T's Stuff: Radioactive Evolution by Richard Hummel

Monday, April 29, 2019

Radioactive Evolution by Richard Hummel

Author: Richard Hummel

Narrators: Armen Taylor, Anneliese Rennie

Length: 15 hours and 27 minutes

Publisher: Hummel Books

Released: Mar. 15, 2019

Genre: Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic

How far would you go to change humanity's fate?

Jared Cartwright grew up in a loving, caring community, completely isolated from the horrors of the outside world. When tragedy leaves him alone and untethered, Jared sets out to explore the unknown; a world where twisted, scarred creatures roam an earth ravaged by nuclear war while the rich fled to the skies on floating utopias, escaping destruction and leaving the rest of humanity to die.

To face his new reality, Jared must learn to survive in a cold, harsh world. A twist of fate changes Jared's destiny when he discovers dragons are real. The dragon unlocks a hidden technology within his body, giving him powers he never imagined existed.

With deadly adversaries above and below, he must evolve beyond mere human limitations to defeat the powerful rulers of the cities and the rabid beasts lurking in the shadows.

How did I get started as a writer?

It isn't some magical moment or literary genius that bonked me on the head. Nope, it's quite a bit more mundane than that. I started reading this genre called LitRPG (Gamelit is the parent genre), which basically combines MMORPG with Science Fiction & Fantasy. Cool, right?

Yep, I thought it was too. Basically, I started by joining a ton of groups, mailing lists, and Discord servers talking to readers, authors, and professionals in the industry. It got to the point where I'd continually bounce ideas around until one day I realized that I had more than enough ideas to create my own world and characters.

Then I just buckled down, picked up a copy of Scrivener and went to work. The rest is probably boring to most of you, but that's the gist of it and here we are!

By day I am a cyber security analyst and father of two beautiful girls and a little boy on the way! My wife and I are excited/anxious to have a boy in the family and looking forward to new adventures.

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Growing up, my cousins and I were raised on the stories of my grandmother; her tales of traveling the world, of funny encounters with famous people, of watching – red faced – as Imelda Marcos serenaded my grandfather at a black tie function. Each telling seemed to be a little better, a little funnier and, even if we’d heard it a dozen times before, she made the punch lines land as fresh as ever.

As I got older I dabbled in creative writing and sought to find that voice in myself. After graduating from Brown University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History (Early Modern European with a focus on colonialism to be exact, but that’s a bit of a mouthful), I enrolled in a two-year acting program at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. It seemed a revelation to me that I wanted to become an actor, but when I told my family, they shrugged and said, “Yeah, that makes sense.” Upon completing my course of study in New York I did what so many young actors do and moved to Los Angeles.

In my time here I have been fortunate enough to study with a slew of talented coaches, mentors and performers including: Lesly Kahn, Nancy Wolfson, Mick Wingert, Charlie Adler, Debi Derryberry, Pat Fraley, Donna Grillo, Tony Oliver & Julie Maddalena, Joyce Castellanos, Gene Cordes, Ben Patrick Johnson, Scott Brick, Kirk Baltz, Jeff Howell, the MoCap Vaults team, and some great improvisers at iOWest. Each of these people has helped to lead me a little further down the path that my grandmother started me out on when I was just a kid. Whether it is a commercial voice over, a web series, an audiobook or a lone line of dialogue on a TV show – it is all part of story telling. And that is exactly what I do.

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Anneliese is a skilled narrator with a warm mezzo voice and many titles in romance, Sci-Fi Fantasy and non-fiction to her credit. A background in classical music radio and opera give her a particular facility with foreign languages. She is currently voicing multiple characters for a Fallout New Vegas mod. She also happens to be one of the driving forces behind Spectrum Audiobooks. Feel free to chat with her on Facebook or Twitter about the company.