Marvel Heroic Roleplaying On Its Way

Last summer, I joined up with an all-star team of game designers to pitch in on the upcoming Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game coming out from Margaret Weis Productions. That made me part of the game’s Illuminati, along with Cam Banks, Rob Donoghue, Will Hindmarch, Philippe-Antoine Ménard, and Jesse Scoble.

Cam, who’s developing the game, has since run with it and drafted Jack Norris, Jesse Scoble (again!), Aaron Sullivan, and Chad Underkoffler (among others) in to handle the actual writing. The Basic Game is already off to press and should be in stores on February 28. (Coincidentally, that’s the same day my novel Carpathia is released. Going to be a busy day.)

MWP has been releasing previews of the game on its website. Go check them out and whet your appetite for what’s sure to be an amazing game.

Magic #1 Out Today!

The first issue of the Magic: The Gathering comic book I’m writing for IDW hits stores today. Be sure to hustle down to your local comic shop to grab yourself a copy, which comes with a playable, alternate-art card for the bestselling Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, on which the comic is based.

If you don’t want/need the card or just prefer your comics in a less tangible format, you can also order the comic through comiXology and download it immediately. You can then read it through your web browser or on your iOS, Android, or Kindle Fire device.

I’m thrilled to be involved with this book. I’ve known about Magic since before it was published back in 1993, and I’ve watched it grow into a global phenomenon. I’ve also been pals with the folks at IDW since they were all back with WildStorm Productions in the day, and it’s wonderful to be working with them on comics again.

To top it all off, the art team on this book is amazing. Martin Cóccolo‘s pencils and inks make the book even better than it looked in my head when I was writing it, and J. Edwin Stevens‘s color bring it all to stunning life. Big thanks also to my editors at IDW – Carlos Guzman, John Barber, and Denton Tipton – for juggling all three of us plus Wizards of the Coast to make this the best book it can be.

As a taste, I’ve embedded a free preview of the first several pages of the book for you to check out.

Carpathia Reviews and Interviews

My historical horror novel Carpathia is due out at the end of the month. It hits most of the world on February 28, which is the release date for the ebook edition as well. The UK print edition reaches shelves a couple days later on March 1. There’s also an audiobook edition in the works for June 1.

Today, L. Dean Murphy interviewed me about the book for The Big Thrill, the International Thriller Writers’ webzine. In it, I chat a bit about how I work and one of the scenes in the book that stuck with me for weeks.

Last week, over at Libris Leonis, Daniel Franklin raved about Carpathia. Among many kind things, he wrote:

Carpathia doesn’t have the kind of emotionless hero who is simply brave, but nor does it have heroes who are terrified but act despite it without reason, instead being blessed by Forbeck with Lucy, Quin and Abe, a trio who are brave because it is what they feel they ought to be, or because of each other.  It’s a real strength of the novel, because it makes it much more plausible; these are characters who feel human and alive…

Intelligent, well-written and enjoyable fiction that doesn’t take itself too seriously without descending into farce. Carpathia is definitely a novel to watch out for.

Also, over at Terror Tree, Theresa Derwin gets a real charge out of the book. She writes:

Part historical drama, part romance, part adventure, Carpathia revamps (groan) the vampire genre and there are absolutely no sparkles in sight. Laced with wit, irony and gallows humour, this novel boasts a decent amount of blood and guts, a large dose of humour as mentioned and a dash of romance. The chapters are short and sweet aiding pace and the characters are well drawn.

To top it all off, as I wrote this post, Ranting Dragon released its list of its five most anticipated books of the month, and Carpathia made the cut! Its summary says:

When a novel is published by Angry Robot Books, you know you’re in for a weird and exhilarating ride. When that novel is written by Matt Forbeck, author of great novels like Vegas Knights and Amortals, you know it’s a must-read.

I can’t wait for the rest of you to read it. Less than four weeks to go!

BNW Book 1 Done!

Last night at about 10:45 PM, I put the finishing touches on the first draft of Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revolution, the first book in my 12 for ’12 plan. That cut it a bit close to the end of the month, but it means I’m still on track for the year, and I get a huge amount of satisfaction from that.

The next step is to get the book compiled and out to my backers who set themselves up with the “read as you go” levels of rewards. Then I’m going to set to plotting Book 2 and Book 3. I have ideas for them already, but I need to set down actual outlines for them yet.

Once I’m done with that, I should have enough distance from the book to revise it for a second draft. Then it’s copyediting, cover art, formatting, printing (for the backers who grabbed POD editions), and release!

When I set up the BNW Kickstarter, I put June in as the expected delivery date. With luck, I should be able to do much better than that. I can’t wait for you to have a chance to read this.

Cross Those Contest Streams!

Throughout the month of February, I’m taking part in a huge multi-author contest set to give away dozens of free books. It’s the brainchild of my friend Ari Marmell, and it’s called Crossing the Streams.

Each participating author (like me), is going to run a contest and give away a couple of books. For myself, I’m putting up autographed ARCs (advance reader copies) of my upcoming novel Carpathia, which hits stores on February 28.

In the end, though, one contestant will take home a book from every author involved in the contest. If you’d like to join in all the fun, check out my Crossing the Streams contest page and get going!

New Reviews for Carpathia

Carpathia – my upcoming historical horror novel that mashes up vampires and the Titanic – picked up a hat trick of glowing reviews over the past week. The book won’t be out until the end of February, but these reviewers got their hands on advance reader copies, and I’m happy they did.

First, Nibbles at Fantasy Nibbles gives the book four out of five stars. Her harshest complaint is “It wasn’t long enough,” but she goes far beyond that, saying:

It’s no end of fun. Pure crucifix-wielding, stake-plunging goodness. With icebergs. Brilliant!

Second, Shadowhawk at Founding Fields raves over the book. As he says:

Verdict: Matt Forbeck is bloody brilliant.

Third, over at Famous Monsters of Filmland, Wesley Chu loves the book too.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. But by the next morning, after barely sleeping a wink, I can honestly say I am now a fan of both historical fiction and horror, as long as Matt Forbeck is the author.

Thanks to each of them for taking the time to read the book and for not being shy with their praise. That kind of support makes me grin.

Parlez-Vous Amortels?

Last week, on January 19, my novel Amortals was published in French by L’Atalante Éditions as Amortels. It features a snazzy new cover by David Demaret and was translated by Denis E. Savine. Many thanks to both of them, and I hope Denis’s text is as excellent as David’s illustration – which I trust it is, but I can’t read a lick of French.

L’Atalante is a fantastic publisher that puts Amortals in excellent company, alongside works created by a staggering list of excellent authors, including Terry Pratchett, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook, Walter Jon Williams, Lev Grossman, and John Scalzi. I’m thrilled to see Amortels reach out to a whole new audience, and I’m looking forward to seeing how my French friends and readers take to it.

12 for ’12 Starts Today

I finally managed to clear the decks of a few lingering projects left over from 2011, and I’m plunging into the first of the 12 for ’12 novels today. Sharp folks like you might realize that this only gives me 16 days to write 50,000 words, and you’re absolutely right.

Nothing like starting off the year with an extra challenge.

As of the moment, I’ve already written 25,000 words and a comic script this month. Given that I have an outline, characters, and a world all ready to go for this first book, I’m confident I can get it done by the end of the month. That doesn’t mean it won’t be a stretch, but it’s doable.

If you cast your eyes over to the right-hand columns on my website, you’ll see I’ve installed a couple progress bars. The first tallies the number of words written for the current book – currently titled Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revolution – and the second counts up the number of 12 for ’12 books completed so far. You might notice they look a little empty at the moment, but that’s fine. We’re in early days, and it’s my job to fill them up.

Wish me luck.

12 for ’12 Starts – Really Soon!

I’d hoped to launch straight into the Brave New World novels trilogy that makes up the first quarter of my 12 for ’12 project straight away on January 1. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out quite that smoothly. Due to family illnesses and computer troubles, I lost a couple weeks worth of work time toward the end of the year, and I still have an obligation or two I have to fulfill before I can put my nose to that so-shiny grindstone.

The current plan is to wrap everything up by the end of the week. This should give me a full three weeks to finish the first book in the BNW trilogy. That sounds like a push, I know, but it’s about what I had planned, so I’m not too worried about it – yet.

I’m cooking along on my current project (worldbuilding for a yet-to-be announced thing) and just punched out a cool 5,000 words for it today. Meanwhile, I’m diving into the old Brave New World Roleplaying Game books to refresh my memory about all the things I wrote for it a decade or more ago. I’m happy to say there’s a lot of great material there, and it all jibes well with my plans so far.

So, wish me luck on this busy week so I can make the most of a busy month. Thanks!

12 for ’12 Update

It’s been a bit quiet here since the first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter wound up in such a spectacular way. Thanks again to all my backers for putting their faith (and their pledges!) behind the project. I’m thrilled straight through with how well it went.

As you might imagine, I’ve been hard at work for the past couple weeks since. During the Kickstarter drive, I had to push for attention all the time to get the word about it out and to remind people that the clock was ticking. Now that it’s over, it’s time for the real work to start.

As of now, I’ve gotten many of the initial rewards out to the backers. This includes the MP3s of “Revolution” from Makeshift Prodigy, the private link to the PDF of the Brave New World Roleplaying Game core rules for only $5, and the ebook version of the first published Shotguns & Sorcery story, “Goblintown Justice.”

This leaves the full-color map of Crescent City that Aaron Acevedo created for me. He’s completed his excellent work on it, but I’m holding back on delivering it for a while yet, likely until I get a bit more of the books written. I want to make sure it features useful tags for locations from the books, and it’s hard to ensure that without having text in hand, so that’ll be a little while yet.

Then, of course, there’s the biggest part of the project: the actual novels! I’m working hard to clear the decks as much as I can to give myself as much time as possible to get the books written on schedule. As per the plan, I won’t start actual writing until January 1 at the earliest, but I hope to have a detailed outline in place before that fateful date.

Shortly after I start that, of course, I need to start thinking about the second Kickstarter drive. For now, though, it’s nose to the keyboard while I line up all the words (and plans for more words) in the most entertaining order I can manage. Wish me luck!