Matt Forbeck's Blog, page 68

My Archon Schedule

I'm heading out for Archon—a great genre fiction and gaming convention in St. Louis—on Friday morning, and I'll be there through Sunday. I'm a guest of honor there, so my schedule is packed. It looks something like this:

Friday

1:30 PM (Matterhorn): Opening  Ceremonies

2:40 PM (Versailles Hall): Autograph Session

5:00:00 PM (Matterhorn): Reactor 88: Behind The Scenes

9:40:00 PM (Alpine 2): Game Design 101

Saturday

11:10:00 AM (Bern): Game Design, Writing & Illustration

12:20:00 PM (Lugano): Writing Within The World

1:30:00 PM (Bern): Kaffeeklatsch

3:50:00 PM (Versailles Hall): Autograph Session

Sunday

12:20 PM (Bern): Volunteer Pizza Party with the Pros

2:40:00 PM (Bern): Closing Ceremonies

The rest of the time, I'll be wandering about, chatting with folks, playing games, and having fun. If you're in the area, come on out and join me and the rest of the guests.

The Tweet Pitch

When you're trying to sell somebody on an idea for a story or a game, it's a good idea to see if you can boil it down to something short and snappy, the kind of two- or three-sentence package that tells what the thing's about and why it's so cool that the listener must want to know more. This is commonly called an elevator pitch, as in "Pitch me your idea while I'm riding in an elevator with you."

These days, it seems more appropriate to try for a tweet pitch, something you can express in 140 characters or less. That way you can grab someone's attention on Twitter, Facebook, or whatever other social network you favor.

By way of example, here's a tweet pitch (#tweetpitch) for Amortals:

AMORTALS: Secret Service agent's mind is restored into clone. He must figure out who murdered him this time—and why.

Try it with your own book or game or film — or give it a shot with one of your favorites. Like this:

STAR WARS: Farmboy with magical talent rescues a princess and restores peace to the galaxy by blowing up huge space station.

Storytellers Unplugged: The Publishing Catch-22

A frustrated author wrote me over the weekend to ask me how he might be able to get published when most editors won't look at unsolicited manuscripts these days. Since I hear this question all the time at conventions and such, I decided to post my answer over at Storytellers Unplugged.

Archon!

I've been asked to be the gaming guest of honor at Archon, a fantastic gaming and genre fiction convention in St. Louis. It's just two weeks from now, October 1–3, and I'm already itching to hit the road.

Other guests include Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, Kurt Miller, and Vic Milán. If you're anywhere near the area, come on out and join us for a weekend of fun and games. I hope to see you there!

New Blood Bowl Review

Over at BeastsofWar.com, Sam gives my first Blood Bowl novel 4.5 stars out of 5. He writes:

All in all, it is a very entertaining read, and has remained a firm favourite of mine along with the rest of its series. I would especially recommend it to fans of the game, and to fans of Terry Pratchett's books, as well as anyone who is just looking for something of a more light-hearted nature to read.

Sadly, the book and the omnibus that contains it are both out of print at the moment. I've heard...

New Amortals Review

Over at Fantasy Literature, reviewer Greg Hersom has read an early copy of Amortals, and he calls it "One helluva sci-fi thriller." My favorite quote from the piece:

Nonetheless, in the span of few chapters, I went from only slightly interested, to thinking, "Hey, this isn't half bad," to being genuinely sucked in. Matt Forbeck does an excellent job creating depth in what is essentially the stated "typical action hero."

Amortals debuts in November in the UK and Australia, and in January for...

Amortals ARCs Are Go

This morning, I spotted a photo that the overlords at Angry Robot posted late last week. It shows the ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) for Pretty Little Dead Things, Soul Stealers, Damage Time, and my upcoming Amortals.

ARCs are odd little things, usually print-on-demand copies of books made to get the word out about a book before the actual print run hits shelves. Amortals won't be in stores until November in the UK and January in the US, but here these premade imposters come in September.

This m...

Stolze's Zombie Story Kickstarter

The title pretty much says it all, but if that doesn't make sense to you, head over to Greg Stolze's Kickstarter page for his new fiction project "Zombis Blanc."

As Greg says:

It's a 4,000 word piece that is, to the best of my ability, thrill-packed, gore-soaked, medically accurate and historically plausible. It's set in 1791′s violent slave revolution, the one that eventually makes Haiti into a free nation. It focuses on a pair of despicable Europeans. If anyone deserves a nightmarish pursuit...

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online CCG at PAX

I won't be at PAX, but a product I worked on will debut there this weekend: the Marvel Super Hero Squad Online CCG. The brilliant people at Lone Shark Games (Mike Selinker, Teeuwynn Woodruff, and James Ernest) and the Amazing Society (Devin Low, et al) did all the heavy lifting on this one, but they brought me in — along with Monte Cook and Andy Collins — to help with writing a bunch of text on the cards.

If you get out to PAX, keep your eye out (possibly near the Gazillion booth) for sample d...

Angry Robot Unleashed!

Today, Angry Robot finally made its long-awaited debut in North America with honest-to-dead-tree books available from the Great White North to the Rio Grande. The first six titles now available in these parts are:

Kell's Legend by Andy Remic
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon
Slights by Kaaron Warren
Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero by Dan Abnett
Winter Song by Colin Harvey

Not so coincidentally, these books are all available as e-books today too. You can get them through...