Comings and Goings

I’m sad to report that I won’t be able to make it to C2E2 this week, nor will I be at Gary Con or 3Con as planned. While I had looked forward to coming out to those shows, I instead accepted a gig writing a computer game that’s going to take me to Singapore for a couple weeks. If you were planning to meet up with me at any of those conventions, I do hope you understand.

To help make up for that, I have added Odyssey Con to my slate of shows. It runs April 8—11, and I’ll be there for at least that Saturday and maybe more. I’m also going to attend my friend Brad Beaulieu‘s release party for his brand-new novel The Winds of Khalakovo at the Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee on April 23. That’s the date of Shakespeare’s birth and death, so here’s hoping the Bard is out watching over Brad for that celebration.

Hope to see you on the road!

The “Remix the Robot” Contest: Let Me Kill You

My fine and generous overlords/publishers at Angry Robot just announced a brand-new contest on their website, called “Remix the Robot.” As you might already know, the mighty John Anealio recently recorded a new song called “Angry Robot,” which I helped him write. The tune started out as the lead-in for the Angry Robot podcast hosted by the multitalented Mur Lafferty, but it’s grown into its own song, the lead track on John’s still-free-to-download The Robot E.P.

This tickled the Angry Robot folks so much, they decided to set up a contest. All you have to do is remix “Angry Robot,” using the original tracks files that John’s posted, and send it in. The Angry Robots, John, and I will listen to them all and pick the best. The creator of the winning mix gets a spot in my yet-to-be-announced next novel with Angry Robot, in which I promise to kill your fictional doppelganger in an especially gruesome way.

All you aspiring musicians and dapper DJs get your act on over to the Angry Robot site for all the details. And please spread the word! You have until April 1st – no fooling!

Betwixt Loves Vegas Knights

Over at Betwixt, Benito Corral gives Vegas Knights a glowing review. As he states up front, it didn’t hurt that the book pushes a lot of his buttons, in the best way. As he says in the full review:

I feel as if I had sat at a happy hour with Matt Forbeck one night and we talked about some of my favorite things – great books, magic, Las Vegas, caper movies, zombies – and then he turned up the next day with THIS!  Vegas Knights is one of the best Urban Fantasy books I’ve read in a long time; it’s cleverly written, fast paced and wonderfully fresh.

Thanks, Benito!

More Praise for Vegas Knights

Over at Spoiler Alert!, Voxael has a mixed reaction over Vegas Knights, but in the end he gives it a strong thumbs up.

It may not have rocketed straight into place as My Favouritest Book Ever! but there’s more than enough here for me to say quite truthfully that I enjoyed the ride – strong, easily distinguishable characters, pop-culture references liberally scattered all over the place, a genuinely intriguing twist on the standard Urban Fantasy set-up and most of all, a writer who wasn’t afraid to write a fantasy story where every obstacle wasn’t surmounted with the equivalent of hurling fireballs at it.

Also, Gareth Wilson at Falcata Times posted his review of Vegas Knights on his blog, even though he’d already posted it at Amazon.co.uk. Gareth’s one of those savvy reviewers who goes out of his way to cross-post his reviews in multiple places. That helps the reviews – and the books they cover, of course – get more exposure. After all, if you’re already on Amazon.com, you’re more likely to read the reviews there than run over to a different site to see what people have to say about a particular book. If the review appears in both places, more people can read it more conveniently, and that’s better for us all. Thanks, Gareth!

The InSpectres Teaser Trailer

Darren Orange and the rest of the crew at Reactor 88 Studios wrapped up principal shooting on the InSpectres film (base on Jared Sorensen’s RPG) last fall and have been hard at work in post-production since. The plan is to have a premiere of the film at Gen Con this summer, and to whet your appetite for that, they’ve put together a teaser trailer for you. Check it out below. I think it looks fantastic, but since I’m one of the writers and producers on the film, I’m bound to be biased.

Vegas Knights Is Here!

Today, Vegas Knights goes on sale in print in the UK and as an ebook worldwide! Those of us in the US who want a bound copy have to wait until March 29, but the rest of us can dig right in today.

For your sampling pleasure, here are the first five chapters of the book, absolutely free. If it catches your fancy, I’d appreciate if you buy or pre-order the book straight away. Thanks in advance for all your support! I hope you enjoy reading Vegas Knights as much as I did writing it.

Danforth on eBay

My son Marty has been selling off bits and pieces of my game collection over the past year or so on eBay. He’s done a decent job of it, made a bit of money, and learned something about how such things work at the same time, so I count that as a solid win. Just this week, he took on his second client: Liz Danforth.

Read More

More Vegas Knight Reviews

Vegas Knights hits the UK as a paperback tomorrow and should be available worldwide as an ebook too. (See the list of major sales outlets for one near you, and please place a pre-order if you can!) Lots of reviewers have already gotten their hands on the book and loved it (as the list of praise shows). Three more cropped up over the past few days.

Over at SFBook.com, Ant gives the book FIVE STARS! He name checks Genestealer, a Space Hulk supplement I worked on for Games Workshop waaay back in 1990, then says many kind things about me and my work, including:

The quality of the writing is quite exceptional with such an easy reading, friendly yet clever style that immediately puts you at ease and grabs your attention in a vice-like grip from the very first chapters… It’s fantastic entertainment, and I loved every minute of it. Viva Las Vegas (Knights)!

At Magpie Diaries, Magpie likes Vegas Knights a lot too. She says:

Vegas Knights is a fast-paced, good-humoured caper of a book… Packed with all the excitement, violence and glamour you’d expect of old-school Vegas – including a nail-biting chase through the halls and walls of a casino – Forbeck delivers a novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat… [I] would say it’s more Tim Powers’ Last Call meets 21than Harry Potter meets Ocean’s Eleven… but the novel is not haunted by its predecessors. It has its own voice, and Forbeck puts his own stamp on the narrative.

Gareth Wilson of Falcata Times gives a short, happy review on Amazon.co.uk (which might presage a longer one on his site). It appears right next to a copy of the five-star review Tony Lane gave elsewhere earlier. Gareth writes:

[T]his has to be one of my favourite titles by this author. Not only is the plot cleverly woven but the characters rely on smarts rather than outright power which makes a serious change for the genre… Some seriously devious work has gone on underneath, and I’m starting to wonder which devil Matt did a deal with to be so creative.

You can read the opening five chapters of Vegas Knights for free right here. I hope you enjoy them as much as these fine people liked the rest of the book.