Today sees two excellent interviews with me about 12 for ’12 and writing in general. In the first, über-writer Chuck Wending gave me one of the most challenging and intriguing sets of questions I’ve ever faced outside of a police station. The conversation ranged from 12 for ’12 to Carpathia to advice about both writing and parenting, and it turns out that facing such an interrogation is far more fun.

In the second, Jeremy LC Jones – who’s likely interviewed me more than anyone else I can remember – drills me for more details about 12 for ’12. He leads with “Um, Matt, what are you thinking?” which sounds exactly like the kind of question my father would ask me after one of my more destructive high-school escapades. It ramps right up from there. If you’re interested in 12 for ’12, it’s a must-read.

As part of my efforts to promote my 12 for ’12 project and its first Kickstarter drive (which is up to 191% and lurching toward unlocking Book 2!), I’m doing a bit of a blog tour. Today, I have guest posts that went up on two different websites, and in both cases, I wrote about writing fast.

Over at SFSignal, I wrote a piece called “The Speed of Write.” It’s about how you can write fast and still write well. That’s a concept many people have a hard time grokking, especially when they read about how one great writer or another spent years and years on one of their favorite books. They figure that if long development equals a good project, than the reverse must be true, meaning fast books are rotten.

Of course, that’s not true. Speed doesn’t have much to do with quality, especially when you’re talking about first drafts. Just check out how well the video game Duke Nukem Forever did despite having one of the longest development cycles ever.

To back this up, I wrote a post on Bill King’s site called “The Fastest Novel I Ever Wrote.” This finally puts into print a story I’ve told at many a convention over the years but never wrote down – until now – about how I once wrote a 91,000-word book in 15 days.

Besides being a fantastic and successful writer himself, Bill’s one of the best friends of my life, and he gave me a tremendously kind introduction over there. Sooo, just skip over that first part unless you enjoy knowing that forty-something fathers of five can still blush. But be sure to read the rest and let me know what you think.

A lot of wonderful people have been out there telling folks about my 12 for ’12 project and the first Kickstarter drive for it, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’d like to highlight a couple bits today.

First, Cindy Au – who works at Kickstarter – blogged about the project yesterday in her post, “So You Want to Write a Book?” In it she writes, “Part of why Kickstarter exists is because money cannot be the thing that stands in the way of creation. That is not a world we can afford to live in.” That’s an amazing sentiment and one that makes me even happier to be working through Kickstarter for this.

Second, Richard Bliss interviewed me for the third installment of his new podcast about gaming-related Kickstarter projects, Funding the Dream. I had a great time chatting with Richard, and I hope you will too if you listen in.

To cap all this off, the Kickstarter drive now stands at just shy of twice the initial goal of $3,000, and we still have over three weeks to go before the clock runs out. It got a great kick in the pants yesterday when my friend and fellow game designer Matt James pledged $1,000 and grabbed the first of the five available Alpha-level rewards. Huge thanks go out to Matt for showing such faith in the project. I can’t wait to work up his Alpha-level character with him.

As of this morning, the Kickstarter drive for the BNW trilogy of novels for my 12 for ’12 project stands at over 140% of our original goal! Thanks to each and every one of you who backed the project to make that happen. I can’t tell you how thrilled this makes me.

That also puts us at well over halfway toward unlocking the second book. For those of you who’ve put in a pledge for an omnibus edition–whether ebook, paperback, or hardcover–that’s great news, as it means you’re that much closer to getting more books added to your collection for free!

If you only pledged for a single book, thanks to you too! I truly appreciate every backer. Keep in mind, though, that as we unlock books, those higher pledge levels become far more attractive. (Hint, hint. 😉 )

I’m busy lining up all sorts of interviews and other publicity for the drive, and I’m talking to some artists about some excellent extras we can add on to sweeten the pot. I hope to have more to share about that soon.

Meanwhile, please do what you can to help get the word out. If you’re a journalist, podcaster, or blogger, email me at matt@forbeck.com, and let’s set up an interview or guest post. We’ve already got a tremendous amount of attention and momentum here, so let’s see how big we can make this snowball grow.

Wow, wow, wow.

Just a little while ago, the Kickstarter drive for the first trilogy the 12 for ’12 project–novels based on my Brave New World RPG–shattered its first goal of $3,000. That means I’m going to spend January writing the first book in the Brave New World trilogy! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about that, especially since we pulled it off in about 48 hours.

The pledge that put us over the top also claimed the first of the limited rewards at the higher levels, and I’m just grinning that I’m going to get to come up with a new Delta character with that particular gentleman. It’s that kind of working with readers and players that makes creating this material so much fun.

Of course, this is just the beginning. The next number we’re shooting for is $8,000, at which point the second novel gets unlocked. With all the support we’ve garnered so far, I have little doubt we’ll be able to reach that. I’d like to get there as fast as we can, though, so we can tackle the later goals with plenty of time to spare.

First, though, I want to thank each and every one of my backers who jumped on this rocket early. I literally couldn’t do any of this without them. For the rest of you, well, the higher we go, the more books we get, and that’s going to make for a wonderful ride. Join us!

I just launched the first Kickstarter drive for my 12 for ’12 project! This is for the trilogy of novels I plan to write set in the same world as my Brave New World Roleplaying Game.

Kickstarter is a fantastic crowdfunding service that helps creators (like me) take pre-orders for new projects from readers (like you!). The best part about it is that you can pledge as much as you like, but you only get charged if we hit the minimum goal. Even then, you only get charged once the drive ends.

In this case, I chose to end the drive on December 12 at noon. Sharp eyes might notice that this is 12/4 12:00. (Or “Twelve Four Twelve.”)

I have to thank everyone who’s given me so much advice about this project over the past few weeks. You really did me a world of good. Special thanks goes out to Jim Pinto for the 12 for ’12 logo and to Darren Orange for cutting the video together and doing such a great job with it. Speaking of the video:



I hope that whet your appetite. Be sure to head over to the Kickstarter page to check it out, and don’t be shy about spreading the word. I’m grateful for your support!