Cross Those Contest Streams!

Throughout the month of February, I’m taking part in a huge multi-author contest set to give away dozens of free books. It’s the brainchild of my friend Ari Marmell, and it’s called Crossing the Streams.

Each participating author (like me), is going to run a contest and give away a couple of books. For myself, I’m putting up autographed ARCs (advance reader copies) of my upcoming novel Carpathia, which hits stores on February 28.

In the end, though, one contestant will take home a book from every author involved in the contest. If you’d like to join in all the fun, check out my Crossing the Streams contest page and get going!

New Reviews for Carpathia

Carpathia – my upcoming historical horror novel that mashes up vampires and the Titanic – picked up a hat trick of glowing reviews over the past week. The book won’t be out until the end of February, but these reviewers got their hands on advance reader copies, and I’m happy they did.

First, Nibbles at Fantasy Nibbles gives the book four out of five stars. Her harshest complaint is “It wasn’t long enough,” but she goes far beyond that, saying:

It’s no end of fun. Pure crucifix-wielding, stake-plunging goodness. With icebergs. Brilliant!

Second, Shadowhawk at Founding Fields raves over the book. As he says:

Verdict: Matt Forbeck is bloody brilliant.

Third, over at Famous Monsters of Filmland, Wesley Chu loves the book too.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. But by the next morning, after barely sleeping a wink, I can honestly say I am now a fan of both historical fiction and horror, as long as Matt Forbeck is the author.

Thanks to each of them for taking the time to read the book and for not being shy with their praise. That kind of support makes me grin.

Parlez-Vous Amortels?

Last week, on January 19, my novel Amortals was published in French by L’Atalante Éditions as Amortels. It features a snazzy new cover by David Demaret and was translated by Denis E. Savine. Many thanks to both of them, and I hope Denis’s text is as excellent as David’s illustration – which I trust it is, but I can’t read a lick of French.

L’Atalante is a fantastic publisher that puts Amortals in excellent company, alongside works created by a staggering list of excellent authors, including Terry Pratchett, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook, Walter Jon Williams, Lev Grossman, and John Scalzi. I’m thrilled to see Amortels reach out to a whole new audience, and I’m looking forward to seeing how my French friends and readers take to it.

12 for ’12 Starts Today

I finally managed to clear the decks of a few lingering projects left over from 2011, and I’m plunging into the first of the 12 for ’12 novels today. Sharp folks like you might realize that this only gives me 16 days to write 50,000 words, and you’re absolutely right.

Nothing like starting off the year with an extra challenge.

As of the moment, I’ve already written 25,000 words and a comic script this month. Given that I have an outline, characters, and a world all ready to go for this first book, I’m confident I can get it done by the end of the month. That doesn’t mean it won’t be a stretch, but it’s doable.

If you cast your eyes over to the right-hand columns on my website, you’ll see I’ve installed a couple progress bars. The first tallies the number of words written for the current book – currently titled Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revolution – and the second counts up the number of 12 for ’12 books completed so far. You might notice they look a little empty at the moment, but that’s fine. We’re in early days, and it’s my job to fill them up.

Wish me luck.

12 for ’12 Starts – Really Soon!

I’d hoped to launch straight into the Brave New World novels trilogy that makes up the first quarter of my 12 for ’12 project straight away on January 1. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out quite that smoothly. Due to family illnesses and computer troubles, I lost a couple weeks worth of work time toward the end of the year, and I still have an obligation or two I have to fulfill before I can put my nose to that so-shiny grindstone.

The current plan is to wrap everything up by the end of the week. This should give me a full three weeks to finish the first book in the BNW trilogy. That sounds like a push, I know, but it’s about what I had planned, so I’m not too worried about it – yet.

I’m cooking along on my current project (worldbuilding for a yet-to-be announced thing) and just punched out a cool 5,000 words for it today. Meanwhile, I’m diving into the old Brave New World Roleplaying Game books to refresh my memory about all the things I wrote for it a decade or more ago. I’m happy to say there’s a lot of great material there, and it all jibes well with my plans so far.

So, wish me luck on this busy week so I can make the most of a busy month. Thanks!

12 for ’12 Update

It’s been a bit quiet here since the first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter wound up in such a spectacular way. Thanks again to all my backers for putting their faith (and their pledges!) behind the project. I’m thrilled straight through with how well it went.

As you might imagine, I’ve been hard at work for the past couple weeks since. During the Kickstarter drive, I had to push for attention all the time to get the word about it out and to remind people that the clock was ticking. Now that it’s over, it’s time for the real work to start.

As of now, I’ve gotten many of the initial rewards out to the backers. This includes the MP3s of “Revolution” from Makeshift Prodigy, the private link to the PDF of the Brave New World Roleplaying Game core rules for only $5, and the ebook version of the first published Shotguns & Sorcery story, “Goblintown Justice.”

This leaves the full-color map of Crescent City that Aaron Acevedo created for me. He’s completed his excellent work on it, but I’m holding back on delivering it for a while yet, likely until I get a bit more of the books written. I want to make sure it features useful tags for locations from the books, and it’s hard to ensure that without having text in hand, so that’ll be a little while yet.

Then, of course, there’s the biggest part of the project: the actual novels! I’m working hard to clear the decks as much as I can to give myself as much time as possible to get the books written on schedule. As per the plan, I won’t start actual writing until January 1 at the earliest, but I hope to have a detailed outline in place before that fateful date.

Shortly after I start that, of course, I need to start thinking about the second Kickstarter drive. For now, though, it’s nose to the keyboard while I line up all the words (and plans for more words) in the most entertaining order I can manage. Wish me luck!

Review Roundup

A few reviews of my work – both past and future – have come in from different quarters over the past week. Here’s a quick roundup.

Over at BlogCritics, Greg Barbrick raves over Book of Extreme Facts. He bought it as a Christmas gift for his son but couldn’t resist reading it himself. I had a wonderful time doing the research for this book and co-writing it with IDW founder Kris Oprisko, and I think it shows throughout.

Guys Lit Wire enjoyed Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon. As the review states up front, “Books based on computer games? It’s the best of both worlds!”

On her blog, Gill Polack gives Carpathia its first non-blurb review I’m aware of. She calls it out for being a bit pulpy in spots – a charge to which I’ll gladly cop – but she winds up loving it despite that. As she says:

Forbeck’s capacity to build tension is wonderful. Where most writers would add one, two or even three lines of worry, he adds a fourth and a fifth and they’re all well-founded and reasoned out. We know that things are going to go wrong (the Titanic, after all, did sink) but in Carpathia it goes wrong in all kinds of new ways. In a typically Forbeckian fashion, characters are not wasted and the story is fast and evil right until the end.

It’s a tribute to Stoker, and a good one.

To top all that off – and to get away from my work – fellow Angry Roboteer Lauren Beukes assembled a wonderful collection of recommended Christmas gift books from many of her worldly and famous writer friends, among which I’m happy to count myself. Check out both Part One and Part Two for the full list. (I chipped in a graphic novel recommendation in Part Two.) It’s a fantastic roundup, and I wish I not only had every one of the recommended books in hand but the time to read them all.

PLUS: Forgot to mention Paul Barrett’s kind review of Vegas Knights on his blog too. “A good book that will keep you engaged and is well worth your time.”

Magic Pushed Back

As ICv2.com reports today, the Magic: The Gathering comic I’m writing for IDW has been pushed back about five weeks. Rather than having the first issue ship on December 28, it’s now slated to be in stores on February 1. The given reason is “unforeseen printing challenges.”

Creatively, I’ve had a great time working on the series. I’ve seen proofs for the completed first issue, and the artist (Martin Cóccolo) and colorist (J. Edwin Steven) have created something beautiful and fun and even better than I imagined it all in my head. While I hate to see it delayed, it clearly falls under the banner of “getting it done right,” so I can’t complain, and once you see the end results, I don’t think anyone else will either.

We Did It!

Hey, hey! We did it! At sometime after 1 AM Central, T.S. Luikart pushed the first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter drive over the $12,000 mark, unlocking all of the rewards, including the “Goblintown Justice” short story and Book 3.

While T.S. may have broken the tape, it took the pledges of each and every one of our backers to get us to that point, and everyone of them has my deepest gratitude for the faith that they’ve shown in me. I cannot wait for January 1 to roll around so I can get started writing these books!

Just because we’ve hit that last stretch goal, though, doesn’t mean the drive’s over yet. It closes out at noon Central Time, today (December 4). If anyone wants to boost a pledge to grab an omnibus edition, you have until then. The same goes for anyone who’s been putting off a pledge until the last second. It’s fast approaching, but there’s still time. Use it as you wish.

I’ll post more tomorrow after the drive is over and I’ve had a few hours sleep, but just know that I’ll be smiling through all forty winks. I owe that all to you. Thanks!

Last Day!

As I write this, we have just 19 hours to go until the end of this first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter drive, and we have just over $800 to go to break the $12k mark and unlock Book 3. Woo-hoo!

Thanks to each and every one of your for your support, both with your pledges and with spreading the word. We couldn’t have done any of this without you. If you can give it one more push tonight and maybe tomorrow morning, I’d appreciate it. With any luck, that’ll knock us right over the top!

We had a couple more news bits about the project go up since last night. Over at ComicMix.com, Glenn Hauman wrote about 12 for ’12 and encouraged readers to come by, and Don Corcoran – who’s been so inspired by all this that he’s alsogoing to try to write a novel a month – interviewed me about my writing process. Point your friend and neighbors in those directions if they need just a bit more convincing.

Me, I’m going to spend most of the next 19 hours sitting near a screen and hitting the refresh button on my browser as I watch how it all plays out. It’s mesmerizing.

I’ll let you know what happens.