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August Recap

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So here’s what went down last month. I:

  • Attended GenCon as part of the Writers Symposium, where I moderated 8 panels, met and hung out with lots of great folks, and had a wonderful time. Also, I got to go on a small private tour of the Ray Bradbury Archives and was able to both touch his writing desk and hold his (replacement) Emmy for The Halloween Tree.
  • Started a Patreon. There’s free content, there’s paid content, there’s all sorts of content!
  • Went down to local festival Pop!-Con and had a great time. Sold books, talked to folks, and met a tiny owl named Galadriel who had apparently ridden against her will from Nebraska to North Carolina trapped in the front grill of a semi. That’s one tough bird.
  • Got published in issue 1o of legendary noir magazine Dark Yonder with my first true non-supernatural noir story, “Competitive Advantage”. I’m pretty sure that’s also the only piece of fantasy baseball-themed noir ever written, much less published.
  • Set up a couple of talks in New York State for September, one at RPI and one in Utica.
  • Agreed to speak at IGDC in Chennai, India in November.
  • Did the launch party for The Video Game Writer’s Guide to Surviving an Industry That Hates You at Yonder Cocktail Bar in beautiful Hillsborough, NC, Had a full house of wonderfully supportive friends and readers, and I am thrilled with how it went.
  • Launched The Video Game Writer’s Guide to Surviving an Industry That Hates You to what is apparently a really strong audience response. Last I checked, it was the #1 New Release in Game Design at Amazon, and was top 10 (as high as #2) in one specific category and top 50 in two others.
  • Finally got the ongoing piddling refrigerator saga dealt with.
  • Attended and sold books at legendary local music festival ProgDay, where I got to hang out with, among other people, the guy who’s played keyboards for Renaissance for the last 8 years.

Pretty sure there was other stuff in there, but I think that’s a good start.

Now, deep breath, and then September.

Tally Sheet

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Last year was a little bit of a lull for me, writing-wise, as I concentrated on laying the groundwork for new projects and personal matters. But, I vowed to hit the ground running in 2025, and I like to think I have done that.

So far, I have done the following:

  • Started a new job as Narrative Director at Romero Games, and I am having a blast doing so.
  • Written the bulk of the manuscript for The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You, and done edits and final proofs.
  • Finalized the concept and wrote the script for my first graphic novel, a 124 page horror comic for the French publisher Delcourt, done in conjunction with the legendary Matz.
  • Finalized the contents of a new short story collection, including an all-new Reb Palache story.
  • Wrote 7 short stories so far and counting.
  • Managed to pump out 2 essays a week on game narrative and writing over at LinkedIn
  • Laid the groundwork for a few more upcoming projects.
  • Promised to kill at least one person horribly in a story or novel for charity.

I’m now gearing up for starting another novel, and I have a few more stories in progress I need to complete. And there will be at least two big announcements coming up before the end of the year.

No rest for the wicked, or their typing fingers.

2024 Roundup

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This….was a very busy year. A lot of stuff happened that was very important and yet utterly not germane to this discussion, so I’m going to skip on over it. I do, however, want to do a rundown of all the writing-related stuff that happened, largely for my own sake so I can convince myself it really went down. To wit:

  • I pitched and sold a non-fiction book on being a video game writer titled The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You. That should be out in 2025.
  • I sold my horror novel Nightmare Logic to Falstaff Dread, and that will be out in 2026.
  • I energetically resurrected, playtested, and revised my card game Squatches and Scotches, and am engaged in getting that in front of publishers now.
  • I am engaged in pitching my novel Ghosts of Smoke and Flame to agents and publishers, and have high hopes for it.
  • I was engaged on several top-secret creative projects, one of which we are final contract negotiation stages for. I can’t say more about it yet, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I am really excited that this is happening.
  • I sold five stories: “Against the Siren Song” to Sudden Fictions, “Kicking Santa’s Ass” to Interdimensions, “Paws” to Black Cat Weekly, “Used Sleep” to Space and Time, and “Last Supper” to the fine folks at PseudoPod.
  • I wrote or revised a double fistful of stories, and have them all out in submission as we speak.
  • I commissioned and released audiobooks for my novels Firefly Rain and Vaporware.
  • I did a twice-weekly series of posts on game narrative at LinkedIn, drawing thousands of readers.
  • I spoke at numerous schools and conferences, including GDC, SAGA Writing Workshop, the GenCon Writers Symposium, DigiPen, RIT, and many more.
  • I did readings and appearances across North Carolina, from Wilson to Raleigh to Morganton to Arden, and even did a reading as part of the legendary Noir at the Bar series at Yonder in Hillsborough.
  • I continued to serve on the advisory board of the Game Narrative Summit, and to judge the Student Game Narrative Analysis Competition at GDC.
  • I was announced as the Toastmaster for Necon 2025.
  • I pitched an anthology concept that is moving forward with me as co-editor.
  • I wrote scripts for and voice directed the musician Post Malone as part of my work on the video game Hunt: Showdown 1896. I also did extensive other narrative work on the game before wrapping up my time at Crytek at the end of the year.

And there’s probably some other stuff that I am forgetting, but still, that’s a pretty full year.

Now, onward to 2025!

In Memoriam – James A. Moore

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Reposted from Facebook:

The thing you have to know about Jim Moore is this:
When I was still a little baby fiction writer churning out White Wolf tie-in novels, Jim advised me that I should seek broader horizons and that I needed to come to this gathering of horror writers called Necon. He explained what Necon was to me and who would be there, and I said it sounded really interesting but that I didn’t know if I could do it (because in those days I never let myself do anything). Jim nodded and then told me that if I didn’t go to Necon, he would rip my legs off and beat me to death with them on the spot. So I went to Necon. One of the best decisions I ever made.
Then again, it might be the time he encouraged me in 1997 to use the HWA directory to cold call Ray Bradbury’s house for reasons that are unimportant now. It was a terrible idea, but it reflected perfectly Jim’s belief that we were all here, the mighty and the meek, to help one another, and that to not attempt the impossible was to guarantee failure.
Or it could be all the times he would walk into my office at White Wolf when he was freelancing game writing for us. For a big man, he could move like a cat, and he would materialize behind me, put his hands on my shoulders and ask pleasantly, “Do you have any work for me?” I pretty much always answered yes – he was a valuable and trusted and imaginative writer, and he made such lovely toys for the sandbox we were playing in. But he never knew what I was doing behind the scenes. If Jim had one flaw, he was a classic over-writer. If I contracted him for 10K words, I would get 20K, and I wouldn’t be able to use them all (and if I didn’t use them, I couldn’t pay for them, so….). What I ended up doing was that every time I needed 10K words from Jim, I would contract him for 5K, knowing that he was going to give me 10K. I would then cheerfully take what he delivered, make sure he got paid for the whole thing, and we were both happy. He didn’t know that until 2 years ago, and when I told him, he laughed uproariously.
Or maybe it’s the love he had with his first wife, Bonnie, that made them a joy to be with. And that love, after Bonnie’s passing, was purified and transformed into the heartbreaking DINNER FOR ONE: A JOURNEY TO HEALING. To go from monsters and gore to something so delicate and warm was an act of consummate love and skill.
No, no, it’s the fact that in his first attempt at X-Files style sci-fi paranoia horror, FIREWORKS, he Tuckerized me as a rabbi, all because previously I’d managed to explode a Tupperware container of homemade matzah ball soup I was bringing to him all over the back seat of my car. The car smelled like soup for a solid year, and it was a constant source of laughter.
Who knows? It could have been the joy he found later in life with his old high school sweetheart, Tessa, who put a smile back on his face that was so good to see.
Perhaps it was the way he was always encouraging others to stretch their boundaries and bust out of their self-described envelopes. With me, he hounded me to try my hand at sword and sorcery because he was having so much fun doing it, and when I finally worked up the nerve, he snatched the story up with words of praise I had never been expecting.
Many people would think it was the way he was always excited to greet new friends and old with one of his bone-crushing Sasquatch-level hugs. He shared that love equally with everyone he met, a constant font of affection that raised the spirits of the already happy and brought comfort to those who needed it.
Other folks would say that it was his relentless efforts to elevate new writers. He always had someone for you to meet, and nine times out of ten it was someone you had professionally admired for years who just happened to be there. Jim’s introduction was the golden ticket into the secret world, and he shared it freely with any he thought would benefit. I remember telling him back in the day how much I loved the work of a particular author, and he remembered. Two years later, he grabbed me at a White Wolf party at DragonCon, hustled me across the floor, and introduced me to the object of my professional admiration. He had remembered, and he had gone so far above and beyond to do so that my head spun.
Or maybe…..maybe not.
I have a million Jim Moore stories, and they are all written in the language of love and laughter and respect.
And now, sorrow, because I will never get one of those back-cracking hugs again. Because he is gone.
All I can do is share those stories in the spirit of love, and to try to carry on what Jim taught me: about professionalism, about writing, about life, and about people.
May his memory be a blessing for all of us.

New Year, New Post, And A Recap

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Hello everyone! Welcome to 2024! I want to talk a little bit about what’s coming up, and also do a rundown of the year that was 2023,

Let’s start with the latter. 2023 was a busy year for me. I launched re-releases of my first two original novels, FIREFLY RAIN and VAPORWARE. I also had my second collection, A MEETING IN THE DEVIL’S HOUSE, published in July by the fine folks at Twisted Publishing. It got kind words from lots of readers – solid five star ranking at Amazon – as well as great reviews from places like HorrorDNA and PseudoPod. New short fiction included two stories at PseudoPod – “Swing Batter Batter” and “Billy’s Garage”. I also managed to get a story in the star-studded SWORDPLAY anthology, which was my first attempt at hard-core sword and sorcery. And I wrote two essays on films I may have seen too many times in this life, ZARDOZ and GREMLINS 2, for Ghost Show Press.

The Official Website of Richard Dansky — Meeting in the Devil's House

 

2023 was also a year of a great deal of conventioneering. Leaving aside the shows I attended for video game work (there were four), I also made it to, among others, AuthorCon II, my very first StokerCon, Necon, and GenCon. And in a late surprise, By Night Studios invited me to join their inaugural Vampire: The Masquerade LARP event in San Antonio, where many people were incredibly effusive with their appreciation for my work at White Wolf and what it had meant to them.

And lest we forget, I also got to give a reading in conjunction with the death metal band Eldritch Horror at Moon Dog Meadery in Durham. That was a thrilling event and I had a ton of fun – thanks to the folks at the Durham Public Library for putting it together! I also gave a reading in Rocky Mount in December, pulling up a story from SNOWBIRD GOTHIC to regale the audience with.

So, from that perspective, a pretty darn good year. And like I said, that’s without mentioning the video game side of things, which is pretty durn important to me – my excellent first year at Crytek after over two decades at Red Storm, multiple trips to Frankfurt wherein my luggage got sucked into a cosmic vortex, the pleasure of joining an exciting panel at LudoNarraCon, many GDC adventures, and of course the hometown fun of ECGC (and the mysterious post-ECGC thing We Do Not Speak Of).

But on to this year. There’s nothing officially in the pipeline for publication, though I have a novel, some short stories, and a card game design in submission to various spaces. Fingers are crossed. I also am looking to wrap up the edits on work in progress NIGHTMARE LOGIC, which has proven surprisingly resistant to finishing. There are at least three short stories I’m working on at the moment that I hope to turn around and submit soon, and I am looking at an exciting new project in a new medium that I can’t talk about quite yet.

And oh yes, I want to write the next novel.

Conventions will hopefully be a little less hectic, but I’ve said that before. Thus far I seem to be going to:

Ret-Con
ConCarolinas
AuthorCon III
Necon
GenCon
StokerCon
GDC

Still debating Carolina Fear Fest and a few others – we shall see how Teddy and Goblin feel about my frequent absences.

I hope to see you somewhere along the way in 2024, whether at a con or online. Here’s hoping you enjoy my work, and please, if you do read something of mine, do me the kindness of leaving a review. It really is a tremendous help in getting the work seen, which is what really matters to me.

 

 

 

Kind Words For Ghost Of A Marriage

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James A. Moore had some nice things to say about Ghost of a Marriage:

Richard Dansky’s voice is unique and compelling and his latest novel GHOST OF A MARRIAGE is a unique take on ghost stories and the tragedies that befall us, Funny, poignant, and terrifying in a truly phenomenal blend that stands head and shoulders above the average ghost story, Here is a ghost that will haunt you.–James A. Moore, author of the BLOOD RED series.

Now I’m blushing…

Miscellaneous Upcoming Goodness

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Just some quick reminders as to what’s coming down the pipe….

There’s still time to pitch a talk at East Coast Game Conference, which happens in Raleigh April 19-21. I curate the narrative track, so if you have any questions, ask me!

I’m running three (count ’em) narrative round tables at the upcoming Game Developers’ Conference. I’ll be running those remotely, but they still figure to be a blast. That’s the week of March 21-25. And don’t forget the Game Narrative Summit content which I advise for!

And finally, there’s still room in my Game Writing seminar at Scares That Care Authorcon. Four hours of intense interactive game writing instruction from a guy in a sasquatch-patterned Hawaiian shirt (that would be me). Hope to see you there!

Good News Everybody

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A couple of notes.

First of all, today marks the release of the ebook version of Ghost of a Marriage, available at fine purveyors of electronic books everywhere for the low, low price of $2.99.

Second, I am pleased to announce that my short story “The Taste of It Fresh” has been accepted for publication in the anthology Counting Bodies Like Sheep. This story is my first experiment with body horror, as opposed to my usual weirdness, and I’m very proud of it.

Oh, and just a reminder, I’ll be running virtual round tables on the subject of game narrative at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.

There’s more good news in the pipeline, but I’ll hold off on that until I have more details to share with you. Just a hint, though – if you’re interested in learning about writing for games, keep the weekend of April 1 open…