Hi
there. I'm Richard E. Dansky, horror writer, game designer and
writer, and general cad. By day I work for Ubisoft as the Central
Clancy Writer, helping to create games like Splinter Cell:
Conviction. By night, I write the spooky stuff. Welcome
to my website, which is intended to provide updates on my published
work, my current projects, and other events that may be of interest
(or morbid fascination) to the world at large. The theme of
the site is something I call "snowbird gothic," a mixture of
the classic Southern gothic with the sensibility of a relocated
Yankee. Below you'll find news, updates, interviews, and whatever
else catches my eye. Enjoy!
Upcoming
Appearances:
November 11 - 7 PM @ B&N, New Hope Commons, Durham NC
Current
News:
November 7, 2010: Post-Halloween Cleanup
First of all, kudos to Samuel
Montgomery-Blinn and the fine folks at Flyleaf Books for putting
on a great launch party for Bull Spec #3 yesterday. Improvisational
comic composition (with a guest appearance by James Taylor...sort
of), David Drake reading from his next novel, and a teaser reading
of Melinda's "You're Almost There", which sparked some interesting
discussion of how readers viewed the protagonist of the second person
POV story. Fun stuff, and if you missed the party this time, well,
there's issue 4's launch party in January. In the meantime, if you're
not reading Bull Spec, you should be.
In other news, the sorting through the Halloween pix is well underway.
Every year, I decorate the house in conjuction with friends Merrie
and Steve "Badger" Burnett and Luna Black, with the express goal
of being THAT house. You know - the one that kids across the street
say "I wanna trick or treat there!" about. The one that sends at
least a couple of kids screaming into the night...and then brings
them creeping back to see whether the growling thing in the box
is real. The one that gets kids to pause, mid-candy clutch, and
say, "This house is cool."
Yeah. I'm a Halloween nerd. I understand that. In any case, this
year was, I think, a success. Lots of screams, lots of giggles,
one six-foot Jack Skellington statue, a bunch of "Oh my God, it
moved! It moved!" and a relative dearth of older teenagers lurching
around costumeless searching for candy. Here's a few of the images
from the house, courtesy of Steve's camera.
October 27, 2010: Me, Talking About Stuff
Normally,
the 27th of each month is when I do my post at Storytellers Unplugged,
which, to be fair, I haven't, err, plugged lately. So here's this
month, a piece of short fiction in the Halloween tradition called
"When
Even The Vampires Don't Want You". And, if you're a glutton
for punishment, here are the essays for September,
August, and June.
July, unfortunately, fell victim to technical difficulties, though
the essay may yet be resurrected for a future month.
But, this month I also had a guest blog at Writer's Rainbow on setting
up boundaries for your writing space. You can check that one out
here. And I'm please to say the
new issue of Bull Spec magazine has hit stands, with book reviews
by yours truly and fiction from the ridiculously talented Melinda
Thielbar. Check out Bull Spec and order a print or PDF copy at the
magazine's
site, and if you're in the area, join us for the launch
party on November 6th at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill.
October 18, 2010: Some Days, You Get The Bull (Spec)
According to the estimable
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, issue #3 of Bull Spec magazine has emerged,
blinking, into the daylight, and will be available at finer stores
shortly. Or, you could be impatient and snaffle it up via PDF format
now, if you so chose. Why? Well, there's fiction in there from the
brilliantly talented Melinda Thielbar, an excerpt from the new novel
by David Drake, an essay from Joe Haldeman, book reviews by yours
truly, a story by Lavie Tidhar...oh,
go check it out for yourself already. And if you're in
the area, the launch party for issue #3 will be at
Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, one of the neatest bookstores
I've seen, on November 6th at 2 PM.
October 2, 2010: Deepinahearta
So next week is the Game
Narrative Summit (formerly the Game Writers' Summit,
formerly the Game Writers' Track at GDC Austin, formerly the Game
Writers Conference at Austin, formerly Leon Berzhinsky of Teaneck,
NJ...you get the idea), which is something I look forward to every
year. Lots of game writers and other game narrative pros in one
place? Folks from Harmonix, Bungie, and more talking about their
work? Hanging out with cool people at the Ginger Man afterwards?
What's not to love?
After that, I'm headed northweat to
Tarleton State University to give a lecture entitled
"Pixelated Words: Writing in the Age of Videogames". I'm looking
forward to it, both because it's a great opportunity and also because
the most famous dinosaur track in the world is about 45 minutes
from Stephenville, and my 7 year old nephew would never let me hear
the end of it if I got that close and didn't go see dino footprints.
Unfortunately, I'm not making World Fantasy this year, though my brilliant and talented spouse, Melinda Thielbar will be. Melinda also has a story in the upcoming issue of Bull Spec
(where I'm doing book reviews these days), which in theory makes us a seriously literary household. Or something.
September 22, 2010: Game Narrative Summit Writers' Workshop
Just to let folks know, I'm still taking submissions for the Game
Writers' Workshop at the Game Narrative Summit in Austin in October.
If you're attending the summit and want a piece of game writing -
dialog, character, story, you name it - workshopped, then send it
to me at agdcwritersworkshop@gmail.com. And, if you're thinking of
attending the Summit but haven't quite made up your mind, here's
a 15% discount on the price of the summit. See you there!
September 19, 2010: Stranded
Just got back in from tonight's
Drive-By
Truckers concert out on Cabarrus Street near the Lincoln
Theater, which was loud, exuberant, and thoroughly enjoyable. I
highly recommend their latest album, "The Big To-Do" if you like
crunching guitars, good storytelling in your lyrics, and southern-fried
rock. If you don't go for those, well, your mileage may vary, but
I say you're missing out.
In other news, Stranded Magazine
has finally escaped its cocoon and is available for order from Magcloud.
Stranded, in case you're wondering, was the brainchild of Andrew Losowsky,
who decided to put together a magazine of content created by travels
stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud this spring. I was one of those
so stranded, and Andrew asked me to put together a short fiction piece.
The result's in the magazine under the title "Losing Altitude", and
you can check it - and the rest of Stranded - out here.
September 6, 2010: Days (Labor, Prog, Birth and Otherwise)
First tthings first - here's wishing a very happy birthday to my brilliant,
talented and lovely wife Melinda. Melinda, incidentally, also does
the scribbling thing, and the second set of four educational manga
she wrote just hit shelves. Keep an eye out for the Manga Math Mysteries
if there's a fourth grader you know who likes math, kung fu, and fish.
OK, the fish only show up in one issue, but there's definitely math
and kung fu in all the others.
The bits of the weekend not devoted to cunningly planning Melinda's
birthday party (and acquiring the cheese necessary to pull of said
plans) were largely spent out at the annual Prog
Day festival in Carrboro, NC. One might think on a weekend
featuring DragonCon and Pax, among others, that hanging out on a
farm outside the Triangle, sitting in a field listening to bands
I'd never heard of while reading various bits of literature (a LOT
of readers at Prog Day, let me tell you) and eating some extremely
fine BBQ would be low on the list. Fortunately, you'd be wrong.
Friend Badger, aka Steve Burnett, had been pestering me to go for
years, and as this was the first Labor Day in ages when I was actually
in the country, it seemed like a good idea. Bands included Mars
Hollow (for the Kansas fan), Scale
the Summit (for the King's X fan), and
The Muffins (for the fan who feels that Van Der Graaf
Generator's 22 minute opus "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" was
way too accessible). I also found myself explaining southern fried
chicken to one of the members of Mahogany
Frog, who A)had never been anywhere near North Carolina
before and B)mined that largely unexplored territory between prog
and electronica. No luck finding some of the Marillion side project
CDs I was hoping to find in the merch tent, but I suspect I can
live without the second Wishing Tree disc for the next few days.
And largely, it was just a good time, with nice folks in a lovely
setting, listening to music I found myself enjoying. Lord willing
and the creek don't rise, I'll be back next year.
If you haven't checked out Bull
Spec #2, I recommend doing so, and not just because
there's an excerpt from Firefly Rain in there. There's some
great fiction, an interview with
John Kessel, and a marvelous cover by Vladimir Kizam.
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn's doing a great job of putting together
a regional speculative fiction magazine, one that I'm happy to support.
(Yes, I got my dad a subscription. He got his copy of #2 before
I did :-) )
Speaking of Sam, he pointed me at a reading last week by local SF
writer and general mensch Mark Van Name. And, if you're not aware,
Mark is donating his earnings from the hardback edition of his new
novel Children
No More to a charity called Falling
Whistles, a worthy cause if ever there were one. Check
it out, and maybe buy a book if you get the urge.
July 22, 2010: The State of Things Redux
Here's
the link to the episode of The State of Things centered
on Bull Spec and speculative fiction. John Kessel's in it, so you
have no excuse not to listen.
July 20, 2010: The State of Things
And by "the state of things",
I mean North
Carolina Public Radio's show by that name, which I'll
be appearing on at noon, July 21st, to discuss speculative fiction,
Bull
Spec magazine and other things with John Kessel,
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn and other folks.
This year's NECON report, more book reviews and suchlike will be
posted tomorrow. As for today, a shout-out of happy birthday to
mighty agent Robert Fleck.
July 11, 2010: Quick Hits
There's a look at Stefan Petrucha's
Blood Prophecy up over at Green
Man Review. Fans of all things vampiric and non-sparkly
might want to check that out.
Also, if you haven't seen Bull
Spec magazine yet, Issue 2 is a great place to
start. It's a speculative fiction magazine with a focus on authors
from the RTP area - and believe me, we've got plenty of 'em down here.
The second issue should be hitting stands soon or is available online
or through direct order, and it includes an excerpt from Firefly
Rain. And, if you're in the area, the
launch party for Issue #2 is August 4th, at the legendary
Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. If you're in the area, head over and
check it out. Publisher/Editor Samuel Montgomery-Blinn is doing something
very cool here, not to mention the fact that he's a mensch, and he
definitely throws a good launch party. Dark Faith continues to get some nice reviews. Here's
one from SFRevu,
another from Black
Gate, a third from Pustule
Oozings. Hey, it's his blog, not mine.
July 1, 2010: Reading Neepery
In the interest of sharing good books discovered - which is, I must confess, an abiding interest of mine - here's the top 10% of what I've read so far this year (rounding up, of course):
1-A Pleasure to Burn, by Ray Bradbury - The pleasure here is watching all of the elements of Farenheit 451 coalesce from their disparate sources, each magical on their own.
2-The Machine, by Joe Posnanski - A history of Sparky Lyle's first World Series-winning Reds team, generous of spirit and respectful of myth, by the guy who's probably America's best sportswriter.
3-Avilion, by Robert Holdstock - It's impossible to read it as anything other than a farewell, but what a farewell it is.
4-The Golden Spruce, by John Vaillant - Does what the best natural history books do, which is to weave culture and history and science all together into a compelling human story. I couldn't put it down.
5-Songs of a Dead Dreamer, by Thomas Ligotti - This has been a favorite for years, and a tremendous source of inspiration. The new, revised version is like reading it again for the first time.
6-A History of the Occult, by Gary Lachmann - A history of occult secret societies in the best sense of the word; how the metaphysics of these cabals infused the politics of their time, not with magic, but with sensibilities that were every bit as powerful and important.
It's been a good year for reading so far - it has to be when the new Ian MacDonald doesn't crack the list - and I'm looking forward to seeing what the second half brings.
June
28, 2010: More Green(man)nery
Two new book reviews are up
over at Green Man. One tackles the new Darrell Schweitzer-edited
Lovecraft anthology Cthulhu's
Reign, while the other tackles mystery novel
Scandal on Rincon Hill.
Take your pick...
June
22, 2010: Maybe Not For ComicCon This Year
Looks like the panel I was scheduled for at ComicCon is getting pulled. Oh, well. There's always next year.
The kind folks from the Darker
Days podcast - only one of whom was using a pink Barbie
microphone at the time - wre generous enough to do an interview
with me the other day. Topics of conversation ranged from what exactly
went on at the White Wolf offices at 3 AM back in the old days (Darkstalkers
3. Lots of Darkstalkers 3.) to what happens
when I pick up an EMF meter, to the legend of Theodosia Burr. Who
is Theodosia Burr, you ask? Well, listen
to the podcast and find out.
June
10, 2010: Wilmington And Other Things
One of the bad things about the business I'm in (that would be video games) is that I can't always talk about cool stuff I'm getting a chance
to work on ahead of time. Ditto sometimes for writing projects. So let me say that there's cool stuff I'm working on and good news I'm looking forward to sharing.
The signing in Wilmington went fantastically well. If you do get
a chance to head down there, I can't recommend Two
Sisters Bookery enough. Great shop, great location, great
folks, and customers who were all really happy to talk about how
much they loved the store. As a former bookstore clerk, I have to
say that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
So here's a couple of pictures of the outside of the shop in the historic Cotton Exchange. Why the outside? Because Melinda and I forgot to bring the camera in for the signing itself,
and when we came back later, I was too embarrassed to walk back in with it. The truth, it hurts sometimes.
*And a shout-out to the lovely folks at the C.W.Worth
House Bed & Breakfast, who took great care of us the
night before. All in all, a lovely trip.
June
4, 2010: Pictures from McIntyre's
Before I head off to Wilmington
for Saturday's signing (11 AM, Two Sisters' Bookery in the Cotton
Exchange, be there or be hexagonal, and look out for the volcanoes),
I thought I'd post a couple of pics from the signing a few weeks
back at McIntyre's. Yes, my shirt really was that red, and yes,
that really was a giant pair of eyeglasses behind the podium.
June
3, 2010: Feeling Jeopardized
So today I tried out for Jeopardy, and I
learned some important things. These include:
You should not phrase your response in the form of a rhetorical
question.
Channeling the old "Jeopardy" sketch from Saturday
Night Live and shouting "Shuck it, Trebek!" is a bad idea.
"Videogames
you worked on" is unlikely to be added as a category any time
soon.
You are not allowed to jam the buzzer against another
competitor in order to make it go off faster.
"Why are you asking
me this?", "Who cares?" and "Why don't you tell me?" are also
not acceptable answers.
In all seriousness, the tryout was a lot of fun.
I can't talk too much about it, for fear of Alex Trebek's mustachioed
Canadian ninja death squad forcibly reminding me that there are
some things I'm not supposed to talk about, but the general sequence
of events was pretty straightforward. Basically, the purpose of
this round of tryouts seemed to be to make sure all of us aspiring
Jeopardizers A)had in fact answered our own questionnaires for
the initial application round B)knew how to handle the buzzers
so we didn't inflict permanent damage on the sound guys and C)wouldn't
get up in front of a camera and go "Hurr hurr hurr I like cheese"
when asked to talk a little bit about ourselves. For the record,
I do in fact like cheese, but I didn't feel it was germane to
mention at the time. I did, however, mention that I write video
games, because, well, it's what I do, and leaving that out would
have seemed a little disingenuous.
What did surprise me was how
far folks had come for the tryouts. I think Nashville was the
distance record, but there were folks there from Athens, GA, Roanoake,
Charleston, various chunks of Tennessee, and so forth. It made
me feel a little guilty about having waiting til the last minute
to slip over to the audition, but then again, I once drove nine
hours in a single day to get to a Fish concert at the 9:30 Club,
so it all evens out somewhere.
So now I wait to see if I get the
call. If I do, great, it'll be fun, and I can challenge Wesleyan
University documents librarian extraordinaire and former fellow
boffer LARPer Erhard Konerding for the title of "best performance
on Jeopardy by someone who once whaled the living heck out of
close personal friends with cleverly disguised plumbing supplies
while wearing a tunic and running around upstate Connecticut."
And if not, it was fun just to see how it worked. And it wasn't
me who failed to answer once in the form of the question, so I
can sleep soundly tonight.
June
1, 2010: Butcher Knives & Body Counts Cover
Here it is, courtesy of the
talents of Deena
Warner (who, incidentally, also did this site. So she's
all kinds of awesome. But you probably knew that.)
May
31, 2010: Seven Questions You Should Always Ask A Writer
In other words, there's a
new Storytellers Unplugged essay up, on questions writers actually
like getting and answering. Here's a sample:
Click on through for the rest.
And just a quick reminder to folks in the Wilmington, NC area -
I'll be at Two Sisters Bookery on Saturday, the 5th for a signing.
See you there!
May
17, 2010: Zombie (Chipmunk) Interview
A while back, Tom
Jubert did an interview with me over what my gaming Desert
Island Discs would be. The interview's finally resurfaced over at
Tom's
new blog. Be warned. There are zombie chipmunk references.
May
16, 2010: Tidbits
Pictures from the McIntyre's
signing will be up as soon as I can weed out the ones where A)my
eyes are closed, B)my eyes are glowing red or C)I'm hiding behind
the book cover.
May
12, 2010: Sunday at McIntyre's
Sunday's reading and signing
at McIntyre's Fine Books in Fearrington Village, outside of Pittsboro
NC, went very well. Any time you're up against things like Mothers'
Day or UNC Graduation, it's potentially tough sledding for that
sort of thing, so I want to say thank you to A)the folks at McIntyre's
for having me there, and B)everyone who came out to hear me read,
tell (true - perhaps) ghost stories, discuss why I love going on
ghost tours, and generally muck about. And of course, the biggest
thank-you goes to my mother, Irene Dansky, who always encouraged
my writing, and was willing to spend her Mothers' Day listening
to her son read about a guy with a messed-up relationship with his
parents. Once again, I re-iterate: the book is not autobiographical.
Honest.
May
11, 2010: Getting Wily
The second story in my guest-edited
edition of Wily Writers is now live. Check out "Hailing Frequency"
from Matthue
Rothhere.
First of all, a big thanks
to the lovely folks at Park
Road Books, who were lovely hosts. Their store is fantastic,
and I highly recommend it to anyone hankering for something to read
in the Charlotte area. Indeed, everyone we ran into or shopped with
at the whole Park Road Shopping Center was absolutely wonderful
- and the cookies we picked up at the local bakery were several
types of awesome.
Here's a recording of an interview
I did with BBC Radio about Splinter
Cell: Conviction, which continues to wreak havoc on the
charts. Many thanks to Jackie Feist and James Swallow for providing
the copy of the interview. And be warned: we did it in a pub.
The issue of Wily
Writers I edited is now live, starting with the story
"Outsourced" by Shelly
Li. The issue's theme is "alienation" - big shock coming
from me, I know - and Angel
McCoy gets a massive thank-you for trusting me with the
rudder on this one.
And last but not least, I'm doing a signing this Sunday at 2 PM
at McIntyre's
Books in Pittsboro, NC, just outside the Triangle. I
know it's Mother's Day, but my mom will be there, so come by and
say hi to her. And then you can listen to me talk about my book
- if you feel like it.
May
1. 2010: Late Breaking News
Just found out that a story
on Stranded Magazine, put together by Andrew Losowsky with content
from volcano-stranded travelers like myself, is going to be the
subject of a piece on BBC World Service today at 3 Eastern. Word
is they will be reading part of my story "Losing Altitude". To a
Dr. Who-trained nerdboy anglophile like myself, this is of course
nirvana.
Closer to home, a big thanks to the lovely folks at Park Road Books.
The signing went great and the store is fantastic - the whole area
it's in is really neat, and we have the cookies to prove it. But
that's another story.
April
29. 2010: Notes From Abroad
This month's Storytellers
Unplugged essay is now up. It features mummies. Well,
a place where they keep mummies. Said place is down a dark alley,
however, so that's worth something, right?
Also, I'll be in Charlotte on Friday, April 30th for a book signing
at Park
Road Books, assuming we don't get any interesting volcanic
action along I-85 in the next 24 hours. See you there!
Why
There Were No Updates For Three Weeks
Also, laptop issues. But mainly
that.
A
Quick Personal Note
Just wanted to take a second
to say thanks to all the folks in Newcastle and London who took
care of me whilst I was in the UK. Ian Mayor and the rest of the
gang at Reflections are fantastic to work with. As for the London
crowd - Adam, Lorna, Rhianna, James, Alex, Simone and Andy, it was
wonderful seeing all of you again. Thanks again for taking care
of the weary, befuddled, and heretofore-innocent-of-Yorkshire-pudding
traveler in your midst. James W., hopefully things will work out
better logistically - and the Piccadilly Line won't fail us - next
time.
April
25, 2010: Signing of the Times
Folks in the Charlotte area,
I'll be at Charlotte's favorive bookstore,
Park
Road Books on Friday, April 30th (assuming no volcanoes
erupt between here and the Piedmont Triad first). The fun kicks
off at 7 PM.
Unfortunately, volcano-related travel delays meant that the signing
at Two Sisters Bookery will be rescheduled for a later date. I'll
have that posted as soon as possible. And, for folks in the Triangle,
I'll be doing a signing at the venerable McIntyre's, in Pittsboro,
on May 9th.
April
24, 2010: Rich Versus The Volcano
I'm back after an extended
stay in the UK, courtesy of my employer and Icelandic vulcanism.
Three weeks away from home (and from posting updates) was a week
or so more than I anticipated, and in the interim, things have been...busy.
For example:
Firefly Rain has made its triumphant appearance in
paperback. Find it at Amazon, B&N online, or at reputable booksellers
everywhere!
The Firefly Rain blog tour kicked off on Thursday,
April 22nd. The response has been great, with folks saying things
like "Firefly Rain grips you from the first few pages, and
has you in that grip until the very last word." (Drey's
Library); "entertaining and chock full of creepiness...perfect
for a dark and stormy night" (My
Life In Not So Many Words); "a delightfully faced-paced
thriller which will keep the reader engaged into the wee hours of
the morning" (Rundpinne)
and "Firefly Rain was the creepiest book I’ve read in a while,
and I mean that in a good way!" (I'm
Booking It), just for starters.
I've also got my contributor's copy of Family
Games: The 100 Best - great stuff, and I'm honored
to be included amongst the list of A-list game designers who make
up the author list.
The horror anthology Dark
Faith, co-edited by fellow BSoMC Maurice
Broaddus, is coming soon. There's a short interview with
me about my story, "The Mad Eyes of the Heron King", here.
All of which is a nice way of saying that April's been a heck of
a busy month, and a great one. And while there's no place to get
stranded for an extra week like London, I'm glad to be home.
April
3, 2010: No Fools, Just Fireflies
Just a quick reminder that
Tuesday is the official release date for the gorgeous paperback
edition of Firefly Rain. I'm working with my agent, the estimable
Robert Fleck, to put together a series of giveaways to celebrate
the book's release, so, if you're on Twitter, keep watching @robertlfleck
for the clues. Also, for swag.
Also, I'll be doing a signing at the Two
Sisters Bookery in beautiful Wilmington, NC on April
17th. If you're in the area, come on out - I promise to be well-behaved.
And just because I do like that cover so much, here's the book,
one more time:
March
27, 2010: Sad News and Storytellers
I have the sad duty of reporting
that earlier this week, my grandmother, Esther Cherdack, passed
away at the age of 91. Despite the best efforts of first responders,
who were efficient, courteous, and extremely solicitous of my parents'
well-being, she could not be resuscitated. She was very much loved,
and will be missed by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren
and friends.
This month's Storytellers
Unplugged essay is inspired by and dedicated to her.
March
23, 2010: Wily Writers, Less Wily Editor
Folks may recall that a while
back, Wily
Writers published my story "Small
Cold Things". (If you haven't read it, shame on you.
Stop reading this and go check it out. Unless you like cats. In
that case, you might want to hold off for a bit.)
In any case, head Wily Person Angel McCoy has graciously allowed
me to guest edit the April issue of Wily Writers. The first story
goes up in a couple of days. I won't spoil the surprise of the theme
or the stories just as yet, except to say they may not quite be
what you'd expect me to pick.
March
22, 2010: Let Me Tell You A Story
I spent the weekend indulging
in the 20th edition of my fantasy baseball league draft - yes, I'm
that old - and more importantly, seeing old friends. It's just as
well that I'm in it to see my buddies, to be honest - in the 19
seasons we've run so far, I've won precisely once (but come in third
a staggering 8 times). So really, it's all about reconnecting with
my buddies, having a few laughs, and pretending that I know what
the hell I'm doing when I bid $7 for Jaime
Garcia.
In other news, they've started posting tidbits about the Conviction
story over at the official Facebook page for Splinter Cell: Conviction.
Here's the first one, which includes
sordid details about where the game's story came from, what happened
when I ran across an Expos fan at Ubisoft, and all sorts of other
goodies. Enjoy!
March
18, 2010: Demo-Lition Man
For those of you rocking an
XBox 360, the demo
for Splinter
Cell: Conviction is now live. And by "live",
I mean "you can download it and play it and stop wasting time reading
my website instead." What are you waiting for? Sam needs you.
March
17, 2010: FG100 Table of Contents Released
Yes, it can finally be revealed:
Which games are covered in Family
Games: The 100 Best, and who wrote about them.
You can find the entire listing here.
For my part, I had the privilege of tackling what is irreducibly
my favorite game of all time, a game that I have played at bachelor
parties and in 39th floor bars, a game that has won me love, respect,
and at least one nickname that I will almost certainly never be
able to shake as long as I attend gamedev conferences: Family
Business. As for the book, it is an unalloyed pleasure
to be writing in the company of folks such as Eric Goldberg, Monte
Cook, Mike Selinker and many more. Kudos go out to BattleEditor
3000 James Lowder for assembling a book that promises to be every
bit as good, as engrossing, and as thought-provoking as its illustrious
and award-winning predecessor.
March
15, 2010: GDC Ya Later
Back from GDC, and I want
to say thank you to the fine folks at Green
Ronin Publishing and Professional Media Services for
their generous support of the
IGDA Writing SIG's Write Club competition. I also want
to say that I need a nap, that the most valuable tool a round table
moderator can have is an egg timer, and that good whisky makes Family
Business with friends and respected professional peers
even better than it already is.
March
8, 2010: Back From The Frozen North
Got in yesterday from a whirlwind
tour of Malmo, Sweden (with a side of Copenhagen), visiting the
Ubisoft studio up there. The folks at Massive are wonderful hosts
and extremely sharp gamedevs, plus they taught me the Swedish term
for "fruity drink that should probably have an umbrella in it."
Here's a couple of the more amusing images from the trip, including
a long exposure of the frozen canal near the hotel my coworker and
I stayed at. Yes, they do underlight the bridge bright red. No,
it doesn't look quite like that in real life.
February
28, 2010
So did I mention the new cover
for the paperback edition of Firefly Rain?
This year's GDC
schedule is a little fuller than usual. In addition to the Game
Writers' Round Table I run (3 sessions, no waiting), I'm also doing
a 25 minute lecture-ette on script doctoring for video games. And,
I am pleased to announce that Write Club will be making its triumphant
reappearance. Keep watching this space for the date and time on
that one.
Game Writers' Round Table - Thursday, March 11, 1:30-2:30.
More info here.
Game Writers' Round Table - Friday, March 12, 3:00 -
4:00. More info
here.
Game Writers' Round Table - Saturday, March 13, 10:30
- 11:30. More info here.
Script Doctoring For Video Games - Saturday, March 13,
2:05 - 2:30. More info here.
Write Club - TBD.
February
26, 2010: Escapist Spy Chatter
There's a piece up over at
The Escapist on spy-themed video games, and I put in my several
cents on Sam Fisher. Check it out here.
February
20, 2010
The new story trailer for
Splinter Cell: Conviction just dropped. Behold
Sam Fisher in all his glory.
