Nicole Glover is the author of the historical fantasy series, Murder and Magic, which included The Improvisers. When she’s not writing, she’s working as a UX researcher where her knowledge about murder and other mysteries is surprisingly useful. The Improvisers, is a finalist for this year’s Webster Award.
David A. Godwin was born in Tennessee, during a simpler era when daydreaming was still allowed. He prefers to spend his time exploring made-up worlds filled with magical creatures and endless possibilities, and is often observed in deep conversation with his imaginary friends.
His first epic fantasy novel, Eyes of the Blind, was released in 2018, with new books in the Guardian’s Prophecy series arriving every year thereafter.
Mr. Godwin currently lives with his family in Virginia.
Jason is a writer of words, a doodler of drawings, and fixer of other peoples’ words and doodles. Many years ago, he founded Prospective Press. Before that, he slogged through University and earned a Master of Science degree in the Arcana of Genetics. Oh, and he was once punched—lightly—by Muhammad Ali. You should ask him about that last one, because no one ever does.
Shane Gries is a retired soldier, student of history, and Dragon Award finalist. He spent over eighteen years serving overseas in Europe, Asia and Oceania, and can order beer in several languages. Shane started off as a young enlisted man and then commissioned later on as an infantry officer. He’s a graduate of airborne school, ranger school, earned his expert infantryman badge, and did some time in combat. He’s even got a family hanging around someplace that continues to put up with his nonsense.
Dr. Robert E. Hampson is a neuroscientist, professor, and science fiction author who spends his days decoding how memories work and his nights trying to remember where he left his keys. With a PhD in Physiology & Pharmacology, he’s been on a lifelong quest to figure out what’s going on inside our heads—though he’s still baffled by how people can willingly watch bad sci-fi with terrible science. When he’s not mentoring students or conducting cutting-edge research on brain-computer interfaces, he’s crafting hard science fiction that’s as accurate as it is fun.
In 2015, Dr. Hampson turned his love for science fiction into a writing career, proving that yes, scientists can do more than just stare at lab equipment. His stories, which often involve futuristic medical tech and military adventures, have earned him praise for being “hard science fiction with a vengeance”—but he swears he’s really a nice guy.
As a professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Dr. Hampson teaches science communication, ensuring young scientists know how to explain their research to the public without sounding like they’re from another planet. With over thirty short stories, several novels, and countless lost pens, he continues to explore the exciting—and sometimes baffling—worlds of both science and fiction.
Randall Hayes, “your friendly neighborhood neuroscientist,” studied stroke patients and built computer models of sea slugs’ neural networks before getting involved with teaching and science communication for the public. His first podcast, VSI: Variation Selection Inheritance, was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Beacon Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. He’s written probably three books’ worth of blog posts over the past decade, and for four years he was a science columnist for The Intergalactic Medicine Show. More recently he’s been publishing articles in Utopia Science Fiction, ParABnormal Magazine, and Trollbreath Magazine, among others. Even more recently he’s been publishing fiction with Lackington’s Speculative Fiction, The Storyletter, and Illustrated Worlds. Updates and fresh fiction are available at his free newsletter Doctor Eclectic, randallhayes.substack.com.
Morgan Hazelwood writes from her lair in Northern Virginia and collects rejection letters. Her short story “Just a Hike In The Woods” was published by the Dark Recesses webzine in January 2022. She’s shared “Writing Tips & Writerly Musings” since 2015, first as a blogger, and then as a vlogger and podcaster. These days, she mostly does productivity sprints every Sunday on her YouTube and Twitch channels, eats snacks, and binge reads paranormal gay romances.
Long-time Virginia convention icon and full-time purveyor of chaos, Sean Heare is back at RavenCon with his trivia game Alien Peril and his award-winning wandering room party. Armed with a rolling cooler of Lou Ann’s infamous Jell-O shots and other mysteries best left undisclosed, Sean brings the perfect mix of humor, intellect, and an uncanny ability to make deadpan sarcasm look effortless.
By day, Sean swaps his party hat for a serious one: he’s got a Juris Doctor from American University and graduate chops in Counterintelligence, Cybersecurity, and Emerging Technology. As the Information Director for National Security Counselors—a nonprofit dedicated to prying open the vaults of secrecy—Sean’s technical advice helps their attorneys keep the national security world on edge.
Formerly a casual conspiracy theory aficionado, Sean now dedicates himself to combating misinformation, one implausible rabbit hole at a time. Want to chat about the eschaton, singularities, or whether we’re all just NPCs in someone’s simulation? Sean’s your guy.
If Sean has a new book it will be out in December 2025.
Harry Heckel started writing role-playing games as a freelancer in the ’90s and never looked back. Today, he co-authors two series of novels as Jack Heckel and co-authors Warhammer 40k books as Lee Lightner. He can usually be found at RavenCon carrying a stuffed dragon named Magdela. He’s also Vice-President of the Virginia Writers Club. You can find him at HarryHeckel.com.
RVA Katana started innocently with the acquisition of a Song Dynasty replica sword for JC Kang’s Epic Fantasy Bookstagram photo shoot, and exploded into a brick-and-mortar sword shop with nearly 400,000 social media followers.
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑