Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Monthly Zoom Meet-Ups for Paid Subscribers

At 9pm BST on Sunday, 3rd September, I’ll be holding my first two hour Zoom meet-up for paid subscribers (who’ll get sent a Zoom link on the Friday before). This will be a monthly event (though the date within the month may vary, given my lifestyle), open to everyone who’s kind enough to pay for this newsletter’s subscriber content. You can ask me anything, including writing advice (though I can’t read anything of your work) and in the future I’ll sometimes bring along creator guests. I’m looking forward to it!

If you like the sound of that, you can sign up for the paid option here:

Comics News Insider Interview

I’m interviewed by the great Jimmy Aquino on episode #1418 of his Comic News Insider podcast, alongside Dean Haspiel, one of many interviews Jimmy conducted on the floor at SDCC. It’s a great listen, and I brought a goose!

Con and On #2 is Out Next Wednesday (And here are some Preview Pages!)

The second issue of my satire across decades of the comics industry and its biggest conventions continues next Wednesday, August 9th when Con and On #2 arrives in your comic stores and online via Amazon.

And you can now see some preview pages from it here, courtesy of AIPT.

“Continuing the ‘comics history-infused tale loaded with heart’ (Alex Segura)! Another year, another comic con: Eddie’s writing career brings him money and fame while his ex-friend Deja still struggles to get her artwork seen. All around them, British creators pound Guinesses, a TV actor dons a disguise, editors sneer at portfolios, and fans hold on to their places in epically endless lines! Featuring the usual AHOY assortment of extra prose stories and illustrations.”

Art by Marika Cresta, colour art by Paul Little, letters by Rob Steen, all wrapped up in this very to the point Steve Yeowell cover.

Witches of Lychford: Night of the Gnomes Has Started!

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.

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.

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 F. Olson!) Project Cryptid #1 will be in your comic stores and out digitally on 6th September!

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 July episode being about 1972’s Straight on Till Morning. 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.

(The movie’s a bit… urgh?)

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!

My Week

I tend to very slowly emerge after San Diego. I only went back to my little coffee shop yesterday, and I haven’t yet been down the pub. Liz stayed for a couple of days after we landed, and that eased the transition between ways of life. I think I’m just about back on UK time now. It’s Tom’s long school holiday, so Caroline and I are sharing the childcare load (with help from the wonderful Nanny Louise). So I’ve been grabbing an hour here and an hour there to finish and send off all the pitches that have resulted from my many meetings out there. On Thursday evening I had an amazing Zoom meeting with a company who didn’t have diary space left to see me in California, and that’s had some pleasantly huge results. I’ve been rather sighing after SDCC, I must admit, refreshing the Unofficial Blog just in case there’s somehow more news, gazing hopelessly at that Yesterdays show exclusive pin on ebay. One of these years, perhaps after I retire (do I get to do that?) I’ll go there just for fun, and do all the things I’ve never done. Reconciling small town existence and family with such glamour is the rollercoaster of my life, and I love both and rather relish the disparity, but I get FOMO on both sides too.

Tonight begins the other local Festival, a much more straightforward beer and bands effort than the one I’ve been involved with. I very much intend to spend some time there with groups of friends and interestingly complicated beers. Only, on Sunday, after I’ve got back from taking Thomas to the Arboretum, I have to go and play cricket once again for the lovely local team of offhand amateurs that I’ve joined up with. This will involve running through the Festival with a cricket bat, inserting myself in the batting order (because the game will already have started by the time I get there and the umpire tells me we’ll be batting first so I can join in), then running back. I may find myself delayed. My batting may or may not improve because of it.

To Be Continued

A short one this week, because I can’t quite believe it’s been a week, given the low bandwidth of incoming info my senses have to deal with compared to San Diego!

See you all next week, and soon, I hope, some of you on Zoom!