Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Con and On #4

The next issue of my satire about the comics industry across decades, from Ahoy Comics, with artist Marika Cresta, Con and On #4, will be out on October 18th. ‘An apparition of the greatest super hero heralds the most tragic change.’ Regular readers may want to buckle their seatbelts. Here’s the entry in Previews.

(Cover by Daniel Schoeneck.)

Where to Find Us at Thought Bubble

It’s that wonderful time of year when the Thought Bubble festival in Harrogate, with its convention on November 11th-12th, start releasing their details, and they’ve just put out their map of where to find all us exhibitors. Myself and Lizbeth Myles will again be running a table full of my recent stuff, including copies of my Secret Invasion novel. And you can find us in the Bubbleboy Hall at table K12. We’re once again neighbours with Rachael Smith, so that’ll be lovely.

My eBay Page

So, I decided that rather than run individual auctions I’d put up all my duplicate comics (and a few Doctor Who items and other random stuff) in one place. It’s a work in progress, lots more stuff still to be added. What do you reckon?

October Subscriber Meet-Up

I’ll be Zoom meeting with paid subscribers again at 9pm UK time on Sunday, 29th October. The first one was great fun, so I’m going to keep this going for at least a while, see where it goes. Those subscribers will get an invite on the Friday before.

Witches of Lychford: Night of the Gnomes

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 lots of episodes are now out there!

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.) And paid subscribers can read all the previous episodes too, so you’ll be able to catch up if you join late.

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.

Subscribed

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.

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 September episode being about Dracula A.D. 1972. 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.

(This film does not feature Christopher Lee in hotpants.)

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!

My Linktree

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 Work of Friends

My friend the comics artist P.J. Holden has announced Null Space, an online project where he’ll be drawing one page comics with scripts by great writers, many of them new to the medium. There’ll be new strips on a regular basis. (I’m due to contribute one around Christmas.) You can read P.J. talking about it here at Comicon.com. Check it out!

My friend the novelist Samit Basu’s latest, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport came out this week, an exuberant SF adventure, excitement all the way.

If you want to get the forthcoming first issue of Marvel’s Star Wars: The High Republic, with script by Cavan Scott, pencils by Ario Anindito and Jim Towe, inks by Mark Moralis, colours by Jim Campbell, and letters by Ariana Maher, from your comic shop, then you need to order it before this Sunday, 8th October. You can read Cav telling you all about it here.

(Cover by Ario Anindito.)

And my friend Dave Bradley also has a new book out this week, The Screen Traveller’s Guide, which lets you visit the real life locations from some of your favourite movies. Check it out here.

My Week

So, the big exciting thing that might or might not happen actually happened! Marvel flew myself and my plus one (Lizbeth Myles) to New York on Monday, to attend the Loki Season Two Fan Event in Times Square! We were very much on the clock, landing three hours before curtain up, but we made it with enough time for me to rush around the block and check out Midtown Comics before we went in. There were a load of podcasters and influencers, bags of popcorn were handed out, there was a quiz before the showing of the first two episodes of the season. It was all very chill. And there, laughing the loudest and hooting the most was fellow comicker Dan Slott, with his date. I think, though nobody’s said this, that Dan and I got invited because we both created in our comics characters that appear in the show, in my case Sylvie. (The comics version is still pretty different from the TV one, though one detail in these new episodes did bring them closer.)

(Photos by Liz Myles.)

That’s me and Dan doing ‘Capaldi hands’ because I suggested that now he’s writing Doctor Who comics he should do something different from his usual Spider-Man pose. The next morning, Liz and I walked through Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History, and wow, was that a great choice on her part. It’s an incredible collection, so many dinosaurs, a planetarium, a room full of meteorites, a full-size blue whale model and just about every example of prehistoric art I’ve ever seen a picture of. Plus, all the captions and narrations are very up to date. Just about the best museum I’ve ever seen.

(Photo by Liz.)

I managed to squeeze in a very exciting meeting with an old friend in the business, then we met with my agent, who just happened to be in town that day, and then we were back off to the airport, having spent just one night in this city I love so much.

While I’d been away, Thomas had had a series of Brilliant Days, really embracing his homework. I got him a plush Spidey from the Disney Store, which he immediately took up to meet his other soft toys. He’s really enjoyed having Liz around, and his speech has improved just by having a new person to talk to. He’s also growing in so many ways, accepting last Sunday that our way to the Arboretum was blocked by an accident and a police line. ‘It’s out of our hands,’ he said calmly, quoting Bluey. This stoicism is a far cry from his usual autistic anguish if anything doesn’t go according to routine.

Since I’ve got home, I’ve had two great meetings, one about game writing, one about a TV project based on something I wrote, back on now the strike is over. I have a lot of work to do next week, which is a great feeling. Liz going home today is sad, because she makes this house warmer and full of joy, but I’m going to try to keep to heart the lessons she always brings about letting oneself off the hook and not being too hard on oneself. The great adventure of New York can continue in the everyday.

To Be Continued

There’s going to be a teaser about a new work thing next week!

I hope to see you all then.