Author: ravenchair (Page 1 of 4)

Joan Wendland

Joan Wendland is a Renaissance woman. Engineer, game designer, author, juggler, and sometimes stand-up comic. She can do almost anything but sew or draw. She lives in both northern Virginia and Ottawa, Canada, but is still a Jersey girl at heart.

Joan’s fine card games can be found at blood-and-cardstock.com.

Her writing blog is located at zoo-illuminati.com.

Her Twitter and BSky handles are @BandCGames.

Christopher Weuve

Christopher Weuve is a naval analyst and wargame designer. He spent six years at the Center for Naval Analyses (did you know the Combat Information Center of a Burke-class destroyer would make an excellent starship bridge?), and then five years on the faculty of the US Naval War College, of which he is a graduate. After a decade as an intelligence analyst, he’s now back to designing wargames, and is the co-founder of the Connections Online wargame conference, held every April.

Outside the day job, Chris is a co-founder of BuNine (David Weber’s Honorverse analytic visualization team), and has also consulted with Chuck Gannon, Walter Hunt, Alec Peters, Tom Harlan, John Lumpkin, and others. His work has been featured by Baen Books, the US Naval War College Review, Foreign Policy, and the Discovery Channel. Since May 2020 he’s been the co-host (with Pat Doyle) of Starfleet Tactical on the Ares Studio channel on YouTube.

Chris is (to the best of his knowledge) the only person ever interviewed (twice!) by the journal Foreign Policy about science fiction warships. His hobbies are naval history, science fiction, and not speaking for his employer.

Martin Wilsey

Martin Wilsey is a full-time author and creator of the bestselling, Solstice 31 Saga.

Mr. Wilsey’s first novel, Still Falling, was published March 31st of 2015. Less than three years and over a half-a-million published words later, he retired from his career as a research scientist for a government-funded think tank. As a full-time science fiction writer, Mr. Wilsey still uses his research and whiteboard skills to keep the books flowing. He likes to put the science back into science fiction.

Mr. Wilsey is also the founder and CEO of Tannhäuser Press, a small press and collaborative environment that was explicitly created by writers for writers.

As a prolific blogger, Martin shares what he has learned on his journey as an indie published author. On his blog, he writes a weekly webcomic and shares his inspirations and views on life. In addition to writing, he has begun to expand efforts into publishing through Tannhäuser Press, audio narration, and podcasting.

Mr. Wilsey has more projects than he has time. Please feel free to email him and distract him even more.

He and his wife Brenda live in Virginia with their cats Brandy and Bailey, and his dog Whiskey.

Email him or follow him on Social Media!

He just might kill you in his next novel…

Leona R. Wisoker

Leona R. Wisoker writes a variety of speculative fiction, from experimental to horror, from fantasy to science fiction. She also loves to edit (her own and other people’s work), read, and drink good coffee and better whiskey. In her less-than-abundant spare time, she is a wild garden warrior, an adventurous cook, and a champion catnapper, especially if sunbeams are available.

Leona’s novel, Lies of Stone, is a finalist for this year’s Webster Award.

J. Yamil

J. Yamil is a writer and TTRPG designer based in Durham, NC. He lives with his partner and their trio of feline familiars.

He has worked with Stiff Whiskers Press, Goodman Games and Newsarama, where he has showcased his versatility and creativity. He has served as a lead admin for the Gongfarmer’s Almanac for 2024 and 2025. Yamil has participated in panels discussing diversity at the table and RPG safety tools at various conventions such as GaryCon and ConCarolinas.

He is currently hard at work on various projects for 5e, Dungeon Crawl Classics and Weird Frontiers.

Meryl Yourish

Meryl Yourish has managed to turn her love of cats and reading fantasy into creating a fictional world where cats have human intelligence and magical powers. It’s no coincidence that some of the major Catmages look remarkably like cats that are or were in her life. The Catmage Chronicles series is the first published part of that world.

When she’s not writing about Catmages, she’s working on fantasy novels.

Meryl sometimes calls herself “a one-woman publishing house.” She has an extensive background in typesetting, desktop publishing, editing, copy editing, proofreading, and web production, as well as a smattering of programming. But her true love has always been the written word, both writing and reading.

She is currently writing a three-part sequel series to The Catmage Chronicles and a standalone Catmage novel set in 19th century Russia is in progress. There is also a dragon fantasy trilogy in the works when the Catmage stories are done.

Meryl lives in Richmond, VA, and can often be found at RavenCon, either as a fan or a guest.

Alix E. Harrow

Alix E. Harrow is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, Starling House, and various short fiction, including a duology of retold fairy tales (A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended). Her work has won a Hugo and a British Fantasy Award, and been shortlisted for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Southern Book Prize, and Goodreads Choice awards.

A former adjunct and Kentuckian, Harrow now lives in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids. 

 

Phillip Pournelle

Phillip Pournelle is a science fiction author, war game designer, operations analyst, and military strategist. He served in the United States Navy as a surface warfare officer, operations analyst, and planner for 26 years. He served on cruisers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and on an experimental high-speed vessel. He served on the Navy Staff conducting campaign analysis, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense doing mobility and naval analysis. He worked for five years at the Office of Net Assessment diagnosing the future of conflict and competition. He designs and executes war games, conducts modeling and simulation, and analysis on modern warfare for the Department of Defense and other organizations. He has written and spoken on the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in warfare. He is currently a senior war game designer and operations analyst at Group W, a defense and analysis, modeling, and research company. He teaches war game design for the Military Operations Research Society. He wrote a chapter on the use of war gaming, modeling, and simulation in the book Wargaming and Simulation published by Wiley Press in 2022. He contributed to Jerry Pournelle’s last Janissaries novel Mamelukes and recently submitted the second draft of the sequel to Baen books. He has had several short stories and articles published on the themes of future conflicts. His latest short story “The Rules of the Game” was published by Baen Books in the Robosoldiers anthology.

Cass Morris

Cass Morris lives her life at the intersection of storytelling, performance, and education as a writer and editor of novels, short fiction, and immersive experiences. Her novels, The Aven Cycle, are Roman-flavored historical fantasy. She is also one-third of the team behind the four-time Hugo Award Finalist podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists. Cass works as Story Editor at Mythik Camps, providing writing and developmental editing for the mythology-themed summer camps’ interactive theatrical experiences, as well as other programming and media projects. Previously, she worked in the education department at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. She holds a Master of Letters in Shakespeare studies from Mary Baldwin University and a BA in English and History from the College of William and Mary. Her novel, From Unseen Fire, won RavenCon’s Webster Award in 2020. Find her online at linktr.ee/cassrmorris.

DJ Drae

DJ Drae has been spinning since 2005. (S)He has entertained at club nights such as The Dawning, Umlaut, and Goth Night in Charlottesville and has toured to other clubs and venues around Virginia. (S)He has been a host of Les Temps Per Due, a 70s-90s themed throwback show, on WNRN since 2005. (S)He has also entertained at RavenCon since 2010, as well as at other sci-fi conventions.

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