Forbeck.com

One of the things about my WordPress setup is you don’t need to register to comment. Just click on the word “comments” beneath any entry and go. I’d like to hear more from you readers out there, just so I know I’m not typing for myself. This should make it a lot easier.

My friends at the Black Library just sent me some promotional covers for Blood Bowl, my upcoming novel based on the classic boardgame of gridiron mayhem. Click on the thumbnail for a much larger version.

This is their lead title out of the six books they’re releasing that month, and they’re pushing it hard. It hits the UK in August and the US in September, just in time for football season! They promise ads in White Dwarf, SF Chronicle, Realms of Fantasy, Sci-Fi Magazine, and other genre magazines.

I just got back on Wednesday morning from a quick trip to Los Angeles. I can’t talk about the main reason for the trip quite yet, but it should be good for some mass-market game news sometime in the near future.

While I was there, I had dinner with Fred, Thommy, and Jay from Conan Properties. We chatted about lots of things, including the new series of Conan novels I’m editing for them. The first one (Blood of Wolves by Loren Coleman) is due out in June from Ace Books (a division of Penguin). There’s a new website for the books up right now.

We ate at the most amazing restaurant: Encounter. If you’ve ever been to LAX, you’ve probably seen the landmark crossed, white arches huddled below the air traffic control tower. Like most people, I figured funky building under those arches was an older air traffic tower that had long since been outgrown. Instead, it’s a kitschy restaurant that’s seems like Gene Rodenberry might have designed it in the late ’60s. If you hit the place’s website, it plays the same music you hear in the elevator on your way up to the tower’s restaurant floor. Very cool, and the food rocks too.

My friends at Human Head Studios tell me that the Frankenstein’s Children is on its way to their warehouses from China as I write this. This was the last game I worked on for them, a sequel to last year’s Dracula’s Revenge. Both games plug together for all sorts of horror-gaming mayhem. Download the rules for free to whet your appetite for the terrifying things to come.

I realized I forgot to mention that two books I worked on were nominated for Origins Awards this year. Secret of the Spiritkeeper garnered a nod for Best Fiction, and The Authority RPG got one for Best Roleplaying Game. If you’re a member of the Academy of Gaming Arts and Design (and everyone who does creative work in adventure gaming can now join for free), please consider voting for them. In my ever-biased opinion, I think they’re great stuff.

As some of you know, I led the Origins Awards Task Force last year, which revamped the awards from the ground up. I specifically didn’t volunteer to serve on any of the juries this year, as I wanted to see the system stand on its own. It seems to be doing well so far, as shown by the list of nominees, and I have even higher hopes for next year.

Welcome to the new version of Forbeck.com. I’d been having troubles with my old site. When I upgraded to Movable Type 3.1, it didn’t go smoothly. I broke a few things with my customization. Then my brother-in-law told me he was getting out of the webhosting business, so it was time to find a new host.

After some poking around, I settled with the fine people at BlueHost.com. One of the best parts about the service (besides the price and the silly amount of features) is a one-click installation of WordPress. When I set up Forbeck.com last year, WordPress didn’t pop up on my radar. The latest version (1.5), though, has everything I wanted and more.

I’ll be tweaking the site a bit over the next few weeks. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the new look. I’m especially curious about the pop-open menus on the right side of the screen.

I’m hard at work on the second novel for Blood Bowl right now for Games Workshop. It’s called Dead Ball, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. The Blood Bowl books are a great break for me from the more serious stuff I usually write. There’s no need to keep up with the grim and gritty here, as the books are just rollicking fun.

I had a great time at Oddysey Convention (Odd Con) up in Madison, Wisconsin, this weekend. I haven’t been to too many pure SF/Fantasy conventions, but I enjoyed it.
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This Saturday, from 1 to 3 PM, I’ll be at Turtle Creek, the Beloit College bookstore, here in beautiful downtown Beloit, Wisconsin. If you’ll be in the area, please stop by and keep me company. They’ll have some of my books on hand for buying and signing, including Marked for Death, the first novel in my Eberron trilogy from Wizards of the Coast. I hope to see you there!

Wow. It’s been 30 days since I posted anything here. Let me catch you up a bit on what’s been going on.

First, the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas was great. I ran the freelancers’ seminar track, and while we didn’t have too many people show up (it’s a retailer show, after all), those that did got as much information as they could stomach since they had the panel’s full attention. While at the show, a number of possible gigs floated my way. There’s nothing I can talk about yet, but that collectible card game I mysteriously mentioned earlier in the year got greenlit and should be on shelves before Christmas. Best of all, I got to hang out with lots of good friends. A special thanks to Ken Hite, Christian Moore, Owen Seyler, Jonni Emrich, and Peter Adkison for showing me a great time many nights running.

Since I came back, I’ve been running on all barrels, trying to finish off The Road to Death. This is the sequel to Marked for Death, the first in my Eberron trilogy, which Wizards of the Coast published last month. I finished the first draft before midnight last night, and I think I’ll need a new keyboard, as the old one may have melted from the friction of typing so fast.

I also poked my nose in at Nexus last weekend, the gaming convention held here in my hometown on the Beloit College campus. The people there were great, and they treated me like royalty. Include that it’s less than two miles from my house, and you can’t beat it.

More soon. Right now, I’m running off to Odyssey Con, a science-fiction/fantasy/gaming/film convention in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. You can catch me in some afternoon panels there, when I’m not hanging out with Ken Hite (again) and John Kovalic.