Titanshade $0.99 sale!

Great news! There's a flash sale on the Titanshade ebook over at Amazon, but only till 12/7.

At 99 cents, this is the lowest price it’s ever been. If you've been meaning to boost the amount of disco wizards, noir detectives, and monstrous(*) face mandibles in your life, NOW is the TIME!!

https://www.amazon.com/Titanshade-Dan.../dp/B07DT3HZFZ/

(*) or maybe they're sexy face mandibles. I'm not judging. You do you, my friend.

New Game -- What Sprouts in the Dark

I took part in Adventure Jam 2023 — hundreds of small teams worked for two weeks to produce the best possible adventure game they could.

I was in a team of two — myself and the artist ILikeThePixies — and we produced an illustrated text game about a cat on a spaceship facing down an invasive fungus. It’s called What Sprouts in the Dark, and it’s completely free to play in your browser.

Check it out here!

Mini-movie review: SANTA JAWS

For our Christmas Eve viewing, my lovely wife broke out a low-budget gem I'd never heard of... Santa Jaws.

We were expecting a casually slapped together, barely coherent CGI mush. Instead, it's a well-executed film that fully embraces the silly concept and is a fun watch from beginning to end.

The production values are surprisingly high, with sound, cinematography, and lighting all better than expected for a film with this kind of budget. The plot has holes but we were having too much fun to care about them.

Now, this film *definitely* benefited from us coming in with low expectations. I don't want to over-hype it or you'll be disappointed.

But it's one of those films where a talented director and crew made the most of what they had to work with. And that alone is kind of a Christmas Miracle, right?

Keanu Reeves and Lazlo Hollyfeld from Real Genius

It occurred to me the other day that the 21st century Keanu Reeves looks a hell of a lot like John Gries’s Lalzo Hollyfeld in Real Genius.

Now I think universes are merging, and I don’t understand why the internet isn’t talking about this.

These Books Made Me: Favorite Scooby-Doo Adventures

Man, I loved Scooby and the gang.

Still do, really.

Scooby-Doo was massively influential on most kids of the 70s and 80s, and I was no exception. The original series (Scooby-Doo, Where are You?) was filled with gorgeous backgrounds and fantastically creepy character design, making it a gateway to other tales of ghosts and ghouls.

I was hooked on Scooby as soon as I saw the show, and my mom fed my Scooby-mania the same way she always did: with books.

We had a few Scooby-related books, but the one that I read the most was Favorite Scooby-Doo Adventures. This oversized book was a collection of short stories, with a number of different writers and illustrators.

And that blew my tiny little mind.

All of the stories are fun, and they touched on some of my other early favorites, like prehistoric animals and the headless horseman.

But the thing that pushes it from being a beloved collection of stories to a book that shaped me as a person and a storyteller was that it was an anthology. The collection of styles was one of the first times I realized that multiple artists could interpret the same characters in multiple ways. (The other thing that opened my eyes to this were the Tolkien wall calendars.)

In addition, the range of art styles challenged me — I had a very distinct mental image of Mystery Incorporated, and seeing them represented in a different art style was a little confusing and, if I’m being honest, scary.

But that same disquiet is also what drew me back to the book, even as a very small kid. The original show had safe scares that drew me in, and Favorite Scooby-Doo Stories was scary in a meta way. It pushed my earliest concepts of narrative, and got me thinking about how different storytellers could approach the same material.

Plus, you know, it had ghosts.

Check it out -- Laurels!

I’ve just been cleared to announce that my short screenplay, "Grading on a Non-Euclidean Curve" is an official selection of the Lit Scares International Horror Festival.

Lit Scares is run by a group of comedians and horror aficionados in the U.K. They put on an annual festival filled with film screenings, stand-up comedy, music, and I’m happy to have my screenplay in their mix of awesome material.

I won’t be there for the festival in person, but I’m guessing it will consist of very serious people discussing my screenplay very seriously. Also, fart jokes.

Anyway, as promised: Laurels!

"Best Books set in a Modern Fantasy World" article at Shepherd

The good folks at Shepherd were kind enough to ask me to write an article talking about some of my favorite books. I decided to share five of the best fantasy novels set in a modern world.

You can find the article here: The best books set in a modern fantasy world

Shepherd is a new site built from the ground-up for book lovers. Their goal is to create a site that feels like you’re wandering around a bookstore, talking with other readers and booksellers. They’re sort of establishing themselves as an alternative to Goodreads, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they head next!

Story Behind the Story: Sin Titulo

This article was first written for Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. It was intended to run in the same issue as my short story, “Sin Titulo.” The article was ultimately was dropped, although the story ran. I recently saw it while cleaning out some file, and thought I’d share it here, in case it was of interest.

I first saw the words “Sin Titulo” in the 1990s, printed in italics at the top of an art gallery wall tag-- one of those small, white cards hung next to the art we’re theoretically there to see. A Spanish illiterate, I was left to imagine their meaning on my own.

Sin Titulo
Acrylic on Lead
1991

Wall tags tell us what the art is, though not what it means. And of course, “Sin Titulo” simply means “Untitled.” A relatable state, as I’m firmly of the belief that and sooner or later we all feel untitled.

For some of us it’s awkward adolescence. For others it’s early adulthood, when the unlimited potential of every choice overwhelms any single definite step we can take. We wrap ourselves in uniforms of clothing and attitude, labels or tattoos. At one point or another, everyone feels as if they’re seated at a table, trying to figure out the rules of a game that everyone else has already mastered.

Sin Titulo
Ink on Flesh
1998

Many of the names and images of this story are pulled from my own life. A high school friend had a younger brother named Egan. Another friend was named Kulwicki. And like the fictional Egan, I had a small cache of metal figures I’d dabbed with paint, tiny soldiers in a game for which I’d bought the rules, but too shy to invite anyone to play.

In time, the luckiest among us find friends and partners to join our games and share in our lives. We learn that we’re defined by how we treat the ones we love and, even more, by how we treat the ones we don’t. We may go through life wrapped in labels and uniforms, declaring who we want to be, but it doesn’t matter what we say;  it’s our relationships that show what life really means.

Sin Titulo
Words on Screen
2018

Books on the Art & Craft of Writing

I read a lot of books, especially books about writing and storytelling.

As a frequent library writer, I made it a habit to check out the writing section on every visit. I’d pick up the latest acquisitions and check out whatever looked most interesting. That way I always had at least one book on writing near my desk.

I’ve kept a list of all the books that helped me, along with notes, quotes, and excerpts. Since I get asked for it a lot, I figured I’d save a little time by dumping them all into one spot. Here are the titles, in no particular order. The ones in Bold are books that were particularly helpful to me when I read them. That doesn’t mean that they’ll be helpful to you, but I like to give credit to all the smart people who influence me.

Remember, most of these books say the same things — it’s just a matter of hearing them repeated until it clicks with you at that moment in your life.

Note: I’m gonna drop some affiliate links in here, so I’ll get some kickback if you buy them.

• The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

• Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maas

• Writing the Blockbuster Novel, by Albert Zuckerman

• Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland

• Characters & Viewpoint, by Orson Scott Card

• Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg

• Don't Sabotage Your Submission, by Chris Roerden

• Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, by Joseph Sugarman

• Danse Macabre, by Stephen King

• On Writing, by Stephen King

• Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamont,

• The Story Grid, by Shawn Coyne

• On Writing Horror, ed by Mort Castle

• Daily Meditations: Writer Tips for 100 Days, by David Farland

• Million Dollar Outlines, by David Farland

• Starve Better, by Nick Mamatas

• Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit, by Lucy Snyder

• How to Write a Damn Good Thriller, by James Frey

• Story, by Robert McKee

• Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury

• Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron

• You're not Fooling Anyone When you Take Your Laptop to the Coffee Shop, John Scalzi

• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, by Nancy Kress

• Dynamic Characters, by Nancy Kress

• Poetics, by Aristotle

• Conflict and Suspense, James Scott Bell

• The Writing Warrior, by Laraine Herring

• The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler

• Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit!, by Steven Pressfield

• Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder

• Hooked, by Les Edgerton

• From 2 to 10 K, by Rachel Aaron

• Write to Market, by Chris Fox

• Writing the Fiction Series by Karen S. Wiesner

• The Art of Time in Fiction, by Joan Silber

• Story Engineering, Larry Brooks

• Story Trumps Structure, by Steven James

• The First 50 Pages, by Jeff Gerke

• Wonderbook, by Jeff VanderMeer

• Steering the Craft, by Ursula K. LeGuin

• The Emotional Craft of Writing, by Donald Maas

• Story Genius, by Lisa Cron

• On Writing Romance, by Leigh Michaels

• Save the Cat Strikes Back! by Blake Snyder

• Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

• Comics Experience Guide to Writing Comics, by Andy Schmidt

• DIY MFA, by Gabriela Pereira

• Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel, by Hallie Ephron

• Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes

• The Emotion Thesaurus, by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman

• Making Comics, by Scott McCloud

• Making Comics, by Linda Barry

• Comics & Sequential Art, by Will Eisner

• Graphic Storytelling, by Will Eisner

• The Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell

• Slay the Dragon, by Robert Denton Bryant & Keith Gigilo

• Acting for Animators, by Ed Hooks

• The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox, ed by Tobias Heussner

• Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer, by J. Michael Staczynski

• Impro - Improvisation and the Theatre, by Keith Johnstone

Amazing New Bookplates Available!

I mean, just look at these things!

The artwork is by the amazing Carlos Trigo. As you can see, it hits on a few of my favorite themes.

I’m making these available at cost to anyone who wants one — so if you want to grab one of these beauties, hop over to my Ko-fi shop. They’re available with signature only or with a personalized message.

And yeah... it's the only thing at that shop, but someday I'll get more stuff in there!

(Again, thanks to Carlos and Bookplate Ink!)