Secrets, Like Dragons

My fellow Alliterate and friend Steven Schend is launching a new publishing effort called Vistag Media. To help get the company’s feet under it, he’s posted a new Kickstarter project for Vistag’s first book: Secrets, Like Dragons… It’s an anthology of five novellas written by great lineup of authors – Steven, Ed Greenwood, Jaleigh Johnson, Rosemary Jones, and J.M. Martin – and set in the new fantasy world of Kharndam.

I kicked in as a supporter myself. If you’re into excellent fantasy writing and would like to help support Steven’s efforts at launching a new publishing house, check it out and consider chipping in too. Thanks!

Milwaukee Appearance this Saturday

My friend Brad Beaulieu is hosting a book launch event in Milwaukee this weekend for his first novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, which is garnering glowing reviews, and he asked Kelly Swails, Bill Shunn, John Helfers, and me to join in the fun. It starts off with a signing and a reading at the Boswell Book Company (map) from 2—3 PM this Saturday, April 23. It continues afterward with an informal party from 3—5 PM at Cafe Hollander (map).

For my short reading, I’m struggling to find a passage in one of my latest novels that’s entirely PG, as I’m told we’ll have kids in the audience. Both Amortals and Vegas Knights skew towards PG-13 at best, so I may have to resort to a bit from Star Wars vs. Star Trek in the end. Either way, both parts of the event are open to the public, so if you’re anywhere in the area, come on out and join us!

My Next Original Novel: Carpathia

This morning Angry Robot announced my next original novel: Carpathia. They astutely describe it as Titanic meets 30 Days of Night.

Those familiar with lore about the Titanic know that the ship that hauled the survivors of that horrible disaster out of the icy waters of the North Atlantic was the Carpathia, another cruise ship crossing the Atlantic in the opposite direction. Vampire fanatics should also recognize that the Carpathia is named after the Carpathian Mountains, which border the edges of Transylvania, home of the most famous vampire of all, Count Dracula.

Seems like a natural fit for a historical horror novel, doesn’t it?

As the press release states, Carpathia should be out in March 2012, just in time to be on shelves, e-readers, and MP3 players (yes, there’ll be an audiobook version too!) as the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic arrives. It’s going to be a wild, exciting ride, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

Conduit 2 Out Today

Today marks the release of the latest video game I worked on: Conduit 2 for the Wii. I could say “my” computer game, but it’s not the same as it is with books or even tabletop games. Teams of scores or even hundreds of professionals work on major video games at once, which means they’re never the property of a single person. They’re a true team effort.

In this case, that’s especially true. I came in and wrote the story for Conduit 2 back before The Conduit had even shipped. The folks at High Voltage Software knew they had something good on their hands with the original, and they wanted to be prepared in case they had the opportunity to tackle a sequel. They have a fantastic staff down there in Hoffman Estates, just outside of Chicago, and they’re always a true pleasure to work with.

When it game time to actually write the script for the game, the High Voltage team turned to my pal Jason L. Blair for those duties. I’m eager to finally play the finished game myself and see what Jason did to transform the story I wrote into a full-fledged game. I’m sure it’s going to rock.

Writing and Taxes

To make a living at anything – even, maybe especially, writing – you need to treat it like what it is: a business. As soon as you start relying on the money coming in from that activity, it leaps out of the realm of being a hobby and transforms into something you ought to take seriously, especially if you think not living out of your car or sleeping on your parents’ couch is a good thing. Part of that means thinking about how to structure your business and what that means for you come Tax Day every year.

(If I haven’t lost you already, then hold onto your hats. This is where it starts to get technical.)

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Hot & Steamy Coming this Summer

After taking part in the Writers Symposium at Gen Con last year, organizer Jean Rabe asked me to contribute a story to one of her upcoming anthologies: Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance. She co-edited it with Martin H. Greenberg, an icon in genre anthologies, and I’m pleased to say she bought a story from me for it.

This was a bit of a challenge for me, as I’d never tried my hand at writing a romance before. That may show in the amount of action I packed into this particular love story, but there’s plenty of unbridled attraction running through it to pique anyone’s interest. It’s set in Georgia at the height of the Civil War, and despite all the work I did on Deadlands, I managed to resist putting zombies into it. More’s the shame for some of you, I’m sure, but it’s meant as a romantic tale, not a horror story, of course.

The book should hit shelves around June 7. I can’t wait for you to read it!

Hite on Vegas Knights

At OddCon last weekend, I gave my pal Ken Hite a copy of Vegas Knights. After all, he’s thanked in the acknowledgements as one of my regular compadres in my many wild trips to Vegas, and few people outside the city know it as well as he does. He earned a copy of the book in the best way.

Of course, one of Ken’s favorite books is the excellent Last Call by Tim Powers, a World Fantasy Award-winning book about magic in Vegas, published back in 1992, long before urban fantasy became a subgenre of its own. Couple that with Ken’s well-known status as an erudite and eloquent critic, and I wasn’t sure how he would react to my novel. I figured that if he didn’t like it, he’d at least keep his mouth shut for the sake of our friendship.

Ken just Tweeted a blurb for the book that I wish I could splash across the cover. In its whole, it reads:

Finished VEGAS KNIGHTS by @mforbeck. Master of pacing and plot; style is humane Spillane: clear as a windshield, punchy as an ogre’s fist.

That made my day.

Go Joe! Cobra Wars Out Now

I’d thought that G.I. Joe: Tales from the Cobra Wars was due out next week, but it seems to have slipped out early and is in stores now. Max Brooks (World War Z) and Jeff Conner edited it, and it features novellas from Max,Chuck Dixon, Jon McGoran, Jonathan Maberry, John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya, and me.

That’s damn fine company to find myself in. I haven’t read the rest of the book yet, but I’m itching to, just to see exactly how such a fine group of writers tackled the Joes too.

If you’re interested in getting your copy autographed, nearly half the authors will be appearing in Doylestown, PA, for a group signing session on April 23. That includes Jon, Jonathan, Duane, and Dennis. I won’t be there, but the rest of the guys will be there to console you until you can track me down someplace else.

Ghosts in Italy

I just found out yesterday that Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon was translated into Italian and released into the wild as I Fantasmi di Ascalon sometime last year. For me, that’s particularly cool because my sister Jody spent a dozen or so years in Italy and married a wonderful Italian man who’s now the father of their two beautiful sons. I’ve been to Italy three times myself, and I absolutely love the country and hope to get back someday and explore even more of it.

According to the Ghosts of Ascalon FAQ on the Guild Wars 2 website, other translations are still in the works too. The German edition has been out since last fall, and I have a copy of it on my shelves. The French version is due out from Bibliotheque Interdite (which also publishes translations of my Blood Bowl novels) in June, and a Russian edition is due out from EXMO at some future date.

If you parla Italiano, check out the book’s page at the Multiplayer website. It includes a flip-through preview of a good chunk of the book’s first chapter to get you started. Read it and let me know what you think.

Fantasy Literature on Vegas Knights

Over at FantasyLiterature.com, Stefan Raets gives Vegas Knights a solid review. While the book went off the rails for him later in the story, he raves about the better part of it, saying such kind things as:

Vegas Knights is a fun, entertaining urban fantasy novel that starts off with a bang and rarely slows down. A large part of the first half of Vegas Knights is one long and excellent action scene that’s genuinely exciting and impossible to put down… The pacing is so hectic that it occasionally feels as if this could have been turned into a much longer novel, but on the plus side, this also means there’s not a dull moment to be found. (And how rare is it nowadays to find a fantasy novel that could have used more padding?)

One of the biggest challenges of writing a novel is devising an ending that fits well, and I’ll admit that’s the time I often feel like I’m skittering along the edge of a mountain road, riding on the guard rail on two wheels. That’s where the thrills are after all. I don’t mind being called on it if it’s not working for a reader, as it’s often a matter of taste, but I’m glad that Stefan enjoyed the book as much as he did. He wraps up saying:

[I]f you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll have a blast with this novel. Vegas Knights is far from perfect… but it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate book to bring along and read by the pool if you’re planning a Vegas trip.