Richard Dansky's Blog, page 58

NanoCon - The Arrival

I'm safe and sound in Madison, SD, the trip having been decidedly uneventful. There was nearly a close encounter between my rental car - a Nissan versa that really does have the feel of being powered by hamsters on a treadmill - and what could best be described as LUQR (Large Unidentified Quadruped Roadkill) heading north on I-29. whatever it was, the half of it that was left was big.

Other than that, not much to report yet. South Dakota, at least the tiny fraction I've seen of it, is indeed f...

I Am A Proud Supporter of the Pro-Cookie Agenda

And today, I am not ashamed to show my Cookie Pride.

Off to NanoCon

This weekend, I'll be in Madison, SD as a guest of the fine folks at NanoCon. Check out their spiffy new website here, and if you're in the area, swing on by.

Looting the Spoils

Rummaging through Melinda's spoils from World Fantasy, I noticed a familiar orange cover. Sitting there in the tote was a copy of Worlds of Their Own , the James Lowder-edited anthology of original fiction by folks best known for their licensed property work. My story "The Wisdom of Nightingales" is in there.
"Where'd you get this?" I asked.
"It was in the freebie bag," she answered.
I'd never been in the freebie bag before, even tangentially. This is a major career milestone.

(Also in Melinda's t...

Dear Online Billpay

If you will not allow me to pay my bills online, then I really don't care what other functions you offer. I also do not care that you have updated your website, as you have apparently updated it past the point where it allows me to pay bills.

You may wish to reconsider, and ponder focusing on your core competencies. Which, I believe, involve "allowing people to pay bills."

Interview with Christopher Golden

This one's part of Green Man Review's annual "Oak King" issue, and yes, it's longer than five questions. Check it out here - it touches on everything from the influence of childhood geography on writing to how Clive Barker influenced the origins of Ghosts of Albion to why you will never see a 1400 page doorstop with Christopher Golden's name on it.

Good stuff.

I Declare Halloween A Success

And it was one even before badger's living-statue-meets-Caligari bit sent a vaguely disguised teenager screaming into the night.

Sometimes, you're just not feeling it

In the kitchen, at least. Despite your best efforts and best-laid plans, sometimes stuff doesn't come out. It happens, and that's when you end up saying things to yourself like "Why isn't that melting?" and "That can't be right" and "There's pureed pumpkin all over my DS".
In such cases, one ends up with a kitchen full of dirty pots and disheveled dishes, with only the faintest hope that some small aspect of the recipe will emerge as salvageable. If one feels sanguine about it, one writes it ...

Back to Green Man

Now that The Big Feet is done - or at least done-ish - I can crank up the book reviewing for Green Man again. In the latest issue, I tackle Girl Genius (figuratively, not literally), as well as Hell Hollow , Metatropolis , Filthy Rich (from Vertigo Crime) and Gen 13: Netherwar . For whatever it's worth, at least two of my reviews this time around differ from the conventional wisdom, but then again, if the conventional wisdom were also universal truth, there'd be no need for anyone to take the ti...

Storytellers Time

I'd apologize for the pun in the title, but really, who'd believe me.

This piece was supposed to run last month, but didn't due to my uncertainty about the site switch and various logistical shenanigans. So it's not quite as timely, perhaps, as the other bit I was working on - the one wherein I conflate Dracula, seafood, and a submarine in the Andes - but hopefully it will amuse.

Check it out here.