Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Welcome to my Friday Newsletter. There’s some big news today, but I’m going to start with something I really want to put right in front of you at moment one. I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but…

A Very Worthwhile Cause

So, my dear friend Kirsty (who you may have met if you go to the Gallifrey One convention at which she’s a regular) has an autistic daughter called Claire. I say that, but Claire’s been awaiting an official assessment (which opens so many doors) for years now. My own son Thomas was lucky enough to get one early. Claire’s issues remind me so much of what Thomas has gone through. I really feel for their situation. And a relatively small amount of cash could make a huge difference. So –

Please check out Kirsty’s Go Fund Me.

She’s looking for a specific sum of money in order to get the help Claire needs and as I write this she’s nearly there. Please check it out, do what you can, and spread the word. You will have my gratitude. Thanks so much.

New Comic Announcement: Project: Cryptid!

Ahoy comics have a new comedy horror anthology series coming out in September, Project: Cryptid, with a variety of stories by great creators concerning mysterious beasts. I have a story with the great monster artist P.J. Holden in the first issue (and another with a different artist in a later issue). You can read all about it here at Screen Rant, with a list of the other contributors and some choice quotes and art. I love being part of Ahoy’s bouncy, fun, extra-packed series, and this one looks excellent. (And it also features the first comics work of my urban fantasy writer friend Melissa Olsen!) Project Cryptid #1 will be in your comic stores and out digitally on 6th September!

Night of the Gnomes Starts Next Thursday, June 1st!

My new sequel to my bestselling Witches of Lychford rural fantasy series (urban fantasy in the Cotswolds) is in the form of a serial right here on Substack, and it starts on Thursday, 1st June!

On the first four Thursdays of every month, at 5pm BST (or GMT when we get there) paid subscribers will get an episode of the new serial. It’ll run until the end of November, then there’ll be a four-episode Christmas Special, then another new Lychford serial will run until the end of May, 2024. (So those who’ve subscribed for the whole year will get a full year of episodes.)

It’ll be absolutely fine for those who haven’t read the books to start reading with this serial, because we’ll re-introduce the whole concept. (Though you will be spoiled for what’s happened previously.)

Lychford is a little modern-day market town in the Cotswolds that borders many of the hidden worlds of the supernatural, the lands of the fairy folk, of demons, of a whole array of magical creatures. Protecting it are three very different women. There’s a lot of comedy in this series, mostly about the clash between everyday life and the world of magic, but there’s also some dark heartfelt emotional stuff and some real-world commentary on what life in such a town is like right now (because I live in such a town).

I’ve missed writing about Lizzie, Autumn, new coven member Zoya and their increasingly-large supporting cast of town councillors, pensioners and creatures of the night. I’m also looking forward to the rollercoaster of having to put fingers to keyboard on a regular basis.

To get this Lychford serial, just subscribe to the paid option on this Newsletter. It’s $8/month or $80/year.

And of course you’ll always get the Friday Newsletter and exclusive subscriber content for free. (And I don’t share your email address with anyone.)

If you’d like to catch up on the Lychford series up to now, five novellas have been published by Tor.com. You can find them all here at Bookshop.org and support UK indie bookstores, or here are links to the first one at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

And if you want to see the last story about my three heroines, it’s a Christmas story from a few years back, available for free here on my blog!

I’m looking forward to my adventure into serial fiction.

If you want to read the Prologue to Witches of Lychford: Night of the Gnomes, you can find it here for free.

Pay What You Like for I Walk With Monsters! (Two Days Left!)

I Walk With Monsters, my heartfelt horror comic with artist Sally Cantirino and colour artist Dearbhla Kelly is part of a range-spanning Humble Bundle from The Vault, including their bestselling Barbaric and such great titles as Money Shot and The Autumnal. You can pay whatever you wish for this amazing collection of digital comics and help out the charity Room to Read (which promotes literacy and education for girls worldwide) at the same time! Check it out here!

How to Get The Witches of World War 2 in the UK

#ThisMagicKillsFascists

Forbidden Planet Online now have my new graphic novel The Witches of World War 2, with artist Valeria Burzo and colour artist Jordie Bellaire, and there’s a lovely discount, so order it with them here.

Your local book or comic shop should also now be able to order it for you, and some of them may have it on their shelves.

Amazon UK is proving a tougher nut to crack, but TKO are working on convincing them that the book is out before July.

If you’d like the digital edition, Amazon UK has that now.

If you’re in the USA, you can order either version from Amazon in the normal way at this link.

As soon as TKO sort this, I’ll let you know and do something of a relaunch for the UK. Meanwhile, here’s our blurb:

“Inspired by a true story, writer Paul Cornell (Doctor Who, Saucer Country), artist Valeria Burzo, (Castle Full of Blackbirds) and color artist Jordie Bellaire (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pretty Deadly) introduce a coven of witches embarking on a mission to help defeat the Nazis…with magic!

In the darkest hours of World War II, Doreen Valiente (then known as Doreen Dominy), an expert on British folklore and the occult, is approached by British intelligence at Bletchley Park who tell her they know she’s a witch…and that’s how she can best serve her country.

Together with the ‘most evil man in the world’, a hard-nosed white witch, the grizzled founder of Wicca, and a professional exorcist and con man, Valiente will travel deep into the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe and gamble her life, her belief, and her powers on a mission to help capture Rudolf Hess, second in command to Adolf Hitler himself.”

I’m so proud of this book, and love the 1940s glamour and detail Valeria and Jordie have brought to it. It’s a passionate story about fighting fascism with all one’s heart and how the small things of life are precious in the face of tyranny.And TKO and I have come up with some lovely character graphics for each of our leads. Here’s the fourth of them.

Two Convention Appearances (First Next Saturday!)

I’m going to be at Portsmouth Comic Con next Saturday, 3rd June and London Film and Comic Con on Saturday, 8th July. Do come along and say hello!

Find my Books at Bookshop.Org and Help Out Indie Booksellers!

Bookshop.org is a collective selling tool that sets up a marketplace for all indie bookstores in the UK, functioning exactly like Amazon, except you’re supporting your local bookshop. You can find a selection of my books here, and I get a little cut of the proceeds too if you order from here!

I’ve Got a Story in Weird Tales #367

I’m proud to say I have a story in a forthcoming issue of that most renowned of genre magazines, Weird Tales, which is 100 years old this month. Not only that, but I share the issue with Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, on a new Hellboy story, and the great Ramsey Campbell. Weird Tales #367 ships this month, and can be ordered here, where you can also read about the rest of this fabulous issue. (I wonder who else has had a piece in both WT and The Cricketer? Maybe Conan Doyle?)

Fairford Festival Book Fest 2023

I retired as the organiser of Fairford’s literary festival last year, but I’m delighted to report that my successor has put together a brilliant line-up, including Emma Reeves, Paul Martin and Dom Joly, for this year’s re-christened event, which is on 9th-10th June as part of the larger Fairford Festival. I’ll be there, cheering them on. You can pre-order tickets here.

Con and On is in Previews, and All Over the Comics Media!

Con and On is my forthcoming series from Ahoy Comics with artist Marika Cresta. It’s a tragicomic satire of five decades of the world’s biggest comics festival, and the industry that parties there. This is a heartfelt insider comedy history of the rollercoaster that is the comics industry, with bite but also with love. It’s about the romance of every big convention, the bittersweet journey through time and success, the highs and the lows and the silliness. It’s the story of every fan and every pro and everyone who’s just trying to make a buck in the midst of extremity. Through the narratives of our large cast of characters we see, in miniature, the story of the last few decades of modern comics: how some things have changed and how some things have stayed exactly the damn same.

You can read all about it here at Broken Frontier. (And in loads of other pleaces too, because we’re getting serious coverage!)

And here’s the link to Previews, with all the ordering info.

Con and On #1 is out on 12th July.

Secret Invasion

I’m writing the novel of the acclaimed Marvel comic series Secret Invasion, which was originally written by Brian Michael Bendis with art (on the main title) by Leinil Francis Yu. The novel will be covering the central mini-series of that name, plus lots of excursions into the other comics involved in the crossover, my own Captain Britain and MI-13 included. I’m excited to be once again grappling with the Marvel Universe. The novel will be out from Titan on 9th September, and you can read all the details here at Forces of Geek.

And you can now pre-order the book from Amazon UK and Amazon US at those links.

Hammer House of Podcast

Hammer House of Podcast, in which myself and Lizbeth Myles watch the Hammer horror movies in UK release order, is out on the 13th of every month, with our May episode being about 1971’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. You can get these episodes free wherever you normally get your podcasts, as well as on our site, but if you sign up to our Patreon, for any sum of money from £1/$1, you get an extra episode every month too, on the 27th, in which we watch Patron requested movies and films from other horror studios of the same era.

My New-Look Website and Geek Radio

Check out my new -look website! It’s still a work in progress, but I think it looks great. Every Sunday on there I feature my Geek Radio blog, listing geeky BBC speech radio delights, downloadable for free worldwide, in the coming week.

My Linktree

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

My Online Store is Mothballed

I have an online store at Ko-Fi, where right now you can put some coins in my tipjar if you like, but there’s no stock, because of several conventions coming up where I’ll need something to put on my table! At some point in the future I hope to balance the needs of online and right there customers, sorry!

The Work of Friends

My friend the geek comedian Joseph Scrimshaw (who you’ll have seen if you’ve come to my Cornell Collective shows at Gallifrey One), is financing a new comedy horror short film on Kickstarter: The Nightmare Adorable, a tale of two horror fans who sell a cute toy of a fictional monster only to face the wrath of a very real cultist. I love Joe’s comedy, he goes into a lot of behind the scenes detail and this looks to be great. Do check it out here.

My Week

I’m still waiting on everything contract-wise that I was waiting for last week, so that’s me with my hands in the air going ‘oh, come on, universe!’ In the meantime, I think I’ve settled on the final version of my spec script with my manager, David, and am making good progress with a new spec for streamers/UK broadcasters, just aiming to have a movie, a US network show and a streamer show ready for when the strike is over and we can all start pitching again. I’ve also been enjoying the hell out of writing Lychford again, tapping out the new episodes on my iPad while out and about in my own little Cotswolds market town, which feels right.

Thomas has hit a new personal best score of over 200 in Times Table Rock Stars. I’m starting to wonder if there’s some sort of national record he could go for. He’s had some pain in his mouth this week, and, thinking it might be oral thrush (very common in children) we’ve been getting him to apply a gel after meals, which results in a lot of yelling several times a day. Gah. Still, that’s only until the end of next Wednesday.

It’s worryingly easy, especially when the sun is shining and one is creating one’s own work, with no deadline (well, there’s a deadline on the gnomes, but I’m way ahead of that), to pop down the pub with the tables outside in the late afternoon and half a pint or two of berry cider with ice while reading. I do have a bit of social anxiety about it. I had a nice chat with a builder who’s also a parent at Tom’s school, and now I don’t quite know if I’m included in the builder conversations at the bar. (Autism, right? Not knowing how to join in is one of my remaining autistic features.) But overall it’s a lovely thing to have the privilege of doing in the summer. I’m getting my 10k steps in every day, and am now back to the weight range I want to be in, so those two pints don’t have too much of an impact. (The things I worry about.)

There’s lots of exciting stuff ahead. I wish I could just relax and enjoy this summer of berry cider.

To Be Continued

When the next Newsletter comes out I’ll be on the road to Portsmouth! I look forward to seeing some of you there.

And I hope to see you all next week.