Other Sides of Me

Liz the Writer…

Yes, I write. Aside from my blogging efforts here, I am the regular columnist and blogger for Library Journal on games, gamers, and gaming.

But I also write fiction and have a few small published credits to date. Like many writers, I’m working on many projects: standalone novels, short stories, flash fiction, and even a graphic novel.

In my stranger moments, I write the occasional WoW fanfic… well, just because: because it’s fun to read when I’m done, I enjoy writing it, and it got me out of the mental hole regarding writing at all that I was trapped in for many years.

I am making a few stories available on this website: Tall Tales and Swapping Lies, the Fiction of Liz Danforth.

Liz the Editor…

Editors have a truly thankless job. If you do it well, the writer gets the credit. If you do it poorly, you take the blame. I’ve been lucky to work with some excellent editors, and I’ve had the rare pleasure of being openly thanked for my work editing one project that, as I recall, had to be cut by a solid 10% of its length. The author said what I accomplished was so seamless, he couldn’t tell what had changed. He only knew it was too long for publication beforehand, and yet fit the page-count afterward.

I have done what comes under the vague umbrella term of “project development” or being a “game developer.” The terms means what the person uttering it means for it to mean (referring to a quote from Humpty Dumpty, not the Red Queen as is commonly believed).

For example, “game developer” is the term I would use today for what Ken and I called “Editor” of the original Fifth Edition of Tunnels & Trolls: some writing, layout, organization and re-organization, illustration, expansion… all the while working with material initially created by someone else. Such work might include art direction assigned elsewhere, maybe concept development, or might be as simple as line edits for grammar and consistency.

Being the “Editor” of one of Flying Buffalo’s Citybook projects, for example, would be the whole thing from soup to nuts: initial concept, gathering artists and writers, putting the book together, and everything right up to slapping it on the printing press.

Liz the Researcher…

As part of my master’s degree, I pursued research on 21st Century skills acquired in World of Warcraft that translate to real life. The survey was done in Spring 2009 and generated over 1600 responses from around the world. People’s stories awed and inspired me, amazed and saddened me. I have given presentations about the research but no longer expect to see it published, as it was too little and too late. Much more accomplished researchers have been doing incredibly interesting work — I recommend you look into the work of Nick Yee and of Constance Steinkuhler in particular.

Liz the geek

I’m a gamer geek, sure. What makes a person a geek and when did “geek” become the new chic? The topic of a recent conversation was about Shakespeare and Lovecraft; is that geeky? I have a gorgeous piece of art hanging on my wall that is a 16# solid steel replica of Frostmourne; is that geeky? One of my favorite t-shirts says “Then Buffy staked Edward. The End.” Is that geeky? You decide.