, An Interview with Patricia Sims

Technically, Patricia Sims’ When Elephants Were Young is an achievement. From the camera work done by Michael Clark, to its surround sound mix and the soundtrack, much of it can be heard on the album Acoustic for Elephants where 100% of the proceeds are donated to World Elephant Day

Playing at the Victoria Film Festival on

Feb 08, 7:00pm
Star Cinema, 9842 Third St, Sidney, BC

Feb 10, 6:30pm
Cineplex Odeon Victoria Cinemas
780 Yates St, Victoria, BC

Filmmaker and environmentalist Patricia Sims always knew she wanted William Shatner as the master storyteller in her two documentaries examining the Asian elephants plight. He’s more than just Captain Kirk of a highly loved science fiction franchise; he is an advocate for animal rights and he provides the narration in Return to the Forest (2013) and When Elephants Were Young (2015). The former is freely available online and the latter is getting a hometown premiere in Victoria, BC at the 2016 Victoria Film Festival. Plans for a wider theatrical release is coming and It’s most likely going to take place close to, if not on World Elephant Day on August 12th in 2016. A streaming and video release will no doubt follow, but when will mean either waiting patiently like this creature or time travelling to the future to see the product.

She started making wildlife films in the 90’s, starting with examining the impact hunting whales and dolphins for its meat (or sale to marine parks) are having in a cultural level. Her examination also includes looking at the scientific studies made of these mammals. They are sentient creatures with cognitive abilities. Fortunately, the practice of using them as a resource is slowly being put to the past, and thankfully, present-day attitudes wants to see the species survive.

“In the 90s, there was a cultural awakening predominantly among the younger generation about what shouldn’t be done. Animals of all kinds are very intelligent and [their survival is] important for the health of the environment,” remembered Sims.

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[VFF ’16] Going Behind the Counter with The Sandwich Nazi, An Interview with Lewis Bennett

viff2015sandwichnazi

The Sandwich Nazi
Saturday, Feb 6th 6pm
The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas St,
Victoria, BC

Although a car is needed to get to Surrey, BC to visit La Charcuterie Delicatessen, a deli and Scandinavian grocery store in an industrial neighbourhood known as Port Kells, thankfully to get taste of what goes on there can be seen around the world. The Sandwich Nazi is an aptly titled documentary that looks at the scandalous life Salam Kahil, the owner and operator of this establishment. At Two Hungry Blokes, we’re eying the size of those sandwiches that’s made than the owner’s ballsy attitude. Until we can get there, Ed had the opportunity to communicate with Lewis Bennett, who decided to turn the life of this deli operator into a hilarious film!

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Crowdfunding Paradox Girl, a Lesson in Time-Travel — an Interview

While most of the content is lighthearted and whimsical, we’ll see what it’s like for Paradox Girl to struggle with timelessness and the lack of consequence. Loss, identity and regret are underlying themes of the character and while juggling that whimsy, we’ll deal with some of those deeper concepts.

Paradox Girl Comic Book Cover Cayti Bourquin is the writer/creator of a new kind of heroine, codenamed: Paradox Girl, illustrated by Yishan Li. Together, both this duo and and Peter Bensley, editor of Hana Comics, are taking to crowdfunding on Kickstarter to help this comic book take off. They are well past their goal, and the team believes there’s a market for this special kind of independent hit.

This character is very different from the normal type of heroes found in print and the story looks at a problem found with stories involving time-travel — just how do you deal with altering anyone’s personal time stream? The television series Doctor Who dodges the issue and CW’s Legends of Tomorrow has yet to consider the bigger picture. The pilot episode already altered the timeline with how Professor Boardman passed on — or was the incident meant to be? Even in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 2012 animated series, the heroes in the half-shell went back in time to pretend they are Yokai only to save their sensei. The most craziest of situations was explored in Futurama, Bender’s Big Score. Just how these other properties addresses the issue of altering time-lines makes for great story-telling and Bourquin has a plan in mind for her Paradox Girl (PG). She may seem to be an ordinary hero, but there’s more to her than meets the eye, especially when she has to live with all her future selves.

At least the hit here is that issue #2 will happen. There’s still two weeks left to this campaign. Readers might want to take note of possible convention appearances as they get announced by Bensley. Artist Yishan Li will be attending Europen conventions with this product. Although shy, perhaps Cayti Bourquin can be encouraged to appear for autograph signings in a tour at shows in North America.

Otakunoculture spoke with Bensley and Bourquin about this product:

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LANtasy Wants the Fun in Fandom to Return in Victoria, BC!

Pearkes Recreation Center will play venue host to Gottacon and LANTasy.

LANTasy Event Logo March 12-13, 2016
Pearkes Arena, Victoria BC

Tickets: $30 weekend pass
or $15 per day (pre-registration).

LANtasy‘s motto is “Play Games, Have Fun” at their upcoming event taking place March 12th and 13th. For the fandom living in Victoria, BC, hopefully everyone can put the incidents of 2015 behind them. The final quarter of that year was less than positive: GottaCon (GC) announced they were closing their doors and Island Fantasy Convention did not happen. The reaction by the community was not kind with how the latter event was handled. However, with a new year Tsukino-Con remains strong and the technical crew behind GC decided to continue the legacy the broad-spectrum gaming event represented.

Jeff Pedlow is one of the department heads. He says this show will exist to bring people together and his group really loves the gaming community that exists here. Despite the name, they are not playing favourites over what kind of activities are being offered at this show. Yes, there will be a heavy Local Area Network (LAN) gaming presence, but there is more to the show than just that — board gaming, miniature gaming and RPGs are offered. People will be encouraged to come in costume (cosplay). Essentially, this event will be just like GottaCon in their early days. In what’s for certain, Pedlow says that his group does not take any money from the event and their goal is to throw community-centric gaming events for everyone living on the island. As their Facebook page shows, there are qualifying events taking place in and out of the Capitol Region that will lead up to the finals at LANtasy.

“If we grow in size, that’s always great, but our primary concern is throwing fun events for the community to come out and enjoy,” said Pedlow.

Even though this event is two months away, perhaps fandom should start planning. In addition to their FAQ about this event, Otakunoculture talked to Jeff about other lingering queries:

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Humourous Tales from the Bald Side, An Interview with Michael Roberds

Michael Roberds can sometimes found in the background of many a Vancouver production. When on the spotlight, fans will remember him in the season four Supernatural episode, “Yellow Fever,” where he played Mark Hutchens, a reptile lover.

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Michael Roberds

Going from an actor from a well-received series (The New Addams Family) to being an all-around media personality in Vancouver, British Columbia, Michael Roberds certainly is not resting. He appears on television as a movie critic for Global TV and he is sometimes found in the background of many a Vancouver production. When on the spotlight, fans will remember him in the season four Supernatural episode, “Yellow Fever,” where he played Mark Hutchens, a reptile lover. He also has a notable role in The Further Adventures in Babysitting, a made for TV movie due in 2016. When considering that being an extra keeps him occupied more often than any other job, there’s a certain pleasure to know that he was requested by a casting director to appear in the X-Files miniseries that’s also broadcasting next year.

Although Roberds has not gotten a new role in today’s pop culture scene to guarantee him regular appearances at media conventions, he’s still looking. He still enjoys working on the side-lines and there was a time in his life where he also helped a talent agency geared specifically for people just wanting to be an extra. “But ever since The CW came along with Smallville, the attitude became we don’t want anybody over the age of 30 and they have to be good-looking. I had an elderly couple and they were available 100% of the time. They were never a problem but I was lucky if I could get them work once every couple of months.” revealed Roberds.

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