In a fitting way to start the new year, I’m on to my next novel, Vegas Knights. Poking around, I noticed that Angry Robot has put out a bit of a teaser for it. It reads:

The two magicians came to take Vegas. Now Vegas is taking them back. When two college freshman decide to use Spring Break to wage a magic assault on the gambling tables of Las Vegas, little can they imagine that Vegas harbours a dark magical secret of its own! the whole place is run by magic, and an undead Harry Houdini’s in charge. Action-packed fantasy adventure from the new king of high-concept, Matt Forbeck.

I think that sounds like fun. Now I just have to write the best book that could spring from that. Wish me luck!

The fine people at Angry Robot have announced the release dates for both Amortals and Vegas Knights, my first two original novels. Amortals should be out in the UK and Australia in April 2010 and in the US and the rest of the world in June 2010. Vegas Knights is slated to hit the UK and Australia in June 2010 too, with the US/rest of the world release in July. Combine that with the release of my upcoming Guild Wars novel sometime next year, and it’s shaping up to be an amazing summer.

Now I just have to finish writing them.

My friends (and publishers) at Angry Robot have helpfully provided a solution for all your Halloween costuming needs: the Angry Robot mask. Just print, cut, strap (or staple, glue, weld, etc.), and you’re all set to scare the simpering souls out of your fleshy, free-willed friends.

Better yet, the Angry Robots promise the nebulous award of “prizes” for the best photos taken that include Angry Robot masks. That’s over and above the fun from playing with/wearing/fearing the mask itself, I think.

[By the way, if you're interested in review copies of Angry Robot books, plus a shot at other prizes, be sure to join the Robot Army too.]

Angry Robot, the new imprint from HarperCollins that happens to be publishing two of my novels next year, is having its official UK launch party on October 10th, 2009, at the London Megastore location of Forbidden Planet. Come on out and meet authors Dan Abnett, Andy Remic, and Colin Harvey, plus the triumvirate of Angry Robots themselves: Marc Gascoigne, Lee Harris, and Chris Michaels. The event starts at 12:30 and ends at 2 PM. If you’re anywhere near the area and love great science-fiction and fantasy, be sure to stop by and say hi!

The press release went out early this morning (my time), which means I can finally announce that I’ve signed a deal for two original novels with Angry Robot, a new imprint of HarperCollins run by my old friend Marc Gascoigne (formerly of Black Library fame). This puts my new novels in some excellent company among the early Angry Robot releases, including books by my friends Rob King, Tim Waggoner, Dan Abnett, and (also announced today!) Maurice Broaddus.  

As the press release says, the first of these books is Amortals, a gritty science-fiction mystery thriller in which the wealthy have unlocked the secret of eternal life by backing up their minds and uploading them into clones—which works fine until the world’s oldest man wakes up in a new body and has to solve his own murder. The second is Vegas Knights, a modern fantasy heist/con story set in the City of Sin, in which a few young wizards decide to use their talents to break the bank, only to get played by wizards working for the house.

These are both stories I’ve been itching to tell for a long time, and I’m thrilled to finally be able to sit down and start writing them—just as soon as I polish off the first Guild Wars novel, of course! One of the banes of the working writer is that after a full day of writing other stuff, it’s difficult to carve out time to work on your own stories, especially without a guaranteed sale waiting for those books when you’re done. Now I have that, and I’m ready to roll!

More as I write it. Woot!