Category: Author Guest (Page 7 of 8)

Katika Schneider

March 11, 2026 / ravenchair

Introduced to the art of writing by her fourth grade teacher, Kat’s been an obsessive writer for most of her life. She started out writing for herself, then her characters, and began pursuing publication in 2014. She’s a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell.

Holding her degree in Animal Science, Kat planned on attending veterinary school until incisions started making her faint. She is now a roving writer, living with her husband, son, and their family of critters.

Kat is the author of The Afflicted Saga, a character-driven epic fantasy for epic readers.

Lawrence M. Schoen

March 11, 2026 / ravenchair

Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, is a past Astounding, Hugo, and Nebula finalist, twice won the Cóyotl award for best novel, founded the Klingon Language Institute, and occasionally does work as a hypnotherapist specializing in authors’ issues.

His science fiction includes many light and humorous adventures of a space-faring stage hypnotist and his alien animal companion. Other works take a very different tone, exploring aspects of determinism and free will, generally redefining the continua between life and death. Sometimes he blurs the funny and the serious. Lawrence and his wife live just outside Philadelphia, PA. He has bested both Multiple Myeloma and Leukemia and is a chimeric cancer survivor.

Chris Semtner

March 11, 2026 / ravenchair

Chris Semtner is an award-winning, internationally exhibited visual artist whose work can be found in numerous private and public collections. He has written several articles and chapters in addition to eight books about Poe, visual art, horror, pop culture, and cryptography. His writing has appeared in Biography.com, Crime Writers’ Chronicle, Resources for American Literary Study, and other publications. He has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, SyFy Wire, and Rue Morgue Magazine, in addition to appearing in documentaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Venezuela, and Japan. As the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, he regularly speaks about strange and macabre subjects at various venues from the Steampunk World’s Fair to the Library of Congress and as far away as Paris and Kyoto, Japan. He has participated in several RavenCons, and they even gave him a Webster Award.

Xexilia O. Shadows

March 10, 2026 / ravenchair

Xexilia O. Shadows is a “retro” webcomic artist who began her magnum opus Eternity Concepts in 1999, a mystery-romance. She has since continued and crossed into gallery and museum showings of her work, along with publishing her web-comic series in an ongoing collection of volumes. With an urge to express millions of unsaid moments, screams, and cries, Shadows’ works are both cryptic and emotionally deep, functioning as a storytelling medium. Using her own unique symbol language parsed within many wider meanings of imagery, she calls her pieces “visual mysteries” and maintains that most, if not all, works contain one, often several, puzzles. Far more complex than appearances let on, with the puzzles never publicly acknowledged or discussed, Xexilia has opted to present viewers with an intellectual test and allow curiosity, boldness, and willingness to accept failure all as solutions to help unlock the deepest meanings of each work.

This year marks the second edition release of her original first volume of Eternity Concepts, which was first announced and released at RavenCon 2015! She hopes to release the second volume this year. Eternity Concepts was also the subject of her solo exhibition at ArtWorks Gallery, featuring a collection of pieces of characters and themes from the series, and chosen as the subject as she wanted to ensure Eternity Concepts—and webcomics—crossed over into serious art pieces rather than being just a mere online hobby. Her pieces will show in London, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, and NYC over the course of 2026, and are always on display at ArtWorks Gallery in downtown Richmond at her resident studio space in studio 108.

Daniel Sherrier

March 10, 2026 / ravenchair

Daniel Sherrier writes the Terrific series of superhero novels, which began with The Flying Woman in 2018. He’s a William & Mary graduate, a former community newspaper writer and editor, and a black belt in Thai kickboxing. And there was that one time he jumped out of an airplane, which was memorable.

Alan Smale

March 9, 2026 / ravenchair

Alan Smale writes alternate history, historical fantasy, and hard SF. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles”, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and his novels set in the same universe, Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Eagle and Empire (2015-2017) are available from Del Rey. His “Roman baseball” collaboration with Rick Wilber, The Wandering Warriors, came out from WordFire Press in 2020. Hot Moon, his alternate-Apollo “techno-thriller with heart”, set entirely on and around the Moon, was launched by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy in 2022, with sequels Radiant Sky in 2024 and Burning Night in 2025.

Alan has sold over fifty stories to Asimov’s and other magazines and anthologies, and his short story “Gunpowder Treason” earned him a second Sidewise Award in 2022. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Lightspeed, Journey Planet, and Galaxy’s Edge.

Alan grew up in Yorkshire, England, and earned degrees in Physics and Astrophysics from Oxford University. Until recently he performed astronomical research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and served as director of an astrophysical data archive. He also sings bass with high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, and is co-creator of their educational AstroCappella project, spreading astronomy through a cappella in schools across the country.

Tangent Artists

March 8, 2026 / ravenchair

Tangent Artists, founded in 2009, has had the privilege of providing entertaining stories in the form of comics, gaming books, merch and now novels and videos. Starting with their best seller: The Handbook for Saucy Bards their Guild Guide series is expanding to include The Barbarian’s Coloring and Activity Book (for reading levels 2-4). And Monica Marier’s Must Love Dragons series is launching the prequel: Must Love Humans! Find out how Linus met Deirdre in this meet-cute gone wrong.

Mary Terrani

March 8, 2026 / ravenchair

Mary Terrani lives a chaotic life as the mother of two boys of the 20-something variety. They keep her on her toes on a regular basis, so she’s happy to get lost in other worlds. Her long-standing passion for the written word drives her need to create chaos with her pen that only she can solve. She loves to dabble in many genres, from young adult to paranormal, and a post-apocalyptic piece she’s co-written with fellow author, Sarah Cass.

When she’s not writing, Mary can be found in a variety of activities including knitting, gaming, and anything involving her favorite geekdoms. Mom, author and all around geek she loves spending time with her family. You can find Mary on Instagram, Facebook, and her website.

Toi Thomas

March 8, 2026 / ravenchair

A self-proclaimed techie and foodie, Toi Thomas was born in Texas but considers Virginia to be home. She enjoys cooking, all things geek, and collecting vinyl records, teapots, and books. Toi is an animal lover and reading advocate, believing there is a book out there for everyone. Currently working as a behavioral clinician, Toi and her husband, Eric, share their home with a feisty tortoise named Betty.

Toi writes clean, adult, multi-genre fiction as well as nonfiction. Toi also writes and illustrates the Chip and Joe series, Carnie Loves Books, and Margie “The Scaredy Dog” Finds a Home. Toi actively creates with her fans at Patreon, where she caters to both paid and unpaid subscribers with video and original content.

Toi continues to develop and share long- and short-form fiction, in addition to insights and recipes from her ongoing food journey. From collecting to commentary, world building to recipes, Toi has something for the whole family.

D.H. Timpko/Alexis Dupree

March 8, 2026 / ravenchair

D. H. Timpko is the author of the Firma Twins adventures, science fiction novels for middle grade children (ages 8-12). Book 1, The Firma Twins and the Purple Staff of Death—identical twins learn they have fantastical powers far beyond anything they could have imagined. Book 2, The Firma Twins and the Flute of Enchantment, takes place at a science fiction convention and was shortlisted for the 2021 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle Grade Fiction.

Timpko has just finished the first two books in the Mariah Rhodes series (Book 1: Escaping to Space and Book 2: Surviving the Danger Planet)—science fiction novels for middle grade kids about an abused teenage girl in the future whose uncontrolled telekinesis leaves her stranded in a lost colony on an unstable planet. She is now writing Book 3 in the series: Joining Space Fleet.

Under the pseudonym Alexis Dupree, she wrote Managing Major Chronic Diseases: Advice from a Patient and Knee Replacement Advice, Checklists, and Journal.