Kate is old enough that she doesn’t like to tell people. She’s been writing since elementary school and currently has three novels and a short story collection. She’s got a Master’s in Psychology, and a Master’s in Leadership and Management. A science fiction and fantasy fan with just enough trivia in her brain to be dangerous. In her day job she works with CAFM (Facilities) software. She lives in DC with her family and an invisible cat.
Gray Rinehart is a writer, an editor, a singer/songwriter, and a retired Air Force officer. He is the only person to have commanded a USAF satellite tracking station, written speeches for Presidential appointees, devised a poetic form, and had music on The Dr. Demento Show. He is currently a contributing editor (the “Slushmaster General”) for Baen Books.
Gray writes science fiction and fantasy stories, among which is the lunar colonization novel Walking on the Sea of Clouds. His short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and multiple anthologies. He has also written an eclectic mix of nonfiction books: A Church More Like Christ; Elements of War; and, Quality Education. In addition, he has written and released three albums which feature science-fiction-and-fantasy-inspired music; the most recent is Taking You Out to See the Stars.
During his unusual Air Force career, Gray fought rocket propellant fires, refurbished space launch facilities, “flew” Milstar communications satellites, drove trucks, encrypted nuclear command and control orders, commanded the largest remote tracking station in the Air Force Satellite Control Network, and did other interesting space-related things.
Gray’s alter ego is the Gray Man, one of several famed ghosts of South Carolina’s Grand Strand. His website is graymanwrites.com.
Amber Rodenbo is one of the founders of River City Siren Press, a small-press/indie publishing company situated in the Richmond, VA area. Amber is a published author with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a career background in teaching young writers, literary magazine editing, technical editing, and creative design. Amber is also a book cover designer, book formatter, and overall lover of all things books and publishing related.
The Salacious Crumbles is the nerdy duo of Leigh Tyberg and Madison Metricula Roberts, featuring songs that range from the goofy, the heartfelt, and good ol’ fashioned cantina songs. We may not have a kloo horn, but even Figrin D’an would jizz to these sing-alongs and good times! Find our music on streaming services and download our first EP, Carbonite, for free on Bandcamp!
This is Second Mourning Cosplay’s second time at RavenCon. The group was founded by a group of friends with varying cosplay skills. Second Mourning ranges from casual cosplayers to Masquerade winners.
The curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, Christopher P. Semtner has curated numerous critically acclaimed exhibits for the Poe Museum in addition to exhibits for the Library of Virginia, the Science Museum of Virginia, and other venues. He has written several articles and chapters in addition to six books about Poe, visual art, and cryptography. Semtner regularly speaks on dark and mysterious subjects in venues from the Library of Congress to the Steampunk World’s Fair and as far away as Japan. He has also appeared on Poe documentaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. As a visual artist, Semtner has exhibited his paintings internationally, and they can be found in both private and public collections.
Born in England, Fraser Sherman wound up spending most of his life in Northwest Florida. He’d be there still if he hadn’t fallen in love and moved to Durham, NC to marry his dream woman. They’re still together, with two dogs and two cats added to the family.
Fraser has published more than thirty short stories, six film reference books, and several hundred articles as a reporter. In 2022 he published The Aliens Are Here, a book on extraterrestrials in films and TV; Undead Sexist Cliches, about the stupidity of misogynist arguments; and the steampunk novel Questionable Minds. In 2023 he released a collection of historical fantasy short stories, 19-Infinity through his Behold the Book imprint; in 2024 two of his stories appeared in the collaborative anthology The Ceaseless Way. He also freelances with Chapel Hill’s The Local Reporter.
Away from his computer he likes bicycling, comic books, fantasy novels, history books, vegetarian cooking, baking bread, and triumphing over insomnia.
Hello! My name is shortstack and i enjoy cosplaying as well as reading. I am super excited to see all the amazing artists and people at RavenCon 2025!
David Simms now lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with his family after escaping decades of New Jersey and Massachusetts. A psychology teacher and college professor, counselor, music therapist, and ghost tour guide, he has survived a long tenure in the Slushpile band on lead guitar after co-founding the Killer Thriller Band with several best-selling ITW, SFWA, and HWA authors. He gives workshops on using music to help students of all ages to learn and de-stress, getting teens to write, and combating burnout for teachers in schools.
His novels include Pierce the Veil (thriller), Fear the Reaper (historical thriller) Ameri-Scares: New Jersey – Curse of the Barrens (middle grade horror), Dark Muse (YA/MG dark fantasy) all through Crossroads Press. His latest release is an entry into the Cemetery Dance anthology You’re Not Alone in the Dark (a collection of author’s struggles with mental health).
Finally, when he wishes to escape the world, he reads and reviews books for Cemetery Dance Magazine, Monster Librarian, and Publishers Weekly.
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 “technothriller with heart”, set entirely on and around the moon, was launched by Caezik SF & Fantasy in 2022, and the sequel Radiant Sky was released November 12, 2024. 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.
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