Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter

New 2000AD Interview!

Andrew Irvin at The Comic Book Yeti had a chat to myself and artist Laura Helsby about our recently completed 2000AD serial The English Astronaut. You can check it out here.

Joanne Harris at Fairford Festival

So to help out my local Festival, I’ve had a hand in arranging for award-winning author Joanne Harris to make a personal appearance. If you’re going to be in the Cotswolds this summer, why not pop in? She’ll be appearing on Saturday, 8th June at 4pm as part of the Fairford Festival. You can see all the details and get tickets here.

Hugo Awards Deadline is Tomorrow!

If you’re nominating for the Hugo Awards, there are two items of mine eligible that I’d like you to consider: The Witches of World War Two by myself, Valeria Burzo and Jordie Bellaire, in the Best Graphic Story category, and, in the Best Fancast category, Hammer House of Podcast from myself and Lizbeth Myles. Thanks! (Deadline: 9th March.)

Con and On Collected Edition is Out This Month!

The collected edition of Con and On, with all five issues plus some lovely extras, will be out from Ahoy on 26th March, and is now available to pre-order from these links at Amazon UK and Amazon US. (And here it is at B&N.)

Doctor Who: Goth Opera

It’s just been announced that my podcast partner Lizbeth Myles, already one of Big Finish’s most acclaimed writers, is going to be adapting for into audio drama for them my Doctor Who novel Goth Opera!

This Fifth Doctor vampire adventure with Nyssa and Tegan guest stars Richard Armitage, Natalie Gumede and Micah Balfour, and will be out in July!

You can read all about it here at Sci-Fi Bulletin and pre-order at Big Finish’s site here.

(This lovely final cover art by Sean Longmore.)

The Complete(d) Saucer Country is in Stores in September!

The Syzygy/Image edition of The Complete(d) Saucer Country, which has an entirely different design from the Zoop crowdfunded edition, will be in comic and book stores in September, and is now available for pre-order from Amazon! (Amazon release date: September 3rd.)

Who Killed Nessie?

That’s the title of my forthcoming crowdfunding project from Zoop, with award-winning artist Rachael Smith, a comedy cryptozoological whodunnit about finding confidence through rationality and accepting a world of mysteries… by solving one.

If you’d like to be alerted when the crowdfunder launches, and get first go at early bird offers and exclusives, you can sign up here!

Witches of Lychford: Fantasy Cricket

That’s the title of the second and final new Lychford novella that paid subscribers to this Newsletter have now started recieving in serial form. (Because of Substack’s platforming of Nazis, I’m getting rid of the paid option when this serial is completed.) Episodes of the new serial will appear, as with the previous ones, at 5pm UK time on the first four Thursdays of every month.

If you subscribe now, you get to read all of the previous episodes, that is the whole last novella, Night of the Gnomes plus the Christmas Special Don’t Forget to Catch Me, as well as getting the new episodes going forward. It’s $8 (or the equivalent in your currency) per month, or $80 per year.

My Ko-fi and eBay Stores

I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, and now I’ve set up shipping to a range of international destinations.

Similarly, I’ve now re-stocked my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices, a Doctor Who item or two and, err, a guide to learning Japanese!

Hammer House of Podcast

Hammer House of Podcast, in which myself and Lizbeth Myles watch the Hammer horror movies in UK release order, is (usually) out on the 13th of every month, with our February episode being about The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. 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.

(Amazing Tom Chantrell poster!)

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

I’ve mentioned before the amazing work that writers Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt, with artist Henry Flint, have been doing on Judge Dredd: A Better World in 2000AD. Well, now you can see for yourself, with a bundle of the issues that include this ground-breaking serial. (And get the whole of my English Astronaut in there as well!) Check out the physical and digital bundle here.

My Week

I always love the extra light and sense of growth during Spring, and right now my work life is matching my mood, with lots of exciting stuff happening all at once. I’ve now returned the contracts for a genuinely huge venture that will surprise you both in terms of the medium and the character. I also this week had very productive meetings about a couple more things, and confirmed that I have a new release next year! So right now I’m feeling more comfortable and secure than I have in a long time. I’m finally past the *two weeks of con crud*(!) that I brought back from Gallifrey One, and have all that post-illness energy rushing through my system too. And I’m back to my 10,000 steps a day, with my weight firmly back under control, all of which results in a much calmer me, someone who has time to appreciate all the tiny good currents of my life.

Thomas, late last week, suddenly decided that he was going to attempt a 1000 piece jigsaw. Now, previously, he’s been firmly of the opnion that a jigsaw should be finished on the same day it was started. But, in one of those sudden leaps forward I love to see, he suddenly felt he had the patience. And so, yesterday, with Caroline and I both frantically searching at the end for a single missing piece (it was in his school book bag), he completed his great work, and was very pleased with himself. He took a photo of it to show Nanny Louise, then took it apart and immediately started a new jigsaw featuring llamas. He’s had to get up earlier than usual for three mock exams this week - conducted in the quiet before the rest of the school arrives - which has made him a little tired and irritable, but jigsaw success really calmed all that down. Today is his school’s World Book Day celebration, which, in an effort to help parents with the annual cosplay dilemma that always presents, is just about coming in in comfortable clothes with a pillow or blanket, ready to curl up and read. Thomas was suspicious of change as ever, but I think he’ll appreciate the relaxation.

One of those tiny good currents I spoke of: on a gorgeously summery afternoon this week, I walked to pick Thomas up from school, listening to an episode of Free Thinking from BBC Radio 3 in which Matthew Sweet hosted a panel discussion about Future Days, an album by the German band Can. He played excerpts from it, and, said album being a beautifully ambient summery piece of work, it chimed perfectly with my mood, and the experts’ words of love for the individuals involved matched the music and my surroundings to produce one of those all too rare moments of grace, where the flow of the world becomes, for a moment, perfect. I must tell Matthew next time I see him.

To Be Continued

Next week I’m off to London for a series of meetings. I hope to see all of you here again next Friday!