Show Hosts
Michael R. Mennenga: Host, Engineer
Michael R. Mennenga (MEN-en-gay) was born in Nebraska, and grew up on a small farm outside of Holdrege. He began writing in late 1986 but it took a couple of years for Michael to develop his style. He began working on his first book in 1988 and spent the next six years submitting manuscripts, talking with publishers and agents, learning the ins and outs of this changing industry. Even though he remained unpublished, he had become a proficient writer and by the end of 1995 he had written 2 young adult books, 1 novel, and had 9 others in various stages of production. In late 1995 he also turned his attention to the Internet.
Summer Brooks: Executive Producer, Co-Host
Summer Brooks is one the show’s co-hosts and the Slice of SciFi executive producer, putting her SF media geek skills to good use in producing and booking all guest appearances for the show.
She is an avid reader and writer of scifi and fantasy with a few publishing credits to her name, and she desires to write and produce a TV series or miniseries that leaves a mark on people.
She had spent many years as a computer specialist for Unix servers for various large corporations, and competing in amateur full contact kickboxing. These days, she maintains many of the FarPoint Media websites, and coordinates guest interviews for a number of FarPoint Media shows.
Brian Brown: Co-Host
Brian Brown is one of the co-hosts of Slice of SciFi bringing his thoughts, ideas, options and love for all things SciFi and Fantasy to the show. He is a uniquely talented host with a sharp wit and a good ear for voice impersonation, which serves him and us well for this type of medium.
Brian comes to Slice of SciFi from Dragon Page: Cover to Cover where he started as a book reviewer. He was quickly brought on as one of the co-hosts. He is an avid reader, movie watcher and comic book collector in the sparse spare time he has.
In those not so free moments he is also co-hosting on Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas and Buffy Between The Lines. He is also working on other side voice projects and hopes someday to be as famous as Don LaFontaine.
Joe Murphy
Joe Murphy was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois. He was practically weaned on science fiction, watching reruns of the original Star Trek and Lost in Space with his mother.
After high school, Joe went to college and jumped around from studying computer science, to education for the hearing impaired, to finally landing on a Bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology at Illinois State University. Three years later, he earned with his Master’s in Audiology from Western Illinois University.
Science fiction and (especially) fantasy had always been a part of Joe’s life, whether in movies, TV, or books. After writing a review of Lisa Lee’s and Tee Morris’s Morevi on the Dragon Page’s forums, the Dragon Page made Joe the “official” book reviewer for The Dragon Page Radio Talk Show.
Joe passed away on April 1, 2007. He fought the good fight against leiomyosarcoma, but it eventually took him from us. He was our friend and colleague and we loved him very much. Joe will be greatly missed in our lives. We bid farewell to a dear and sweet man.
