BNW Back in POD

This is old news, I think, but I forgot to mention it when it happened. My friends at DriveThruRPG.com recently started a print-on-demand (POD) program for certain books they’ve been selling as PDFs. They’ve had the whole of my Brave New World Roleplaying Game line up as PDFs for a good while now (except the screen, which is hard to get use out of as an electronic file), and it’s really the only place you can get new copies of the books in any form.

Earlier this year, they also chose to make the Brave New World core rulebook available in a POD version. While they don’t offer the color pages of the original edition (they’re included, of course, but in black and white), you can get the book in either a softcover or hardcover version. Plus, if you order a hardcopy, you can add on the PDF for only $2 more.

It’s been a long time since I worked on this game, but it’s still great to see it literally back in print. If you’ve ever been interested in it, be sure to check it out.

Gen Con Registration Opens May 1

Registration for Gen Con opens this Sunday, May 1, at noon Eastern time. I’ll be a guest of honor there again, helping out with a raft of Industry Insider panels, which have yet to be scheduled. However, I’ve also signed on with the Writers’ Symposium, which has a full slate of events already set up.

I’m scheduled for four Writers’ Symposium panels. They are:

August 4

2:00 pm: Roleplaying Games Make Better Writers

3:00 pm: Writing RPG Short Stories and Novels

August 5

3:00 pm: Swords and Sorcery

4:00 pm: Pick Our Brains: Matt Forbeck, Tobias Buckell, Wes Nicholson

If you’ll be at the show, come on out and join us! Hope to see you there.

Secrets, Like Dragons

My fellow Alliterate and friend Steven Schend is launching a new publishing effort called Vistag Media. To help get the company’s feet under it, he’s posted a new Kickstarter project for Vistag’s first book: Secrets, Like Dragons… It’s an anthology of five novellas written by great lineup of authors – Steven, Ed Greenwood, Jaleigh Johnson, Rosemary Jones, and J.M. Martin – and set in the new fantasy world of Kharndam.

I kicked in as a supporter myself. If you’re into excellent fantasy writing and would like to help support Steven’s efforts at launching a new publishing house, check it out and consider chipping in too. Thanks!

Milwaukee Appearance this Saturday

My friend Brad Beaulieu is hosting a book launch event in Milwaukee this weekend for his first novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, which is garnering glowing reviews, and he asked Kelly Swails, Bill Shunn, John Helfers, and me to join in the fun. It starts off with a signing and a reading at the Boswell Book Company (map) from 2—3 PM this Saturday, April 23. It continues afterward with an informal party from 3—5 PM at Cafe Hollander (map).

For my short reading, I’m struggling to find a passage in one of my latest novels that’s entirely PG, as I’m told we’ll have kids in the audience. Both Amortals and Vegas Knights skew towards PG-13 at best, so I may have to resort to a bit from Star Wars vs. Star Trek in the end. Either way, both parts of the event are open to the public, so if you’re anywhere in the area, come on out and join us!

My Next Original Novel: Carpathia

This morning Angry Robot announced my next original novel: Carpathia. They astutely describe it as Titanic meets 30 Days of Night.

Those familiar with lore about the Titanic know that the ship that hauled the survivors of that horrible disaster out of the icy waters of the North Atlantic was the Carpathia, another cruise ship crossing the Atlantic in the opposite direction. Vampire fanatics should also recognize that the Carpathia is named after the Carpathian Mountains, which border the edges of Transylvania, home of the most famous vampire of all, Count Dracula.

Seems like a natural fit for a historical horror novel, doesn’t it?

As the press release states, Carpathia should be out in March 2012, just in time to be on shelves, e-readers, and MP3 players (yes, there’ll be an audiobook version too!) as the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic arrives. It’s going to be a wild, exciting ride, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

Conduit 2 Out Today

Today marks the release of the latest video game I worked on: Conduit 2 for the Wii. I could say “my” computer game, but it’s not the same as it is with books or even tabletop games. Teams of scores or even hundreds of professionals work on major video games at once, which means they’re never the property of a single person. They’re a true team effort.

In this case, that’s especially true. I came in and wrote the story for Conduit 2 back before The Conduit had even shipped. The folks at High Voltage Software knew they had something good on their hands with the original, and they wanted to be prepared in case they had the opportunity to tackle a sequel. They have a fantastic staff down there in Hoffman Estates, just outside of Chicago, and they’re always a true pleasure to work with.

When it game time to actually write the script for the game, the High Voltage team turned to my pal Jason L. Blair for those duties. I’m eager to finally play the finished game myself and see what Jason did to transform the story I wrote into a full-fledged game. I’m sure it’s going to rock.

Writing and Taxes

To make a living at anything – even, maybe especially, writing – you need to treat it like what it is: a business. As soon as you start relying on the money coming in from that activity, it leaps out of the realm of being a hobby and transforms into something you ought to take seriously, especially if you think not living out of your car or sleeping on your parents’ couch is a good thing. Part of that means thinking about how to structure your business and what that means for you come Tax Day every year.

(If I haven’t lost you already, then hold onto your hats. This is where it starts to get technical.)

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Hot & Steamy Coming this Summer

After taking part in the Writers Symposium at Gen Con last year, organizer Jean Rabe asked me to contribute a story to one of her upcoming anthologies: Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance. She co-edited it with Martin H. Greenberg, an icon in genre anthologies, and I’m pleased to say she bought a story from me for it.

This was a bit of a challenge for me, as I’d never tried my hand at writing a romance before. That may show in the amount of action I packed into this particular love story, but there’s plenty of unbridled attraction running through it to pique anyone’s interest. It’s set in Georgia at the height of the Civil War, and despite all the work I did on Deadlands, I managed to resist putting zombies into it. More’s the shame for some of you, I’m sure, but it’s meant as a romantic tale, not a horror story, of course.

The book should hit shelves around June 7. I can’t wait for you to read it!

Hite on Vegas Knights

At OddCon last weekend, I gave my pal Ken Hite a copy of Vegas Knights. After all, he’s thanked in the acknowledgements as one of my regular compadres in my many wild trips to Vegas, and few people outside the city know it as well as he does. He earned a copy of the book in the best way.

Of course, one of Ken’s favorite books is the excellent Last Call by Tim Powers, a World Fantasy Award-winning book about magic in Vegas, published back in 1992, long before urban fantasy became a subgenre of its own. Couple that with Ken’s well-known status as an erudite and eloquent critic, and I wasn’t sure how he would react to my novel. I figured that if he didn’t like it, he’d at least keep his mouth shut for the sake of our friendship.

Ken just Tweeted a blurb for the book that I wish I could splash across the cover. In its whole, it reads:

Finished VEGAS KNIGHTS by @mforbeck. Master of pacing and plot; style is humane Spillane: clear as a windshield, punchy as an ogre’s fist.

That made my day.

Go Joe! Cobra Wars Out Now

I’d thought that G.I. Joe: Tales from the Cobra Wars was due out next week, but it seems to have slipped out early and is in stores now. Max Brooks (World War Z) and Jeff Conner edited it, and it features novellas from Max,Chuck Dixon, Jon McGoran, Jonathan Maberry, John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya, and me.

That’s damn fine company to find myself in. I haven’t read the rest of the book yet, but I’m itching to, just to see exactly how such a fine group of writers tackled the Joes too.

If you’re interested in getting your copy autographed, nearly half the authors will be appearing in Doylestown, PA, for a group signing session on April 23. That includes Jon, Jonathan, Duane, and Dennis. I won’t be there, but the rest of the guys will be there to console you until you can track me down someplace else.