Over at SFFWRTCHT (Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers Chat), Bryan Thomas Schmidt interviews me about a whole load of different things, including primarily my 12 for ’12 project. It wound up being an extensive interview that goes on for a long bit, but that’s what happens when you cover that much ground.

Then, over at Squid Eye and the Bitter Guy, Justin Mohareb (the Bitter Guy himself) chatted with me for a fun and breezy podcast that concentrated mostly on 12 for ’12 again. I’ve known Justin since the days when I wrote the Brave New World RPG, so it was fun to catch up for a bit and go over the new project.

We only have 12 days left in my first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter drive, so it’s time to make a special announcement. One of the most frequent requests I’ve gotten for new rewards is to figure out some way to include copies of the original Brave New World RPG. Because I don’t publish that game – my friends at AEG do – I can’t just toss in copies. They’re not mine to give.

HOWEVER, thanks to my friends over at DriveThruRPG.com, I’m able to give any backers who pledge $25 or more a private link that allows you to grab the PDF of the core rulebook through DriveThruRPG.com for only $5! That’s a savings of $13 off the standard price, or over 72% off.

I’ll send the link out as soon as the drive ends on December 4. I won’t see any of that extra money, but I wanted to do what I could to make sure that those who want a copy of the original game have a chance to grab it cheap.

So, please spread the news far and wide! I want as many people as can to take advantage of this bonus. Many thanks to DriveThruRPG.com for helping me make this offer, and special thanks to all of you who have stepped up to back 12 for ’12. I literally couldn’t do it without you.

This morning, bestselling author Mike Stackpole chipped in what we needed to crack $6,000, which brings our total to 200% of our goal! That puts us only $2k away from unlocking Book 2. I have little doubt we’ll be able to manage that within the next 15 days, but the real push will be toward reaching the final stretch goal of $15k, which unlocks Book 3 too.

Getting there is going to take a bit more work. To that end, I spent a chunk of last week writing blog posts and doing interviews with people. If you have friends who you think might be interested in the project, these are a great place to point them for more information. I post links to these regularly here and on Twitter and Facebook, but here’s a list of the latest ones to make it easy for you.

• An interview with the Onion’s AV Club
• An interview with fellow author Chuck Wendig
• An interview with Jeremy LC Jones for FlamesRising.com
• “What Is Brave New World?” at Civilian Reader
• How to Turn a Game into a Novel at SFFWRTCHT
• “The Speed of Write” at SFSignal.com
• “The Fastest Novel I Ever Wrote” at fellow author William King’s site

Please spread the word far and wide! If you have sites of your own or can recommend to other sites to cover the project, don’t be shy about having anyone contact me. The more people we get on board, the more books we wind up with at the end of the drive, and I cannot wait to start writing them for you.

Thanks so much for all your support!

P.S. IDW CEO Ted Adams, just pushed us up over $6k! Thanks, Ted!

Today, three articles about my 12 for ’12 project appeared. In the first, on the Civilian Reader website, I wrote a guest post about “What Is Brave New World?” It’s a question that comes up a lot, of course, and I tried to nail down the answer.

Next, I wrote a guest post for Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s SFFWRTCHT website. (That’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Chat, which Bryan regularly hosts on Twitter.) This time, I wrote about how to turn a game into a novel, something I have more than a bit of experience with. I’m so used to doing it, I sometimes forget that it can seem opaque and mysterious to those who haven’t done it, so I tried to shine a bit of light into the corners of that process.

Last up, Robert Wieland interviewed me about 12 for ’12 for The Onion’s AV Club. I absolutely love The Onion and the A.V. Club, so that was a true treat. Rob asked some excellent questions about the project and the game it’s based on, so be sure to give it a read.

I’m still looking for other ways to get the word about the Kickstarter drive out there, so if you know or have any, don’t be shy about letting me know. Thanks!

Today sees two excellent interviews with me about 12 for ’12 and writing in general. In the first, über-writer Chuck Wending gave me one of the most challenging and intriguing sets of questions I’ve ever faced outside of a police station. The conversation ranged from 12 for ’12 to Carpathia to advice about both writing and parenting, and it turns out that facing such an interrogation is far more fun.

In the second, Jeremy LC Jones – who’s likely interviewed me more than anyone else I can remember – drills me for more details about 12 for ’12. He leads with “Um, Matt, what are you thinking?” which sounds exactly like the kind of question my father would ask me after one of my more destructive high-school escapades. It ramps right up from there. If you’re interested in 12 for ’12, it’s a must-read.

As part of my efforts to promote my 12 for ’12 project and its first Kickstarter drive (which is up to 191% and lurching toward unlocking Book 2!), I’m doing a bit of a blog tour. Today, I have guest posts that went up on two different websites, and in both cases, I wrote about writing fast.

Over at SFSignal, I wrote a piece called “The Speed of Write.” It’s about how you can write fast and still write well. That’s a concept many people have a hard time grokking, especially when they read about how one great writer or another spent years and years on one of their favorite books. They figure that if long development equals a good project, than the reverse must be true, meaning fast books are rotten.

Of course, that’s not true. Speed doesn’t have much to do with quality, especially when you’re talking about first drafts. Just check out how well the video game Duke Nukem Forever did despite having one of the longest development cycles ever.

To back this up, I wrote a post on Bill King’s site called “The Fastest Novel I Ever Wrote.” This finally puts into print a story I’ve told at many a convention over the years but never wrote down – until now – about how I once wrote a 91,000-word book in 15 days.

Besides being a fantastic and successful writer himself, Bill’s one of the best friends of my life, and he gave me a tremendously kind introduction over there. Sooo, just skip over that first part unless you enjoy knowing that forty-something fathers of five can still blush. But be sure to read the rest and let me know what you think.

A lot of wonderful people have been out there telling folks about my 12 for ’12 project and the first Kickstarter drive for it, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’d like to highlight a couple bits today.

First, Cindy Au – who works at Kickstarter – blogged about the project yesterday in her post, “So You Want to Write a Book?” In it she writes, “Part of why Kickstarter exists is because money cannot be the thing that stands in the way of creation. That is not a world we can afford to live in.” That’s an amazing sentiment and one that makes me even happier to be working through Kickstarter for this.

Second, Richard Bliss interviewed me for the third installment of his new podcast about gaming-related Kickstarter projects, Funding the Dream. I had a great time chatting with Richard, and I hope you will too if you listen in.

To cap all this off, the Kickstarter drive now stands at just shy of twice the initial goal of $3,000, and we still have over three weeks to go before the clock runs out. It got a great kick in the pants yesterday when my friend and fellow game designer Matt James pledged $1,000 and grabbed the first of the five available Alpha-level rewards. Huge thanks go out to Matt for showing such faith in the project. I can’t wait to work up his Alpha-level character with him.