This year the British Book Awards have added a Graphic Novel category, and Who Killed Nessie? by me and Rachael Smith has been nominated! The ceremony takes place on 11th May at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel (and if previous iterations are anything to go by, it’ll be livestreamed), and Rachael and I will be there!

Take a look at the shortlist here. Such amazingly talented company to be in.

And you can get the book directly from the publishers here, or, further down this Newsletter, direct from me at my Ko-fi shop!

Here’s the new sticker that’s being put on copies in shops now!

For those of you nominating for the Hugo Awards, or any other sort of awards, please consider the following from me and mine:

Best Novella: Gnomes of Lychford. Published by Tordotcom Publishing.

Best Graphic Story: Who Killed Nessie? by me and Rachael Smith. Published by Avery Hill.

Best Fancast: Telefantasy Time Jump.

Best Fan Writer: I’ll be nominating Lizbeth Myles for her excellent blog.

Thanks!

My adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ The State of the Art is once again available on BBC Sounds (I believe that’s in the UK only, sorry).

It stars the late Sir Antony Sher, Nina Sosanya and Paterson Joseph, and was produced and directed by my frequent BBC audio collaborator, the great Nadia Molinari. Iain himself was heavily involved in the production, approving the script and being delighted by Sir Antony’s casting in particular. The result is one of the pieces of work I’m most proud of.

You can find it here (until 5th April).

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.

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 now be released by ComiXology Originals on 26th May!

Up for pre-order now, and 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!

Because I’ve still got some copies of Who Killed Nessie? and a couple of other books, I decided I’d take a table at a new comics event in Gloucester. Comics Assemble isn’t a ‘comic con’, but a proper comics festival, with Jim Zub as a guest. It’s on August 15th, at Gloucester Leisure Centre. You can find all the details at the link.

Tickets will cost £10 for adults, but I’ve got 10 to give away! All you have to do is email me at [email protected] with the subject heading Comics Assemble. One each, first ten to email get them!

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 September. You can read all about it at Screen Rant here, and see some sample finished pages at AIPT here!

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 March are The Prisoner and Princess Knight.

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!

Omniboz is a forthcoming anthology of stories set in the world of Oz, edited by Jendia Gammon and Ernie Chiara. It’s going to start crowdfunding soon, and the publisher has just revealed this splendid cover by Eric Shanower (creator of Age of Bronze). You can find all the details here.

The new novel by Emmy Award-winner David Quantick (Veep, The Thick of It), Imagine a Friend is a much gentler, but still very well-written piece.

“When Louie met Marcie, he knew they’d be friends for the rest of their lives. But he was only half right. What do you do when your best friend can’t see you any more? Like, literally. And what do you do when your friend isn’t there for you – because one of you isn’t anywhere at all? Imagine a Friend is a story about happiness, friendship – and being invisible to the person you love most.”

I loved it! You can find all the details and all the retail links here.

It’s a week of lovely cover! And this next one by Ravven is for Bone & Blood by C.E. Murphy, the newest fairy tale from this popular and passionate author. You can read all about it and order here.

Hidden Springs is a forthcoming Dark Horse comic from Rob Williams, with Nil Vendrell, Berta Sas Forelland and Simon Bowland. You need to order it from your local comic shop (and these days, it being an indie #1, it will fly off the shelves) before 6th April, and it’ll be out in May.

It’s got a killer premise:

“While on a retirement community field trip, a group of ageing ex-Hollywood stars encounter a baby Kaiju on the run from military agents. Can this group of deeply flawed seniors get the creature back to its home before it's used as a weapon that could end the world? It's a fun, weird, action-paced road movie with some giant monster scifi for good measure.”

And having read the issue, it’s a wild, huge, very fun ride. Read all about it here.

In your comic shops right now (until they’ve all been grabbed) is The Other Half by Jim McCann and Joe Eisma, a rom com about a cop and a socialite having to work in each other’s worlds to solve a mystery, with them being husbands. This is the kind of wholesome we need right now. You can read all about it here.

The B7 Media Kickstarter for their Dan Dare graphic novel First Contact, by Alex de Campi and Marc Laming is off to a great start, 75% funded with 40 days to go! You can see it all here.

Adam Christopher has his new novel Crawlspace coming out next Tuesday, March 17th! "The best mix of science-fiction and horror since Michael Crichton’s Sphere” - Mark Guggenheim. You can find pre-order links and an exclusive extract here.

Brandon Easton has co-written a new movie that’s being released on 8th May! "Animation and live-action collide like never before in the new Into the Spider-Verse-meets-Fast and Furious action thriller Takeover. Quavo and Billy Zane star in the new feature, which blends live-action footage with Trioscope’s hybrid animation process, making the movie look like a graphic novel come to life.”

You can read all about it here and see the trailer here!

And finally, let’s check in on my favourite developing musical, Unfolding. With 48 days left, they’ve hit 75% of their crowdfunding! Go on, help them get over the line! Read all about it here!

The sheer size of the social media response to Nessie’s BBA nomination (and to The State of the Art) has been amazing and heartening, so thank you all very much. I continued my vague holiday until Wednesday, when contracts were signed on two of the big things I haven’t yet revealed, one of which I had to start writing immediately. So I’m back at my desk, and very glad of it.

Last Saturday, Tom and I went along to the Lego workshop, a venture by a local business who sell bricks online. For a tenner a child gets to build their pick of a big range of different sets. As we waited for the venue to open, we did a bit of tickling (Tom’s usual way of maintaining a bond/passing the time), played thumb wars (he cheats) and, for the first time, ended up just holding my hand, which I found very moving, but of course I was as stoic about that as Tom himself. Thomas started his building that day with a Lego Friends treehouse, and, by the end of his two hours, had set a new record by completing four sets! He was very keen to come back.

His drumkit at home has now been built by a friendly member of Caroline’s band, and I’m gently trying to encourage Tom to go upstairs and give it a try. He’s been into the spare room and thumped the drums a bit with his hands, having closed the door to ensure privacy, and did so again in secret after his bath, but he hasn’t taken his drumsticks from downstairs and given it a proper go, despite his drum teacher asking him to do so. There’s a very fine line to walk between encouraging him to do something and putting too much pressure on. That line is currently being tiptoed along.

There might (or might not) be another big announcement next week.

And I hope to see you all here then!