Matt Forbeck's Blog, page 54

Insightful Interview and Bond Podcast

You can tell when I'm busy because I don't post around here nearly as often as I'd like. Things like Twitter and Facebook make it easy for me to toss out quick updates or observations with far less effort, so I tend to rely on those rather than writing bits for here—or for GeekDad or Tor.com, both of which are kind enough to publish my posts too.

In the meantime, though, I took part in a couple interviews that were released over the past week. First, I joined the crew at the RedPhoneZone for a discussion of one of my favorite movie series, the James Bond films. We had a great time, ranging over the entire gamut.

Today, Sue London posted an interview with me over at Writing Insight. In it, I talk about the ups and downs of being a freelance writer, plus a description of me as a superhero action figure.

At the moment, I'm gearing up for a quick trip to Seattle later this week for a still secret-project, so expect a bit more silence here as I keep my nose to the virtual grindstone, even as I wander about.

 

Free Angry Robot Song Remix Album

Earlier this year, John Anealio asked me to help him out with some verses for the "Angry Robot" song he'd written as a theme song for the Angry Robot podcasts that Mur Lafferty hosts for Angry Robot, the publisher of my original novels. He posted it on his website for free downloads, and people seemed to like it.

That included the folks at Angry Robot, who suggested we run a remixing contest for the song, with the prize being a death scene for a character named after the winner in my next original novel, Carpathia. We had a lot of great entries, and we recently announced the winners. John then assembled the best of the remixes and has made them available as a free, downloadable album. Be sure to check it out, and enjoy!

Heading for WisCon

I'm heading up to WisCon in Madison this weekend to take part in, as they bill it, the world's leading feminist science-fiction convention, which has expanded over the years to include discussions on gender, race, and class. I'm scheduled for one panel at 1 PM on Saturday: "Shakespeare Got to Get Paid, Son." My fellow panelists (Shannon Prickett, Shana Cohen, Alexandra Erin, and Kathryn Sullivan) and I will talk about the changing landscape of professional writing and how to make a living while weathering it.

Other than that, I plan to wander around, meet people, catch up with old friends, and have a great time. I'll definitely check into the Tor party on Saturday night, to do many of those exact same things, but in a single suite. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there!

Tie-Ins in the Onion

Rob Weiland interviewed me and a few other writers for an article on Wisconsin tie-in novelists recently, and today it appears in The Onion's A.V. Club. As a huge fan of The Onion and the A.V. Club for many years, it's a real thrill to see my name up there with my friends Rob King, Steve Sullivan, Margaret Weis, and John Jackson Miller.

Ghost Recon Online Announced

Yesterday, Ghost Recon Online was officially announced to the world. That means I can now reveal that this is the game I helped out with when I was in Singapore for a couple weeks back in March. It's a free-to-play MMO for the PC set in the world of the Tom Clancy games, including Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six. The beta starts this summer, so if you'd like to get in on the fun, stop by the site and sign up.

Angry Robot Remix Winners Announced

Earlier today, Angry Robot announced the winners of the contest we ran to remix the "Angry Robot" song I co-wrote with John Anealio. John, Marc Gascoigne, and I listened to and ranked the songs and picked three winners.

David De La Hoya took third place with his mix, Denis Cherryman took second, and David Chase — who blew us away with his overlaid rap — took first. As their prize, I'll include fictional versions of each of them in Carpathia, the next novel I'm writing for Angry Robot to publish — and then I'll kill them. (The fictional versions, of course.) To thank all the talented people who took the time to submit a mix, I'm going to include everyone of their names in the book too.

John's busy putting together an album collecting the various remixes, but in the meantime, you can listen to the winners on the Angry Robot site. They're fantastic.

A Spanish Interview and Vegas Knights Giveaway

Over at the Itzel Library — a Mexican book review site — Yel interviewed me about Vegas Knights. While all our interactions were in English, she translated the entire interview into Spanish as well and posted a braided version of the interview in both languages.

Back when I graduated college, I could speak Spanish fluently. As part of my degree through the Residential College at the University of Michigan, I took two terms of intensive Spanish, plus a term of conversational Spanish. Each of the intensive courses was worth eight credits, and we met for two hours four days a week, plus had 15 minutes of lab work each day. On top of that, we had a Spanish-only lunch table in the cafeteria and met for a Spanish-only coffee hour once per week.

At the end of those two terms, I had to pass a United Nations level 3 fluency exam, which was a three-hour exam topped by a fifteen-minute interview with two native speakers of the language. If I failed it, I risked losing out on all eight credits for that term. I studied so hard, I actually wound up dreaming in Spanish for the week before the exam.

Of course, now I've lost most of it. I can puzzle out some of what Yel wrote, but mostly because there's a reliable translation right next to it. Someday I'll get back into it. Someday. Or maybe I'll just come to rely on Google Translate even more.

Meanwhile, Yel's giving away an autographed copy of Vegas Knights to one of her followers. Win it, and I'll dedicate it to you and ship it on out. Good luck!

Pornokitsch on Vegas Knights

Over at Pornokitsch, Jared read Vegas Knights and mostly enjoyed it. Unlike other reviewers, he didn't care much for the chase scenes, but he really dug the mix of magic and gambling, especially the game Mojo Poker, which plays a huge role in the book:

Mr. Forbeck's invention of "Mojo Poker" may be the best magical contest since Assumption. Above and beyond the pure fun of wizards duelling over the card table, Mr. Forbeck also uses the card game as a vehicle to demonstrate both cunning and sorcery.

He then sums up:

Vegas Knights has a core handful of intriguing scenes surrounded by a lot of self-consciously blockbuster icing. The latter, as crowd-pleasing as it is, is a shame. The book has the potential to be tense, low-key and subtle, but instead opts for brash flamboyance. Not unlike the city itself (which seems to be doing pretty well out of it).

Some of the other reviews have said the exact opposite of this. Those readers loved the chase scenes and the splashy stuff, but they found the card games tedious. To me, this means two things.

First, you can't please everyone. Second, Vegas Knights is a book with a mix of sharp flavors in it, and not everyone is going to love them all. Hopefully, though, they'll find enough to their liking that they enjoy the book as a whole.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek Out Now!

Star Wars vs. Star Trek had been slated to be released on May 18. However, it looks like Star Wars Day yesterday may have inspired a bit of early selling. The book is showing as shipping now through Adams Media's website, Amazon, and BN.com.

So! You don't have to wait a moment longer. Go out and grab the book and see how the debate settles out once and for all! Thanks!

Star Wars vs. Star Trek Contest Winner

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Star Wars vs. Star Trek contest I ran yesterday. I had something over 70 entries, including match-ups made here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. The winner is Randy Mac Kay, who entered via the Facebook poll. I'll ship him out an autographed copy of the book today!

It was the first time I've ever run a giveaway like this, and I had no idea what to expect. Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) kind of snuck up on me, but when I realized that the book would be out soon, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. My friends over at Tor.com agreed, and they ran a free excerpt from the book and also offered to run a giveaway of their own, which hauled in 97 entries itself.

Many of the entries were fantastic, and it's probably no coincidence that a number of them already appear in the book — which none of you could yet know, of course. Thanks to everyone who joined in, and another thanks to those who helped spread the word. A special thanks to Scott Rouse, who thrashed out the contest with me on Twitter the night before I got it rolling.

I hope you all had as much fun as I did. We're definitely going to have to do this again.

You can read the full list of match-ups submitted after the break.

Millennium Falcon vs. Enterprise
Borg Cube vs. Death Star
Han Solo vs. James T. Kirk
Worf vs. Chewbacca
Lightsaber vs. Phaser
Jabba the Hutt vs. Harry Mudd
Orion Slave Girl vs. Slave Girl Leia
The Jedi Council vs. the Klingon Council of Warriors
Midichlorians vs. Borg Nanobots
Gungans vs. Tribbles
Captain Kirk vs. Obi Wan Kenobi
Spock vs. Yoda
The Borg vs. The Empire
Chewie vs. Jar Jar
Wesley Crusher vs. Anakin Skywalker
Ewoks vs. Tribbles
Leia vs. 7 of 9
George Lucas's ego vs. William Shatner's ego
Yoda vs. Kirk in a poetry slam
Lando vs. Riker in ladysexin'
C3PO vs. Data: Who can talk you to death best?
Vader vs. the Borg, best cyborg parts!
Gonk power droid vs. Morn
Ewoks vs. tribbles, battle of the furries. Wait that sounds bad.
Tribbles vs. Ewoks. Which are cutest?
Khan vs. Vader
Jar Jar vs. the Tribbles
Kirk and the Corbomite Maneuver vs. Leia and the thermal detonator. Which was the gutsier bluff?
Lightsaber vs. phaser


X wing vs. shuttle
Proton vs. Photon
Jawa vs. Ferengi.
R2 vs. Data.
C3PO vs. Data
The Emperor vs. Trelane


Lando Calrissian vs. The Outrageous Okona.
The Klingons vs. the Empire
The ever "reliable" Millenium Falcon vs. the ever regenerating Enterprise
Wesley Crusher vs. Anakin Skywalker
Styrofoam Rock vs. CGI Rock
The Gungans vs… TRIBBLES! Though the Gungans would start off strong and many a Tribble would lose their lives, in the end, the inherent cuteness of the Tribbles would triumph as the Gungans would eventually collapse and cry out, "Meesa want one!"
Q vs. Yoda
Star Trek vs. Star Wars, I choose Babylon 5
Voldemort vs. Gandalf! Oops, wrong properties
You have the chance to solve an age old conundrum here: who would win a match up between an Imperial Stormtrooper (who can never hit anything) and an Enterprise Redshirt (who is guaranteed to die)?
Borg vs. ObiWan. "Jedi mind tricks are irrelevant. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
I guess Star Wars would win any space battle because they can ignore the laws of physics. Other than that Slave girl Leia versus Orion Slave girl.
Jar Jar vs. Harry Mudd
Alexander Courage vs. John Williams. Yes, John Williams' score is terrific, but we've heard him do so many variations on the same theme over the years. Who can forget the original Star Trek theme, not to mention the classic fight music?
The Force vs. Scotty "given all she's got Captain!"
Jawa vs Ferengi. Do they cooperate or compete?

Note that there aren't 70+ entries here. Some people either submitted (or voted on the Facebook poll) for the same things.