Jack has more than thirty years of gaming and LARP experience. Having been a storyteller since he was a little kid, about fifteen years ago he began putting his work on paper. In addition to working as a freelance editor, he returned to his childhood dream of being an author, and has now written more than sixty short novels, many of them spicy romances, under his pen names, available on Amazon.
Tiffany Vega is a multi-genre author and a co-owner of Outsider Publishing Company. Her passions are reading, writing, and crafting—which she always brings in to her books. She is a mother of three men and three fur babies.
Victims and Villains is a Richmond-based multimedia non-profit that creates content to discuss mental health through pop culture.
Nate Walton is a writer, he puts words together in sometimes interesting ways, usually they are about horror or pop culture or other things people like. Sometimes they are good. You can check out his short story collection 3 Sisters Fight A Ghost, or find his work in the anthologies published by Outsider Publishing Company where he is a co-owner. He is working on multiple things including The Scars Call Me By Name, The Constant Quill or his semi-regular blog series The Made That Made Me.
Cos-Slayers is a Virginia-based cosplay group. They organize and participate in state-wide cosplay events such as conventions, competitions, and photoshoots. Their goal is to foster a welcoming community for anyone who wants to bring their favorite characters to life.
Hannah “Spoon” Wilson is a professional illustrator and artist whose work ranges from book covers and inset illustrations, to fine art and paintings, to biological illustration. They frequently explore elaborate depictions of the natural world, mixed with witchy, nerdy, and fantastical elements. Their work is crafted in a variety of media, but ink, watercolor, and digital are their favorites.
Recent publications of their work include inset illustrations in Lesbians in Space 2: The Sapphics Strike Back— an anthology by Space Wizard publishing, the covers for the brand new Gen X romance series by Samantha Bryant—Not Too Late, Acid Reign, and Ready or Not, and the inset illustrations for the upcoming reprint of When the Television Decides to Murder your Girlfriend by Martin Shannon.
When they aren’t drawing, you can typically find them making and dressing up in custom cosplays! Other hobbies of theirs include reading while curled up with their cat, weaving, hiking, and traveling with their husband and dog.
You can see their work on most social media sites under @spoonwooddraws, on their website at spoonwoodvisuals.com, or come by their booth in the Artist Alley to say hello!
Frank Wu is a 4-time Hugo Award-winning artist and former RavenCon Artist GOH. He’s also a writer, with 8 stories published in Analog magazine, including three novellas in collaboration with Jay Werkheiser. He’s also had two ESPionage novels—about psychic CIA agents battling Russian assassins and kidnappers—written with Tom Easton and published by Amazing Stories. He’s also a published scientist, with a Ph.D. in Bacterial Genetics from Wisconsin (Go Badgers!)—a triple threat! Frank lives in Boston with his wife Brianna the Magnificent (former RavenCon Gaming GOH).
RavenCon is proud to be part of the Ultimate Blanket Fort Competition tour. The winner of the competition will get invited to the National Championships in 2027, hosted at ConVivial in Williamsburg, VA. Additional prizes are awarded for first, second, and third place.
Contestants have 45 minutes to construct the coolest blanket fort they can imagine. It is solely BYOB—Bring Your Own Blanket, but you can bring all the sheets, pillows, blankets, Lincoln logs, fairy lights, stuffed animals, or really anything you want to bring to help you construct the coolest fort. Points for originality, lighting, design, and theme. There is no age restriction! Adults and children are encourged to apply! Bribery of the judges is allowed (and encouraged), but you do have to follow the rules.
Want in on the fun? We know you do! A limited number of spots are available, but you can still enter right HERE.
Over the years, Virginia has been fortunate to have several great local conventions. ShevaCon was one that I tried to attend whenever possible, but in reality I ended up only attending sporadically throughout the Nineties. I started attending on a regular basis in 2002, when I began publishing Nth Degree. By my second appearance there as a guest, I was getting to know the staff pretty well. In 2005, when I was starting to organize the first RavenCon, word got to me that a few members of the ShevaCon staff were retiring and might be interested in helping out. I, of course, took them up on their offer. This was when Doris and Mike Manning became part of my family.
Ever since the first RavenCon, Doris ran our Registration Desk. She was always the first person you would see when you arrived at the convention; greeting people, handing out badges, and answering everyone’s questions. Doris embodied a quiet efficiency that kept us running smoothly. She loved her con family, cats, unicorns, books, and the Muppets; not necessarily in that order.
In January of 2014, Doris had a routine run-in with con crud. Her doctor screwed up and put her on an antibiotic that after a mere four doses pretty much shut down her kidney function. The nephrologist she was refered to proceeded to put her on a treatment plan with no better than a 50% chance of success. Several years of illnesses and treatments followed; around and around. Through it all, her loving husband and her convention friends kept her spirits up and she stayed her ever-positive self through it all—leg ulcers, treatments, more con crud, treatments, the COVID years, more treatments…
The last time she walked was July 12, 2021. She walked into the hospital under her own power, had one more surgical debridement there, and then got shipped to a nursing facility in Charlottesville where she ended up at the UVA Medical Center and woke up a week later… to the sound of a dialysis machine… mittens on her hands… and a promise that if she held still just a few minutes more the ventilator would be taken out. From that moment until the day that she passed, Doris fought. She had so many things that she still wanted to do, including getting back to see her convention family. The day before she passed I watched her make plans for long-term treatments and listened as she laid out plans for beating her illness and getting out of bed again.
Needless to say, there are bills and insurance is neither quick nor efficient nor kind. We’ve designated Doris as our 2024 Charity Auction recipient to help with the bills she left behind and to help make things easier on her husband, Mike Manning. Doris never missed the Charity Auction; she loved the crazy unpredictable stunts that would happen during the Auction and she always helped keep it running efficiently so it’s only fitting that we give her a good send off this year.
–Fearless Leader
In 2023, our Charity Auction supported ReEstablish Richmond.
ReEstablish Richmond was chosen to honor Lelia Taylor. Lelia was the owner of the Richmond-based Creatures ‘n Crooks Bookshoppe. She was also a part of RavenCon from the beginning, a yearly presence in our Vendors’ Room until she finally retired after many years of bookselling. She supported many of our RavenCon authors early in their careers, carrying their books in the Vendors’ Room and in her Richmond store, recommending them to readers looking for new SFFH.
Besides her passion for books (and cats, scented candles, Thin Mints, gourmet snacks, nightshirts depicting kittens, Christmas ornament shops, friendships that lasted for decades, and playing mahjong on her computer), Lelia financially supported a long list of charitable organizations that she felt very passionate about.
Founded in 2010, ReEstablish Richmond is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization focused on helping refugees settle into Richmond while maintaining ties to their home culture. For the past two decades, they have developed programs related to housing, agriculture, transportation independence, employment, independence, health and wellness, economic empowerment, and community engagement. Their primary focus has been on connecting Richmond’s newest neighbors to life-building tools and resources, helping their integration into the community to be a positive and empowering experience.
If you would like to make a donation to ReEstablish Richmond you can do so through this link.
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑