Guests of Honor

Wesley Chu
Author Guest of Honor

Wesley Chu is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of twelve published novels, including the Tao, Io, and Time Salvager series. He was the 2015 winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. His debut, The Lives of Tao, won the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Science Fiction. He is the coauthor of the Eldest Curses series with Cassandra Clare. Robert Kirkman tapped Chu to write The Walking Dead: Typhoon, the first Walking Dead novel set in Asia.

Chu is an accomplished martial artist and a former member of the Screen Actors Guild. He has acted in film and television, and has worked as a model and stuntman, and recently returned from summiting Kilimanjaro. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Paula, and two boys, Hunter and River.

Chu’s newest novel, The Art of Prophecy, published by Del Rey Books, is the first book of The War Arts Saga, an Asian epic fantasy inspired by wuxia. The series is currently in development at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This is the Chu’s first appearance as the JordanCon Author Guest of Honor.

wesleychu.com
https://www.facebook.com/wesleychuauthor/

Omar Rayyan
Artist Guest of Honor

Having created illustrations for many publishers, including Simon & Schuster, Random House and Hyperion/Disney, Omar’s primary market was geared towards children’s and young adult’s magazine and books, doing cover and interior illustrations. He also illustrated several children’s picture books.

Other genres he has worked in include the gaming market, creating card art and illustrations for several prominent gaming companies, and he was also among the talented artists who contributed concept art and created the look for the motion picture “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

In 2017 he self-published a personal project, an illustrated art book that explores the 19th century narrative poem “Goblin Market” written by Christina Rossetti. Currently, while being kept busy creating new card art for the Magic: the Gathering folks, Omar’s attention has also been leaning more towards creating paintings of whim and fantasy made to indulge his own personal tastes and humors, doing work for private art collectors and galleries. He enjoys looking to the past for inspiration and guidance from the great oil painters of the Northern Renaissance and the Romantic and Symbolist painters of the 19th century.

This is Rayyan’s first appearance as the JordanCon Artist Guest of Honor.

www.studiorayyan.com
facebook.com/orayyan
instagram.com/omarrayyanart

JordanCon Guests

Aleron Kong

Aleron Kong is an African-American physician turned WSJ Best Selling Author, and Audible’s Custom Favorite of the Year. He is extremely proud of his fandom that has raised over $150,000 for charity, and lives by the words “Through Service, Ascendance. Through Dedication, Transcendence.”

Barbara Evers

Barbara V. Evers is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy trilogy, The Watchers of Moniah, The Watchers in Exile, and The Watchers at War. A two-time winner of the Best Fantasy Novel Imadjinn Award, Barbara writes about her passions including giraffes, other endangered animals, strong women, and domestic violence. She’s a Pushcart Prize Nominee and a two-time Carrie McCray winner, with short stories and essays appearing in several anthologies.

When she’s not writing, Barbara is a corporate trainer, public speaker, instructional designer, and a Myers-Briggs facilitator. She has a Master of Arts in Professional Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology. In other words, she knows how to communicate with animals.

Barbara lives in Greer, SC with two of her grandchildren, her husband, Bruce, and a rescue dog named Roxy. You can find out more about Barbara’s upcoming books and sign up for her newsletter at www.BarbaraVEvers.com. Also, you can follow her on Facebook, @BarbaraVEversAuthor, and Instagram, @Barbara_V_Evers.

Darrin 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 series culminates in The Tchaikovsky Finale. His The Pawn Stratagem series, 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 short stories can be found in numerous anthologies and magazines, while those about a certain Necromancer for Hire 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.

David Ekrut

Dr. David Ekrut wrote his first epic fantasy novel while earning a PhD in Biomedical Mathematics, raising three energetic children, and teaching elementary mathematics at Florida State University. Somehow he survived all of this self-inflicted torture without a caffeine overdose, though he did push the limits his brain could sustain by consuming copious amounts of coffee. To this day, he likes to tease his thesis advisor that while waiting on feedback on his dissertation, he wrote an entire novel.

After retiring from a career as a cancer research scientist, he now writes full time–as a medical writer by day and a novelist/journalist on nights and weekends. Taming the Elements, the first book in the Elwin Escari Chronicles has sold tens of thousands of copies in 8 different countries—digital, print, and audio formats are available. Two more novels exist in this series with more in the works.

He grew up reading and rereading the Wheel of Time series and LOTR. Having influenced him for decades, Jordan, Sanderson, and Tolkien are colossal figures in his writings. Whenever stuck in his own works, he studies their worlds for inspiration.

His greatest joy, besides writing about himself in the third person, is to work out believable mechanics for magic systems—a place for him to apply his understanding of physics and engineering in a creative way. Though his first novels have found a modicum of success, he is more excited about the drafts he has in the pipeline, as well as the ideas he has yet to discover.

Elizabeth Murphy-Spivey

Elizabeth Murphy-Spivey is a historical costuming enthusiast and working boymom from Chattanooga, TN. She got back into sewing in 2020 after a 17 year break in order to survive pandemic isolation and grad school burnout and has since won several awards, including Best Construction at the 2022 Page to Stage contest at DragonCon. Besides making costumes, her past times are gaming, being a snarky con panelist, and making increasingly long lists of future cosplay projects.

Gerald L. Coleman

Gerald L. Coleman is a philosopher, theologian, poet, and Science Fiction & Fantasy author. He did his undergraduate work in philosophy, english, and religious studies, followed by a master’s degree in Theology. He is the author of the Epic Fantasy novel series, The Three Gifts, which currently includes When Night Falls (Book One), A Plague of Shadows (Book Two), and the upcoming When Chaos Reigns (Book Three). His speculative fiction short stories have appeared in: The Cyberfunk Anthology: The City, the Roaring Lion Anthology: Rococoa, the Urban Fantasy Anthology: Terminus and Terminus 2, the 2019 JordanCon Anthology: You Want Stories?, Dark Universe: Bright Empire, Cyberfunk! by MVMedia, the JordanCon 2022 Anthology: Neither Endings Nor Beginnings, and Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird. His essays appear in the polish language Con-Magazine: KONwersacje, Apex Magazine 127, and the Hugo nominated Fanzine: Journey Planet. He has been a Guest Author at DragonCon, Boskone, Blacktasticon, JordanCon, Atlanta Science Fiction & Fantasy Expo, SOBSFCon, The Outer Dark Symposium, World Horror Con, Imaginarium, and Multiverse. He is a Scholastic National Writing Juror, a Co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, an SFWA member, a Rhysling Award Nominee, a recipient of The Hero of the Horn Award at JordanCon, and a Fellow at the Black Earth Institute. He is currently working on new editions of When Night Falls, A Plague of Shadows, and writing book three in epic fantasy series. And his newest poetry collection is entitled, On the Black Hand Side, and his newest science fiction and fantasy short story collection is entitled, From Earth and Sky. You can find him at Geraldcoleman.com.

Jason Denzel

Jason Denzel is the founder of Dragonmount, a leading Wheel of Time community since 1998. Among his extensive list of involvements with the franchise, he hosted Robert Jordan’s blog, assisted Brandon Sanderson with the final three novels in the series, provided consultation to publishers on books covers and graphic novels, and helped write treatments for a Wheel of Time film adaptation.

He was honored to be JordanCon’s first Toastmaster in 2009, and a decade later was the Author Guest of Honor at JordanCOn 10. Today, he continues today to manage Dragonmount’s team of content contributors who collectively strive to enhance people’s enjoyment of Robert Jordan’s work.

Jason is the author of The Mystic Trilogy, published by Tor Books, and is currently at work on future epic fantasy projects. He lives in Northern California where he practices Choy Li Fut Kung Fu. Find him online @JasonDenzel and JasonDenzel.com.

Jenn Lyons

JENN LYONS lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, three cats and a nearly infinite number of opinions on anything from Sumerian mythology to the correct way to make a martini. She was nominated twice for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (in 2020 and 2021) after a twenty-year career as a graphic artist and illustrator and a second career as a video game producer. Lyons traces her geek roots back to playing first edition Dungeons & Dragons in grade school – a hobby she’s continued as an adult—as well as whatever craft or skill she’s obsessed with this week: pyrography, beadwork, stenography, furniture upholstery, etc.

All five books of Lyons’s five-book debut epic fantasy series, starting with The Ruin of Kings, are available from Tor Books.

Karen Ahlstrom

Karen Ahlstrom works as Continuity Director at Dragonsteel Entertainment, making sure Brandon Sanderson doesn’t contradict anything he’s written in the last…how many pages? She’s also the mom of three wonderful girls and loves Legos, crafts, and the irresistible Peter Ahlstrom.

Kelley M. Frank

Kelley M. Frank creates creepy paintings, cover typography, and mixed media — MorbidSmile.com

Kevin Pettway

Kevin Pettway hails from Jacksonville Florida and is the author of the Misplaced Mercenaries books, a funny adult fantasy series that was awarded by the NYC Big Book Club, a finalist in the 2022 Imadjinn Awards, and has received several professional write-ups in Kirkus Magazine for which the author did not even have to pay. He has published a modest number of short stories, both within and without the Mercenaries world, with more on the way. Most excitingly, Kevin’s publisher, Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, has opened his world to other authors, creating the Misplaced Mercenaries Shared Universe. There are currently six authors toiling away to bring even more humor, fun, and backstabbing murder into the world, with plans to add even more in the next few years.

River and Book, Kevin and Lena’s two dogs, also love meeting people, but hotels rarely love meeting dogs, so they stay behind at the puppy resort. Canine fan-mail will be accepted and forwarded to the appropriate addressee.

Kevin thinks Strange New Worlds is the best Trek series, nudging The Orville off that top spot, and is enjoying The Rings of Power more than he thought he would. His favorite new author is Tamsyn Muir, and his favorite old author is Roger Zelazny. (If that’s allowed… otherwise it’s Robert Jordan.) He is also developing an obsession for kayaking, having discovered it late in life and is unable to get enough.

Despite being from Florida, Kevin still has all his own teeth and has never had a restraining order placed against him.

M. M. Schill

M.M. Schill is associate editor at Pseudopod; a SFWA and HWA qualifying market for short horror fiction. She is also a writer and traditional Japanese artist. When not delving into her creative pursuits, she works as a vocal DV and SA victim’s activist.

Matt Dinniman

Matt Dinniman from Gig Harbor, WA is the author of the best-selling Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Michael Livingston

MICHAEL LIVINGSTON is an award-winning expert in conflict analysis who combines an international reputation as a scholar of ancient and medieval military history with a career as both a novelist and a media personality. In 2019 he starred in Contact, which aired on Discovery and Science Channels world MICHAEL LIVINGSTON is an award-winning expert in conflict analysis who combines an international reputation as a scholar of ancient and medieval military history with a career as both a novelist and a media personality. He is the author of numerous books, including ORIGINS OF THE WHEEL OF TIME (Tor, 2022).

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 twenty-one novels and short story collections and editor/coeditor of ten anthologies. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines, most notably Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda, Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire, Obsidian Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora and Tales from the Magician’s Skull. Milton’s story ‘The Swarm’ was nominated for the 2017 British Science Fiction Association Award for Short Fiction and his story, Carnival, was nominated for the 2020 British Science Fiction Association Award for Short Fiction. He is a recipient of the 2022 East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.

Paige L. Christie

Paige L. Christie is originally from Maine and now lives in the North Carolina mountains. She is best known for the Legacies of Arnan fantasy series, and her work can be found in several anthologies, including Galactic Stew, and Witches Warriors & Wise Women. When she isn’t writing, Paige runs a non-profit soup kitchen and food pantry, walks her dog too early in the morning, and dreams of french fries. More deets: paigelchristie.com

Preeti Chhibber

Preeti Chhibber is a children’s book author, speaker, and freelance writer. She has written for SYFY, BookRiot, Polygon, and Elle, among others. In 2022, she made her Marvel comics debut in WOMEN OF MARVEL #1 with a brand-new Black Cat story. That same year also saw the release of Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma, the first book in an original upper-middle grade Peter Parker trilogy from Marvel Press. You can find her co-hosting the podcasts Desi Geek Girls and Tar Valon or Bust. She’s appeared on several panels at New York Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, and on screen on the SYFY Network. Honestly, you probably recognize her from one of several BuzzFeed “look at these tweets” Twitter lists. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice. You can follow her on Twitter @runwithskizzers or learn more at PreetiChhibber.com

Ramón Terrell

Ramón Terrell is an author and actor who instantly fell in love with fantasy the day he opened R. A. Salvatore’s: The Crystal Shard. Years (and many devoured books) later he decided to put pen to paper for his first novel. After a bout with aching carpals, he decided to try the keyboard instead, and the words began to flow.
As an actor, he has appeared in the hit television shows Supernatural, izombie, Arrow, and A Million Little Things, as well as the hit comedy web series Single and Dating in Vancouver. He also appearsed as one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men in Once Upon a Time, as well as an Ark Guard on the hit TV show The 100. When not writing, or acting, he enjoys reading, video games, hiking, and long walks with his wife around Stanley Park in Vancouver BC.
Ramonterrell.com

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 sci-fi detective noir.

Apollo Grant, her debut novella about a ne’er-do well vampire hunter in Vegas hit the shelves in 2021 from Mocha Memoirs Press. Apollo’s adventures will continue soon in the sequel Taken for Granted.

You can find out more about Rey and her upcoming works by visiting www.reynichols.com.

Sam R. Kennedy

Sam R Kennedy lives off planet somewhere in the spiral arm of our galaxy. Amazingly he still manages to regularly send cover illustrations via FTL to Baen Books and other publishers on Earth. His images are typically sharp and photorealistic, and Mr. Kennedy claims they are more of a photo journal of what he has seen at the edges of our galaxy.
Before leaving earth, Mr. Kennedy worked as an illustrator and animator for multiple video game companies and slot machine companies. He is still very involved in game art. In addition to the eventful, action-packed sci-fi covers, he also paints Valkyries, pirate queens, lazy pigs, guitar playing pug dogs, and Greek gods. He spent a brief time as an illustration professor at Savannah College of Art and Design and also wrote the book “How To Become a Video Game Artist: The Insider’s Guide to Landing a Job in the Gaming World” which is available on Amazon.com.
When not witnessing and recording the amazing events pictured in his book covers, Mr. Kennedy and his family journey through space in their comfortable Light Cruiser class spaceship. This ship is equipped with racquetball courts, which Mr. Kennedy loves, and regularly picks up earth transmissions having their favorite media shows and youtube channels—Jack Reacher, The Terminal List, the MCU, and DCEU. He also listens to plenty of sci-fi audio books while recording all those fantastic events.
Sam R Kennedy plans to continue to explore new worlds and send back illustrated correspondence until he discovers Krypton or is bitten by a radioactive spider.

Sarah Madsen

Sarah Madsen is an author and TTRPG designer living in the wilds (okay, suburbs) of North Georgia. She has been writing professionally for TTRPGs for more than five years, and has contributed to projects from Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Ghostfire Gaming, Cubicle 7, MCDM, Draco Studios, and others. In fiction, her cyberpunky urban fantasy novel, Weaver’s Folly, is available from Falstaff Books. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games and RPGs of all types, and loves gin cocktails, fancy lattes, and romanceable NPCs. You can find her on Twitter (@UnfetteredMuse), Facebook (facebook.com/SarahMadsenAuthor) or WordPress (unfetteredmuse.com).

Vincent E. M. Thorn

https://writingwiththorn.com/nhttps://twitter.com/VinThornAuthornhttps://facebook.com/VincentEMThorn/

Vincent E.M. Thorn is a bi-racial Japanese-American fantasy author living in the Metro-Atlanta area. He made his debut in 2019 with the release of Skies of the Empire, the first book of the Dreamscape Voyager Trilogy. In addition to being an avid reader of epic fantasy, Thorn considers himself something of a cinephile and is a staunch proponent for animation as a legitimate medium for adult and general audiences. As a passionate music fan, he enjoys heavy metal, showtunes, and much of what falls in between.

Ashley Chappell

Ashley Chappell writes satire and young adult epic fantasy featuring expansive world-building and universes filled with magic, mayhem, and monsters.

Upcoming releases include A Mother of Gods: Dreams of Chaos Book 4 and Harrowers: Hawk of Hell, a gritty adventure in which Hell is a job for life. Or rather, a job for the afterlife.

Ms. Chappell currently resides in North Alabama where she works at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. When not writing, reviewing, or burying her nose in one of her well-worn Terry Pratchett novels, she can be found working alongside her husband building their off-grid, semi-underground dream home in the foothills of the Appalachians.

Bill Bridges

Bill Bridges is a writer and game designer, most known for developing White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting and the Fading Suns science-fiction universe.

Cecilia Dominic

By day, clinical psychologist Cecilia Dominic helps people cure their insomnia. By night, this USA Today bestselling author writes steampunk and urban fantasy books that keep her readers turning pages past bedtime. She prefers the term “versatile” to “conflicted” and is thrilled that readers enjoy both her short story and novel-length fiction enough to lose sleep over it. Her books have been finalists in prestigious contests such as the Maggie Award for Excellence in Romance and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and the world’s cutest cat. You can find her at ceciliadominic.com

David B. Coe

David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson is the author of more than two dozen novels and as many short stories.
As D.B. Jackson (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com), he is the author of the Thieftaker Chronicles, a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines elements of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. He also writes the Islevale Cycle, a time travel/epic fantasy series (Time’s Children, Time’s Demon, and Time’s Assassin).
Under his own name (http://www.DavidBCoe.com) he has most recently published The Fugitive Stone, the first novel in a Celtic urban fantasy trilogy. He is the author of the Radiants supernatural thrillers (Radiants and Invasives, both published by Belle Books), and has also written epic fantasy, including the Crawford Award-winning LonTobyn Chronicle, contemporary urban fantasy, and media tie-ins. He is the co-author of How To Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion.
David has co-edited several short fiction anthologies with Zombies Need Brains, and has recently launched a freelance editing business. He has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

Dennis Medbury

Dennis is a veteran of the United States Navy. After 14 years of service, he developed PTSD, which led to insomnia. As a person who is not fond of medication, he started thinking up a story to help him get to sleep. Everytime he got to a point in the story where he didn’t like the direction the story was going, he would start the story over in his head. Every time he started over, the story would change and evolve. New characters were added, new abilities developed or new histories in the world came to light. After nearly 20 years of going over the story, it stopped changing, so he decided that it was time to put it on paper.

The Secrets of the Runestones series is a product of Dennis taking a debilitating condition and turning it into something positive. The characters are all dear to his heart. Writing fantasy involves a great deal of thought and research. Trade routes, monetary systems, government and religions are just some of the things you need to think about before you get to the fun stuff like swords and magic. Dennis believes he has put in the effort, and created a story that anyone can enjoy.

Ellie Raine

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.

James Nettles

James Nettles is a business and tech consultant by day and author by night, writing fiction, non-fiction, and a lot of stuff in between. He is a co-founder and tech director of the ConTinual online convention, host of numerous podcast and videocast shows, and frequent contributor and guest.
He is also the founder of Author Essentials, an workshop and education company dedicated to teaching creative people how to do business and profit from their work, often teaching workshops on business, intellectual property, marketing, social media, data privacy and security, and the publishing industry. He is also the business dean for the Speculative Fiction Academy.

Jeff Hayes

Jeff Hays is the narrator of the smash-hit LitRPG audiobook series, “Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman. But he’s also narrated more than 200 other audiobooks, and made a name for himself and the production company he founded, Soundbooth Theater, by flexing his massive character range, and making the most consistently fun and high quality audiobooks on the market using multicast performances, sound effects and music. He is dedicated to serving the indie market, partnering with authors only through his own company rather than through other publishers, and going so far as developing an independent market and app for distributing Soundbooth Theater’s premium content.

Jenn Northington

Jenn Northington is a former bookseller and a current reviewer, podcaster, and anthology editor. Her first anthology, Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices, co-edited with Swapna Krishna, was a Locus Award Finalist for 2021. Her new anthology, Fit For the Gods: Greek Mythology from the Margins (July 2023), co-edited with S. Zainab Williams, brings a diverse array of voices to Greco-Roman mythology retellings. She’s a life-long booknerd, and you can hear her geeking out about the Wheel of Time on the podcast Tar Valon or Bust with fellow fan and writer Preeti Chhibber.

Kelly Lynn Colby

Kelly Lynn Colby owns one hat, but wears many. She’s a writer of epic fantasy (The Recharging series) and paranormal thrillers (Emergence series), a freelance editor, a publisher, and a podcaster. As the Editorial Director and Publisher at Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing, Kelly is privileged to work with a plethora of speculative fiction writers. She decided everyone else should get to know them as well, so she started “20 Questions with your Favorite Author” where she asks authors every Tuesday why they’d agree to be on the podcast and other hard-hitting questions. By adding “Writing Wrongs” on Monday nights—a D&D adventure where all the players are writers—she’s now fully committed to this podcast hat. When she’s not hogging the mic, Kelly writes and edits and answers an inordinate number of emails at her cluttered desk, coffee shops, and parks, mostly in Houston, Texas. You can follow her adventures on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram @kcolbywrites or subscribe to her blog at kellylynncolby.com. If you visit the business site at https://curseddragonship.com, you’ll see her live with monthly video updates. Check out the events page if you want to see her, or any of her authors, in person.

Kyoko M

Kyoko M is a USA Today bestselling author and a fangirl. She is the author of The Black Parade urban fantasy series and the Of Cinder and Bone science-fiction series. 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. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia.

Martin Powell

Martin Powell has written many of the most popular characters in the industry, including Superman, Batman, Popeye the Sailor, and Tarzan of the Apes, in comics and in prose, for Disney, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, among many others.

Nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award for his work with Sherlock Holmes, he is also the creator of The Halloween Legion, a nominee for the Stan Lee Excelsior Award, and his Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan won the coveted Moonbeam Golden Award for Best Children’s Graphic Novel.

As the author of a dozen different ERB online comics series, and the critically acclaimed Jungle Tales of Tarzan graphic novel published by Dark Horse, Powell has written more Edgar Rice Burroughs characters than any other contemporary writer. In 2017, he received the coveted Golden Lion Award for his on-going contributions to the legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

His newest children’s books, Private Eye Princess and the Emerald Pea and Rapunzel vs. Frankenstein, twist familiar fairy tales into original adventures for 21st Century readers.

Mel Todd

Mel Todd has over 35 stories out, her urban science fiction Kaylid Chronicles, the Blood War series, and her Twisted Luck series. She can be found in multiple anthologies, with a few more on the horizon. Owner of Bad Ash Publishing they specialize in stories that will grab you and make you hunger for more. Her books can be found on Amazon and short stories in her bi-weekly newsletters.

Michael Mammay

Michael Mammay is the author of the Planetside trilogy from Harper Voyager as well as THE MiSFIT SOLDIER and THE WEIGHT OF COMMAND. His next novel, GENERATION SHIP, is coming from Harper Voyager in summer of 2023. He is a former US Army officer and high school teacher, and a regular instructor at various writing workshops throughout the southeast. He lives in Savannah with his wife.

Nicole Givens Kurtz

Nicole Givens Kurtz is an author, editor, and educator. She’s the recipient of the Ladies of Horror Grant (2021), the Horror Writers Association’s Diversity Grant (2020) and the two-time Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award Winner (2021 and 2022). She’s also the editor of the groundbreaking anthology, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She’s written for White Wolf, The Realm’s The Vela: Salvation series, and Baen’s No Game for Knights and Straight Outta Tombestone. Nicole has over numerous short stories published as well as numerous novels and three active speculative mystery series. She enjoys reading scary stories and watching true crime.

October K. Santerelli

October K Santerelli hails from the Denver Metro area of Colorado. Primarily a fantasy author, October has written across multiple genres in comics and novels alike. His debut novel, STORM’S EYE, was written in David Brin’s Out of Time universe. His dark fantasy, CITY OF DAY, is due to be released in early 2023. October is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and does work as both a sensitivity reader and public speaker.

Patrick Dugan

Patrick is the author of the award-winning Darkest Storm Series published by Falstaff Books. Other titles include Fate & Flux: A Steampunk Adventure through and Watchers of Astaria series from Distracted Dragon Press. Other publications include Fairy Films: Wee Folk on the Big Screen, a collection of fairy essays. Patrick is a member of SFWA.

An avid gadget user, Patrick is also the Director of Technology Services for Author’s Essentials LLC providing solutions and advice for writing professionals. Patrick writings delve into software, hardware, social media, and all things web-related. The primary focus of Author’s Essentials is how and when to employ technology to enhance your writing process.

Patrick resides in Charlotte, NC with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he’s a PC gamer, homebrewer, 3D printer enthusiast, and DIYer. You can usually find him in the Hearthstone Tavern or wandering Azeroth as a Blood Elf Warlock in the evenings.

You can find out more at www.patrickdugan.net,
https://www.facebook.com/patrick.dugan.3781,
https://www.instagram.com/patrickduganauthor/,
https://twitter.com/P_Dugan

R. R. Virdi

R.R. Virdi is a usa today bestseller, 2 time dragon award finalist, and nebula award nominated author. He is the writer of two urban fantasy series, The Grave Report, and The Books of Winter, as well as the silk road epic fantasy series, Tales of Tremaine, published by TOR books.

Rosemary Williams

A second-generation sci-fi/fantasy fan, Rosemary Williams was perfectly happy being a normal nerd, until a feral book bit her and infected her with author lycanthropy. Now she’s writing fantasy, delving into steampunk/gaslamp, weird west, epic fantasy, and urban fantasy, occasionally smashing them apart and building new amalgamations. She now has three published short stories under her belt, so she must be doing something right.

She’s also a costume-maker, crafter, and convention staffer, paddling around in the deep end of fandom. She’s a member of 17th Shard’s staff/podcasting team, making regular appearances on Shardcast, SpanReads, and Diceborn.

She resides in Olathe, KS, with her spouse, 1.5 dachshunds, and half a chihuahua.

Sarah J. Sover

Sarah J. Sover is an author of fantasy crossover novels, short stories, and nonfiction articles. Her debut novel, Double-Crossing the Bridge, a comedic fantasy heist featuring drunk trolls, hit the Amazon Bestseller list in humorous fantasy. The sequel, Trolled, is slated to release from Falstaff Books in 2024-2025. Fairy Godmurder, Sarah’s noir fantasy about a fairy godmother with a vendetta, released from Falstaff at JordanCon 2022. It is the first in her Fractured Fae series, with Faed to Black set to release in 2023. Sarah’s short fiction appears in the first three JordanCon anthologies, and she’s written articles for Dan Koboldt’s Putting the Fact in Fantasy and for Writer’s Digest Magazine. She has a background in animal care and wildlife rehabilitation, which she uses to thoroughly gross out readers. In addition to writing, Sarah is an amateur artist, a blues dancer, and a lover of IPAs.

Sargon Donabed

Sargon Donabed is an author and professor in the department of history and cultural studies at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island where he teaches courses in magic and mythology, three of which have been on the Wheel of Time. He holds a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto. He also holds an MS in Anthrozoology/Animal Studies from Canisius College and is a longtime animal shelter volunteer.

Sargon has attended Jordancon for years and has even presented with his students on various panels. He is the midst of writing two fantasy series and continues his academic writing as well. He is interested in cultural heritage as well as mythology, folklore, and wisdom literature of the ancient, medieval, and modern world. His contemporary focus consists of indigenous and marginalized communities but also threads of continuity from the ancient to the modern period. He is an expert on the perennial history of Assyria and Mesopotamian culture – and indebted to his family for being able to do all of these things.

Tamsin Silver

TAMSIN SILVER is a Fantasy author based out of Albuquerque, NM. With a background in Theatre, it was only a natural progression that her storytelling found its way to book format. Her Historical Fantasy works include the Untold Legends series (about Billy the Kid) with Falstaff Books. Her Urban Fantasy works include the Windfire saga, Moon Over Manhattan (out in 2023/24), the Mark of the Necromancer novel, and Skye of the Damned novellas & web series. She is also a writer for Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage Anthologies with Lore Seekers Press, the We Are Not This anthology for Falstaff Books, and the Storming Area 51 anthology with Bayonet Books.
You can learn more about Ms. Silver by visiting www.tamsinsilver.com.

Wayland Smith

WAYLAND SMITH is the pen name for a native Texan who has lived in Massachusetts, New York, Washington DC, and presently makes his home in Virginia. His rather unlikely list of jobs includes private investigator, comic book shop owner, ring crew for a circus (then he ran away from the circus and joined home), deputy sheriff, writer, and freelance stagehand. Wayland’s novels so far include Tools of the Trade, Blood Of A Nation, In My Brother’s Name, and Cadre Clash, the first book in the Wildside series. He has short stories in the anthologies “Cat Ladies of the Apocolypse”, “HeroNet Files, Vol 1,”, “SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror,” and “Misfits of Magic,” among many others. He has spoken on panels at DragonCon, DC AwesomeCon, MystiCon, and RavenCon. A black belt in shao lin kung fu, he is also a fan of comic books, reading, writing, and various computer games (I’ll shut 7 Days to Die down in one more hour. Really). He lives with a beautiful woman who was crazy enough to marry him, and the spirits of a few wonderful dogs that have passed on.