Danni Petrilak
writer | editor | designer
About Me
Being from a small rural and woodsy town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I learned to take fantastical worlds and lively characters inspired by the forest to combat the gloom of present-day reality, although a majority of my work resides in dark fiction and fantasy.
The twists and various directions I'm able to take navigating the dark realities of PTSD, emotional trauma, and general cosmic horror bring characters and creatures to life, often through more than one medium. I enjoy exploring the macabre balance between the uncanny and psychological horrors in my fiction writing. I use poetry to slow down and paint snippets of time reflecting on deep emotional exposure from moments in my life and various "embellishments."
My favorite pieces include works completed in college that can be found in various publications, as well as my writing portfolio, linked here. It is my hope for my work to encapsulate and evoke emotions that can be experienced across the threshold of time.
I graduated from Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont May of 2022 with a degree in Creative Media. Creative Media is a mix of artistic disciplines working together to create multi-media works of art with different focuses. My specialization is creative writing & editing publication with complementary focuses in motion graphic design and game media to create transmedia storytelling. I have a GPA of 3.95 and graduated summa cum laude.
Education
Recognized Awards
William J. Everts. Jr. Wild and Outside Award
Awarded for exceptional writing by a student outside of the professional writing major by Tanya Lee Stone, Jim Ellefson, Sheila Liming, and Laura McCaffrey.
May 10th, 2022
Excel Award
Awarded to one student within each major in the Division of Communication and Creative Media
April 14th, 2022
"There is a way that nature speaks, the land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quite enough, to pay attention to the story.
- Linda Hogan
Software Proficiencies
Hobbies &
Extras
I enjoy playing video games with well-designed and branching stories like Red Dead Redemption, Elden Ring, and Assassins Creed. Recently, my go-to games have been Bloodborne, RDR2, and Hogwarts Legacy.
In the winter, I'm on the mountains with my skis. While I'm still teaching myself to ski backward, I've taught upwards of fifteen people in high school ski club and friends who have wanted to learn. I have a pair of twin-tip K2s!
I crochet and knit to pass the time and keep my hands busy. With experience from passion projects that started in high school, I've developed quite a proficiency around needles and hooks and have learned to follow complicated patterns.
I love getting scared. Year round, I watch horror movies but during spooky season I love the haunted hayrides and attractions -- Halloween is my favorite holiday, hands down! My writing reflects this enjoyment the most, as the majority of my published work has been featured in horror podcasts.
Services
I've worked with medical offices, colleges, independent clients, and a handful of businesses ranging from restaurants to entertainment services. I also am the sole editor of the podcast Coffee Bytes on Spotify.
Editing
Bringing work to its next level is my favorite part of the process
Video / Motion Editing
I love animating typography and editing videos together
Writing
I enjoy creating short stories, poetry, and novel-length manuscripts
Design
I enjoy creating logos and assets for a variety of purposes
Stephanie Kloss, via LinkedIn
"Danielle Petrilak was an indispensable member of our team. She can write and edit copy, design beautiful layouts and motion graphics, edit complex web pages, and create stand-out videos. She knows how to use all of the tools of the trade to create memorable and shareable content: Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Wordpress --- you name it! She learns quickly and picks up new skills almost overnight. Most importantly, she's a joy to work with. She's always ready to take on new assignments and is full of great ideas. She's a wonderful team player who can also manage large and complicated projects on her own."
A playstation was always in our house growing up, from the first console to the newest. My brother and I would race down the driveway after getting home from school to see who would get the first go at the game, and we were so involved in playing that my mom would set an hour long timer on the stovetop for us to switch back and forth with. When I went to college, I was very interested in how games were made. Through my studying, I realized that the same outlet I've expressed myself in writing was a huge component of how games were made. I wanted to write compelling stories like Red Dead Redemption (my favorite game as a kid, and still on my top three today) or branching stories like Until Dawn and Assassins Creed. Some of the best games that some of my friends from class have worked on are God of War and Spiderman, just to name a few. I eventually started gaming on a PC which I had my now-husband help me build in college, and that opened many doors of opportunities and ideas from indie games like Stardew Valley, Heartbound, Moonlighter, Spiritfarer, and so many more story-driven gut punches after completing each one. It was a drive for more, more information, more lore, more game, and that's something that I'm working on creating today.
