Creator and the Catalyst: News

Creator and the Catalyst is an online entertainment magazine, showcasing the creative works of celebrities, professionals and aspiring commercially viable talent. We enjoy collaborating with people of wide-ranging abilities, who reside throughout the world. We are interested in working with voice artists, visual artists, writers, poets, audio producers, designers, photographers and generally speaking, people interested in any form of creativity. This site provides opportunities for talented individuals to promote their work, expand their skills and to encourage others with their talents. Most importantly, we have fun being creative. Each creative experience helps us to meet challenges and grow as artists. It's exciting discovering innovative ways to bring talent together from all walks of life and geographic locations and collaborate in the production of new original works.

If you would like to be a part of the Creator and the Catalyst site, send us an e-mail by clicking on the "Contact Us" notice below. When writing, tell us a little about yourself and the areas of talent you are interested in submitting or performing on our site and a staff person will be in touch. All creative content on this site may be downloaded for free.

by Mark Edgemon

During a phone conversation about a year ago with actor and director Jim Meskimen , he mentioned a project he wanted me to produce as we were ending the call if I had the time and inclination. Jim has been a great friend and encourager over the years and I look forward to the times we collaborate on interesting and creative projects together. So I said sure without really needing to know what it was.

Jim told me that he had written a story for his daughter Taylor while on a return plane trip home some seven years back. Upon returning to Los Angeles, he arranged a recording session which by happenstance was during an actor's strike, which left a recording studio owned by a friend of his available. The children's story he had penned on the plane was now on it's way to becoming an exciting audio story, complete with top voice talent including actress Marion Ross from Happy Days fame. I had known him a year and a half before I knew of his special connection to this legendary icon of television history. She was his mother.

He and his wife Tamra, who is a gifted voice actor in her own right, along with friend Tait Ruppert and his mother's close friend Paul Michael was lead in the cast recording by his daughter, newcomer Taylor Meskimen, who played the lead as Splinter, The Witch Princess.

Once the studio recording was finished, Jim who is always busy with multiple projects was unable to get back to it for years which brings us to our phone conversation.

After retrieving the raw voice recording from an upload to a server service, I began the process by selecting the best dialogue performances from multiple do overs. This was done without a script due to the fact that Jim could not lay his hands on it readily. I had about a month to finish it, because I wanted to surprise him with a finished cd of the audio story production by his birthday.

Once the unwanted takes had been removed, I repaired the minor glitches that found it's way into the recording. During the post editing, I changed the inflection of some of the actor's delivery by removing and or adding space in between words and phrases, which added impact to the performances. I used sound effects from my library, found some others through sound effects services and created the rest.

With the deadline looming, I "borrowed" some beautiful excerpts from Rachel Portman's music from the movie, "Chocolat".

I finished two pieces of artwork which I used for the front and back cd covers and then added some graphic design listing the title, credits and tracks to complete the cd package in time for his birthday.

You can hear and download the audio story "The Witch Princess" in the audio movies section.

by Mark Edgemon

Dan Hollifield is a gifted writer who has published a body of work that would stagger the imagination of today's best selling authors.

His recent novel is of a steampunk genre and is still a work in progress. I had the privilege of recording an excerpt from it last year.

I think next to selling one's work, an author most wants to hear and or see their creative works performed in one media form or another.

He was born in 1957. His father was a machinist and constructed machinery for experiments used by research scientists in the UGA Physics building. His mother is an artist and has been so since childhood. He claims his wide range of creative abilities were from both his parents.

In addition to being an author, he is sometimes a painter, a musician, an architect, an online publisher, a graphic artist, a book reviewer, a film & television reviewer, a photographer and a cartoonist.

"I write stories because I have to, which is the same reason I do an oil painting, or design the articulation joints of a suit of armor, or compose a piece of music, or draw a cartoon" he states of himself.

Recently his story, "Her Majesty's Gift" was published in a book anthology of science fiction stories.

You can hear an audio story production of his steampunk adventure "Her Majesty's Gift" in the audio movies section on this site.

I stared at the image for a long time before conceiving the plot and direction for the story. Rewriting history, I recounted the years before Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne of England when her uncle, the Prince of Wales was king. He was a young man and it was unlikely that she being third in line would ever take the throne. However as fate would have it, her uncle fell in love and married a divorced socialite, forbidden in British law. He eventually abdicated his throne for the woman he loved putting Elizabeth second in line to power. When her father died, she passed from the title of princess to queen and assumed power as the Queen of England.

by Mark Edgemon

In the picture above, actress and art patron Anne Archer stands with artist and actor Jim Meskimen to the right of his masterpiece "Wind in Iraq" which sold for a high dollar amount at a gallery in New York.

It all started with a dare...a challenge! I bet Jim I could write a convincing story based around any art piece he cared to send me and all in a twenty four hour time limit. It wasn't long before he sent his submission for the challenge, the most unusual painting I had ever seen. It was beautiful and captivating, but outside the normal concepts usually considered for art subjects. The painting was off his daughter sitting on a bed in a white gown holding a strange sort of mask in front of her face. Odd, but captivating.

In this story, now in her eighties, she wandered passed her bedroom door late one evening and saw a young girl standing at the foot of her bed staring at a portrait hanging on the wall above the fireplace. Upon entering the room, the girl seemed familiar although they had never met before and the two began a revealing conversation that leads the queen to believe this girl was an apparition, a spiritual visitation from her younger self.

Jim is a multi-talented gentlemen, who is not only a visual artist in several mediums including charcoal, oil painting, sketches and digital art, but a top flight voice artist as well as an actor, writer and director.

You can listen and download this audio story titled, "The Party Favor" in the audio movies section of this site.

needed the great one to come back from the great beyond to perform a poem I had written about the last surviving Grimm brother, but there is never a medium around when you need one.

Fortunately, I had recently met a young voice artist, who had a remarkable gift for mimicry and who sounded more like Vincent than Vincent did. His name is Piotr Walczuk.

He was sensational with each of his dead on celebrity impressions, an impressive talent to say the least. He created the perfect tone for this piece. When set to music, Piotr's performance captured the very essence of his soul. It was "Priceless"!

You can listen and download the Vincent "Priceless" audio poem, "Grimm Reality" in the audio poetry section.

You will also find more of Piotr's voice work in the audio movie and audio comedy sections on this site.

During late night shoots, I got to know Sunny Johnson who hadn't made her mark yet as an actress, but would in her next film, "Flashdance" playing the supporting lead of Jennifer Beals character's best friend. She was bright, curious and beautiful. I enjoyed those times especially. I lost touch with her the year following the film's debut and regrettably heard a few years later that she died of a brain tumor, which was heart breaking. She was special.

The cast and crew would often horse around in between takes and I eventually got pulled into it. After all, it was one in the morning and we had

by Mark Edgemon

The image above is of actor Tony Shalhoub (left) from the series "Monk", actor Ray Porter (center) as series character Dale the Whale and Ed French (right), award winning make up artist.

Edward French is an Oscar nominated, Emmy Award-winning makeup effects artist. He counts LeVar Burton, John de Lancie, Iman, Christopher Plummer and William Shatner among his star clients.

Ed has created many great characters from notable actors over several decades and is continuing to move into even greater areas of achievement in movies and television.

What people may not know about Ed is he is a gifted voice talent, providing narration and voice work to stories many of which he has written.

He portrays Satan in his audio presentation, "The Prince of Persia" and does a dead on Bela Lugosi (so to speak) in two of his audio theatre productions titled, "Home with Lugosi: Mystery of the Missing Christmas Tree Ornaments" and "Home with Lugosi: Mystery Meet" doing both Lugosi and the famed producer/director Ed Wood.

He does a chilling performance in a story written by Shirley Jackson titled, "The Witch" and a dark comedy, "The Once In Love With Mamie Affair" about a transfixed President Eisenhower in love with the portrait of Dolly Madison.

Finally, he plays a detective like character, security officer Frank Damenfeno who laments about gun safety in a town plagued by fire arm mishaps.

He was makeup artist on Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1989 through 1993 and received an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the episode "Identity Crisis". He also worked as special makeup effects artist and special alien makeup creator on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, earning a Best Makeup Oscar nomination from the Academy Awards. In 1999, he provided alien prosthetic applications for Star Trek: Voyager.

Edward French won his first Emmy Award for his work on Alien Nation, a series which starred Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint, and Michele Scarabelli. He has received Emmy Award nominations for his work on Space Rangers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His most recent Emmy nomination in 2007 for the prosthetic makeup used in an episode of House which resulted in his second win.

Other films in which Edward French's make-up effects can be seen includes Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Batman Returns, True Lies, Eraser, Batman & Robin, Armageddon, Being John Malkovich, Blade and White Chicks. His television credits also include Tales from the Darkside, Sliders, The X-Files, Charmed, Monk, and NCIS.

Images of Ed French's make up expertise can be viewed in a gallery within the visual art section.

His many excellent audio stories, can be heard and downloaded in the audio movies section.

by Mark Edgemon

Published author Nate Kailhofer has written short stories for many years. With a decades old background in printing and design, Nate launched early in 2010 his first book project as a publisher of an anthology of science fiction short stories, 70 to be exact, sporting the works of 17 authors in a collaboration that was years in the making. Utilizing his skills in flash fiction (an ultra short story of about 1,000 words or less) and his position as flash fiction editor of the online literary publication Aphelion, he assembled authors from a wide range of backgrounds and styles in a collaboration that birthed a fascinating book of good reads. With each story being able to be read in five minutes or less, there is no need for the reader to remember where they left off, each revisit to the book can start with a new work of fiction spanning the world and outer dimensions of space and reality.

The book can be purchased online at Lulu printing at Lulu.com.

Check out Nate Kailhofer's literary story, "The Troll and the Lime Tree" in the fiction section and an audio story version of his masterpiece in the audio movies section on this site.

by Mark Edgemon

Dead on describes in more ways than one D. C. Goode's celebrity voice impression of Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone. Knowing of his ability to capture not only the Sci Fi media mogul's voice, but also his essence, I wrote D. C. some time back and asked if he'd be willing to help create a new Twilight Zone episode (audio version only). He agreed and was enthusiastic for the challenge as I was to write a script in the Twilight Zone style. Artist Jim Meskimen offered up his talents as well and created a haunting digital art piece, which became not only the center piece for the poster art, but the inspiration for the story, seeing he provided the art before the story was written.

Dennis has been working full time in VO since the

80's as a variety artist in Southern California for such notables as the Righteous Brothers and Disney. His commercials, narrations and various other projects have totaled in the thousands.

Some of his recent clients include, Netflix, US Cellular, Narration of the New testament (Old King James version), and has appeared in films and TV shows such as “Pursuit of Happyness”, The Mentalist (CBS), Trauma (NBC) and in the Anime series "The Chiang Mai Rascals" where he played over a dozen different characters. His most recent audio book narration, “God’s Debris” by Scott Adams who was the creator of the Dilbert comic strip.

In addition to his voice acting and voice over work, he specializes as a ADR, IT and multi-technology-systems integrator/technician, an audio engineer and as a director and producer.

I have grown to depend on D. C. Goode through the years for being able to conjure whatever voice is needed with an awesome depth and vibrancy.

The new "Twilight Zone" audio movie is titled "The Remembrance" and can be heard and downloaded in the audio movie section. While you are there, peruse other D. C. Goode entertainment with, "The Deiform Sovereign Mind of Meaglia Vox" and "My Brief Affair With Marilyn Monroe".

injustice that a free person should not have to endure. But the female character who was telling the story, had a life changing experience when she encountered a minister, who although white himself, seemed to have the hand of God on his shoulder.

Sabrina was pleased to record it, but warned me she had not used her voice in this way before. I knew there would be some do overs and excepted that as a reality. There was not even one. She nailed it in her first try. It was simply amazing! There was a lot of editing popping sounds and breath support noise, but that was to be expected from a first timer. But her performance was professional and brought out the emotion of a woman who had been redeemed from a broken spirit and who had the weight of prejudice lifted off of her shoulders, which personified a spiritual healing we all need often in our lives.

Once again, it was Jim Meskimen to the rescue with an art piece that became the signature inspiration for the script and captured as usual, the heart of what the story was about. Coincidentally, the image of the bruised and battered "savior type" hero in the artwork, happens to be the image of Jim himself.

You can listen and download "Saint Jim" in the audio movies section as well as read and listen to Sabrina Cummings poems in the poetry section. You can also view Jim Meskimen's artwork in the visual art section on this site.

by J. W. Henson

I was born on a rainy night on November 30, 1930 in a small isolated farming community. The great worldwide depression was heating up. My father died when I was six months old leaving mother and me to face the world alone. She never remarried, but was industrious, thrifty and God-fearing so that life was comfortable enough for us. Through necessity, I learned the ways of hard work on the farm at a very young age.

I began high school on an accelerated schedule of study and hard work. I worked nights and weekends at a local printing establishment forty hours a week, to pay my expenses. I continued this schedule through college, graduating in 1954 with a BA degree in Chemistry.

I married on June 3, 1951 and have had happy years together with many more to come. Three children came to bless our home. Brenda, our oldest, was a manager with the Nabisco Baking Company in California. John IV is Director of Neurology at the Swedish Institute in Seattle, Washington. Shandelle, our youngest, is Professor of Mathematics, with a PhD, at the Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Sadly, none of them chose to remain near their parents.

I taught High School Chemistry, and Math in a country High School in Missouri in the mid 1950s. It did not take long for me to realize that teaching was not for me, so I returned to the rumble and roar of the printing pressroom. I had started Printing in 1947 as a janitor and retired in 1992 as President of the company.

My wife and I have crossed the ocean 38 times, most of which were to visit her cousins in Germany. We have traveled South America. I have crossed the Russian wasteland on the Trans-Siberian railroad. We have made trips to Africa and have developed a love and respect for all cultures.

Story telling was always very important to our family. We spent long winter nights before the hearth of a fireplace, and the glow of a kerosene lamp, reading and telling stories. I grew to believe that there was an important story in the life of every human being and that it was my task to unravel it from the happenings of the day. Mother and I began keeping a diary in the early 1940s, and I have perhaps the best-documented personal history of any one I know. I have encouraged many friends to start diary keeping. It gives one a continuity to their life that nothing else can.

His adventures spanning decades include titles such as, "A Night In Frankfurt: Fear Comes With the Night", "Crossing the Red Zone", "The Mark of Cain", "The Gray Veil" and "A Pilgrimage To Walden’s Pond" can be read and downloaded along with many other J. W. Henson's true stories in the non fiction section of this site.

by Mark Edgemon

Gifted poets are rare, especially in these times when movies, television and video games take center stage. And yet we are fortunate to have several greats who are published frequently on this site. A great poet says so much in unobvious ways whether through allegories, symbolism, metaphors, similes and or by using examples of truth either from within themselves or through others.

Every poet has their own style so choosing a poem to read depends on one's personality and interests. So whether you peruse through the poetry of Helen J. Dixon, Marla J. Deaton, Sabrina M. Cummings, Mark Edgemon, Andrew Pell, Richard Tornello or others, you are bound to find words that you can identify and connect with.

Helen J. Dixon is a fiery poet using raw emotion to convey her mood along with her message. Her poetry is full of depth and soul and stirs the spirit of her audience with her honest assessment of her own heart and the truth found inside. Helen is a prominent New York attorney who legally cares for many neglected children through the New York State Child Care Services.

Marla J. Deaton is a Southern poet who personifies grace and quiet wisdom in her ponderings of the human condition. She searches truth and declares it with simplicity, personalizing it so she and her audience can understand what is often explained in life through broad, general terms. Marla is the poetry editor for the Creator and the Catalyst site.

Sabrina M. Cummings has a spiritual revival type style that sees the wonder in life through one's relationships and the daily path we all most walk. Warmth and love are trade marks of her writing and her naturally gifted speaking voice. Sabrina is a professional singer residing in Texas.

Andrew Pell is a Christian poet from Sidney, Australia who has written and published hundreds of poems from his perspective of the spiritual journey of man. He is a composer of music and often plays in numerous churches throughout Sidney.

You can read and download poetry by these great poets from the poetry section of this site.

by Mark Edgemon

I met Thomas through a mutual friend Piotr Walczuk another remarkable voice talent also living in Los Angeles. I have found Thomas to be a quick study, able to follow direction and record in a heartbeat with consistent quality and style. After reviewing his celebrity voice list I asked if he could do Sean Connery for the Medieval story, "The Forger and the Flame" a short tale about loyalty and redemption. He said yes, but I was amazed at his recorded performance. He chose an older Sean Connery voice performance and leaned into more of a Scottish Brogue which brought depth and believability to the finished recorded production.

I look forward to working with this talented voice actor in the future.

Tom Bromhead is a multi award winning voice artist. He won a 2008 Emmy for “I Got a Rocket” which was also nominated for an AFI award.

He has lived in England and Australia and now resides in Los Angeles. He is a unique international voice artist performing multiple accents and dialects to make each voice sound uniquely different.

Thomas was trained in drama at Richmond Drama School in London and in improvisation at Second City in LA.

You can listen and download, "The Forger and the Flame" as well as other stories performed by Thomas Bromhead such as his multi-celebrity voice performance of "American Enginuity" and as Dr. Evil in the comic horror story, "Unhinged" in the audio movie section on this site.

by Mark Edgemon

Compelling Sci Fi writer Michele Dutcher has been cranking out hits, captivating audiences with can't miss storylines for years. Residing in a carriage house in a Victorian area of Louisville, KY., she is a keen observer of human traits from people in different walks of life and translates them into robust characters that reaches out and pulls the reader into her stories.

Michele holds a bachelor of science in education and minors in art, sociology and theology. Her educational background is woven into the fabric

of her story writing giving the reader a smooth ride through her imaginative adventures.

Michele started out as a short story writer by entering into online competitions and wowing her publishers with her ability to create worlds and move situations by mere words alone. Later, she expanded several of her short stories adding depth and richness to the plot and character development, eventually turning them into novels.

In her first success, "Heaven's Door" Michele explores the world of nanotechnology.

"Fancy words are like taking an old, stinky, worn-out tennis shoe, putting it in a cardboard box, and wrapping it with bright, shiny, colorful paper," says Robin B. Lipinski in the Preface of his intriguing new book, Signs of a Free Mind. His story is not about fancy words but of simplicity. It is about the closed mind each of us harbors, and about how we can all open up and, indeed, "free our minds."

Along the way, Lipinski offers six "exercises" he feels readers can use to free up their thinking and thereby "open themselves up." One of these involves eating foods, for a week, that "you have never tried before," not just food you "currently love."

"My purpose," writes the author, "is not to disturb you or shock you or convert you. It is to have you open your mind."

Also emphasized within these pages is what the author calls "the recent demise of marriage in the United States," and he cites what he feels are the cornerstones of marriage, using his own as a basis for much of the discussion. As an added personal touch, Mr. Lipinski refers to his experiences during his tour of duty with the United States Marine Corps, to show how this helped him form his ideas about free thinking.

Thought-provoking, compelling, and timely, Signs of a Free Mind, by Robin B. Lipinski, is must reading for anyone searching for positive change in his or her life.

Pub. Date: January 2009
Publisher: Vantage Press, Inc.
Format: Hardcover , 237pp
Hardcover Cost: $24.95

You can purchase this fine book at: Barnes and Noble

by Mark Edgemon

Dan has been reviewing my stories for a couple of years with great in-depth precision and expertise. He misses nothing! I admire his talent from correctly assessing the tense of a sentence to flawless punctuation and grammar. Not only does he bring the tech of a work to professional status, but the continuity of the story writing as well. If there are holes in the plot, he will find them.

Before submitting an original literary work for consideration, a critical review is indispensable for a writer who seeks to get his start as a literary force or a consummate author who wants to focus on the story and let someone else perfect the manuscript.

If you are a writer who is interested in a professional critique of work you are seeking to publish, try Dan Edelman's free 2 page review and see how much difference quality oversight can make to your literary work.

If you want to avail yourself of his review service, send an inquiry to our site's e-mail address and Dan will be glad to look at the first 2 pages free. If you should decide to have him review more, a price can be assessed based on the amount of pages and the frequency of business.

You can contact Dan Edelman by sending an e-mail to

By Phil Proctor

"Jim is 'Meskerising' in his multiple-personality, one-man show deftly directed by Tait Ruppert. Famous stars past and present crowd the stage, magically conjured by the silly, singular Meskimen, a vocal magician who pulls characters out of his head -- and even more amazing, like Penn & Teller, Jim shows us how he does it.

Is there no end to his wizardry? No! Act Two introduces his charming British "altered ego", Professor Knestor Jackdaws, for a terrific and different topper of inspired artistic improvisation.

Go see Meskimen's Show, and who knows? You may even see yourself..."

by Mark Edgemon

Whereas Robin Cook is a doctor of Ophthalmology (dealing with diseases of the eye) and Eugene S. Strout is a pathologist (the study of the nature of diseases), both draw from their rich background in medicine to create characters of great depth and spine tingling plots that draw their audience into their stories. Robin has created a genre all his own that we now refer to as medical thrillers, but Eugene decided to apply his vast knowledge of human diseases in the established genre of science fiction.

Eugene was born in Minneapolis MN. in 1930 and spent his early years in a boring rural Minnesota town. At 17, he joined the Navy where he served 10 years as a Hospital Corpsman for two Navy Hospitals as well as on board two aircraft carriers and a ship of research.

He joined the Navy in 1957, because they paid interns more than civilian hospitals. During his tenure, he served on 3 nuclear powered Polaris missile submarines.

Later he graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1964. He completed his Pathology residency in San Diego in 1972 and retiring from the Navy in 1974. He served as a pathologist at a civilian hospital and on the faculty of the U C Irvine Medical Center until retiring in November of 2009.

He is married to his wife Mickey of 57 years and has four grown children.

Later in life he took a correspondence writing course, beginning in 1995 and presently submits science fiction stories to various publishers.

You can read many of his spell binding stories in the fiction section under the heading, "Collective Stories of E. S. Strout MD".

downloadable sound effects since 1997