New Magic: The Gathering Miniseries

Sharp-eyed fans have noticed that IDW has announced a second miniseries of the Magic: The Gathering comics I write for IDW, subtitled The Spell Thief. It features the exact same team that brought you the first miniseries, and it’s due out later this year. As the solicitation text says:

Planeswalker Dack Fayden has followed Sifa Grent into a mysterious plane, where a Titan’s castle looms invitingly in the distance. Entering the castle in search of Sifa,  Dack is soon imprisoned by the Titan and added to his vast collection. Dack must find a way out before the trail to Sifa runs cold and he remains the Titan’s prisoner forever! Special playable Magic: The Gathering card polybagged in each issue!

And click on that cover for a look at series artist Martin Cóccolo’s variant cover for the first issue too.

Streams Crossed!

The Crossing the Streams contest came to an end last night, and today we have winners! First, we have Chris Bauer, whose Hollywood-style mash-up tickled my fancy the most:

Rotten Sweet Tooth
Imagine Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets Dawn of the Dead, okay? Starring Vin Diesel or John Cena (whoever is available) as the fearless, chainsaw-wielding candymaster who must use his wits, brawn and knowledge of confectionery delights to defend hapless tourists from the purple horde of rampaging, flesh-eating Oompa Loompas!

The random winner was Jim Auwaerter. I’ll send autographed ARCs of Carpathia out to both Chris and Jim next week. Meanwhile, stay tuned to learn who won the grand prize of a book from every one of the authors involved in the contest.

I had many, many excellent entries, and they gave me more than a few laughs and shivers. I’m happy to see so many creative people out there getting into the spirit of the game. Thanks to every one of them for joining in!

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Magic: The Gathering Signing

I’ll be in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this Sunday around 1 PM to sign Magic: The Gathering comics (and anything else I’ve worked not) at the GrandLAN Gaming Center. This is the first time I’ve done a signing for this series, so stop on by and say hi if you’re around!

Carpathia Out Everywhere Today

Carpathia, my latest novel from Angry Robot, came out in North America on Tuesday. Today it hits shelves in the rest of the world and is available as an ebook in all major formats worldwide. To mark the event, I’ve rounded up a number of the latest reviews and interviews about it.

At Falcata Times, Gareth Wilson loved the book and writes:

It’s gripping, exciting, and imaginative. It could make a great film, but it’s a great book anyway so read it, whether you like sci-fi or not.

Sean Young (a.k.a. Voxael) also enjoyed the book and says:

As with his previous novels, Matt brings his talent for creating great, relatable, characters and then building a compelling story around them (I finished reading Carpathia in three sittings, I couldn’t put it down).

Matt Staggs also asked me to tell him Five Things about Carpathia for Suvudu.com. As part of that, I mentioned:

1) I once designed a board game called Dracula’s Revenge – and also wrote a two-issue comic book miniseries for IDW based on it. (I’m also writing a Magic: The Gathering comic for IDW these days, which features vampires too.) The research for that fed directly into writing Carpathia.

Meanwhile, Jim Ryan interviewed me about Carpathia, 12 for ’12, the Magic: The Gathering comic and many other things.

Oh! And there’s this interview with Paul Simpson of Sci-Fi Bulletin about Carpathia too.

So, go grab yourself a copy of Carpathia. And let me know what you think. Thanks!

Carpathia Preview and Reviews

Angry Robot has posted a preview of Carpathia, which hits stores in the US today. Check it out below and read the first seven chapters for free!

 

If that’s not enough to convince you, here’s another review that showed up this morning from Paul Simpson at SciFiBulletin, who gives the book an 8 out of 10:

There’s plenty of gore and horrifying incidents for those who like their vampire fiction to reflect the ’reality’ of the situation, rather than the sparkly Twilight variety, and Forbeck uses the social mores of the time to good effect (a kiss on the lips is infinitely more startling than the presence of vampires, for example!)

Verdict: A fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable historical horror novel. 

Carpathia is on sale now in US stores and will be available in the UK and for ebook worldwide on March 1.

Carpathia in the USA Today!

My latest novel from Angry Robot – Carpathia – hits stores in the US today, and is also available as an ebook directly from Angry Robot and for the Kindle in the UK. It should be on shelves in the UK on March 1, and in the Kindle and Nook (and hopefully iBooks and Kobo) in the US that day too.

In a nutshell, the RMS Carpathia is the name of the ship that picked up the survivors of the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912, nearly 100 years ago. Carpathia is also the name of the Transylvanian mountain range in which sits Castle Dracula. The novel proposes that this is no coincidence, and things get bloody from there.

To mark the day, I wrote a Take Five about the book for Matt Staggs over at Suvudu. That’s five behind-the-scenes facts about the book that you might not know.

The book has been getting great reviews so far. I’ve listed a number of them on the book’s page, but here are some of the better ones I haven’t mentioned here yet.

At Adventures Fantastic, Keith raves about it:

The dialogue is sharp and crisp, witty and fast paced… The imagery is often creepy… [A] highly enjoyable vampire novel, enough so that I’d be willing to read more of Forbeck’s work, and one I recommend if you like traditional vampires.

At Lightsaber Rattling, Pete Morrison writes:

This book is just like Titanic and Twilight combined, if both had been cool and not totally lame… Forbeck has a terrific way of taking the modern mythology that has developed around vampires and taking that myth back to its roots and then spinning it off in a wonderful new direction… There is no way that this book doesn’t become a movie.

At Starburst Magazine, Ed Fortune loves it too:

The first few chapters read as a thrilling tale of survival over impossible odds, which is a good a start, but thankfully, it gets much, much better… Forbeck tells the tale in a tight, character driven way, and doesn’t spare any punches. This is a rapidly moving thriller, with plenty of twists and turns along the way, and is one of the most entertaining horror stories I’ve read in a good long while… Fans of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula will find a lot to love here, as will anyone who prefers their horror with a hint of claustrophobia.

So, go out and grab the book today if you can, or on March 1 if you must wait. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

Meeting in the World of Warcraft

Next Thursday, March 1, I’m going to hold an author talk in the most unusual venue I’ve seen yet. I’m slated to speak with a group of librarians, using World of Warcraft as the medium. It starts at 4 PM Central Time on the Saurfang (Pacific) realm, in the Ironforge Library. You can find details and directions here.

Many thanks to my friend Liz Danforth, who suggested me for this, and to Ellen Forsyth, who set the whole thing up. I believe it’s open to the public, so if you play World of Warcraft and have time to stop on by, please do. I’d love to chat with you.

Good Cause: Fighting For Gwen

My friends Ryan Macklin and Jess Banks have teamed up to launch a fundraiser for Elizabeth Sampat‘s family. Elizabeth’s daughter Gwen is autistic, and as Jess says:

Her family has had to pull her out of the public school where she’s been going since they moved to California because of its stubborn refusal to follow the Individualized Education Program (IEP) that outlines Gwen’s difficulties, goals, and the school’s obligations to help her function at her fullest capacity. IEPs are legal documents, and the school has broken the law time and time again by refusing to provide the support Gwen needs to learn and participate.

A few of my kids have required help at school over the years – my son Ken is hard of hearing and wears two hearing aids, for instance – but we’ve been fortunate to live in a school district that understands their needs, respects the law, and works hard to make attending school a success for them. Young Gwen, it seems, has not been so lucky.

To help the Sampats with their mounting legal bills to fight for the services her daughter needs, deserves, and is required to be given by law, Jess and Ryan set up a fund and asked a bunch of their friends to chip in some stories they could sell on a subscription basis. Fortunately, they know a lot of incredible writers, including folks like  Kenneth Hite, Josh Robern, David Niall Wilson, Cam Banks, Steven Savile, and more.

I’m going to chip in a tale for the cause myself. I have no idea what it’ll be about or when I’ll find the time to write it, but I’ll come up with that. It’s important for Gwen, for the rest of her family, and to me.

So far, the fund has already raised over $5,000. If this kind of project or cause interests you, I encourage you to check it out.

Marvel RPG PDF Out Today

My pals at Margaret Weis Productions have their new Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game ready to hit stores on February 28 –coincidentally the same day my novel Carpathia comes out in the US – but DriveThruRPG is selling the PDF edition starting today. It’s already skyrocketed to the top of their Hottest Items chart. At only $12.99, I can see why.

I worked as part of the original design concept team on this game. That means I chipped in ideas with the rest of the Illuminati that developer Cam Banks assembled to help create the game. That included Rob Donoghue, Will Hindmarch, Phillipe-Antoine Menard, and Jesse Scoble, as well as Cam himself. I was often dubbed Black Bolt. I didn’t say much, but when I did, people listened.

Add on the rest of the crew who actually wrote, developed, and edited the book, and wow, it was an all-star team. I had a great time with them, and I think it shows in the final product. If you’re a Marvel fan, go pick it up. You won’t be disappointed.