Raven Oak's Blog, page 42
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...
April 7, 2016
Throwback Thursday: Greywalker
What I Love about This Cover: This cover has a similar grit to it that I’ve seen in Neil Gaiman’s covers. That’s what drew me into the book when I saw it. Also, while she shows a bit of belly, the main character on the cover isn’t scantily clad or in a sexy pose. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but urban fantasy seems cursed by females showing more tits than smarts. Why not both?
What I Don’t Love about This Cover: The red...
Emerald City Comicon
I’ll be at Emerald City Comicon all weekend. I’ll be mostly gaming or taking in a few panels, but my schedule is below:
Apr 10, 2016, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – Room W3A
We’re holding out for a hero…who goes beyond the war veteran with the missing limbs or PTSD. From depression and anxiety, to blindness/deafness, chronic pain, and the complications of autism and other neurotypes, join us as we seek heroes to represent us!
Panelists: Raven Oak, Katie Cord, Fran Stewart, G. G. Silverman...
April 4, 2016
Untethered: A Magic iPhone Anthology
Gamers will get a kick out of my story “Q-Be,” which features an evil app based on the freemium model that’s oh-so popular right now. Even if you’re not a gamer, if you’ve ever played Candy Crush or some other social game, you know the freemium model. It’s that lovely game that “seems” free until you run out of energy or lives or something else and then it bugs you to purchase more energy or what not for real world money. Yep, that’s freemium.
The app in “Q-Be” is also reminiscent of Microsoft...
MNG: Age of War
It’s been a while since I did one of these. Between moving and my event schedule, I haven’t done a ton of gaming lately. My apologies for the delay.
Publisher: Reiner Knizia
# of Players: 2-6
Best with: 2-3 players
Playing Time: Varies based on # of players. With two of us, it was about 40 minutes.
# of Expansions: No official ones
Age of War is a game of conquest that plays rather quickly once you adjust to the play mechanics. It’s surprising how m...
April 1, 2016
FF: Powerful Women
I’d already read Magician by Feist as well as a few others in the Riftwar Saga, but Daughter of the Empire and its sequels gave me a taste of main characters being powerful women who seek and build their own agency.
It’s not that I hadn’t read powerful female characters before, but in this series, it was different. The world Mara lives is in based very heavily on feudalism Japan and Ancien...
March 31, 2016
Throwback Thursday: Passage
What I Love about This Cover: There have been many newer covers of this book made, but this one is still my favorite. This cover gives a very serious clue on it, and you probably won’t see it until you reach the end. Connie’s a sneaky writer and the cover artist for this book was too.
What I Don’t Love about This Cover: Nothing. The symmetry and symbolism for this book about death is amazingly simple, yet it works so well.
Click here to vi...Depression Lies, But It Is Real
One of the highlights of Norwescon 39 was meeting other authors that I’d only talked to on social media. One of those authors, Logan Masterson, had messaged me the month before because he was excited to be on a panel with me and doubly excited to finally meet me in person. We’d spent the last six months or so chatting on Facebook.
He joked with me in private message about his social anxiety–
So if at any point in panel I start to be an ass, let me know. I don’t want to be an ass. Sometimes my s...
March 28, 2016
Norwescon Wrap-Up
It’s Monday, the day after Norwescon 39 ended, and even though authors aren’t supposed to “tell” more than necessary, let me tell you that I am bone tired. The lack of sleep and running around with my head cut off has definitely caught up to me. Also, my voice isn’t all here. I sound like a chain smoker with laryngitis.
That being said, this tired is absolutely worth it as I had one of the best cons of my career so far, largely due to the wonderful people I met.
Being a panelist isn’t anything...
March 25, 2016
FF: Passage & Death
Passage is a book unlike anything else I’ve ever read by Connie Willis. It’s a profound book that I think everyone should read, but one that shouldn’t be read alone.
The title is apt to the topic, as for many, passage & death are interconnected. The dead pass on and into whatever, whatever being dependent upon your particular belief system.
Part of her inspiration for the book comes from her mother’s death when Connie Willis was twelve. S...
