The Geek Saga Podcast: Episode 78 – Podcasting 101 Panel at SDCC 2023

the geek saga podcast

Episode 78 of The Geek Saga Podcast features live audio from the Podcasting 101 panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

GEEK SAGA PODCAST ON SPOTIFY

Moderated by Amin from A Podcast of Ice & Fire and featuring myself, my Sagas & Sass co-host Jonathan, and Varun of the Demon Slayer Podcast, this panel focused on how to choose co-hosts, the tech and software you might need, and how awful editing is. (Also featuring: the San Diego Central Library Dog Fight Club we maybe aren’t supposed to talk about…)

Geek Saga Podcast Episode 78: Podcasting 101 at SDCC 2023
podcasting 101 sdcc 2023

Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast: Episode 58 – ASOIAF/House of the Dragon Fan Panel at SDCC 2022

tara lynne's geek saga podcast

Episode 58 of Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast features live audio from the A Song of Ice and Fire/House of the Dragon Fan Panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022.

GEEK SAGA PODCAST ON SPOTIFY

Moderated by Amin from A Podcast of Ice & Fire and featuring myself and Aziz & Ashaya from History of Westeros, this is an in-depth discussion of the latest House of the Dragon news featuring some deep ASOIAF dives and even a couple of GoT, err, mentions 😉

Geek Saga Podcast Episode 58: ASOIAF & House of the Dragon at SDCC 2022
Panelists having a chuckle at the ASOIAF/House of the Dragon/Game of Thrones Fan Panel at SDCC 2022

Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast: Episode 27 – ASOIAF/Game of Thrones Fan Panel at SDCC 2019

tara lynne's geek saga podcast

Episode 27 of Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast features live audio from the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Fan Panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

GEEK SAGA PODCAST ON SPOTIFY

This SDCC 2019 ASOIAF/GoT fan panel focused on fan feelings surrounding season 8, the future of the fandom, and a general Q&A.

You can also read about our panel in the SyFy.com article “Game of Thrones fans air their grievances about Season 8 at SDCC 2019”!

Geek Saga Podcast Episode 27 – ASOIAF/Game of Thrones at SDCC 2019

Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast: Episode 14, SDCC 2018 A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Fan Panel

tara lynne's geek saga podcast

Episode 14 of Tara Lynne’s A Geek Saga Podcast includes live audio from the “A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Fan Panel” at San Diego Comic-Con 2018.

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This SDCC 2018 ASOIAF/GoT fan panel featured discussion about fan theories, comparisons of the books to the show, and a general Q&A.

geek saga podcast episode 14 asoiaf game of thrones SDCC 2018

2017: The Year of Fun Webcasts (Apparently)

I have so many updates to make to this blog that I’ll never get around to all of them, but as 2017 seems to have turned into the year of fun webcasts, I thought I’d share the ones I’ve been part of so far!

2017 began with the 2-year anniversary special of FEELINGS…with The Geekiary! While it was a more somber episode than we’d originally expected (due to the current political climate), it was still a good time..and I swear, we did talk about things other than politics!

 

 We had another FEELINGS episode at the end of February – we had a lot of discussion about TV, both shows that I love (The Expanse) and shows that I am…well, supremely frustrated with (The Walking Dead).

 Just last weekend, I hosted a webcast on my personal YouTube channel. My friends Adam, Bekah, and Lauren joined me to chat about “The State of the Cosplay Community”, and it turned into a pretty darn positive chat about cosplay bullying (what it is and how to avoid it), why you shouldn’t buy likes for your cosplay page…and a whole lot more 🙂

 Tonight was actually our “March Madness” episode of FEELINGS, and we talked about Iron Fist (ugh), the shows we’re looking forward to in April (iZombie! Archer! The Handmaid’s Tale! American Gods!), and of course upcoming conventions (Star Wars Celebration, Ice & Fire Con, and SDCC)…

 So if you’re looking for something to watch, check out the webcasts I’ve been on so far this year…and yes, there will be quite a few more in the coming months!

SDCC 2016 Highlights

This year I attended my third San Diego Comic-Con, and it was by far the best yet. I experienced a few great moments at SDCC 2014, and last year was definitely a lot of fun – but 2016 bested both of those years.

Due to work schedules and money, I had to arrive late Thursday night and depart Sunday night, but despite not being there for Preview night or anything on Thursday, and despite missing the Friends of Comic-Con dinner Sunday night, I can’t imagine having had a better time. And that also includes the fact that I, err, shut off my alarm on Saturday morning and missed the couple of things I wanted to attend earlier that day. The thing is, all of the things that I *did* get to do more than made up for that 😉

A Geek Saga SDCC 2016

I was lucky enough to room with my good friend Ashley, and our mutual friend Amin helped us with the rooming situation by setting us up in USA Hostels on 5th Ave in the Gaslamp. It was about half a mile from the convention center, surrounded by restaurants and bars (and Pokestops!), and actually within my budget. I’d never stayed in a hostel before, but honestly, the bathrooms were extremely clean and my only complaint is that we got one of the rooms that didn’t have an air conditioner or a proper window. But the people were friendly, there was free breakfast, and again…it was in my budget. I’m sure having a great roommate helped, as well.

Friday we got up early and headed down to pick up my badge and get in line for the Steven Universe singalong/panel combo. It was an hour and a half long and worth the hour and a half that we spent in line – especially considering that Kevin Smith and Greg Runberg delivered donuts! That said, my boss and close friend Angel from The Geekiary got there much earlier than we did and I still owe her a coffee for that.

SDCC 2016 Greg Runberg donuts

The singalong and panel were of course amazing. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed every second that I was there. I just wish that so many people hadn’t asked questions that couldn’t be answered…but then, I guess that’s kind of a staple of Comic-Con. (At least in my experience.)

SDCC 2016 Steven Universe

Ashley and I also checked out the Nerdist and Geek & Sundry Camp Conival for a bit, where I got to interview Zachary Tyler Linville, author of Welcome to Deadland. It was awesome meeting him and great to talk to a fellow former Orlando resident!

SDCC 2016 Zac Linville Welcome to Deadland

Later that day I met up with Diamond Select Toys Marketing Supervisor Zach Oat to check out some of DST’s Comic-Con exclusives and new reveals…so many awesome toys! I even came home with their SDCC 2016 exclusive Spider-Gwen PVC statue

Spider-Gwen Diamond Select Toys

Now, while I had an awesome time all three-ish days that I was there, I have to say that Friday was probably my favorite overall. Not only because of what I’ve already mentioned, but because later that evening Ashley and I met up with my fellow Geekiary staff member Erin and went out to a couple of different bars. We met new people, saw some celebrities, and other than one problematic situation, had an amazing time.

But before I get into the good parts of that night, let me remind any man who is reading this that buying a woman a drink and offering her food – when she hasn’t asked for either and even tries to decline both – does not entitle you to anything. A woman starting a conversation with you doesn’t entitle you to anything, either. I have to praise the men who apologized to me when they saw their friend freak out on me for choosing to go somewhere with my ladies rather than going anywhere with him, though here’s another reminder – being drunk isn’t an excuse to treat a woman that way.

SDCC 2016 Nobu

Okay, that said, we did get to meet Aly Michalka (Peyton from iZombie), and when we ended up at the Hilton we had drinks and wonderful conversation with a gentleman who essentially works on the set of American Gods. Sadly, all this out-and-aboutness and the fact that none of it included food after about 2 PM caused me to ignore my alarm on Saturday and sleep until 12:30…and then I couldn’t do anything other than shower (no air conditioning means at least one shower a day) and finally get some food. My bad, my bad.

SDCC 2016 Aly Michalka

But once I had some food in me and was walking around in the [much cooler] outside air, I eventually felt better, and it helped that we also had an amazing time with our panel, the “A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Fan Discussion” featuring three Podcast of Ice and Fire hosts and yours truly 🙂 You can check out the full audio from our panel – along with an intro about mine, Ashley’s, Amin’s, and Kyle’s SDCC 2016 experiences, on the Podcast of Ice and Fire website.

SDCC Ice and Fire Con

After the panel a big group of us – panelists, attendees, and local friends – went to Basic for pizza and drinks. It was a good time and we hung out for quite a while before finally going our own ways (for the most part). This included Ashley and I going back to our room to freshen up for the last big night of Comic-Con, including a trip to The Pool Club at the Hilton for drinks with Admin Angel and Erin from the Geekiary, as well as a few other friends (both ‘old’ and new). I even got to meet Bear McCreary. I’m a huge fan of his music on The Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica, but he’s also known for the music on shows like Outlander, Black Sails, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and more.

SDCC 2016 Bear Mcreary

Soon enough we had an invite to a Geek and Sundry pop-up party, so Angel, Ashley, and I headed to Fluxx for that, and it was a BLAST. I even ended up dancing with Matt Mercer from Geek and Sundry’s Critical Role, though I had no idea that’s who he was until someone told me. (I’m really bad at recognizing celebrities, okay?) Seriously though, I just thought I was dancing with a fun dude, and that’s exactly what I was doing. I’d love to actually sit down and talk to him sometime!

SDCC 2016 Geek and Sundry Critical Role Matt Mercer

Yes, it’s a bit blurry, we were dancing in a club! 🙂

I’ll be honest, it was a late and messy night and it was worth every minute, even if having to roll out of bed and get out of our room before 10 AM the next day was a bit rough 😉 I blame Angel and Ashley. Not myself at all, no no no… (Yes, I’m kidding.)

SDCC 2016 Geek and Sundry Fluxx

Thankfully I still got to do a few fun things and attend some great panels on Sunday before heading to the airport for a rough red-eye flight home. My absolute favorite moment that day was meeting author Pierce Brown, who wrote the Red Rising trilogy (which I’m completely obsessed with at the moment – SEVROOOO! RAGNARRRR!). I got my copy of Morning Star signed, and was even able to get a copy of Red Rising signed for my bf Bekah. Oh, plus he complimented my hair (hopefully it was an actual compliment, anyway) and took a picture with me 🙂

SDCC 2016 Pierce Brown Red Rising

I also attended Nerd HQ’s Sherlock panel and it was amazing. I’ve attended one Nerd HQ panel each year (The Walking Dead in 2014 and Bad-Ass Women last year) and the Sherlock one this year did not disappoint. After that Ashley and I also went to the Bisexuality and Beyond panel run by BiNetUSA.org, which was wonderful.

SDCC 2016 Nerd HQ Sherlock

And that was basically the end of my SDCC weekend, though we did a bit of wandering around after that last panel and I got a few more awesome pictures. So I’ll leave you with those, and – for the first time – with hope that I will absolutely be able to attend SDCC next year!

 

SDCC 2016 American Gods

SDCC 2016 Ghostbusters

 

These *Weeks* on The Geekiary

The Geekiary

I had a couple of slow weeks writing for The Geekiary, due to my travel schedule and just generally getting ready to attend San Diego Comic-Con. But now it’s been over a month, which means it’s past time for me to update my article round-up!

July 4th, 2016
X-Files Reboot Vinimates Are Great Collectibles!
It’s no secret that we at The Geekiary love Diamond Select Toys. I was lucky enough to interview their Marketing Supervisor Zach at C2E2 earlier this year, and I can’t imagine not being a huge fan of their awesome collectibles – so when they added the X-Files reboot Vinimates to their product line, I was excited to add these figures to my display shelves!

The Geekiary PositiviTEA TuesdayJuly 5th, 2016
PositiviTEA Tuesday with The Geekiary (7/5/16)

Those of us who write for The Geekiary are a pretty close-knit community. We don’t just discuss the website with each other; we share life events and fangirl together. Depending on who’s fangirling at the moment, it could be about anything from Bryan Fuller to One Direction to Hogwarts Houses and more. Yes, sometimes we need to face things that are serious and probably not fun or positive, and it was due to one of those more serious conversations that we came up with the idea of “PositiviTEA Tuesday”.

July 12th, 2016
PositiviTEA Tuesday with The Geekiary (7/12/16)

Welcome to the second week of our new series, PositiviTEA Tuesday with The Geekiary! For today’s round of fun posts we bring you X-Files, Iron Man news, and more…including Pokemon GO, of course…

The Geekiary Pokemon GOJuly 13th, 2016
Pokemon GO Isn’t Just Fun – It’s Healthy

It’s no secret that the new Pokemon GO app has taken the world by storm, but this writer is coming to you as someone who never before paid any attention to Pokemon and has had her life improved by playing Pokemon GO.

July 18th, 2016
First Picture of Bilquis from American Gods

San Diego Comic-Con is fast approaching, but apparently Starz isn’t waiting until the end of this week to give fans more American Gods updates. Today they released the first picture of Bilquis, and not surprisingly, it looks amazing!
FEELINGS…with The Geekiary: Ghost Girls
The new Ghostbusters movie came out this past weekend, and considering all of the drama surrounding it – combined with the fact that so many of us at The Geekiary saw and enjoyed it – we put together an impromptu episode of FEELINGS…with The Geekiary: The Ghost Girls Edition.

July 19th, 2016
Dragon Con 2016 Guest Announcement: Gillian Anderson!

As a huge fan of basically everything about Gillian Anderson (and, of course, a huge fan of The X-Files and Dana Scully in particular) I for one am very excited to announce that she has been added to the guest list for Dragon Con 2016!

The Geekiary Steven Universe Too Short to RideJuly 20th, 2016
Steven Universe 3×9 Review: Too Short to Ride
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Steven Universe episodes that we’ve been treated to so far this week. (Especially “Mr. Greg“!) But when “Too Short to Ride” opened with Peridot, I was immediately excited, because after three episodes without her I was missing her quite a bit.

July 21st, 2016
Secrets of Comic-Con: The Things Most Attendees WILL Tell You
Earlier this week, Buzzfeed posted an article about the “15 Secrets People Who Love Comic Con Will Never Tell You”. Well, I’m here to debunk that, because it’s ridiculous. Will I or anyone else ever know all of the secrets of Comic-Con? I highly doubt it. But that doesn’t mean that most people won’t share them with you – because in every case I’ve encountered, they absolutely will.

The Geekiary Diamond Select Toys Spider-GwenJuly 26th, 2016
Comic-Con 2016: Diamond Select Toys Produces Even More Amazing Items

I had a great time interviewing Diamond Select Toys Marketing Supervisor Zach Oat at C2E2 this year, so I was excited to be able to get together with him at SDCC to chat about DST’s Comic-Con exclusives and some of their newly-announced items.
PositiviTEA Tuesday with The Geekiary: The Comic-Con 2016 Edition!
Several members of The Geekiary, including myself, attended SDCC this year, and while we had an amazing time, it wasn’t just our experiences that made Comic-Con 2016 great…so we feel it more than deserves it’s own PositiviTEA Tuesday post!

July 28th, 2016
The Geekiary Welcome to DeadlandWelcome to Deadland: A Refreshing Take on the Zombie Apocalypse Genre
Last month I was lucky enough to receive an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Zachary Tyler Linville’s debut novel, Welcome to Deadland. Now, while I’ve read all of the Walking Dead comics, I’ve only read a few zombie apocalypse novels, and this one is definitely near the top of that list in terms of being both interesting and featuring good storytelling overall.
Steven Universe 3×15 Review: Alone at Sea
When “Alone at Sea” began with Steven and Lapis, I was definitely excited. This week of Steven’s Summer Adventure has featured two very lighthearted Beach City episodes followed by the lovely but heavy “Monster Reunion“; based on the first few minutes of “Alone at Sea”, I really thought we were heading back in that lighthearted direction.

July 31st, 2016
Comic-Con 2016: Diamond Select Toys Spider-Gwen Exclusive

One of the Diamond Select Toys Comic-Con exclusives for this year was a gorgeous PVC statue of an unmasked Spider-Gwen, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one, which is exciting on several levels.

…as you can see, despite the first couple weeks of July being slow for me in terms of writing articles, I definitely spent a lot of time doing so the last half of July! And to be honest, when I wasn’t writing articles I was working on my next novel or binge-watching shows like The Expanse, Sherlock, Penny Dreadful, and Stranger Things. (Meanwhile, I still haven’t finished season one of Daredevil…whoops.)

These *Weeks* on The Geekiary

The Geekiary

For once I’ve missed posting my Geekiary articles not because I’ve been busy with other things, but because I’ve had so much more to write about, like my amazing trip to Key West, the fact that my novel is now available as a paperback, and how hashtagblessed I am to be a part of Ice & Fire Con.

But I have been writing other things, too, so here is a list of the past few weeks’ worth of my Geekiary articles!

May 24th, 2016
C2E2 Josiah Bancroft Arm of the SphimxA Josiah Bancroft Interview: The Adventures of the Books of Babel Continue!
Nearly two years ago I read what is to this day the best self-published novel I’ve ever discovered – that being Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. As it turned out, he also attended C2E2 this year, and I finally got my hands on a copy of Arm of the Sphinx, Book 2 of his Senlin series “The Books of Babel”. Needless to say, once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down…although at this point I’m no longer surprised by that.

May 26th, 2016
Steven Universe 3×4 Review: Barn Mates
Considering how much I loved the first three episodes of this “In Too Deep” series, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t all that fond of “Barn Mates”…that is, until I rewatched it.

May 31st, 2016
San Diego Comic-Con 2016 Announcement: A Podcast of Ice & Fire Panel
I’m very excited for this San Diego Comic-Con 2016 announcement, because not only will A Podcast of Ice & Fire be hosting a Song of Ice and Fire panel for the second year in a row at SDCC, but it means that I will be returning to Comic-Con as well!

June 2nd, 2016
Walking Dead NewsWalking Dead News: Season 6 Finale Backlash, Ezekiel’s Tiger, & More
We’re almost two months removed from The Walking Dead Season 6 finale, and the show won’t air again in October…but there’s still a lot of Walking Dead news crowding the Internet.

June 3rd, 2016
Julia Vanishes Features Great Writing Marred by Average Storytelling
I picked up an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan at C2E2 earlier this year because, while I don’t usually read YA, this novel sounded intriguing. I just wish that in the end the blurb on the back hadn’t turned out to be quite so misleading.

June 4th, 2016
game of thrones season 6 sansa stark jon snowGame of Thrones Seasno 6 vs. A Song of Ice & Fire: Round Two
Here it is, folks – we are halfway through Game of Thrones Season 6.

June 6th, 2016
Loot Pets May 2016: The POWER Collection
I have to admit, May 2016’s Loot Pets box was the first one that I wasn’t really happy with. I liked the items that came in my Loot Crate Level Up POWER Collection package, but I don’t think Loot Pets was on par with May’s theme.

June 7th, 2016
The Fangirls Coloring Book: An Exciting Release from Her Universe Press!
A lot of us here at The Geekiary love Her Universe – personally I think at least 10% of my wardrobe is from Ashley Eckstein’s clothing line. And recently, they put together Her Universe Press to publish books, which was another thing to love about HU…a company that is now bringing us “The Fangirls Coloring Book”!

2000px-Star_Wars_Logo.svgJune 9th, 2016
Star Wars Episode VIII “in the home stretch”
Can it be true? Is filming for Star Wars Episode VIII close to being wrapped up?
Click Here to Start: An Engrossing Middle-Grade Novel
Click Here to Start by Denis Markell is another book that I picked up at C2E2 back in March, and now that I finally got around to reading it, I am so, so glad that I did!

June 11th, 2016
Roses and Rot: Intrigue and Rambling
It’s funny that when checking out other reviews for Roses and Rot by Kat Howard (before cracking it open myself), one person said “this book is actually a romance novel” – because that isn’t the impression I got at all. Yes, there are romantic aspects to it, but above all Roses and Rot is a Tale of Two Sisters, if you will.