This month’s episode of the Angry Robot Podcast, hosted by the sweet-voiced Mur Lafferty, features Colin Harvey (author of Winter Song and Damage Time) and me talking about our novels. The conversation covers a lot of ground, from our thoughts about the future to the three types of jobs that every freelancer must do. Be sure to listen in.

If you enjoy the Angry Robot theme song, it’s by John Anealio, a great songwriter I met at the World Fantasy Convention in October. John also has a brilliant “Name Your Own Price” pack of holiday songs available right now, called Seasons Geekings. It includes “Batman Smells (A Rebuttal),” among other charmers.

The folks over at SFBook were kind enough to name Amortals their Book of the Month in November. This apparently put it in the running for their Book of the Year, an online contest that’s open to voting from the public.

Other books in the running include Pat Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, Mike Shevdon’s The Road to Bedlam (also published by Angry Robot), Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Robert Jordan’s The Gathering Storm, Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and Guy Adams’s The World House (yet another book from Angry Robot). This is a staggering list, and I’m flattered as can be just to have Amortals on it.

As audacious as it might be, I’m asking you to click on over to SFBooks and vote for Amortals. It only takes a second, and it’s fun and easy to do. Let’s see how high we can make that needle move! Thanks!

A few new reviews for Amortals cropped up over the long holiday weekend. In the first, Eddy Webb of White Wolf/CCP fame enjoyed the book and contrasted it to Mike Stackpole‘s In Hero Years… I’m Dead, which I happen to be reading at the moment too. Eddy writes:

Matt is at the top of his game in creating a fun and engaging story. If you like action thrillers, this is a good book to pick up.

Over at Amazon.com, the Kindle edition has two reviews. The first is from Fantasy Literature, which gave the book four stars and calls it “One helluva sci-fi thriller.”

The second comes from Hunter Johnson, another gaming industry guy, who gives the book five stars and writes:

I thought I had figured out the Big Reveal by the end of chapter two. I was right and wrong — I had figured out one of the surprises, but it was only the first reveal — a lowly lackey far below the peak of this pyramid of reveals. Matt Forbeck’s “Amortals” takes off running, makes a few detours, and packs a lot of thoughtful socio-economic science fiction in around the action-movie-style murder mystery.

The other day, my pal Sean Preston over at Reality Blurs asked me about how I moved from writing roleplaying games to writing novels. It’s not the most obvious career path in the world, although I’ve had lots of friends and mentors manage it, and it makes for a fine story. He asked if he could post my answer on his blog as a means of helping promote the release of Amortals, and I happily agreed.

That’s the kind of friends you want, folks. The ones that you not only enjoy hanging out with but who are also bold enough to suggest a way in which you can help each other out. (Speaking of which, if anyone else out there would like me to write a guest post for your blog or website or whatever — or would enjoy interviewing me for the same — I am open to entertaining all request/offers.) It also doesn’t hurt that I can unreservedly recommend Reality Blur’s RPG books as some of the best being produced today. Realms of Cthulhu, for instance, is fantastic pulpy horror wrapped around the excellent Savage Worlds rules.

So, if you’re curious about how I made the jump from writing games to writing full-on fiction, jump on over to Sean’s blog and get reading.

You can now buy Amortals in at least two different flavors, depending on where you are. Amazon UK started shipping the book on November 1, and as of this morning at least you can now purchase the ebook at the Angry Robot Bookstore. If you have a Kindle, you can buy the book now, and it will be delivered to your device tomorrow. Same should be true for the Nook.

If you’d like to try before you buy, you can hear me read the first chapter of the book or read the first 50 pages of the book. It’s absolutely free.

Don’t be shy when it’s time to buy. Put your money down, and please tell your friends and neighbors! This is the best book I’ve ever written, and I’d like to have as many people read it as possible. Not just because I like feeding my kids this way, but also because I want to bring you something I hope you’ll enjoy.

Thanks for your support!