My partner on Telefantasy Time Jump Lizbeth Myles and I have written a comic strip together! It’s going to be one of the stories in Flash Gordon Quarterly #7, from Mad Cave, with the great Georges Jeanty on art! It’ll be out on April 29th (so please order from your local comic shop before the 6th), or you can order it direct from the publisher here.

I’m writing the dialogue for a forthcoming comic based on the Summoner Wars game! The new comic is plotted by Justin Zimmerman, with art by Patrick Macchi, colouring by Mo Hollowell, a story by Plaid Hat Games, and covers by Plaid Hat’s Martin Abel. Battle Quest Comics is bringing the new release to stores this autumn. You can read all about it at Screen Rant here, and see some sample finished pages at AIPT here!

Lizbeth Myles and I have done another commentary track for a Hammer blu-ray box set! Stolen Face (1952) is a neat little black and white thriller, and we found lots to say about it! It’s out on 16th February, and you can read all about it and pre-order it here at Hammer.

My company Cosmic Lighthouse is publishing its first graphic novel this summer: Salvation’s Child.

Salvation’s Child is the graphic novel Prologue to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s best-selling SFF novel series The Final Architecture. (So new readers can start here!) It’s by Adrian himself, artist Mike Collins, colour artist Pippa Bowland and letterer Simon Bowland. We’re publishing it together with our partners ComiXology.

Check out these pre-order links at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

And you can find Cosmic Lighthouse at this link on Instagram.

Salvation’s Child will be released by ComiXology Originals on 16th June!

Up for pre-order now, and also out on 16th June is The Lychford Collection 2, featuring my fourth, fifth and sixth Lychford novellas!

I’m one of a whole bunch of comickers contributing to Legendary Comics’ Monarch: The Lost Adventures, a graphic novel anthology which tells stories in the continuity of the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters TV series. (And we stick very closely to the lore.) My story, which I loved writing, concerns Bill Randa’s wartime encounter with the Ion Dragon, and is wonderfully rendered by Drew Zucker and Brad Simpson on art and colour art. The anthology is out on 14th July, and is up for pre-order now!

I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi online store, with all my current works, which you can get cheaper than anywhere else, plus you can have them signed and personalised! Right now, it’s just for UK residents, but that’ll change as I sort out international postage.

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles covers the history of SFF on TV, from 1953 onward, with our regular episodes (on the 14th of every month) covering a show released that year in the UK, and the Patron Bonus episodes (on the 28th) covering a show from the rest of the world. The shows for February are Adam Adamant Lives! and Star Trek.

The main episode is available free wherever you get your podcasts. To get the bonus episode, you need to follow us on Patreon at £3/$3 or above. (And you get access to seven years of Hammer House of Podcast bonus episodes!) You can find all the info here.

You can now find all my social media links, my website/blog and links to where you can buy my books, in one place here, thanks to Linktree!

Unfolding, that musical written by Emma Vieceli that I went to see in Cambridge a few months back, the one that moved me deeply while making me laugh and cry in equal measure… well, the team are raising funds to put it on in London!

It’s a hilarious comedy about friendship and the possibility of life-long long-distance romance, and an exploration of some very deep stuff, including issues that are very personal to me. It’s also packed with great songs, the lead one of which, ‘It Starts Small’ already won the prestigious Stiles & Drewe Award. (You can find the soundtrack on Spotify.)

Unfolding has just been put up on the Greenlight funding site, and I urge you to go along, read about it, watch the videos and hear the songs and fall in love with it as much as I have. Then if you can afford anything toward funding a performance which could get the show a full theatrical run… well, please do help out.

Thanks! And thanks for your patience as I talk about a project I love.

Those two announcements both came out of the blue, and, while lovely, aren’t actually the big ones I’ve been trailing! It was a delight to work with Lizbeth in our first comics writing partnership (and especially with Georges on art) and I’ve really enjoyed providing dialogue to finished plot and art for Summoner Wars. It’s proved to be quite the test of craft to find lines that do what the plot seeks in the space the art has made available. I feel I have gained some new comics muscles. Both comics are great fun, bouncy and light, with many opportunities for wit, and the SW one really makes an effort to duplicate the tone and play of the game. Do check them out.

Work-wise, this week I’ve been working on Summoner Wars, on another unannounced strip based on a licenced property, and on the Official Sequel novel, which I’m in the final stretch of. At 1000 words a day, I feel I’ve been really taking my time with that book and adding quality at every step. (That’s one of the three big announcements I’m expecting in the days to come. Hmm, I wonder if I’m starting to jinx this?)

Thomas did his drumming exam on Monday! And thus, a few days later, we got to see the video his tutour sent to the examiners, of him performing excerpts from ‘The Weight’, ‘Mustang Sally’ and ‘Billie Jean’. He’s clearly anxious, and grabs at the music to quickly ruffle between pages to see each new track, and the playing isn’t quite perfect, but it’s pretty close! It’s been lovely sharing that video with those who know and love him and hear how heartened they are to see Tom being skilled at something. It certainly lifted my spirits. Me and him are off to a Lego workship for SEND kids on Saturday morning, a potential day out which Tom greeted not with his usual suspicion but with immediate interest. That’s a bit of a first. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Two little announcements to keep you going! Do take a look at Unfolding.

And I hope to see you all here next week!