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 and you can order it direct from the publisher here.

I’m going to keep this here until Rachael Smith and I discover if we’ve won! (With our cosy comedy cryptozoological whodunnit graphic novel.)

The ceremony takes place on 11th May, and you can see the shortlist here.

And if you want to buy Nessie, you can get it here from the publisher, Avery Hill, or direct from me, signed and personalised.

My company Cosmic Lighthouse is publishing its first graphic novel: 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 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’m once more a guest at the Thought Bubble convention in Harrograte this year on November 14th-15th, with Lizbeth Myles as always (she should have her own comics titles to sell this year!), and alongside our own table there’ll be one for my comics company, Cosmic Lighthouse!

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 April are The Champions and Land of the Giants.

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!

The Vale of Seven Dragons is an epic fantasy novel by Nebula and BSFA award finalist author Jendia Gammon. This is the first book in a planned trilogy.

‘This is the tale of a rebellious princess and a loyalist prince, seven lost dragons, and the beginning of the end of their world as they know it. The 16-year-old Princess Githilien (Thilly) of Vickery wants nothing to do with the Crown. She wants either to become a knight, which is forbidden, or join her mother’s secretive mystical practices in the north. Whereas 18-year-old Prince Beaumain of Catellaith is of age to be knighted, and he frowns upon any deviation from his royal birthright. By tradition, the two teens should be betrothed from Thilly’s birth, but her mother insisted on raising an independent daughter who might choose her own destiny. But when monsters invade the lands of the south, Thilly and Beaumain must unite and fight for the future of their lands, and try to find the missing Seven Dragons of myth…if they even existed at all.’ Order from your favourite bookseller!

Signings:

Saturday, April 11, 1 PM - Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia, CA
Friday, April 17, 6 PM - Last Bookstore Studio City, LA, CA
Thursday, June 4, 7 PM - Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA

Thanks to everyone who asked. I’m feeling much better this week. It’s not anything that’s happened or not happened, just my brain chemistry fixing itself. (Though Tom and I did go to see the swans again this morning, this time featuring a very brave duck who went over the waterfall headfirst.) This morning, lying in bed with my iPad, I had a little, meaningless victory in Marvel Strike Force and found myself delighted about it. And I’m looking forward to things again. I’m enormously relieved that these things are back.

On Wednesday I popped into London to have dinner with Steven Moffat, which we only manage once every few months. With the Elizabeth Line in place, London feels so easy to access now. It’s got a really good vibe about it too. I’ve known those few blocks around Tottenham Court Road for most of my life, and I think right now they feel the most energised and exciting they’ve ever been. Having building work there for many years really put a pall over the area, but now it’s gone and the results are beautiful. (Yes, I am starting to think about writing about London again.)

Work-wise this week, though Tom’s still on school holidays (and loving his Lego workshops, having finished a Technic air-sea rescue helicopter and now begun a Technic Land Rover) I’ve managed to keep up a solid five pages a day of Summoner Wars #3. I’m hugely enjoying putting hopefully witty dialogue to finished art, and I feel very appreciated by that lovely team. I think you’ll be delighted with the final version in September.

Yesterday I had two meetings, one about Cosmic Lighthouse project #3, and one about a comics series that’s almost entirely drawn but hasn’t been announced yet. More excitement for the future.

We continue. Onward!

Told you’d there’d be more swans.

And I hope to see you all here again next week!