Raven Oak's Blog, page 41
April 25, 2016
More on Needing Heroes!
A few weeks back, I posted my Emerald City Comicon Wrap-Up, including details on how awesome our “I Need a Hero” panel went. One of my co-panelists, Fran Stewart, posted a very thorough article on the panel itself and the topics covered.
For whatever reason, it didn’t dawn on me to record the panel, but if you missed it, Fran’s wrap-up is a great summary of it. I encourage folks to read it because we absolutely need more heroes.
You can read her awesome post here.
The po...
April 22, 2016
FF: Death the High Cost of Living
2016 has been one hell of a year, and I don’t mean that in a good way. As the death of Prince hit the world, others followed, including Patton Oswalt’s wife, who was only 46. When I saw this modification from Death: The High Cost of Living on Facebook yesterday, it was fitting.
If you’ve not read this graphic novel by Neil, you need to remedy that ASAP. It features Dream’s (the Sandman) oldest sister, Death, and the ide...
April 21, 2016
TT: Purple Rain
I know I usually do books, but today seemed fitting to do a Throwback Thursday on Purple Rain. Music is such a large part of my identity that I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the passing of Prince.
TT: Purple Rain
2016 is just kicking our asses.
Way too many people gone to soon–David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Natalie Cole, David Margulies, Brian Benford, Dan Haggerty, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, Harper Lee, George Gaynes, Lennie Baker,...
April 20, 2016
The Gauntlet
If you’re local to Seattle and have frequented Card Kingdom or Mox Boarding House, you’ve probably heard of The Gauntlet, which is an annual gaming tournament in support of charity. From Mox Boarding House,
“20 teams of 4, from local games industry studios and community groups, will compete in an all-day event for the benefit of YouthCare, a Seattle-area non-profit that works with homeless youth, to help them get off the streets and preparing for life.”
My husband works for the local gaming com...
What I’m…Update
It’s been a while (due to moving) but I’ve finally updated the What I’m…. pages.
What I’m Playing— It has to do with Pokemon. 
April 18, 2016
MNG: Secret Hitler
While at the Emerald City Comicon 2016, we participated in a Worldbuilders charity gaming event. We got to play the game Secret Hitler with Cards Against Humanity producer Trin Garritano.
Publisher: Self-Published
# of Players: 5-10
Best with: 10 Players
Playing Time: Varies based on luck & the players. With 10 of us, it took 30 minutes the first time and 10 minutes the second time.
# of Expansions: None
Secret Hitler is similar in play to Ultimate Wer...
April 15, 2016
FF: Redwall
Ah Redwall. Lots of furry little critters running around the Abbey and Mossflower woods. Redwall was not the first book I’d read from the point of view of animals (Watership Down, anyone?), but it was definitely one of my favorites as a younger reader.
The idea that a young mouse could lead the same sort of adventures as a human excited me. I’ve always been one of those people that identifies more with animals than humans–mostly because hum...
April 14, 2016
Throwback Thursday: Batman
What I Love about This Cover: Women are constantly told to smile. As if we owe it to the world to smile at all times and on command. It was creepy on this cover and in this context, and even creepier after the new Jessica Jones series on Netflix.
What I Don’t Love about This Cover: The green title doesn’t stand out enough against the background. Makes it hard to read who the brilliant artists and authors of this comic are.
Click here to vie...April 12, 2016
ECCC Wrap-Up
Welcome to my ECCC Wrap-Up for Emerald City Comicon 2016.
2016 was my fourth Emerald City Comicon, but my first as a professional author and panelist. Unlike fan-run conventions like Norwescon or Anglicon, ECCC is run by ReedPop. It’s owned by a company that owns most of the Comicons in the U.S. and is much, much larger than most fan-run cons I frequent. As such, ECCC is a great opportunity to speak to a much larger fan-base and audience. The down side to this is that ReedPop tends to treat f...
April 8, 2016
FF: Shiny Comicon
Because I’m at the Emerald City Comicon, I don’t have the time to type up a fully fleshed Flashback Friday. Instead, I leave you with an image of my first comicon in 2012. It was quite shiny!
It’s difficult to see in this pic, but I’m wearing a “Browncoats” baseball jersey. 
This was the only time we’ve ever paid for a celebrity photo-op, but Alan Tudyk and Gina Torres (Wash & Zoe from Firefly) were too hard to pass up. We got the photo autographed...
