With that in mind:

Who Is Richard E. Dansky?
I am currently employed, more or less gainfully, as the Manager of Design for Red Storm Entertainment in Morrisville, North Carolina. I also work as the Central Clancy Writer for UbiSoft, Red Storm's parent company, which means that in some way, shape or form I get my hands on the storylines and content of most Tom Clancy-themed computer games.

I began my professional writing career in the early 90s with two chapters of the book Haunts for White Wolf's Wraith: The Oblivion. After freelancing extensively for White Wolf, I accepted the position of Developer for both Wraith and Mind's Eye Theatre. While at White Wolf, I also did development work for Vampire: The Dark Ages, Kindred of the East, Werewolf: The Wild West and Vampire: The Masquerade. My development credits include, among others, Wraith: The Oblivion 2nd Edition, The Guide to the Camarilla, Laws of the Night, and the critically acclaimed Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah. I also continued to write for White Wolf during this time, and produced or wrote for books including Corax, Kithbook: Sluagh, The Dragon-Blooded, Ends of Empire and many others. All told, I contributed in some fashion to nearly 130 books for White Wolf, which led to many interesting conversations due to sleep deprivation and at least one incident wherein I accidentally set my office desk on fire.

Leaving White Wolf for Red Storm in 1999, I began work in the computer game field. I have designed or otherwise contributed to several titles, including Shadow Watch, Anne McCaffrey's Freedom: First Resistance, The Sum of All Fears, and the award-winning mission packs for Ghost Recon: Desert Siege and Island Thunder. More recently, I have contributed to IRainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, IFar Cry, and the revitalized Might and Magic franchise, among others, as a writer.

In addition to gaming material, I also write fiction. I've published four novels, including the Trilogy of the Second Age for White Wolf's Exalted RPG. My short fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Dark Tyrants and A Fistful O' Dead Guys, and also in Stillwaters Journal. Additionally, I have written for magazines including InQuest, Green Man Review, Yes! and Lovecraft Studies. (Yes!, incidentally, is subtitled A Magazine of Positive Futures, and is not in fact the fanzine for the band that sang "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Honest.) I also write under a pseudonym for an online humor magazine, but in the interest of preserving anonymity and saving my friends and family from further embarrassment, that pen name will not be disclosed here.

OK, So That's What He Does. But Who Is He?
Good question. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, long after the Dodgers left town. I've long harbored the suspicion that they'd heard I was coming, and decided to get while the getting was good. I grew up outside Philadelphia, where in high school I played the role later immortalized by Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club, namely that of the geek. I can honestly say I never took a flare gun into school to blow away a shop project, but if you ask me how many science fairs and science olympiads I competed in, the answer would be "a lot." (I did, however, have a stranglehold on the "Rock and Mineral Identification" competition in the PA State Science Olympiad for several years in the mid-1980s, and completely failed to take advantage of this fact to impress girls.)

I attended Wesleyan University for my undergraduate work, spending most of my time in a live-action roleplaying group but somehow managing to graduate with Honors and a B.A. in English. For the record, my senior thesis was in fact devoted to a structuralist analysis of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, which is probably something neither Mikhail Bakhtin nor Lovecraft deserved.

After that, I attended Boston College for two years, acquiring an M.A. with Distinction in English and thus rendering myself nearly unemployable. During this time I did, however, make my first publication, which was a rewrite of one of the chapters of my thesis for Lovecraft Studies. I also began freelancing for White Wolf during this time, and did foolish things like dabble in theater, run massive LARPs, and throw my back out sleeping on a broken futon.

I've had the usual succession of weird jobs all writers must present as their bona fides: lab guinea pig, research assistant, K-Mart sales clerk, beta tester, MIS director for an executive outplacement firm, and GMAT prep instructor, among others. All of that experience has taught me how to perform certain types of logic problems, how to transcribe audio tape of four year olds hitting each other with Legos, and how to fold mass-produced green sweatshirts with the Philadelphia Eagles logo on them. Needless to say, I'm much happier in the video game industry, though the jury remains out on how the video game industry itself feels about my continued presence.

These days, I live in Durham, North Carolina, where I share a house with the lovely and talented Melinda Thielbar. We serve as caretakers for the property's real owners, two cats. When not occupied with scribbling things like this and thus avoiding real writing, I like to cook, play games and otherwise make a nuisance of myself. I collect the works of Manly Wade Wellman, cut glass and the occasional bit of baseball memorabilia, and when time permits, I can be found in the cheap seats at one of the local minor league ballparks, cheering on the Durham Bulls or Carolina Mudcats.

Now, aren't you sorry you asked?