Matt Forbeck's Blog, page 16

Join Me at Gamehole Con!

This weekend, I’ll be a guest at Gamehole Con at the Alliant Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s only a couple years old, but the convention has spiked into a huge gathering of gamers, featuring a massive slate of guests, including Peter Adkison, John Kovalic, Steve Jackson, Jonathan Tweet, Ed Greenwood, Rob Heinsoo, Chris Perkins, Bill Cavalier, Jolly Blackburn, Merle Rasmussen, Jen Page, Jeff Martin, Frank Mentzer, and many, many more.

I’m running sessions of the not-even-out-yet Shotguns & Sorcery RPG from 2 PM – 6 PM on Friday and 10 AM – 6 PM on Saturday. This is a preview of the rules to come, and it’ll be my first time actually playing the game. The game’s designer—Rob Schwalb—was supposed to be at the show as well and teach me how to play, but he’s had to cancel due to family health issues.

I’m told all slots for the games have sold out, so I’m teaching myself the rules right now, trying to get up to speed before the show. The game sessions are sure to be a bit unpolished, but I have high hopes they’ll be fun either way.

If you have a chance, come on out and join us for what’s sure to be a fantastic weekend of games. But don’t take my word for it. Just listen to what Kung Fury has to say.

Signing in Beloit on Saturday

This Saturday, from 11 AM–2 PM, I’ll be signing books at Turtle Creek Books (AKA the Beloit College Bookstore), here in Beloit, Wisconsin. To sweeten the pot, DK has sent along posters of Marvel’s The Avengers Encyclopedia, featuring that gorgeous Mike McKone artwork from the book’s cover. They’re free to the first 50 or so people who show up to claim them.

To ice that cake, Turtle Creek Books is giving 30% off The Avengers Encyclopedia to anyone dressed in the full costume of any Marvel hero or villain. So, break out your Halloween costumes a little early and come on down to get a look at the book in person. I’d be happy to scribble on any copies you buy. I hope to see you there!

The Monster Story Bundle Is Here

Over at StoryBundle.com, Kevin J. Anderson has put together a killer collection of monstrous stories by a murderer’s row of authors.

Pay at least $5, and you get six books. Chip in $15 or more, and you get all twelve books. They show up in whatever ebook format you prefer, all DRM-free. You even get to divvy your money up with regards to how much goes to the authors, to the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, or the fine folks who keep StoryBundle.com rolling along.

This bundle runs for only 3 weeks, from October 15 through November 5. The first six titles include:

The Love-Haight Case Files by Jean Rabe and Donald J. Bingle
Jurassic Dead by David Sakmyster and Rick Chesler
Empty Rooms by Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Pack Dynamics by Julie Frost
Working Stiff by Kevin J. Anderson
Cayo Hueso by Keith R.A. DeCandido

For $15 or more, you get the above books, plus:

For This is Hell by Aaron Rosenberg and Steven Savile
The Wolf at the End of the World by Douglas Smith
Enter the Janitor by Josh Vogt
Helmet Head by Mike Baron
Mammoth Dawn by Kevin J. Anderson and Gregory Benford
Monster Academy: I Will Not Eat People by Matt Forbeck (me!)

That’s a dozen books for only $15, all good, scary reads to help get you through your haunted holidays and beyond. Go grab them while you can, and get reading before this deal fades away like a ghost in the dawn.

The Avengers Encyclopedia Is Out Today!

My latest book—Marvel’s The Avengers Encyclopedia—hits stores today. I wrote about a third of it, along with Daniel Wallace and Matthew K. Manning—both of whom are huge comic-book experts—and Alan Cowsill and Glenn Dakin chipped in some smaller bits too. It features a fantastic wraparound cover by Mike McKone with colors by Rod Reis.

At 352 pages, this is a hefty book—about four and a half pounds of reading—although still a bit shy of my latest edition of The Marvel Encyclopedia. While The Avengers Encyclopedia has, of course, some overlap with The Marvel Encyclopedia, we wrote the new book from scratch and examined each character’s relationship with the Avengers and their roles in the stories of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There’s plenty of fresh, new material here for everyone to enjoy.

Also today, Jake Magee interviewed me for The Janesville Gazette, the paper for the city about twenty minutes north of me, where my wife works as a school social worker. I had a great time chatting with Jake, and we covered things ranging from games to novels to growing up in Beloit.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be signing the book at New York Comic Con this weekend and then again at Turtle Creek Books here in Beloit, Wisconsin, on October 24. Hope to see you out there!

Marvel Signings: NYCC and Turtle Creek Books

I have a couple of upcoming events planned to help promote the release of Marvel’s The Avengers Encyclopedia, which hits stores tomorrow, October 6. First off, I’ll be at New York Comic Con this week, October 8–11.

This will be my first time to the big show in the Big Apple, and I can’t wait. I have four signings scheduled at the DK Publishing booth, #2204, for an hour each.

Thursday: 4–5 PM.
Friday: 10–11 AM.
Saturday: 1–2 PM.
Sunday: 1–2 PM.

Otherwise, you might be able to find me bouncing around the show or wandering the streets of the Big Apple.

If that’s too far out of the way for you, a couple weeks later, on October 24, I’ll be signing books at Turtle Creek Books (a.k.a. the Beloit College Bookstore), right here in my hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin. I’ll be there from 11 AM to 1:30 PM, so go hit our wonderful farmers market earlier in the morning and then stop by the bookstore to say hi.

I hope to see you somewhere out there, but either way, be sure to check out Marvel’s The Avengers Encyclopedia. I had a ball working on it with Matthew K. Manning and Daniel Wallace, and I can’t wait for you to see it.

Find Me at New York Comic Con

I’m heading out to New York Comic Con next week to sign copies of Marvel’s The Avengers Encyclopedia, which I wrote with Matthew Manning and Daniel Wallace. Both of them will be out there with me as well, so if you like you can grab the book — which debuts October 6 — and get it signed by all three of us.

I have four signings scheduled for the show, of an hour each.

Thursday: 4–5 PM.
Friday: 10–11 AM.
Saturday: 1–2 PM.
Sunday: 1–2 PM.

For each of these, I’ll be at the DK Publishing booth, #2204.

I’ve never been to a New York Comic Con before, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s possibly the biggest pop culture show in the world for the first time. I love New York, but I haven’t been able to get back there for something like 12 years, I think. (Too busy raising kids and writing books too manage it.) I can’t wait to see how it’s changed and to catch up with lots of old friends too.

I hope to see you there!

My Gen Con Schedule

Gen Con is almost here! I know, it’s usually in the middle of August, but it got bumped up to late July this year, which means that freight train of fun barreling toward us is now CLOSER THAN IT SEEMS.

Gen Con is always my favorite event of the year, and if you have the means, come on out and join me there! I’ll be around for all five days of the Best Four Days in Gaming, and here’s where you can (officially, at least) find me:

Wednesday, July 29:

The Diana Jones Award Party, which I host. We’re going on fifteen years now, which seems impossible for an award that rose from a trivia trophy composed of the burnt remains of the last copy of the Indiana Jones Roleplaying Game found at TSR UK. It’s an industry-only event, but if you qualify and want details, ping me at matt@forbeck.com.

Thursday, July 30

1 PM:  Writer’s Craft: Editing Your Work , with Susan J. Morris, Erin M. Evans, Howard Andrew Jones, and James L. Sutter.


3 PM: Kickstarting for Fun and Profit , with James Ernest, JT Smith, Luke Peterschmidt, Richard Thomas, and Rachel Ventura.

Friday, July 31

11 AM: Signing in Author’s Alley in the exhibit hall. This is my sole time for signing rather than chatting, so if you have something for me to autograph, be sure to bring it by.
12 PM: Building Games in the Garage, with Keith Baker, James Ernest, Paul Peterson, and JT Smith.

Saturday, August 1

1 PM:  Writer’s Craft: Sustaining the Tension in Novels , with Susan J. Morris, Lauren M. Roy, John Hornor Jacobs, and Chuck Wendig.
4 PM:  Character Craft: Worthy Opponents , with Elizabeth Vaughan, Christopher Rowe, Terry Brooks, and Geoffrey Girard.

That may not seem like a lot — I ran a publisher’s booth at the show for many years, and in the times before that I’d run about 40 hours of events — but I have a slate of games I’ll be playing with my kids, plus business meetings too. It already feels packed to the rafters.

Still, if you spot me wandering about, be sure to say hi. I hope to see you there!

 

At Comic-Con 2015

I’m already here at Comic-Con 2015 with my son/personal assistant Marty in tow. We had a great time last night at Preview Night, and we’re girding ourselves for the full-on Conpocalypse, which includes a brand-new event called Geek Chic XP (more on that below).

First up, I’m signing free Avengers Encyclopedia posters at the Penguin/Mysterious Galaxy booth (#1515) at 11 AM. Then I’ll be at the DK booth (#1028) from 4-6, signing more posters and maybe some copies of Marvel’s Avengers: The Battle Against Ultron too. I’m told we’ll have about 50 posters at each signing, so grab them before they’re gone!

What’s The Avengers Encyclopedia, you ask? It’s a brand-new book I co-wrote along with Daniel Wallace and Matthew Manning, both of whom have tons of pop-culture credits. Matthew wrote most of Batman: A Visual History, to which I contributed, and Daniel was one of the lead writers on the original Marvel Encyclopedia too. It’s a stunning book.

My schedule for the rest of the show includes signings at the DK Pop Culture booth (#1028) at the following times:

Friday: 10 AM– 12 PM
Saturday: 1 PM– 3 PM
Sunday: 10 AM– 11 AM

I’m also slated to be on the IATMW panel and Scribe Awards presentation at 6 PM on Friday in Room 23ABC.

On Saturday evening, from 5–7 PM, I’ll be hosting a slot at the spanking-new Geek Chic XP headquarters at the Horton Grand Hotel. Stop by and say hi, sit and have a meal or drink, and rest your con-weary feet as we play some games and jaw for a bit about all the fun. Bestselling author and fellow Cheesehead Pat Rothfuss is slated to host the slot after mine, so hang out long enough, and you’ll get to chat with him too.

If you’re in town for the show, I hope to see you there!

Leverage at the Horton Grand

I’m heading off to Comic-Con next week, and that immediately brought to mind one of my favorite places in San Diego: the Horton Grand Hotel. I stayed there a number of times over the years, and I always loved it. It’s a wonderful old place with some fantastic history behind it, as well as a gorgeous, old-school bar perfect for getting away from the crowds.

I actually included the Horton in my Leverage novel, The Con Job, which is set at Comic-Con. Just for fun, here’s a sample chapter from the book, in which the Leverage crew cons their way into the hotel, despite the fact it’s sold out for Comic-Con.

Just a word of advice: Don’t try this yourself. In real life, the Horton Grand folks are much too sharp.

 

Chapter Five

“You’ve been here before, I take it,” Nate said as he and Sophie walked up to the front of the Horton Grand. They’d left the others waiting in the cab.

“Of course,” Sophie said. “It’s a beautiful place, truly historic. The restoration of the main staircase is fantastic.”

Nate stared up at the building from the corner of Island and Fourth. It looked like something straight out of Vienna, Austria, a classic facade that featured tall windows on the first floor and bay windows with balconies on the second and third. They walked toward a blue awning with the hotel’s name on it and entered the wide, airy foyer. “Did you know that Wyatt Earp used to live here?”

Sophie said. “The lawman?”

“More like the gambler. He owned three saloons while he lived in back in the late 1800s, and every one of them offered games of chance.”

“That wasn’t exactly illegal around here back then, though, was it?”

She gave him a little smile. “He was a scoundrel just the same.”

Only a few people milled about the foyer at the moment. One pair of them was dressed up as Superman and Batman, Nate knew, but versions of them that he’d never seen before. He recognized the two icons, of course. It was impossible to live in America and avoid them. But he didn’t read comics—at least not anymore—and he wasn’t up on any of the changes that might have happened to the characters in the pages of their comics.

Nate and Sophie walked straight through the foyer to the front desk, situated off to the right. There, a tall man in a faded Batman T-shirt and a name tag that read Ray greeted them with a forced smile.

“Hello, how may I help you?” he said.

Sophie stepped up to the counter, removed her sunglasses, and spoke to the man in a flawless Southern California accent. “We’d like to check into our rooms,” she said. “They should be under the name Chris Bucket.”

The man tapped a few words into his computer and bared a grimace. “I’m sorry, but I don’t seem to have any reservation under that name. Did you place it through the convention housing bureau?”

“Of course not,” Sophie said with a nervous laugh. “How do you think that would work out for Mr. Canyon? He’d be mobbed.”

“How are you spelling it?”

“Canyon, as in Grand,” Nate said, pumping up his own obnoxiousness. “How the hell do you think it’s spelled?”

The desk clerk started to scowl at Nate’s attitude, but quickly caught himself. “C-A-N-Y-O-N, sir.”

Nate threw up his hands and turned to Sophie. “They lost our reservation. I told you. I knew this would happen. You put Carissa in charge of tackling hotel reservations. You can’t expect them to be done right.”

Sophie put a hand on Nate’s shoulder to calm him down. “It’s all right,” she said. “I’m sure there’s just been a misunderstanding.” She focused her dazzling smile on the clerk. “Isn’t that right, Ray?”

Ray shrugged. “I’m afraid not. The entire downtown area’s been booked solid for months.”

Nate groaned. “We’re going to lose our jobs over this. All of us!”

Sophie leaned in over the counter and spoke to the clerk in a conspiratorial tone. “He worries so much. It’s just that, well, Christian—I mean, our employer—has been going through a rough patch and he is a bit more temperamental than usual. Are you sure there isn’t any way you can help us?”

The clerk gave Sophie a sympathetic wince. “There really is no room at the inn.”

Nate leaned forward over Sophie’s shoulder. “This is ridiculous,” he said to the Ray. “Is your manager here?”

Ray pointed to his name tag. Right below his name, it read Day Manager.

Nate threw up his hands again and started to walk away. He didn’t look back.

Sophie sighed. “Well, that is too bad. We’d heard so many excellent things about the Horton Grand. Our employer was hoping to make this place his headquarters during the show—his man-cave, if you will.”

Nate stormed back and took Sophie by the arm to lead her away. “Well, Mr. Bale’s just going to have to learn to live with it,” he said. “But if he winds up sleeping on the streets this weekend, then we’re all going to end up there. Permanently. Let’s go see if we can find some other place for our batty boss to hang.”

“Wait,” Ray said as Nate and Sophie turned from the desk. Knowing that Ray couldn’t see his face, Nate allowed himself a brief, small smile.

Sophie took her arm back from Nate, who stopped in his tracks, and turned around. “Yes?”

The flustered clerk looked down at her. “I, ah—I just remembered that we do have one last suite left. It’s the manager’s suite, but, you know . . .” He gestured at the name tag on his Batman shirt.

“Since you’re the manager?” Sophie sidled back up to the front desk.

“I can release the room to you, of course.” He gave Sophie a sheepish smile and then let his fingers fly across his keyboard. “Ah, yes. Here we go.”

Nate returned to Sophie’s side. “How big is this suite?”

“About six hundred square feet. It comes with a king bed in the bedroom and a queen sofa bed in the sitting room.” He looked up, chagrined. “I hope that will work for you.”

Nate grimaced, thinking about how they would manage with all five of them crammed into a single room. “It’s going to be a tight fit.”

“Are you sure you don’t have anything else?” Sophie asked, a grateful yet hopeful tone in her voice.

Ray wrung his hands. “That really is the last room we have. We’re entirely booked, and I’m sure you’ll find the same is true at every other hotel within a dozen miles of here. I do hope it’ll be enough.”

Sophie reached over the counter and gave the manager’s hand a squeeze. “I’m sure we can make do.”

My Comic-Con Schedule

Much to my delight, DK Publishing is bringing me out to San Diego for Comic-Con this year. I went to the show several times over the years, but I haven’t been back since 2010 or so. I’m looking forward to catching up with lots of old friends and making new ones too.

My schedule currently includes signings at the following times:

Thursday: 11am – 12pm (Mysterious Galaxy Booth #1519) and 4pm – 6pm (DK Pop Culture Booth #1028)
Friday: 10am – 12pm (DK Pop Culture Booth #1028)
Saturday: 1pm – 3pm (DK Pop Culture Booth #1028)
Sunday: 10am – 11am (DK Pop Culture Booth #1028)

I’m also slated to be on the IATMW panel, but the time and location for that hasn’t been announced yet.

I’m told there will be freebies on hand for me to sign at the DK booth, so get them while they last. While I’m there specifically to sign The Marvel Encyclopedia and Avengers: Battle Against Ultron, I’m happy to sign anything else I’ve worked on too, so don’t be shy. I hope to see you there!