Richard Dansky's Blog, page 38

2010 Reading Update

I read. I read a lot. Part of this is due to the extensive amounts of time I spent in airports, on planes, in hotels, or otherwise away from the charms of my wife, my XBox, and my desperately needy yet fiercely independent cat. Part of it is that I'm currently reviewing books for two fine publications. And part of it is just that I read fast.

That being said, a couple of years back I decided to start tracking what and how much I actually read, just to see for myself where my brainspace was goi...

Sorbet Diary: Explosive

Back when I was living in Philadelphia, my family had a ritual. Every Sunday night, come hell or high water, we'd go to Mandarin Garden in Willow Grove for dinner. Mock the traditional Reform Jewish Sunday Night Chinese if you must, but it's a damn fine restaurant, and one of their signature dishes is something called "gunpowder chicken". The sauce is a sort of spicy peach...something...that's simultaneously hot and sweet, and worth driving a couple hundred miles out of my way for every time ...

New Reviews at GMR

Two this issue, one with Cthulhu and one without.

New Storytellers Unplugged Post is Live

Short, yes. Sweet, not so much. It's called "I Got Your Writer's Block Right Here". Here's a short highlight.

 More specifically, there is no such thing as “writer’s block”, if you are defining “writer’s block” – notice the clever use of quotes there – as some sort of externally imposed mental lump of concrete that – for no reason – stands between you, the author, and the precious, precious words that you need to continue writing. 

Denied Once Again

Looks like I won't be doing ComicCon after all. The panel I was proposed for is apparently a no-go. That makes two years in a row of near misses. Last year, I was crunching on a project.

Some day, ComicCon, you will be mine. Oh, yes. You will be.

New Review Is Up

Specifically, Wilum H. Pugmire's The Weird Inhabitants of Sesqua Valley , over at Fantasy. Read it if you like getting your Lovecraft on.

Sorbet Potion #9

Or, What Happens When Rich Notices There's A Lot Of Fruit In the Bowl That's Starting To Show It's Age And He's Heading Out Of Town Before He Can Possibly Eat It All.

Tonight's victims: an orange-lemon-peach combo, heavier on the citrus. Warned by the Pink Grapefruit Experience that citrus-based sorbets tend to be very slushy - they're mostly water, after all - I went nuts trying to get orange and lemon pulp in there, as well as as much peach as would maintain structural integrity after a brie...

Lessons learned from Pine Straw

Getting it shipped to you is probably not the right financial decision if you live in North Carolina.The company I ordered from did a lovely job of packing, shipping, and communicating, and the pinestraw they delivered in a monolith-like box was mercifully free of brown recluces, black widows, green clovers, purple horseshoes and blue diamonds.Shaking out a large clump of pinestraw really looks like you're doing something unpleasant to Cousin It from the Addams Family.When you go to find...

Bros Icing Bros

I have decided that if someone walks up to me with a warm Smirnoff Ice and demands that I produce one immediately or be forced to consume said lukewarm malt beverage, I will instead kick them someplace sensitive, possibly repeatedly.

This, I call "De-Icing".

I Talk A Lot

Occasionally, it's even because someone asked me to. Case in point: this interview on the Darker Days podcast, wherein mine generous hosts asked questions that led us from the Legend of Theodosia Burr to what it was really like at  the White Wolf offices over lunchtime to whether they could buy me a drink. (See? SOMEONE is reading those essays over at Storytellers Unplugged, thankyouverymuch.)

So if you're in the mood to hear me talk writing process, why the Drive-By Truckers were dead to me ...