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 now and you can read all about it and order it here at Hammer.

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 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!

Slay/The Girlfriend Survives is a unique comic written by Jeremy Whitley, a double first issue, currently being funded on Zoop! On one side it's the first issue of fantasy-horror-western SLAY! by Jeremy, artist Alex Smith, colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick and Letterer Taylor Esposito, and on the other-side the The Girlfriend Survives is the first issue of a superhero story told from a perspective you've never seen before, written by Jeremy, Illustrated by Luc Nakashoji and Colored by Jamie Noguchi.

There are lovely preview pages and all the details at the link, and by the look of it they’re going to fund, so you’ll get your 56-page first issue! Do take a look.

Thomas has been off school this week on his half-term holiday, so Caroline and I are dividing the childcare equally, and I’ve had my work time restricted. But that’s fine, I’m really enjoying hanging out with him. I took him to his drumming lesson on Monday (he’s now learning ‘Lush Life’ and ‘Heathens’) another Lego workshop on Tuesday (he made two bigs sets in his two hours), and bowling on Wednesday (an exact draw across three games, with the same number of points each in the final one!) But alongside that I’m attempting something a bit more difficult. I’ve been fretting lately (being with Tom gives me too much time to think about the world) about Thomas’ ability to cope with various things. (‘I will make sure he’s safe after you’re gone’ said Caroline to me the other night.) So this week has also meant gently getting him to call me from Caroline’s phone, to tell me what his home address is, and, yesterday, to go to the local coffee shop on his own and return with a plain brownie and change. That last one was really tough for me. Thomas has got lost at length twice in his life, and those were the worst two days of my life. Sending him off on his own to do something rubbed me completely the wrong way, but it was my idea, and I wanted it to happen because it had to if he was going to find any independence. In the end, I prepared our lovely local coffee shop owner, who offered to make sure everything went smoothly in the shop, and went and hid on the route. Thomas, told he couldn’t ride his bike (because that would add a level of danger with nobody there to yell at him to stop at the corners!) took the journey at a run. I watched as he went in and out, and he didn’t see me at all, and I was delighted by how it went. I’m told he was lovely and polite, though he had trouble getting the idea of change. (He was still too grumpy about the bike when I got home to appreciate having done something new.)

Today, the three of us are off to London by train, another first for Thomas, where we’ll take the Underground (another) to go to the Natural History Museum (and a third!) I’m hoping that enough preparation has been put in place for it to be a good experience for him, but we’ll see. And you’ll doubtless hear next week.

Work-wise, I’m right at the end of the official sequel novel, which I will definitely finish next week. Also, I’ve been writing multiple drafts of BBC radio pitches, because we’re at the time of year where such are invited from those who’ve worked for the company before, and I have two different ideas in play with two different producers. With me luck!

Fingers crossed for London today!

And I hope to see you all here next week!