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."

By Kati Krieger

It was a bright and sunny weekend in late June when the horror started. The quiet Lakeside Chalet sat pristinely against a bright blue, cloud streaked sky, quiet and still. Little did anyone know that in the bowels of that building an abnormal world was churning.

Once inside the chalet a quick stop at the hotel desk led me down a long white hallway that ended at a cross hall. This little area, taken over by the registration table and small souvenir stand didn't seem like much. There were a few volunteers checking people in, giving them their wristbands that allowed admittance to the convention. It wasn't until I saw a zombie walk past me and post a sign on one of the closed doors proclaiming a zombie hunt would take place inside that I started to feel like there was something more going on.

By Jamie Ruby

Monday, July 11, at 9pm ET/PT, marks the return of Syfy's most successful series, Warehouse 13. Season three will continue where last season left off with Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) having left the Warehouse team. The new character of Steve Jinks, played by Aaron Ashmore, a young ATF agent and human lie detector, will join the team and become Pete Lattimer's (Eddie McClintock) new partner.

Aaron Ashmore, along with series executive producer Jack Kenny (who SciFi Vision exclusively interviewed previously) sat down to discuss Jinks and the new season.

Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13, Syfy's most successful series ever, will begin its third season on Monday, July 11, at 9PM (ET/PT) answering key questions left hanging from the gripping season two finale. Has Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) left the Warehouse team for good? Have we seen the last of villainous H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray)?

By Jamie Ruby

 Alphas, Syfy's newest series this summer, follows a group of average citizens who have special or heightened abilities and work for the Department of Defence. The team, led by physchiatrist and neurologist Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), try to solve cases that deal with the bizarre, and cases related to others such as themselves.

Two of the actors on the series, Ryan Cartwright, who plays the character of Gary, an autistic transducer, and Azita Ghanizada, who plays Rachel, who can heighten a sense at the expense of her others, as well as executive producer Ira Steven Behr, talked to the digital media earlier in the week about the new series which premieres Monday, July 11 at 10pm ET/PT.

Alphas

This July, Syfy launches its newest original scripted series Alphas. In the action-packed thriller from writers Zak Penn (The Avengers, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Michael Karnow, five ordinary people are brought together to form one extraordinary team. They are known as Alphas -- people with the unique power to stretch the capabilities of the human mind giving them superhuman physical and mental abilities -- and the impossible is what they do best.

Alphas premieres Monday, July 11 @ 10:00PM ET/PT, and will be presented by Verizon with limited commercial interruption.

Alphas follows a clandestine group of average everyday citizens with amazing abilities operating within the U.S. Department of Defense. Led by preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn), the team investigates cases that point to others with abilities like theirs, and as they work against the clock to solve this new brand of crime, they must prevent their own personality differences and disparate backgrounds from interfering with their missions.

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

 Swamp Shark, Syfy's new original movie, which premieres tomorrow night at 9pm ET/CT, is about a killer shark who is released illegally into a river of a remote Louisiana town. The town, including the crooked sheriff, must fight to save the town and its people.

The Syfy Saturday "creature feature" stars Robert Davi (Profiler, Stargate: Atlantis), Kristy Swanson (Dude, Where's My Car, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), D.B. Sweeney (The Event, The Cutting Edge), and National Baseball Hall of Fame Member Wade Boggs.

Davi, Swanson, Sweeney, and Boggs recently talked to the media about tonight's movie.

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.