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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 19h

Comics and manga are in *huge* demand, but hardly ever get donated to the program at all.

Also, if any of my local friends have a stack of relevant material you were looking to offload anyway, you're welcome to drop it off with me, and I'll get it down to the program. (They're in Quincy.)

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 19h

Additionally, there are some general genres that are in very high demand, but just don't get donated very often. We're always low on sci fi and fantasy. We get many requests for horror, but rarely have more than a half dozen horror titles to pick from.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 19h

But we're drawing almost entirely on donated books, and have to do a lot of "how close is close enough?" decision making based on what we've got on hand. Sometimes someone needs something very specific, that isn't likely to come through random donations. Those books go on the wish list.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 19h

One of the great things about PBP is that they don't just send random selections of books. We receive individual letters from individual prisoners in which they request the things they would like to read, and we do our best to send each person a selection of books they will enjoy.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 19h

Proud to see my local bookstore, where I spent several happy years working, supporting The Prison Books Program, where I currently volunteer a few nights each month! Buying the program books directly from their wish list is *very* helpful.

Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston @portersqbooks.bsky.social · 21h

The right to read is extremely circumscribed in America's prisons & even just getting books into them can be difficult. So, in honor of #BannedBooksWeek all orders from our Prison Book Program wish list will trigger a matching donation. Order here: portersquarebooks.com/wishlist/bri...

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

While I don't have a needle phobia, I do appreciate a highly skilled phlebotomist. I used to have annual blood draws at Beth Israel Deaconess, and there was this one guy there who was magical in his ability to make it feel like nothing at all. I actively watch, and still felt nothing!

Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

They don't get that ideas are a dime a dozen, and almost any idea is as good as another, while the real creative work is in figuring out what to do with it.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

I think this is also the flipside to the fixation non-writers have on "ideas," and that most boring question in the world, "where do you get your ideas." They think the actual writing is just grunt work that happens after you've finished "creating" an idea. So why not automate the grunt work?

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely. They literally have a lobbying wing whose goal is to keep tax law too complicated for the average person to be able to easily do their own taxes without assistance.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

Fortunately, I don't teach until 4:00PM this semester, so I actually can get some daytime sleep. But I feel disoriented and constantly tired, and I'm losing most of my work-at-home time.

I might try just pulling an all-nighter tonight, and see if that resets things. But god, it sucks.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 1d

My sleep is so fucked right now. I haven't been able to get to sleep before 5/6 AM most nights, and get up at 7:15 to see J off to school before going back to bed. The one time I got to sleep by 2:00AM (which I'd be perfectly happy with on average), I also slept until 2:00PM, so that helped nothing.

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Reposted by Alexander Danner

Exercises in Sound @exercisesinsound.bsky.social · 4d

Two recent episodes played with narration again, this time flipping the planes of reality--rather than Characters A and B being in the physical plane while the narrators provide voiceover, it's the other way around. The narrators are having real interactions, while the characters are abstracted.

Post by @alexanderdanner

💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · Exercises in Sound: Reversing the Planes · The two most recent episodes of EiS have played with narration again, this time in flipping the planes of reality--rather than Characters…

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Reposted by Alexander Danner

Exercises in Sound @exercisesinsound.bsky.social · 8d

In two recent versions of Exercises in Sound, I focused on ways of using music to create different types of tension. The music in both of these is drawn from the original composition by Katherine Seaton that you already hear every episode! So, let me tell you a little more about the music itself:

Post by @alexanderdanner

💬 0 🔁 1 ❤️ 2 · Exercises in Sound: Music and Tension · In two recent versions of Exercises in Sound, I focused on ways of using music to create different types of tension. The music in both of th…

www.tumblr.com

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 15d

Ryan, I tell my students that story almost every semester. I told it literally just last week. 😂

Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · 15d

If you love your life you live without regrets. I still look at accidentally throwing a million dollars in a trash can during high school as one of the best things I've ever done.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 18d

Ordering an egg cream outside of NY is a fascinating experience. I ordered one at an ice cream shop in MA (that had it listed on their above-the-counter menu!), and it had been so many years since that happened, they had to pull down a dusty recipe binder to even figure out what it was.

Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 20d

Jesus fucking christ

Reposted by Alexander Danner

TAFCON — The Audio Fiction Convention @tafcon.bsky.social · 25d

We are ECSTATIC to have reached our initial kickstarter goal! TAFCON WILL BE HAPPENING NEXT YEAR!

Right now our kickstarter is the only place to get tickets. Virtual tickets unlock when we hit our $15k stretch goal!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/taf...

TAFCON: The Audio Fiction Convention

A one-day in-person con for creators and fans of audio fiction.

www.kickstarter.com

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 22d

I am laughing at a comment I wrote in one of my scripts, in which I was calling myself out for having written a sound cue that just says "Rhode Island."

But I apparently didn't consider just rewriting the sound cue?

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 24d

True, he does love his white space.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 24d

God, yeah, the joy of being bad at something you like doing is so real!

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 24d

Obviously, the inconvenience of carrying that beast around is a real part of it. But I don't think it's all of it.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 24d

Can...can I get a two-volume edition? Or maybe four?

I actually do think there's something interesting in how the same reader who will think nothing of reading a trilogy of 400 page novels that tell a single story will be aghast at a 1200-page novel, even though it's basically the same thing.

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Reposted by Alexander Danner

Tal | TAFCON @starplanes.bsky.social · 27d

It's always been... not exactly a goal of mine, but a "it would be cool if" sort of thing... to get Project We Love on Kickstarter. That happened today!

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 28d

I couldn't even remember who that character was without googling. For fuck's sake, Matt.

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Alexander Danner @alexanderdanner.bsky.social · 28d

Quite a few names here whom I'm ordinarily quite excited to see in a cast, and it's so disappointing.

VampirElla Watts @gejwatts.bsky.social · 28d

So let's talk about why this sucks. I am so angry and so disappointed, but I also know that a lot of people might not understand why I and my queer friends are feeling this way. Read on for an explanation 🧵(1/14)

Screenshot of a Variety article by Todd Spangler with a headline that reads "Audible's Harry Potter Series Expands cast with Keira Knightley, Kit Harington, James McAvoy, Simon Pegg and More"

Kit Harington as Professor Lockhart; Keira Knightley as Professor Umbridge; Iwan Rheon as Professor Lupin; Ruth Wilson as Bellatrix Lestrange; Ambika Mod as Nymphadora Tonks; Leo Woodall as Bill Weasley; Simon Pegg as Arthur Weasley; James McAvoy as Mad-Eye Moody; Gemma Whelan as Professor Sprout; and Matt Berry as Sir Cadogan.

Cush Jumbo OBE as the narrator, Hugh Laurie as Albus Dumbledore, Matthew Macfadyen as Lord Voldemort, Riz Ahmed as Professor Snape, Michelle Gomez as Professor McGonagall, Mark Addy as Hagrid, Alex Hassell as Lucius Malfoy, Daniel Mays as Dobby, and Sara and Avni Deshmukh as The Patil Twins.

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