My pals at Reactor 88 Studios recently put together this Zooppa ad for the new King Kong 360/3D experience debuting at Universal Studios this summer. Peter Jackson produced the ride, based on his film.
I had nothing to do with this, so I can brag freely on what a fine job the R88 crew did. Check it out.
Ever imagine what might happen if Superman and Lex Luthor lost their jobs and wound up having to live together? Well, wonder no longer. DQniel Kaufman just released a pilot for his new web video series Roommates. Besides Dqniel, it features my friends Miranda Horner as Lois Lane and Mike Selinker in a stunningly funny turn as Mr. Mxyzptlk. Be sure to check it out.
Over at Booklife, Jeremy Jones interviews Ken Hite about two of his favorite topics: Cthulhu and creativity. The article includes kind quotes about Ken from Will Hindmarch and me. (Since Ken let me crash in his guest room last weekend during C2E2, it was the least I could do.) It’s a fun article that captures those specific aspects of Ken’s career well. Check it out.
The music of a couple college pals turned musicians cropped up this week. Back in 2006, I revealed that I’d borrowed the name Ronan Lynch — the main hero of Deadlands — from an Irish exchange student I’d met at the University of Michigan. Ronan had worked as a journalist for a while but had moved to Germany to take up singing in a roots reggae band. Recently, he’s helped launch Irie UP, a new magazine dedicated to the international reggae scene. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but Ronan’s always been one of the sharpest, funniest writers I’ve ever known, so check it out if you get the chance.
Better yet, I stumbled across the music of Steven Mark, an alternative folk artist (far too simple a classification, but it fits) out of New York City. That’s him in the photo. Turns out I knew Steve under a different name back at U of M. (Doppelt, for those few out there who might remember living on 4th Tyler-Green in East Quad.)
Steve has released four albums over the past decade, and the tunes bring me right back to listening to him and my old roommate Dan King strumming their acoustic guitars back in the day. I’ve only worked my way through the most recent of the four discs at the moment, but Steve’s come a long way since then and matured into an amazing musician. You can listen to one of his latest tunes for free at his website, or many more on his MySpace page. You can also pick up copies of his music through iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon.
Makeshift Prodigy — the band that played a fantastic set at the Brave New World: Revolution teaser trailer debut at last year’s Gen Con — released its second album today: Mathematica. You can listen to the whole album for free online, or you can buy a CD for $5. If you’d rather download it, it’s available in a stunning variety of music-file formats (including MP3, of course), and you can pay whatever you like for it, down to a bare minimum of $4.99.
The album comes with a new version of “Revolution,” which was a big part of the Gen Con show. The band played a number of the other songs at the show which make their recorded debut on Mathematica too.
Anyhow, they’re a great band, and Mathematica is going to be my soundtrack while I polish off the latest draft of the screenplay for Brave New World: Revolution. Check ‘em out.
Family Games: The 100 Best should be on shelves Real Soon Now, I’m told. To hold you over for this smorgasbord of essays, check out Alan De Smet’s stunning and thorough breakdowns of both this book and its predecessor, Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Alan goes over the books in terms of writers, designers, and publishers to see who’s inspired the most love.
The graph that shows the most popular publishers is pretty cool. It’s not surprising to see Milton Bradley in the lead, tied with Rio Grande Games at 17 games. If you add up all the companies that come under the Hasbro umbrella these days, though, the total comes up to something around 56 entries instead. The company really is a gaming juggernaut.
The stunning graph that Alan came up with, connecting writers and designers by the games they loved or created, is all too cool.
Because Amortals is a sci-fi thriller, I recently joined the International Thriller Writers. (Best benefit? Membership is free to qualified writers.) Yesterday, they announced the nominees for their Thriller Awards. I don’t know any of the nominees personally, but I’ve read some of their excellent work. Congratulations to them all!
The awards will be given out this July at Thrillerfest.
To help kick off my hunt for kind words in advance of the publication of Amortals, the publishing director at Angry Robot — Marc Gascoigne — sent me a starter blurb from Dan Abnett. It reads:
“Matt Forbeck does near-future so well, I think he’s been there. Actually, I think he designed it. Then he kicked its ass.”
For those sheltered and sorry few who don’t know him, Dan’s a storytelling force. He and his writing partner Andy Lanning have commandeered (among other things) the cosmic corner of Marvel Comics and have spun many fantastic, galaxy-spanning epics for them as well as for DC Comics and 2000 AD. On his own, Dan has also written many of the top-selling novels for the Black Library, which also published my Blood Bowl novels. On top of that, he’s writing the screenplay for the upcoming Ultramarines film too. Most recently, Angry Robot published Dan’s first original novel, the excellent Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero, and promises at least two more such books to come.
Way back in 2000, Marco was the manager of the Black Library, and he hired me to edit one of Dan’s Gaunt’s Ghost (Warhammer 40k) novels: Necropolis. The text was so clean and easy that I felt like I was stealing money and got paid to read a great book to boot. A few years later, Marco introduced Dan and me at Comic-Con, and we had the chance to share a beer. Despite his many accomplishments, you couldn’t find a humbler, more talented guy so dedicated to his work.
So, thanks to Dan for all the kind words. For the rest of you, while you’re waiting for Amortals to come out, go give Triumff a read too.
Here’s a brilliant little presentation that DK (publishers of The Marvel Encyclopedia I revised last year) put together for an internal sales conference in February, as Penguin’s blog tells it. It’s a clever piece about the end of publishing as we know it and the hope that gleams straight through that. Be sure to watch it all the way through.
(Hat tip to the ever-observant Mur Lafferty. I spotted this in her I Should Be Writing blog.)
One of my favorite programs over the past few years is the Mac-only writing program Scrivener. If you’re doing any kind of creative writing, give it a try. I raved about it on my Twitter feed a couple weeks back, and David Johnson — the sales and marketing man and chief tea-maker for the program’s publisher, Literature & Latte — asked if I’d be willing to provide a testimonial for it. Once I finished up Vegas Knights, I did just that, joining a host of authors including Lou Anders, Tobias Buckell, Maureen Johnson, Antony Johnston, and Charles Stross on Scrivener’s testimonials page.
Here’s what I had to say:
Scrivener is brilliant, one of the best reasons to own a Mac. I’ve written comic books, screenplays, and novels in it, and it’s been invaluable in each format. The corkboard display makes breaking down a plot a breeze, and it helps keep me on track throughout the entire project.
Scrivener is that perfect sort of program. It’s intuitive enough that you can just jump in and use it, but it’s also wildly versatile and features plenty of power under the hood should you care to tinker with it. I wrote thirteen published novels in Word, and after writing my latest two in Scrivener, there’s no way I’m going back!
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