Horror.
Death Metal.
Mead.
All in one place, October 18th, 7 PM. Be there as I share the stage with local death metal act Eldritch Horror for the Durham Public Library’s MORBID TALES event at Moon Dog Meadery in downtown Durham.
Don’t be afraid. Well, maybe a little…
Later this week I’ll be headed northwest to attend GenCon in Indianapolis. I’ll be taking part in the GenCon Writers’ Symposium, where I’ll be sitting on panels on Shaping GM Experience Into A Career In Narrative Design, Getting Into Game Writing, Leading TTRPG Development, and Video Game Writer As Freelancer Vs. Employee. I’m also doing Write Club with the inimitable Alexander Bevier, doing a signing with the talented Sarah Hans, and taking part in the “meet the pros” session of the Symposium. I haven’t been to GenCon since 2016, and I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be great to see old friends and meet talented writers, and just generally soak in the game-y good times!
I’ve got two big things to share with you!
First of all, the sword and sorcery anthology SWORDPLAY, illustrated by the marvelous Dan Brereton and containing stories from folks like Christopher Golden and Cullen Bunn, was released this weekend. And oh yeah. I’ve got a story in there, too – “The Faces of the Winter Wood”. It’s a wonderful anthology and I’m proud to be a part of it, so check it out if sword and sorcery is your thing.
And then Friday is the big day – time for A MEETING AT THE DEVIL’S HOUSE. This one’s been a long time coming and I’m very proud of it. With stories about zombie frogs, a magical pirate rabbi, a man-eating Sasquatch in a top hat, a drunk unicorn, and more, it’s a collection of delightfully dark stories, seventeen in all. New York Time bestselling author Matt Forbeck said it was “twisted in all the right ways” and HorrorDNA raved about it, so pick it up if you’re so inclined!
Apologies for the radio silence; things have been a little busy on this end what with StokerCon and GDC Showcase and all the other shenanigans I have been engaging in.
But I did want to let folks know that my second short story collection, A MEETING IN THE DEVIL’S HOUSE, is available for preorder in trade paperback and ebook. It will be releasing on July 21st! Horror DNA said “Richard Dansky is never a writer to be missed” in their glowing review, bestselling author Matt Forbeck affirmed that it was “stabby”, and Stoker Award winner Jeff Strand accused me of selling my soul to the devil for my writing talent. I’m extremely proud of this collection, which covers everything from a magical pirate rabbi to zombie frogs to a top-hat wearing man eating Sasquatch. And that’s just the beginning…
Ten years ago I unleashed my video game ghost story VAPORWARE on the world. It’s the tale of a video game project that gets cancelled – but doesn’t want to go away. The cover is by the amazing Lynne Hansen, who did a great job of capturing the personality of the book!
VAPORWARE was actually born at Necon in a late-night discussion with, among others, best-selling author Douglas Clegg. He riffed on the idea of writing what you know, and what did I know? Video games, and how they’re made. But I was tired of stories where either A)the video game monster gets loose and starts eating people or B)the hero gets trapped in a video game and something starts eating people. I wanted to do something different, to write a story about the real horrors of game development, the toll it could take on the people making the game and the passion and love that went into the process.
Thus, VAPORWARE was born.
It originally came out in 2013 from JournalStone. I ran a wacky promo called People Doing Terrible Things To My Book, wherein I posted people doing awful things to copies of VAPORWARE. There were chainsaws. There were knives. There were copies of TWILIGHT and milkshakes and many other things. And it was a lot of fun.
But that was ten years ago. Now it’s back, and I hope you enjoy it.
This weekend I’ll be at the uber-spooky Carolina Fear Fest, selling books and hoping to get a glimpse of Tara Reid before the Sharknado descends upon her. You can find show info here, so if you’re in the Triangle area, come by and say hi!
And if that’s not enough, Sunday night I’ll be chatting with the lovely folks at The Thing In The Labyrinth about FIREFLY RAIN. Event details are here!
Big news! Coming in July from Twisted Publishing is my second short fiction collection, the diabolically titled A MEETING IN THE DEVIL’S HOUSE AND OTHER STORIES. The cover is by the vastly talented Errick Nunnally, and the foreword by the legendary James A. Moore. It’s a dozen and a half stories about magical pirate rabbis, cosmic vending machines, zombie frogs and more, and it will be available soon!
Speaking of that cover…
I am very happy to share with you the news that my baseball-themed horror story “Swing Batter Batter” is live over with the fine folks at PseudoPod! It’s a fun story and I’m very proud of it. Hope you enjoy it!
GDC has come and gone. So, too, has Scares That Care Authorcon II, both of which were lovely and exciting experiences. Returning to GDC in person was wonderful. The Narrative Summit, which I sit on the advisory board for, was excellent. The student presenters who had won the competition I judge were superb and in one case, extremely moving. And my three round tables were full, with lively discussion and good back-and-forth from a wide range of attendees. I got to see too many friends there to recount, and made some new ones along the way.
AuthorCon II was a very different show, being devoted to (surprise) writers and all things writing. Again, saw a great many friends and was introduced to new ones there. I caught up with folks like Maurice Broaddus and Tim Lebbon, whom I hadn’t seen in seven and thirteen years respectively, as well as many others. I also ran a four hour workshop on writing for video games that had good attendance from sharp students who asked good questions. I went home tired but happy.
So with that done, time to rest, right? Wrong! Next week is East Coast Game Conference, for which I help wrangle narrative content. It’s a wonderful show – low pressure, high content, and very friendly – and I’m glad to be a part of it. If you can get to Raleigh next week and you have an interest in gamedev, check it out! I’ll see you there!
Next week is the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I’m going, in part because I’m part of the advisory board for the Game Narrative Summit (which runs Monday and Tuesday) and in part because I’m running narrative round tables during the main show Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and in part because my employers at Crytek are kind and generous people.
Part of the Game Narrative Summit will be the presentation of the winning entries from the student narrative competition that I judge each year. I am honored to do the judging and happy to see what each year’s crop of up-and-coming game development students think about the narratives of their favorite games.
I’ve been going off and on, mostly on, since 2000. My first talk was about believability versus realism in Ghost Recon; since then I’ve spoken on various other topics and run my roundtables, and it’s always a pleasure and an honor.
GDC is also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends and professional peers. I’m looking forward to seeing folks I see maybe once a year, but whose voices are loud and clear in the narrative and design communities. And if we have a few drinks to celebrate each other, that’ll be fine, too.