JordanCon Store
The JordanCon Store is where you can find all of the JordanCon swag you’re looking for! That’s where you can find the annual t-shirt, copies of the JordanCon Anthology, and so much more. The JordanCon Store isn’t the only place to buy awesome stuff. Check out our brand new 2025 Shopping Guide below to find the list of this year’s vendors and attending artists. Make sure you leave plenty of room in your budget, and your suitcase, for these fantastic folks!
Art Show Artists
Mason Adams
Mason makes artwork to tell stories, to capture the beauty, the oddity, the rich lovely weirdness of existing. The conversations and connections of humans with ourselves and one another, and with this crazy wild beautiful world we inhabit drive him to capture that essence, that profound spark of being, always reaching for the ineffable. Always important is the desire to cause, to convey, to catalyze emotion in the viewer. Mason studied art at UGA, earning a BFA. He now lives and works in Oklahoma City with his wife, two sons, and an adorable pack of dogs.
Anna Applegate
Anna is a Georgia-born, Florida-raised artist. As the youngest artist to be accepted in the JordanCon Art Show, she is proud to showcase her passion for the sub nautical world. When she is not SCUBA diving, her passion for being underwater is displayed through her art, whether digitally or on canvas.
A.L. Ashbaugh
Amy Ashbaugh is an Atlanta-based Illustrator and Fine Artist. Originally from Tampa, Florida, she relocated to Atlanta in 2005. Amy’s artistic career aspirations first formed in her teens, when she discovered her passion for illustrative art. Her style is a mix of various influences that altogether would best be described as imaginative realism. Amy finds her inspiration in literature, history, folklore, travel, nature, and the adventure of everyday experiences.
Everette Beach
I’ve been a Science Fiction fan since I learned to read. I had read everything in the “juvenile” science fiction / fantasy section of our library by the time I was 10 and had to get my mother to check out the “real” books in the adult section for me. Yes, I am old enough to remember watching the original broadcasts of Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Land of the Giants. None of my friends were into Sci-Fi and I never got into gaming, so it was after college before I went to my first “con”.
I really got involved in conventions when I owned a video production company, where I taped conventions from Georgia to New York and everywhere in-between. I sold that company years ago, but have become even more involved with cons since then. I’ve worked at multiple conventions throughout the Southeast at everything from Guest Transportation, Guest Operations, Special Events, and Charity Events. I’ve been host for masquerades, a judge at costume contests, moderated panels, etc.. (No I have never been a con chair, never want to, I’m one of the ones smart enough to avoid that headache.)
What I am probably best known for is doing charity auctions. I have run charity auctions at conventions for years, doing everything from just being guest auctioneer, to being Auction Director. These auctions have ranged from conventions with 300 to 40,000 people attending, with auction totals from $400 to $25,000.
I have always been a photography enthusiast and that slowly brought me into the engraving world. I now engrave my photos onto tiles, mirrors, glass, wood, and anything else I can think of.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569848518181&sk=photos
Michael Bielaczyc
Michael Bielaczyc has been working professionally in the art field since 2001 when he founded Aradani Studios with his brother Paul. Together they have exhibited across America selling both their artwork and costuming. He works in many mediums from oil paint to latex prosthetics, video to graphite.
In 2012, Michael started Lone Wanderer Entertainment with his long time friend Dane Clark Collins to publish books based in their fantasy world setting called The Dark Return. Since then he has authored many books, zines, and created the SagaBorn RPG system.
Paul Bieleczyc
Starting in 2002, Paul Bielaczyc joined with his brother Michael and sister Sara to form Aradani Studios. What started as a fun hobby between siblings at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival has grown significantly over the past 2+ decades. Aradani is known for 2 rather unique aspects, special f/x make-up and fantastical artwork. Michael and Paul both have won numerous awards over the years for their costumes, and Aradani’s ever-growing line of elf ear prosthetics and masks has helped other cosplayers win countless awards worldwide.
But it is his artwork that truly provides a glimpse into what defines Paul, and where his passion lies. Paul uses charcoal, chalk, and pastels to create his finished works, media which are usually considered for the sketching and preliminary stages, not the final product. He strives to achieve a level of detail in his works, pushing the boundaries of what is typically seen with charcoal and pastel. Though in recent years, he has experimented with almost every media, except oil painting. Go figure.
Over the past 22 years, Paul has worked for Sagaborn, White Wolf, Dragon Lance, Apex Digest, and many other independent publishers. His art has won many awards at various conventions, including GenCon and Dragon*Con, and his work Nightmare, one of his earliest professional pieces, won the prestigious Chesley Award in 2006 for Best Monochrome Unpublished. Starting in 2012, Paul became a licensed artist for The Wheel of Time, joining a select few artists who have the blessing of Robert Jordan’s wife to illustrate scenes from his epic tomes. Having done many designs for Ta’veren Tees back in the day, two of Paul’s Wheel of Time illustrations were published in 2015’s The Wheel of Time Companion, depicting the entries for Padan Fain as well as Tha’kandar.
Amy Brewer-Davenport
Amy Brewer-Davenport is a full time artist and long-time con-goer, always looking for new inspiration or ways to inspire others to create. She has been making art for several years, attending conventions her entire life, and has spent almost ten years volunteering and exhibiting art at conventions throughout the Southeast and beyond. Outside of conventions you can find the artist in the woods around the rural home she shares with her husband Andrew, in the studio painting, or bingeing whichever fantasy series has her attention this week.
Ariel Burgess
Ariel, a D.C. area native and dyslexic, is a multi-award winning internationally published digital painter. Her dedicated fans love her hyper-realistic style and hidden references beginning with her work as an Official Wheel of Time artist. In 2023 she was Guest Artist of Honor at Balticon 57. Currently she is focused on her Patreon community, creating original fantasy works and continuing to work in book illustration and cover work.
Amanda Carman
Carmanda Arts Things is a whimsical illustrator who specializes in wildlife and fantasy artwork with a homey folkloric bent. Storytelling is at the heart of what she does, whether it be illustration work, writing, or teaching, and she loves helping to bring other people’s stories to life just as much as her own. On the rare occasions she is not drawing for herself or others, Carman can be found serving the demands of her poof-void of a cat, Cricket. Occasionally Cricket lets her off duty for long enough to read beside a precariously stacked tower of books on the nightstand, write books of her own, or co-host the “What the Folklore?” comedy podcast with Tyler and Gordie.
Roy Coker
From an early age he has been interested in creating items connected to his love of magic, myth and the unusual. An artist is somewhat like a magican or shaman, they communicate and connect with others by what they create. After graduating with an art degree in the mid 70s, he went into the graphic arts and printing fields for a number of years. During the 1980s to the1990s he also entered convention art shows, occasionly winning awards. These days his work consists of small paintings, silverpoint drawings and jewelry. Several of his pieces are in private collections in the United States and overseas as well as two in college collections. He hope to share his interests with people for the rest of his life.
Elizabeth Eade
Elizabeth is a self-taught colored pencil artist that occasionally dabbles in watercolor mediums. Ever since she can remember, she’s loved expressing herself through crafting and creating. During the 2020 pandemic, she discovered her love of colored pencils and the rest is history! She’s inspired by nature and fandoms and enjoys bringing her favorite subjects to life through photo realism. When she isn’t creating her next piece, she loves crocheting, knitting, or reading and spending time with her husband, two kids, two dogs…and maybe a raccoon one day.
Kelley M. Frank
Kelley M. Frank is a horror artist, author, and reviewer. She has appeared in a number of horror anthologies including Slice Girls. She’s also completed interior art and/or lettering for books such as the Georgia Gothic anthology, Zealot by C. Vonzale Lewis, and The Wolves of Kanta series by Marlena Frank. She specializes in creepy watercolor, acrylic, and ink illustration, as well as book cover lettering and mixed media expressing her emotional states. She’s also an asexual witch, Horror Writer’s Association Affiliate, and an outspoken advocate for the strange and unusual.
Melissa Gay
Melissa Gay thinks of creating art as illustrating personal myths– half-remembered bedtime stories, visions from dreams, chance encounters in misty woods, hazy glimpses of far-flung civilizations through a handmade telescope, scenes to be treasured because they are so fleeting.
She has published two art books, Finding My Familiar (animal drawings on toned paper with various pencils) and Earth and Water (ink drawings and paintings), and she is currently working on a book of acrylic sci-fi paintings, called I Dream Of Space. (Gallery owners have chided her for doing too many different things, and instead of stopping, she decided to just lean into it.)
For over twenty years she has created covers and interior illustrations for books and tabletop roleplaying games, freelancing for Baen Books, Llewellyn Worldwide, Hay House, Apex Press, 78 Tarot, Pelgrane Press, Evil Hat, Atlas Games, DoJ, Third Eye Games, Margaret Weis Productions, Lone Wanderer, and many others. Her illustrations “Offering” and “Harvest” have won Chesley Awards, and many of the games she has worked on have won Gold and Silver ENnies. Her work has been featured in ImagineFX Magazine, io9, tor.com, and several of the Infected By Art anthologies.
Apart from drawing and painting, she happiest when gaming with her spouse or creating her own woodland adventures on hiking trails.
Emilie Gibson
Painting is Emilie’s passion. She favors mythological art, and horror primarily. She also takes commissions for pet portraits and pet ornaments for people who wish to celebrate their pets, or memorialize them. Emilie works primarily with acrylic paint.
Emilie is married, with a toddler who also aspires to be an artist. When she isn’t creating spooktacular paintings, she works as a medical scheduler for a traveling nurses agency and is a huge animal advocate.
You can find her artwork and follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nerdsthatpaint.
Sara Glassman
Sara Glassman is a jewelry artist with a focus on bringing fiber art techniques to wire jewelry. She also has an interest in combining books with jewelry and has designed pieces around books or characters as well as used upcycled books in her art. In 2006 she founded Medusa’s Mirror Jewelry and has been making jewelry ever since. For her day job she works as school librarian, thus furthering her love affair with books.
Ris Harp
Ris harp (they/them) is some kind of triple threat. Artist, author, candlestick maker. YouTuber, blademaster, candlestick maker. Warder, swearing enthusiast, candlestick maker. Veteran, cat-lover, candlestick maker. Singular they, disabled, candlestick mak— you get the idea. Real talk, Ris does a lot of stuff. But mainly they act, create digital art, and write stories and screenplays based on their experiences living in life’s vast grey areas.
Not a candlestick maker.
Debbie Hughes
Debbie Hughes is a published illustrator in the SF and Fantasy field with over 200 published works. She has worked for Easton Press, Amazing Stories Magazine, Been Books, Science Fiction Age Magazine, Realms of Fantasy, Paramount Interactive, SFWA, P & S Publishing, UK, Editorial Presenca, Portugal, Hadley Rille Books, 10 different Game Card publishers including Wizards of the Coast and Iron Crown Enterprises and many more. Her work has been exhibited at numerous SF conventions in the U.S. and abroad and she has been the Artist Guest of Honor at over 14 Conventions. In addition Debbie worked on Animation for the Company Cyberlix, The Learning Company and Broderbund as well as produced Flash animation for Getty Images and Istock.
Currently, Debbie has concentrated on her own ideas: a combination of myths, fairy tales and enigmatic themes and elements born out of her years doing illustration.
Debbie was inducted into the National Association of Women Artists in 2019. Since that time she has had 8 exhibits at various galleries in NY, NY including exhibits on Park Avenue South and Tribeca. She is the winner of the 2021 Bernadette Award with NAWA and most recently her work was accepted by invitation only at The Vendue Art Hotel in Charleston S.C. Debbie was also elected a Peer Juror for NAWA in 2023. In March of 2023 Debbie was invited to the Downtown Central Library of Lexington, KY to exhibit over 50 original paintings. This work was comprised of published works in the Science Fiction and Fantasy field that spanned the Artist’s career of over 40 years of illustration. In 2020 Debbie’s work, “The Raven, the Wolf and the Maiden” won the 2020 Chesley Award by the Association of Science Fiction Artists. Her contribution to Science Fiction is listed in: Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary.
Bryan Jones
Bryan Jones is a chainmail smith and digital artist who proudly hails from Huntsville, Alabama, the “Rocket City.” He grew up in a computer-literate home long before computers were cool and enjoys transferring his imagination into digital space vistas.
Kelly Keuneke-Marts
Kelly has studied under artists such as Donato Giancola and Scott Fischer, along with classes taken under Watts Atelier. She works with a variety of mediums and maybe one day will put the fruits of her labor on an official website.
Alexandra Klimek
Alexandra Klimek’s work includes abstracted portraits, twisted creatures, and fantastical monsters from myth and fandoms alike. She has shown her work in various art galleries in Greenville, SC, as well as the Oddities and Curiosities Expo and other conventions across the country. In addition to paintings, Alexandra also engraves dice boxes. You can see her work at www.ElegantGore.com.
Madolyn Locke
An award-winning artist, Madolyn works primarily in fantasy fine art photography and digital art. Born and raised in Alabama, she has lived in Atlanta long enough to consider herself a native. Madolyn received her first ‘real’ camera from her uncle at the age of 13, but it wasn’t until many years later that she focused on her passion for the art form and decided to get serious about her work. She has appeared in exhibitions in Atlanta, New York, and across the country, including becoming a fixture at the DragonCon Art Show where she won ‘Best Photography’ in 2018 and ‘Best Photography/Digital Art’ in 2019, 2021, & 2023. She was nominated for an ASFA Chesley Award for ‘Best Paperback or eBook Cover’ in 2021.
Richard Martin
Rick produces fan art of fantasy novels using Lego and Lego-compatible bricks. He specializes in custom printed minifigures, immersive scenes, building instructions, and animations. Some of his favorite authors to build to include Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Cat Valente, and Travis Baldree, though he has a long list of other projects he’d love to get to if he had time. His style is whatever works, insofar as he will drill, sand, paint, or print on bricks as needed to achieve the desired effect. When he is not building, he is a professor of electrical engineering in Dayton, Ohio.
Lori Morrow
Lori Morrow is a dot artist. She began her creative career with a small tie dye business over twenty years ago. Lori’s love of shapes and symmetry lead to her love of dot art. Currently she is expanding her dot art to include poured gypsum items such as jars, tea light candle holders, coasters, and sacred geometry stones. She has shown her work several times at Jordancon and also at Multiverse Con. You may view her work on Instagram at morrow_makings or her MorrowMakings Facebook page.
Oksana Nedavniaya
Oksana was born and educated in Moscow, Russia where she received her degree in classical piano solo performance. She moved to California where she decided to pursue her dream of a life in visual arts. Oksana earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from California State University, Long Beach in 2006, same year she met the costume designer Isis Mussenden, who helped to jump start her career in film by inviting her to join the production team of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Since then, she has contributed as a costume concept artist on a number of productions, including Suicide Squad, Bright, Aquaman, The Wheel of Time: Season 1, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Hawkeye, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Westworld: Season 4, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Her most recent projects include The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songrbirds and Snakes, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Frankenstein, The Masked Singer, Fallout: Season 2 and The Odyssey.
Oksana works in both traditional and digital mediums and recently added 3D sculpting to her skill set. In her personal work, she is drawn to color, elegance, sensuality and female form.
In 2022 she started exploring the world of ball-jointed dolls. In December 2024 this passion side project of hers received an official name of Madam Nexa.
Oksana is currently serving on a board of The Costume Designers Guild (Local 892) as an Illustrator Representative.
She resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband Norberto, their black cat Shadow and their French/English bulldog Chico.
Jason Peters
Jason Peters has loved to make things since he was a kid. He particularly enjoys engineering challenges and figuring out how to make an idea work. He doesn’t always succeed, but he learns new things every time. His introduction to the world of art came with a wood burning made for the 2018 JordanCon charity auction. With that, stained glass artist extraordinaire Leia Powell latched on to him and kept prodding him to make more and more elaborate art, leading to their first charity auction item in 2019. Jason began expanding the tools in his workshop, and started woodworking in addition to pyrography. Now he uses several different materials and mediums to create his works. In 2023, he started SawCycle Woodworks as a place to display and market his works. JordanCon 2024 was his first art show. Today his artwork includes pyrography, cutting and charcuterie boards, wire and gemstone trees, and anything else that catches his interest to make. He lives in Hampton, VA, with his beautiful wife Shirley, and their two sons. He loves biking and competing in adventure races.
Kalyani Poluri
Kalyani Poluri is an East Indian. She loves the fusion of different techniques to make unique and brightly colored art on watercolor paper, jewelry that has origins from Hindu mythology and Indian Culture. She calls her art business Art InFusions. You can see and purchase her latest art and prints at her Facebook page below.
Leia Powell
Master Stained Glass Artisan Leia Powell has been creating glass masterpieces, breaking down barriers, and rejuvenating the old world artistry for over 25 years. The first stained glass artist to be nominated for the coveted Chesley Award, Leia is also the first glass artist in history to be the sole maker of an author’s trademarked characters: Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Her three-dimensional figures and exceptionally intricate stained glass windows have won her multiple art show awards at ChattaCon, LibertyCon, and JordanCon. Her fused glass jewelry is a testament to how glorious melting glass at 1200 degrees can be.
Leia keeps apprentices and interns on staff at her studio Wildcat Mountain Artistry in Florence, Alabama, and is determined to teach everyone she can to ensure the flame of stained glass creativity keeps burning.
Rachel Rieckenberg
Rachel Rieckenberg grew up in a tiny country town in Southern Illinois surrounded by her families misfit farm and huge backyard forest. It was there her imagination and love of fairy tales blossomed.
Rachel is a Traditional Mixed Media Artist focusing on Pyrography, Watercolor, Oils, and Pencil. Her work explores the worlds of Myth and Magic that she has dreamed up since she was a child.
Rachel is an award winning artist spanning DragonCon, ChattaCon, and local Art Galleries. Her work can be seen at Conventions and online at www.RachelRieckenberg.com. When she’s not in the studio in Georgia, you can find her exploring the outdoors for inspiration with her husband Kevin and her sweet puppy Devi.
M.M. Schill
M.M. Schill specializes in traditional Japanese, portrait, and landscape painting. Outside of art, she serves as associated editor for PseudoPod; an award winning, short-fiction horror podcast.
Nick Stapleton
Nick has been using woodworking and pyrography to escape the stress and boredom of his day job for over a decade. He has made award-winning props for himself and others, but without conventions in 2020, he began to branch out into display pieces. His work this year includes pyrography, layered 3d artwork, and handcrafted wood carvings.
K.R. Wesel
k.r.wesel is an artist specializing in pen and ink drawings. She creates pieces with painfully tiny details, often incorporating her unnatural love of symmetry. She loves trying new techniques and tends to dive in head first. She has sold art in private auctions and works on commissioned pieces. She resides in Syracuse, NY with her family.
Saron Williamson
Saron Williamson is an Athens-based mental health therapist who also has a passion for creating art. They particularly enjoy creating scientific and botanical illustrations, and also love working in digital art, especially for fan art and character illustration. Saron graduated with their master’s in social work from the University of Georgia in 2021, and began drawing in 2021 to help them cope with the stress of the pandemic.
https://www.instagram.com/sketchesbysaron/ https://www.deviantart.com/sarondipity
Authors Alley Authors
Sponsored by Falstaff Books
Arcane Ink Publishing
Julia Benson-Slaughter
Gabriella Buba
Gabriella Buba is a mixed Filipina-Czech author and chemical engineer based in Texas who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes adult Epic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. She will be selling signed and edge-painted copies of her debut SAINTS OF STORM AND SORROW a filipino-inspired epic fantasy out with Titan Books. The sequel DAUGHTERS OF FLOOD AND FURY will be released July 2025, as well as edge painted copies of her anthology Of Stardust: A Queer Fantastical Anthology, containing her short story The Dugong Wife and the Raincape Weaver.
Find out more on her website: https://gabriellabuba.com/
Ashley Chappell-Peeples
Paige L Christie
Paige L. Christie is author of The Legacies of Arnan fantasy series: Draigon Weather (2017), Wing Wind (2018), Long Light (2019), Storm Forge (2022). She has stories in several anthologies including IP work in the Valdemar universe by Mercedes Lackey/ As a believer in the power of words, Paige tells stories that are both entertaining and thoughtful. Especially of interest are tales that speak to women and open a space where adventure and fantasy are not all about happy endings. When she isn’t writing, she teaches belly dancing, is director of a non-profit, and teaches at the Speculative Fiction Academy. She is a proud, founding member of the Blazing Lioness Writers, a small group of badass women, writing badass books. Paige is a full member of SFWA since 2020.
Milton J Davis
Milton Davis is an award-winning Black Speculative fiction author and owner of MVmedia, LLC, a publishing company specializing in Science Fiction and Fantasy based on African/African Diaspora history, culture, and traditions. Milton is the author of thirty novels and short story collections and editor/coeditor of ten anthologies. His short stories and essays have appeared in several anthologies and magazines, most notably Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda, and Obsidian Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. Milton was also nominated for the 2017 and 2020 British Science Fiction Association Award for Short Fiction His comic book collaboration with 133art, Changa and the Jade Obelisk, won the 2020 Glyph Comics Award for Best Story. He is a recipient of the 2022 East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Falstaff Books
Falstaff Books is a digital and print publishing company based in Charlotte, NC dedicated to bringing to life the best in fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and dramatic literature. We love bringing amazing stories to light and giving incredible writers a voice. The battered, ignored, rejected “misfit toys” of fiction are all welcome at Falstaff Books, where we understand that every scar is a story and only with different voices can harmony be created.
Founded in January 2016 by three experienced professionals in the publishing field, self-publisher and small press author John G. Hartness, editor and anthologist Jaym Gates, and author and editor Jay Requard, Falstaff quickly became known for its activism and support of writers, readers, and the greater creative community publishing three anthologies, including the WeAreNotThis – Carolina Writers for Equality, and a number of wide-ranging genre novels in its first year.
Since 2017, the publisher continued to grow, releasing over 40 stories annually in a variety of formats including electronic, trade paperback, and audio. In February 2018, Falstaff added a romance line: Falstaff Crush. In October 2022, Falstaff added a horror line: Falstaff Dread.
Jason Gilbert
Jason Gilbert is an author and film critic best known for his action-packed and often irreverent Coldstone Case Files series and his dark Urban Fantasy/Alternate History Clockworks of War series. Jason streams on Twitch as Failflix with OhHaiMark and TheGreyCat on Terrible Movies with Wonderful People. His influences include horror cinema, bloody video games, dark beer, and heavy metal music.
Venessa Giunta
Venessa Giunta is a writer of weird things, an editrix extraordinaire, and a little bit of a nerd. She is a published author, with non-fiction essays, short stories, and the urban fantasy Soul Cavern Series, and has been a professional editor, both freelance and contract, since 2008. Conventions are a big part of her life, mainly as a guest and organizer. She is the Senior Programming Director for Multiverse and second to the director of the Writers Track at Dragon Con, both in Atlanta, and has been a guest and volunteer at many others. Additionally, Venessa runs a writerly support group called The Writers’ Troupe (formerly The Writing Tribe) on Facebook, Discord, and Twitch.
Nicole Givens-Kurtz
Kristina Gruell
Kristina’s stories revolve around found family, epic magic, and overcoming the darkest times in one’s life to step into the light.
Between lifelong damage from a car accident and autoimmune diseases she has struggled with pain and physical disabilities most of her life. Through it all her found family―those that have stood by her through the darkest times when all hope was lost―became one of the foundation blocks of her life. For that reason many of her books focus on those themes: found family and finding a way through tragedy, loss, and hardship.
Isabelle Hardesty
A.J. Hartley
A.J. Hartley (AKA Andrew Hart) is the award-winning and bestselling author of 27 novels in a variety of genres including mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, paranormal, children’s and young adult. HIDEKI SMITH, DEMON QUELLER, co-written with his family, a Dragon Award nominee, is set in North Carolina but steeped in Japanese folklore. The second of the series will be out in 2025, as will the Japanese language edition of book 1. Other recent work includes the comic time travel fantasy BURNING SHAKESPEARE, the ghost story COLD BATH STREET, the dark fantasy IMPERVIOUS, and the award winning STEEPLEJACK adventure trilogy (currently in development for television). With David Hewson he wrote adaptations of Macbeth and Hamlet (Audible’s 2014 Book of the Year) and sci-fi thrillers with Tom DeLonge of Blink 182 (SEKRET MACHINES [also in development for television]), CATHEDRALS OF GLASS and TRINITY, A NOVEL [2024]). Hartley also writes mystery-thrillers, including the Amazon bestsellers LIES THAT BIND US and THE WOMAN IN OUR HOUSE (written as Andrew Hart), and New York Times Bestsellers such as ON THE FIFTH DAY. As Professor Andrew James Hartley he is Robinson Professor (Emeritus) of Shakespeare at UNC Charlotte. He specializes in performance issues, was a practicing director and dramaturg, and is the author of books on issues such as dramaturgy, political theatre and performance history. He edited collections on Shakespeare on the university stage, in millennial fiction, and (with Peter Holland) on geek culture. He was editor of the performance journal Shakespeare Bulletin for a decade, and is currently editing Julius Caesar for Arden. He has a YouTube channel dedicated mostly to writing and Japanese rock music. That second of those interests, like HIDEKI SMITH, grew out of his time living and working in Japan, where he met his wife, Hisako. Find out more and subscribe to his newsletter at www.ajhartley.net
Darin Kennedy
Darin Kennedy, born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC, is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Bowman Gray School of Medicine. After completing family medicine residency in the mountains of Virginia, he served eight years as a United States Army physician and wrote his first novel in the sands of northern Iraq.
His novel, The Mussorgsky Riddle, was born from a fusion of two of his lifelong loves: classical music and world mythology. The Stravinsky Intrigue continues those same themes, and his Fugue & Fable trilogy culminates in The Tchaikovsky Finale. The Pawn Stratagem trilogy, including Pawn’s Gambit, Queen’s Peril, and King’s Crisis, combines contemporary fantasy, superheroics, and the ancient game of chess. His YA novel, Carol, is a modern-day retelling of A Christmas Carol billed as Scrooge meets Mean Girls. His new ongoing series, Songs of the Ascendant, is an 80s-pop-music-themed contemporary fantasy including Shadows of the Night, All Fired Up, and You Better Run. His short stories, particularly those about a certain Necromancer for Hire, can be found in numerous anthologies and magazines and are collected for your reading pleasure.
Doctor-by-day and novelist-by-night, he writes and practices medicine in Charlotte, NC. Find him online at darinkennedy.com.
The Legion Publishers
The Legion Publishers is owned and operated by Authors and Experts within the LitRPG and Gamelit Genres. We formed The Legion Publishers to provide a range of resources to authors, a place where they can receive top professional services from industry experts, advocacy, and trusted advice. A partnership with The Legion Publishers means that you will always receive fair compensation, upfront and open communication, and the highest quality services the industry has to offer. Our ethos is to deliver value for our authors. You focus on writing, and we’ll focus on building your platform and profile to entirely new heights.
Kyoko M
Kyoko M is a USA Today bestselling author and a fangirl. She is the author of The Black Parade urban fantasy series, the Of Cinder and Bone science-fiction series, and the Starlight Contingency space opera series with Falstaff Books. The Black Parade has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews. Of Cinder and Bone placed in the Top 30 Books in Hugh Howey’s 2021 Self Published Science Fiction Contest. Kyoko M has appeared as a guest and panelist at such conventions as Geek Girl Con, DragonCon, Blacktasticon, Momocon, JordanCon, ConCarolinas, and MultiverseCon. She is also a contributor to Marvel Comics’ Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda (2021) anthology as well as the Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson (2025) anthology. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. She is currently working on a science fiction trilogy with Falstaff Books and her debut novel, The Starlight Contingency, released October 29th, 2024. http://www.shewhowritesmonsters.com
Nicole Mann
The stories Nic tells are Epic Military Fantasy. Through a lens of soldiers dealing with elemental magic, guardian dragons, meddling dryads, and a massive war between two cultures with wings, her stories take you inside the mind of those who have chosen to fight from the inside. As a soldier herself, Nic often jokes that her epic fantasy changes the OPSEC (operational security) of her Army experience into the ‘magic and dragons’ she knows and loves. Her first novel, No Honor In Glory, was published while she was deployed overseas in 2024. She would be thrilled if you would come celebrate the belated, in-person launch of a series she can’t wait to share. For Honor and Glory!
Marshall Moore
Rey Nichols
Rey Nichols, a native of the Midwest, is the love child of an Eldritch horror with more apostrophes than letters in its name and the front person of a forgotten 80’s rock band she can’t quite remember the name of. Only two degrees away from Kevin Bacon, when Rey is not busy trying to evade capture from monster hunters, she spends her time writing urban fantasy and paranormal suspense.
Jenifer Paquette
Author of the Klauden’s Ring Saga as well as the Conjuring Fascination, Rock Star Fairy Tales, and Shawarma Warrior King series, JM Paquette writes fantasy and paranormal romance novels. When she isn’t writing, she can be found teaching English to college students as Dr. Paquette or watching her favorite Russian shifter romance movie, I Am Dragon. Her areas of expertise include the history of the English language and the intricacies of grammatical rules, but her favorite class to teach is on Lord of the Rings. (If you’ve ever wondered why English is a crazy language, watch her video series on YouTube under Editor JMPaquette!) She enjoys editing manuscripts for academic and creative writers alike, and she adores tabletop roleplaying (THAC0, anyone?) where her halfling ranger/Twi’lek adept/vampire wizard/[insert race and class here] is often underestimated. You can also find her guest co-hosting the podcast Drinking with Authors–even though she doesn’t drink, she loves getting to know fellow authors! Check out JM Paquette at authorjmpaquette.com and 4horsemenpublications.com and as Author JM Paquette on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.
Jessica Anderson
Jess L. M. Anderson grew up with a deep love for storytelling, crafting her first narratives through writing competitions and short films in her hometown of Red Bud, IL. Her passion for storytelling became a powerful outlet during her teenage years and early 20s, helping her navigate personal grief and life’s challenges.
A graduate of DePaul University, with a Master’s in Cinema Post Production (2019), Jess rekindled her love for writing after a professor praised her original story ideas and encouraged her to pursue them further. One of those ideas was Mercy’s Light, a series Jess first began developing at the age of 12. This creative spark led to the completion of several projects, though it wasn’t until 2020 that Jess decided to follow her childhood dream of becoming an author.
After receiving multiple offers for traditional publishing, Jess chose the indie route, finding empowerment in the creative freedom it offered. With the support of her family, friends, and a growing community of followers on social media under her handle, stressinabox, she unleashed her imagination into the world. Her debut fantasy novel, Mercy’s Light, marked the beginning of The Source Keepers series, bringing to life a richly immersive world and earning her a devoted readership.
Today, Jess resides in Tifton, GA, where she continues to expand her literary worlds, blending vivid imagination, heartfelt themes, and a lifelong passion for storytelling.
TJ Reynolds
https://www.facebook.com/TJReynoldsAuthor
IG: reosewater_rising
October K Santerelli
Ellie Raine
Artist, Autism Advocate, and Writer’s Digest award-winning fantasy author Ellie Raine is a voracious BookWyrm when it comes to epic adventures, detailed world-building, and thrilling battles. Fueled by coffee-bean concoctions brewed by the finest caffeine alchemists in the kingdom of Atlanta, Georgia, she only emerges from the depths of these daring tales when she is summoned back to the physical realm to spend time with her brood.
Her high fantasy series, the NecroSeam Chronicles, has won several awards including First Place in Fantasy for Writer’s Digest, a Silver Medal for Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards, and additional awards from Readers’ Favorite and the Book Excellence Awards. Her other works include the paranormal noir titled Nightingale: The Grudges of Gods, the short story titled Ravensong featured in the Jordan Con 2023 Anthology, and a children’s illustration book titled Ballad of the Ice Fairy.
She is a lover of ravens and a dreamer of dragons, but above all else, she is a scribe to the stories that guide her.
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialellieraine
Instagram: @necroseam
TikTok: @aizelleraine
Patrick Scott
Soundbooth Theater
Founded by prolific narrator and producer, Jeff Hays, Soundbooth Theater is a full-service audio production company that specializes in multicast audiobooks and Cinematic Audio, which are enhanced with sound effects and music. Although we’re best known for our work in GameLit and LitRPG, we’re interested in lending our voices to great stories of any genre. We’re proud to work with some of the most talented authors, voice actors, musicians, and engineers in the business.
Amelia G Sides
Amelia G. Sides (also writing as Grace Reid) is the author of fantasy, science fiction, and alternative history novels. Her books are filled with complex heroes, political intrigue, and finding home among the chaos that is life. Amelia lives in the southern US and enjoys long walks with her dog, Reuben, and late nights at her computer, plotting out her next book.
The first in a new series, “I don’t want to fight!”: A GameLit Novel, will become available the summer of 2025.
Check out her social media sites at the link below.
https://linktr.ee/asides3
Sarah J Sover
Sarah J. Sover is the author of fantasy crossover novels, short stories, and nonfiction articles. Sarah writes the Urban Fantasy Fractured Fae Series (Fairy Godmurder, Faed to Black, and the forthcoming Pixie Dusted) for Falstaff Books. She calls it Jessica Jones with sparkle. Her comedic fantasy Double-Crossing the Bridge, about a group of drunk trolls pulling a perilous heist, originally released in 2019 and was re-released by Falstaff in 2022 with a sequel, Trolled, slated for 2024/2025. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies, and she’s written articles for Writer’s Digest Magazine, WritersDigest.com, and for Dan Koboldt’s Putting the Fact in Fantasy. Sarah has a degree in Biology and a background in animal care, which she uses to thoroughly gross out readers. She spends her time raising two little forces of nature with her husband Alex in John’s Creek, Ga. In addition to writing, Sarah enjoys binging all SFF media, blues dancing, painting, and pretending to play guitar. She can frequently be found pillaging Hades or Hyrule while sipping on a good IPA and pinned beneath her rescue pup Gandalf the Grey.
Tiffany Vega
Tiffany Vega is a multi-genre author and co-owner of Outsider Publishing Company. A passionate storyteller, she dabbles in genres such as horror, fantasy, and contemporary fiction. Beyond her writing, Tiffany is a dedicated advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, using her platform to amplify diverse voices and stories. When she’s not crafting new worlds, she’s spending time with her three beloved fur babies, who keep her company on every creative journey.
Katharine Wibell
Marisa Wolf
Marisa Wolf is a second-generation nerd who started writing genre stories at six. At least one was good enough to be laminated, and she’s been chasing that high ever since. Over the years she taught middle school, was headbutted by an alligator, built a career in education, earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and finally decided to finish all the half-started stories in her head.
She’s written in many corners of SFF, including shared universes like the bestselling Four Horseman Universe and the anything-goes urban fantasy of Hit World, as well as video and table-top gaming tie-in stories. Her debut solo novel, Beyond Enemies with Baen Books, is a blend of military scifi, space opera, and general snarky banter, and the genre-blending continues in the multi-author Valkyries series she runs, which kicked off with her own Valkyrie’s Chosen.
After several years living on the road in an RV, Marisa, her husband, and their high-maintenance rescue dog are currently based in the woods of New England – but it’s anyone’s guess where in the country she is at any given moment. More at www.marisawolf.net
