This is huge! 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!

This is easily the biggest award I’ve ever been up for. I’m incredibly excited and honoured.

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

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 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 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!

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 either The Invaders or Princess Knight (we’re still deciding).

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 BBA Award nom is the first of the big announcements I’ve been promising. I’ve known for a few weeks and it’s a delight to be able to talk about it. The dress code for the ceremony is worryingly intense: be both upmarket and a bit interesting at the same time. I intend to rise to the challenge. Rachael says she’s already picked a dress. Wish us luck, eh?

Having delivered the Official Sequel novel on Friday, the weather here being lovely and Springlike and definite (and huge) work approaching but not yet upon me, I decided to take the week off. I’ve had a bit of trouble adjusting. I’ve been ticking off all the To Do lists and tidying everything. It still feels odd not doing much. I don’t feel useful and I do feel vulnerable. It’s given me a vision of retirement, for which I will absolutely need a number of very demanding hobbies. I’ve decided that if none of the jobs arrive on Monday I’ll just start writing something new. (The jobs will of course arrive immediately I’ve got into it and am starting to get excited by it.)

A little bird has started pecking at the windows on the ground floor of the house. Having watched some ornithology videos on the subject, it seems there’s nothing to be done. He (I think it has to be a he) is seeing his own reflection and trying to drive off this interloper and nothing will make him stop. It seems it’ll get better once he (and a female of the species, and I really hope there’s one around) has built a nest and feels more secure.

I thought you’d like to see Thomas in his World Book Day outfit from yesterday (Britain holds it on a different day to the rest of the world). He was very certain of wanting to be the Very Hungry Catepillar, and, given how he’s turning snacks into height right now, it’s an apt choice.

Getting back to work will, I hope, also stop me hopping around the house pecking at my own reflection.

Thomas and I are off to the Lego Workshop again tomorrow. And now I can tell everyone about my award nomination! (Not at the Workshop, that would be weird.)

And I hope to see you all here next week!