Category: Publishing Guest (Page 1 of 2)

JM Beal

March 29, 2025 / ravenchair

I started writing seriously in 2001, behind the check-out counter at Walgreens on leftover receipt paper or whatever I could get my hands on, with a novel full of drama and romance and epic sword battles. In all honesty it will probably never again see the light of day.

It’s been a long road since then, through different genres and projects and full of life events that keep getting in the way of what I’d like to be doing with my writing. Still, I’ve always got a new idea in the works.

In the grand tradition of writers who dream big, and jump without looking, a friend and I launched a publishing company in June of 2014. You can find us at Golden Fleece Press.

James Blakey

March 29, 2025 / ravenchair

James Blakey has published fifty short stories across a variety of genres and is a three-time finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award, winning in 2019 for his story “The Bicycle Thief.” As an active member of the writing community, he leads critique groups in Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, and Shenandoah County, and serves as the Secretary of the Rocktown Writers Guild. His debut novel Superstition, a paranormal thriller, was released by City Owl Press in 2024. James is also the publisher and co-editor of Charlottesville Fantastic: Arcane Echoes From Virginia’s Heartland, an anthology featuring speculative tales set in and around Charlottesville. When not crafting stories, James explores the outdoors having summited forty of the fifty US state high points, or embarks on bike-camping adventures along the East Coast. He resides in Broadway, VA. Discover more at JamesBlakeyWrites.com.

Roger Carden

March 26, 2025 / ravenchair

Roger and Janet Carden are the husband-and-wife team behind The Halfling and the Spaceman: Journeys In Active Fandom (2022-present). The Halfling and the Spaceman is a podcast featuring a series of conversations with creators as they detail their personal journey from becoming inspired by fandom to being creators in their own right.

Roger is also the producer of Applied Game Mastery, which explores the question “how do you become a legendary game master?” through interviews, reviews, and actual-play.

In addition, the Cardens also published Crimson Streets (2016–2023), an online magazine and associated anthology series dedicated to fiction in the style of the pulp magazines of yesteryear. Crimson Streets focused on fast-paced stories of action, adventure, and intrigue—from hard-boiled detectives and dangerous dames, to bold aviators and unspeakable horrors.

Before starting Crimson Streets, Roger and Janet worked with a team which published The Familiar (1988–1998), a professional print magazine dedicated to role-playing and adventure games.

Roger is a co-founder of the Game Publishers Association and an early supporter and member of CAR-PGa, the Committee for the Advancement or Role-Playing Games. Both enjoy playing “let’s pretend” with their friends via tabletop role-playing games. Janet is a fan of mystery and crime novels, whereas Roger is a fan of classic science-fiction and fantasy. They both really enjoy genre movies; the good ones… and the really, really bad ones.

James E. Deeley

March 23, 2025 / ravenchair

Jim Deeley is the founder and lead writer at Apotheosis Games & Publishing and also publishes his own work under the impression of Apotheosis Adventures. A passionate fan of fantasy, science fiction, and history since his early boyhood days climbing castle towers all across England, Jim’s life was forever changed one fateful autumn night in 2000 when he was invited to join a game of Vampire: the Masquerade at his local comic book shop; over the 20+ years since then, he has been trying to run the perfect role-playing campaign. While Jim hasn’t managed that yet, he has developed a series of panels on writing and running tabletop RPGs that he is working on turning into at least one book if not a series. Jim has also written for a number of game publishers both great and small, and has recently quit his second job to become a full-time professional Game Master, running games almost every night of the week—doing what he loves and getting paid for it! Jim Deeley holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Christopher Newport University with a minor in Theatre Arts, with graduate work completed in International Studies at Old Dominion University, all of which informs his writing. When he’s not working for The Man by day and Living the Dream by night, Jim enjoys reading and writing fantasy and historical fiction, video games, comic books, bad sci-fi and fantasy movies, anime, hacking/slashing/shooting arrows at stuff in the backyard and attending comic book conventions, Highland Games, Renaissance Faires, and Pirate Festivals with his beloved, equally nerdy wife—in full kit, of course.

You can follow all the things Jim is up to at linktr.ee/renaissnceman.

Jason T. Graves

March 19, 2025 / ravenchair

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.

Sean CW Korsgaard

March 7, 2025 / ravenchair

Sean CW Korsgaard is a U.S. Army veteran, award-winning freelance journalist, author, editor, and publicist who has worked with Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Baen Books, and Writers of the Future, and recently became the editor of Anvil and Battleborn magazines. His first anthology, Worlds Long Lost, was released in December 2022, as was his debut short story, “Black Box.” He lives in Richmond, VA with his wife and child, along with, depending on who you ask, either far too many or far too few books.

Gray Rinehart

February 26, 2025 / ravenchair

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

February 26, 2025 / ravenchair

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.

Ian Randal Strock

February 19, 2025 / ravenchair

Ian Randal Strock (IanRandalStrock.com) is the editor and publisher of Fantastic Books (FantasticBooks.biz). He formerly edited Artemis Magazine, and served on the editorial staffs of Analog, Asimov’s, Baen Books, Science Fiction Chronicle, and many more. As a writer, his fiction has appeared in Analog, Nature, several anthologies, and much of it was recently collected in Wandering Through Time. He won two AnLab Awards for his work in Analog, and was named the 2025 recipient of the Edward E. Smith Memorial “Skylark” Award.

Martin Wilsey

February 14, 2025 / ravenchair

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…