By Jamie Ruby

National best selling author Jean Johnson is possibly as well known for her fanfiction as for her published books. While she doesn't have time to write it anymore, it still has an impact on her writing. "I won't deny I did it—and I did it solely for fun and parody, heeding all author rules on fanfics that I could find--because of two things. Fanfic helped improve my writing skills immensely from the great feedback I received from fellow fanfic readers, and fanfic was what got me noticed by an editor, giving me my chance at getting published."

For published work, Johnson is probably most known for her Sons of Destiny series of romance novels. The series follows eight brothers (four sets of twins) who fulfill the Curse of Eight Prophecy and are exiled to Nightfall Island where they will not be tempted by women and therefore not fulfill the prophecy. The brothers stay alone and celebate until the youngest brother, a mage, brings a woman from another universe into theirs. "It started out with a "what if?" question about if a woman from our world ended up in a realm of magic, but didn't actually get to have any magic of her own to use, breaking the usual trope for such things. Then I had to come up with people for her to interact with, which meant coming up with the eight brothers, the reason why they were exiled, the prophecy verses triggering that exile...and boom, eight book series based on the eight verses. It was just that simple.

"I knew pretty much from the start the general gist of how everything would end from when I first started book one, The Sword. There are things in book one which end up being relevant in book eight, as well as the books in between. Some are blatant, most are subtle."

Rising star Cody Deal, who starred in Syfy's Almighty Thor earlier in the year, is still working hard to make it in Hollwood (and blogging about it). We at SciFi Vision talked to Deal before the release of the Asylum film on Syfy. Since then, Deal is still working on his career, his goals, and following his heart.

During the beginning of his career, Deal hired a publicist, like most actors do, which is how he first became involved in Contamination, a horror, sci-fi, and popculture convention that starts today in St. Louis that he will be attending. However, he since he has learned he can promote himself well on his own. "Originally when I did Almighty Thor, I was like "I need to hire a publicist, I've got a movie out there."

"...So I hocked my iPad and got a publicist for $500 that month. He said I was getting his full services, but that didn't happen. But I learned about how to do it from him. I was like, "I can do this."

"...And then I put that grass roots effort into getting onto all the major networks and different stuff. But he is the one who got the event booker in contact with me, it was that publicist that actually got that set that up."

Contamination is Deal's first convention - as a guest or attending, so he doesn't know what to expect. Deal, however, who is always very personable, is looking forward to meeting people at the convention. "I hope there are a lot of people who show up who know who I am, that's what I hope. I feel like the majority of people are going to show up and not have any clue of who I am. "Oh, you were in [Almighty] Thor, that's cool!" I want people to have excitement on their faces and go, "I loved your movie!" Or, "Your movie sucked! But you're a cool dude." That's what I'm looking forward to the most.

"...I'm a pretty approachable guy, and I'm going to bring cards that have my Facebook and twitter on there...I'm such a small town guy, that I say hi to everybody."

By Jamie Ruby

Maxine Wasa is a long-time industry professional. She is known not only as an actress, but also a model, and was a model for Playboy Magazine. She also sings and produces music as well as works with charities and writes for Paw Print Magazine.

Wasa will be appearing as a special guest this weekend at Contamination, a horror, sci-fi, and pop culture convention in St. Louis. Wasa recently took the time to sit down with Jamie Ruby at SciFi Vision for an exclusive interview.

Wasa is happy to be appearing at the convention. She has attended other conventions in the past, but not Contamination. "This is a new convention for me, so I'm excited to see how it's run. I know Dave Dyer is really good at throwing great events and I'm excited about that and I'm excited to be with some of my friends that are on the same convention circuit. So it's always really fun to meet up with them and to get together for the weekend and just have a good time."

One of Syfy's hottest summer series, Warehouse 13, which follows a team of agents who locate and return mysterious artifacts with strange powers to the top-secret warehouse they protect, will be entering its third season next month.

Last season left fans questioning what was to come of the Warehouse team as Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) chose to leave for good. There was also the question of whether fans would see the villian H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray) again.

This season, a new character, young ATF agent Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) will be joining the team and will become Pete Lattimer's (Eddie McClintock) new partner. What will this mean for Myka?

Recently, executive producer and showrunner of the series, Jack Kenny, sat down with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision for an exclusive interview to talk about the upcoming season of Warehouse 13, which will premiere July 11 at 9pm ET/PT on Syfy.

By Jamie Ruby

St. Louis, Missouri is home to the horror, sci-fi, and popculture convention Contamination for the second year running. The event looks to be a great place to meet some of your favorite celebrities and have a fun-filled weekend, without breaking the bank. The convention will offer a chance to mingle with some stars, play a little zombie laser tag, see a concert, and more. Contamination runs from June 24th - June 26th this year and is being hosted by Dyer Straits Productions.

Contamination organizer Dave Dyer sat down with SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview to talk about the upcoming event and all it has to offer.

Dyer previously worked as a dealer/vendor around the United States before he decided to also start Contamination. "Going to all these shows that I've gone to, there's nothing like [Contamination] in St. Louis. So I came up with the bright idea to try to take it upon myself to try to put this thing together, and it was two years in the making for the first one, and now hopefully every year gets a little easier."

By Cody Deal

Hayden Black is a one man powerhouse in the world of New Media web series. Previously known for the viral hit, Abigail's Teen Diary, which featured Hayden in drag as a 13 year old with a disease making her look like, well, Hayden Black, for the comedy-horror The Occulterers, and for a previous incarnation of Goodnight Burbank done in 5 minute topical shorts, Hayden has re-launched the concept Goodnight Burbank as the first 30 min web comedy series, which is currently finishing up season one on Hulu. Black does it all, writing, acting, producing and marketing the series which also stars comedic genius, Laura J. Silverman. The series focuses on the local nightly news, and exactly what happens when the cameras cut away. The pair recently appeared on MediaBlvd Radio, where they were interviewed by MediaBlvd's team (Kenn Gold and Jamie Ruby), along with special celebrity co-host, Alighty Thor's Cody Deal.

Exclusive Interview with Jeff Davis
Interview by Jamie Ruby and AJ Grillo
Written by Jamie Ruby

MTV premieres it's newest remake this summer, Teen Wolf. The series stars Tyler Posey as new werewolf Scott McCall in the adaptation. He is joined by his potential love interest Allison Argent, played by Crystal Reed. Dylan O'Brien plays Scott's best friend, Stiles, and Tyler Hoechlin plays Derek Hale, the wolf who tries to help Scott with his new lifestyle. Other cast includes Holland Roden as Lydia Martin and Colton Haynes as Jackson Whittemore.

Creator and executive producer of the series, Jeff Davis, who is probably best known as the creative mind behind the television series Criminal Minds, sat down for an exclusive interview with Scifi Vision to talk about his newest series.

Davis first started writing screen plays when he was only sixteen. "I always said if I had a social life in high school I probably wouldn't be a writer. I started writing scripts, I actually wrote a novel in high school, which is bizarre. I went to USC for grad school, starting off in directing, and realized I didn't have any time to do what I really wanted, which was write. So I switched over to the screenwriting program at USC. Got my masters in screenwriting and was lucky enough to get a feature script optioned pretty much right after leaving. I worked and slaved in IT as a computer specialist for awhile, and then sold a couple of scripts to movies, was getting caught in development hell...

"But I was getting very frustrated that nothing was getting made. And I said to my agent, "Well they make stuff in TV. They have to; they have deadlines and air space to fill on their channels," so I had an idea for a TV show, and that became Criminal Minds. I've just kind of taken off from there."

Davis did not have trouble switching gears to work on Teen Wolf. "The funny thing is is I did Criminal Minds and that was a show about monsters as well, they were just human. And its moving from the suspense genre to a more horror comedy thriller type story. It's actually been a lot of fun for me as a writer to be able to transition from something pretty serious and dark to something a little more fantastic."

This weekend marks not just the release of the highly anticipated Thor in theaters, but also a smaller budget version of the Norse myth called Almighty Thor, premiering May 7th, on Syfy. The Marvel version may have a much larger budget (Almighty Thor was shot for around $500,000 and in an impressive twelve days), but Syfy's version has something that Marvel's doesn't. Cody Deal, an amazing new comer, whose enthusiasm and charm are enough to make Almighty Thor, a different take on the myth, worth a watch.

Deal was born in Oklahoma. After only a few years he and his family moved to the small Midwestern town, Sedan, Kansas. He graduated in 2004 as valedictorian as well as a 1st-Team All-Star athlete.

Deal was an athlete for most of the early part of his life and had a desire to play in the NFL, and went to Butler College in El Dorado on scholarship in both basketball and football. Unfortunately, his sports career camed to an end when he fractured his hand and forearm during football and also sustained other injuries from his other hobby of free-diving.

It was then that Deal and his brothers began creating short films, a step up from their younger years of filming their own 'Pay Per View' wrestling matches. His mother suggested at this point that he should take acting seriously, but Deal did not take her advice and moved to Wichita, and later, to Las Vegas to pursue a modeling career.

Fandom Access: Exclusive Interview with Eric Forsberg  - 5/4/11
Interview by Jamie Ruby and Karen Moul
Written by Jamie Ruby

Almighty Thor follows the title character, played by Cody Deal, as he becomes the hero that we know him to be today. The movie will premiere tonight on Syfy. The writer of the film, Eric Forsberg, joined Fandom Access this week to discuss the movie.

The Almighty Thor is different than the marvel movie, because is based on the Norse myth as opposed to the comic books. "It's Almighty Thor; it's the Norse myth. There's a big difference between this Almighty Thor and the Thor Marvel movie that's coming out. That movie is based on the comic book, and that comic book took the character from the myth, and then created a story that imposed upon the character in order to create the identity of the human that was secretly Thor. And I didn't go that route at all; I went straight for the myth. The end of the world. One of the things about the Norse myths is that they're all about the Tree of Life supporting all the worlds on it until finally the fated and predetermined end of all time will occur in a great and final battle called Ragnarok. And when it's over, boom, the universe is gone. And so I took that theme and built on that and I have Thor being a young inexperienced god, the youngest son of Odin (Kevin Nash), and he because Ragnarok comes upon them is forced to step up to the plate and find the powerful god of the Asgard, or Valhalla, he has to find that god within him and really he fights and struggles through the whole movie to discover his inner power and he perseveres. So that's much more like the type of Thor that is in the myth than the comic book Thor."