Well, technically, tomorrow at noon we have exactly three full days left on my first Kickstarter drive for the 12 for ’12 project, but either way, we’re getting close. We have just about 88 hours from now until it comes to a close, and I’m dying to see how it all shakes out in the end.

Over the past couple days, we’ve gotten a surge of backers, just as I’d been told to expect. At the moment, we’re up to 157 backers and $7,116. We need just a little push to crack that $8k mark and unlock the second book. From there, it’s just a short leap to unlocking the color map at $10k and the Shotguns & Sorcery story at $12k. Lining up the $15k to unlock Book 3 might still be a stretch, but it only takes a few large backers to blow it all wide open.

For instance, I did have a convention inquire about grabbing one of the top rewards. They’re set up as travel to a private reading/signing, of course, but if any group wants me to come out for another event at my expense — along with a load of books — I’d be happy to do that instead. Just let me know.

If you have ideas for other bonuses I could offer, I’m open to suggestions about that too. I think we have a great package put together already, but if there are workable ways to sweeten the pot, I’m all for it.

In any case, I’ve often said that nothing motivates like a deadline, and that’s what’s coming up fast. Of course, the trick is to make sure that those who are planning to back the project don’t forget to do so before it closes on Sunday at noon Central Time.

To that end, I’ve been pounding the PR beat hard. Rick Novy interviewed me today on his blog for instance, Superpowered Fiction featured 12 for ’12 on their first Kickstarter post, and bestseller Lee Goldberg gave me a plug on his blog too. I have more coming up soon, but if you know of any journalists or bloggers looking for a fun story about 12 for ’12, don’t hesitate to send them my way.

I want to thank everyone who’s already backed the project for jumping on with me and to encourage those of you on the fence to act fast before it’s over. I’ll be releasing these books as ebooks later on this year after the backers get theirs, and I’m looking into doing print-on-demand paperbacks too. Chances are that this might be the only way to grab one of the hardcovers though.

Either way, it’s time to grab on tight and hold on to the end. It’s going to be a wild ride to the finish!

We only have 12 days left in my first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter drive, so it’s time to make a special announcement. One of the most frequent requests I’ve gotten for new rewards is to figure out some way to include copies of the original Brave New World RPG. Because I don’t publish that game — my friends at AEG do — I can’t just toss in copies. They’re not mine to give.

HOWEVER, thanks to my friends over at DriveThruRPG.com, I’m able to give any backers who pledge $25 or more a private link that allows you to grab the PDF of the core rulebook through DriveThruRPG.com for only $5! That’s a savings of $13 off the standard price, or over 72% off.

I’ll send the link out as soon as the drive ends on December 4. I won’t see any of that extra money, but I wanted to do what I could to make sure that those who want a copy of the original game have a chance to grab it cheap.

So, please spread the news far and wide! I want as many people as can to take advantage of this bonus. Many thanks to DriveThruRPG.com for helping me make this offer, and special thanks to all of you who have stepped up to back 12 for ’12. I literally couldn’t do it without you.

Today, three articles about my 12 for ’12 project appeared. In the first, on the Civilian Reader website, I wrote a guest post about “What Is Brave New World?” It’s a question that comes up a lot, of course, and I tried to nail down the answer.

Next, I wrote a guest post for Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s SFFWRTCHT website. (That’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Chat, which Bryan regularly hosts on Twitter.) This time, I wrote about how to turn a game into a novel, something I have more than a bit of experience with. I’m so used to doing it, I sometimes forget that it can seem opaque and mysterious to those who haven’t done it, so I tried to shine a bit of light into the corners of that process.

Last up, Robert Wieland interviewed me about 12 for ’12 for The Onion’s AV Club. I absolutely love The Onion and the A.V. Club, so that was a true treat. Rob asked some excellent questions about the project and the game it’s based on, so be sure to give it a read.

I’m still looking for other ways to get the word about the Kickstarter drive out there, so if you know or have any, don’t be shy about letting me know. Thanks!

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.