This Friday – February 14, 2020 – I’m scheduled to be a speaker at M+DEV, a video game developers conference held at the Allianz Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. I spoke at the inaugural event two years ago, and I’m delighted that they invited me back.
I’ll be speaking at 3:15 PM on “Writing for Video Games.” The rest of the time, I’ll be wandering around, catching up with old friends, meeting new people, and enjoying the rest of the talks.
They have a tremendous lineup of guests, including Felix Kramer, Nika Nour, Allison Salmon, David Gagnon, Brian Pelletier, Stephen Dineheart, and many more. If you work in the field – or have any interest in doing so – join us! You’ll learn a ton and hopefully have loads of fun too.
Shotguns & Sorcery: The Omnibusis due out next week on Tuesday, February 18. This 610-page volume contains every Shotguns & Sorcery story written to date, including two short stories:
– “Friends Like These” – “Goblintown Justice”
Three short novels:
– Hard Times in Dragon City (novel) – Bad Times in Dragon City (novel) – End Times in Dragon City (novel)
And a brand-new novelette I wrote especially for this book:
My pals at DriveThruFiction don’t have a pre-order function built yet, but I’ll flip the switch for the book there on the due date.
Note that if you buy the book through Gumroad or DriveThruFiction, you get a zip file with all major ebook varieties: ePub, Mobi, and PDF.
You can also find paper versions in three different places, and those should go on sale on the 18th too. Amazon will have a matte-finish paperback edition. DriveThruFiction will have it in glossy paperback and a gaming-style hardback, and Barnes and Noble will have it in a traditional hardcover with a dust jacket.
Unlike most of my books these days, I’m self-publishing this one. That means I don’t have a staff of sales and marketing people pushing this into stores and readers’ hands. I only have friends and fans like you. So, please let people know about the book and where they can get it.
If you happen to have a copy already, please do me the kindness of leaving a glowing review at your favorite site. You’d be surprised how much that helps sell books too.
As I announced yesterday, pre-orders for Shotguns & Sorcery: The Omnibus are now open. The way the various online retailers sell these, I can only set up pre-orders for ebooks, but I’m planning on making paper copies available as well. You’ll just have to wait until February 18 to purchase them.
The one on the top comes from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service and has a matte finish, which looks pretty sharp. The other two come from DriveThruFiction, and they both have glossy covers. The hardcover (on the right) has the cover laminated straight to the boards, much like you’d see with a textbook or a gaming book.
The one from Amazon (on the left) is actually as thick as the hardcover from DriveThruFiction. That’s because it’s printed on slightly thicker paper. Over the course of 610 pages, that makes a noticeable difference.
I’m also waiting on a copy from Barnes & Noble that comes as a hardcover with a dust jacket. Once I get them all in and get a good look at them, I’ll figure out the exact prices. They’ll probably range from $20-$30 each, depending on the covers.
If you have Amazon Prime, you might wind up with free shipping on the book through them. If you order through DriveThruFiction, I believe you’ll pay shipping, but you’ll also get the ebook edition packaged in with the hard copy for free. And if you go with Barnes & Noble, you’ll get the classy (and most expensive) dust jacket version instead.
One fan recently asked about the availability of signed copies. I’ve never bothered much with selling those direct before, but if there’s a call for it, I’ll see what I can work out. They’ll be at least a little bit extra to cover the shipping and such. If you’re interested in such a thing, let me know.
Back in January of 2015, Outland Entertainment ran a successful Kickstarter to bring out Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game, based on the series of novels and stories by New York Times-bestselling author Matt Forbeck. Despite a series of delays, the last of the core rulebooks are being shipped to backers this month.
The term for the initial license for the game has expired, and the rights to it have reverted to Matt. He and his company, Full Moon Enterprises, will be publishing the game from this point forward. As part of this amicable parting, Full Moon is helping Outland wrap up the last bits of its Kickstarter obligations, and Jeremy Mohler – CEO of Outland – plans to continue to provide his amazing artwork for the game.
Look for a public release of Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game in PDF and POD formats this spring. Meanwhile, Full Moon Enterprises is releasing the ebook and POD editions of Shotguns & Sorcery: The Omnibus – a collection of all the existing Shotguns & Sorcery stories and novels, plus a brand new novelette – on February 18. Pre-orders are already available on your favorite ebook sites.
If you need further information, please contact Matt at matt@forbeck.com.
This weekend, I’m attending my last convention of the year – and one of my favorites – Gamehole Con. It’s a wonderful show held in Madison, Wisconsin, less than an hour from my house, and it’s grown larger and better every year. They focus on tabletop roleplaying games – Dungeons & Dragons in particular, but far from exclusively – and they’re family friendly and community oriented. For example, the show opens on Halloween this year, and they’ve set up an in-convention trick-or-treat that’s free to the public.
I’m running a couple games there and appearing on a panel. For a good chunk of it, though, I’m just going to be playing games with my kids and catching up with friends. Hope to see you there!
Today is the US debut for two more books in my Dungeons & Dragons: Endless Quest series. These are pick-a-path books for readers ages 10 and up, and they take place in some of the most famous settings for the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game.
The new ones are Escape from Castle Ravenloft and The Mad Mage’s Academy. In Escape from Castle Ravenloft, you are a cleric who’s been captured by the immortal Baron Strahd von Zarovich, and you have to escape his castle before the vampire lord makes you one of his minions. This is much easier said than done.
In The Mad Mage’s Academy, you’re a rogue who’s been hired to steal a spell book from the Mad Mage Halaster himself. To do so, you pose as a young wizard who wants to study under Halaster at his academy, located deep in the heart of the massive dungeon known as Undermountain. Unfortunately, you don’t know any actual magic, so you have to act fast before you’re found out.
You can purchase both books in the US, starting today. I understand they’ll be available in the UK starting on September 19.
In other wild news, all six books will be available as audiobooks early next year. I’m not sure how they’re going to handle the branching paths in the books, but I’m eager to find out!
This weekend, I’m heading off to Halo Outpost Discovery in Anaheim, California. HOD is a multi-media traveling celebration of all things related to Halo, and Anaheim is the last stop of this summer’s inaugural tour. They’ve called in a bunch of special guests to help them cap everything off, including loads of Halo writers and actors like Steve Downes and Jen Taylor, who give voice to Master Chief and Cortana, respectively.
I’ll be there for a signing on Saturday at 5 PM, along with Kelly Gay and my old pal Troy Denning. On Sunday, I’m on a panel about Halo novels with Troy, Kelly, and Jeff Easterling at 12:15 PM. After that, Kelly, Troy and I will be signing again from 2—3 PM.
Beyond all that, I’ll be wandering around, enjoying the exhibits and fun myself. I’m a Halo fan from back before the game was even announced, and I’m looking forward to being dazzled all weekend long. If you’re in the area, come out and join me!
This is my favorite show of the year. I never miss it. I started going when I was a kid, and this will be my 38th in a row. Better yet, it falls across my birthday once again, so there’s double reason to celebrate.
If you’re a tabletop gamer of any stripe and have the time and means to make it to Indianapolis this week, you should be at Gen Con. Here’s my schedule for this year’s show. I hope to see you there!
Wednesday, July 31
9 PM: The Diana Jones Award party. I host this private event for industry professionals every year to help kick off the show on Gen Con Eve.
Thursday, August 1
11 AM:Fireside with Peter Adkison. I’ll be one of the guests chatting with Peter Adkison, founder of Wizards of the Coast and co-owner of Gen Con, about the convention’s history.
Friday, August 2
10 AM:Networking, It’s Not Just a Food Chain. Networking is an important part of the industry, but authors aren’t leeches. Gabrielle Harbowy, Chris Bell, and I give tips on how to be sure to give as well as take.
12 PM:Business Plans for Writers. Writing is a creative endeavour, but it’s also a business. Which means … you need a business plan. Shanna Germain, Chrostopher Husberg, Keith Law, and I discuss making one.
10 AM:I Want to Be a Writer. Where Do I Start?What are the qualifications you need to be a writer? Or do you really just need a pen, a chair, and a prayer? Robyn Bennis, Aaron Rosenberg, Karen Bovenmyer, and I discuss it.
11 AM:Passing Story Time Without Losing Readers. The pace of your story is as important as the plot and the characters. Tee Morris, Melissa Olson, and Elizabeth Vaughan, and I discuss the passage of time in fiction.
12 PM:Can Playing Games Help You Write?Many authors in the science fiction and fantasy genre are also gamers, but does it make them better writers? Bruce Cordell, Gregory A. Wilson, Kirk Dougal, and I discuss our experiences.
Next week, I’m off to San Diego for Comic-Con International. I’ve been going to San Diego Comic-Con on and off since the mid-’90s, when Jim Lee used to bring me out to demo the games I helped design with WildStorm (his part of Image Comics at the time). It’s something like quintupled in size since then, but I still always enjoy it when I can make it. Sure, it’s massive, overcrowded, and crazy, but it’s also packed with people geeking out about all sorts of wonderful things that I love too.
This year, Candlewick Press is bringing me out again to help promote my Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest books. My public schedule includes:
Thursday, July 18
1:30 PM:Care and Nurturing of Someone Else’s Universe. (Horton Grand Theatre) What are the responsibilities and opportunities writers embrace when writing about iconic characters in universes created by someone else, whether an individual or a corporation? Talk comics, cartoons, games, and television universes with F. C. Yee (Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi), Matt Forbeck(Dungeons & Dragons: Escape the Underdark: An Endless Quest Book), Brenna Yovanoff (Stranger Things: Runaway Max), Adam Christopher (Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town), Kiersten White(Slayer), and Gary Phillips (Batman: The Killing Joke), and Fictitious podcast host, Adron Buske.
2 PM:International Association of Media Tie-In Writers: Scribe Awards. (Room 32AB) Jonathan Maberry (X-Files) hosts this year’s Scribe Awards for excellence in tie-in writing, including honoring this year’s Grandmaster Award “Faust” winner, Nancy Holder. Other panelists include Matt Forbeck (The Marvel Encyclopedia, Halo: Bad Blood), Michael Kogge (The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel), Chris Ryall (comic book writer, publisher at IDW), Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition, Mike Hammer), Christie Golden (Star Wars, World of Warcraft), and David Boop (Predator, Veronica Mars).
11:30 AM: Signing at the Candlewick Press booth (#5532). We should have copies of Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest: To Catch a Thief available for my illegible scribbling.
I’ll also be wandering around the show with a couple of my kids, catching up with friends, and generally goggling at all the cool stuff, which should make for a wonderful week. Hope to see you there!
The folks at Studio Press/Candlewick Press have revealed some more information about my next two Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest books. For those not in the know, these are pick-a-path books set in the worlds of the most popular roleplaying game in the world, Dungeons & Dragons. I had four of them come out last September, and there are another two on the horizon.
Escape From Castle Ravenloft features a cleric trying to escape from the clutches of Count Strahd von Zarovich, the vampire lord of Castle Ravenloft himself. Let’s just say that he’s not eager to let you leave.
The Mad Mage’s Academy is set on the 9th level of Undermountain, the legendary dungeon that riddles the mountain beneath the great fantasy metropolis of Waterdeep. You’re a rogue who’s been hired to steal a spellbook from the legendary mage Halaster, and well, that’s probably not the smartest decision you ever made – but it’s too late to back out now.
They’ll both be available in paperback and hardcover editions and should be out wherever excellent books are sold. Look for them on September 3rd!
