Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Welcome to my Friday Newsletter, and it’s been a joyful, fun week for me. (And Thomas has done well too.) But first the news…

Witches of World War 2 is Out Now! (With a note about ongoing UK ordering problems and the contest winners.)

#ThisMagicKillsFascists

My new original graphic novel from TKO Studios, The Witches of World War 2, is in your comic shops and book stores now, physically and digitally. But UK readers could be forgiven for thinking that’s not true, because UK bookstores are still saying the physical edition isn’t out until July. TKO are aware of the problem and working on it, but my apologies to UK readers, and rest assured that if you order now you’ll get your copies way before July.

Our randomly-chosen contest winners from last week were: Paul Conway; Ken Norton; Taylor Nelson; Colin O’Mahoney and Ron Murphy, who’ve all now had their digital copy of WWW2. Thanks to all who took part.

The artists on WWW2 are Valeria Burzo (pencils) and Jordie Bellaire (colours) and they’re both amazing.

This is the story of five real life figures (Doreen Valiente, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, Dion Fortune, Rollo Ahmed) from the British magical community in the 1940s, historical fiction rather than fantasy, though I keep the question of whether magic is real unresolved. I’m very proud of the research I put in, consulting with the Doreen Valiente Foundation (Doreen being our lead character) and others in the UK occult community. I certainly take our heroes on an adventure into Nazi-occupied Europe they didn’t have in real life, but I also feature a lot of real events, and I think portray them as they’d want to be seen. (Except Crowley, who I doubt one could ever please in this regard.)

We’re already getting some great reviews:

‘Excellent… you don’t want to mess with these witches.’ (5 stars) – SFX Magazine.

‘Vengefully imaginative…Full of sharp knife twists, proving yet again that Cornell is a storyteller to cherish.’ – Chuck Wendig.

‘Paul Cornell has foraged some highly-charged elements from the historical record — and brewed up something magikal.’ – Matthew Sweet.

You can read all about the book, and see more finished pages here.

You can order The Witches of World War 2 from Bookstore.org in the UK, helping out independent bookshops. You can find that link (and all my other books they have) here.

And you can find the book on Amazon US (right now) and Amazon UK (asap) at those links.

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.

Here’s one of five character graphics I’ve prepared with TKO.

Two Convention Appearances

I’m going to be at Portsmouth Comic Con on 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!

Download My Horror Audio Drama for Free!

My horror radio play Something in the Water, directed by Nadia Molinari and starring James Nickerson, part of the All the Dark Corners series, is back on the BBC Sounds app, available for download, for free, anywhere in the world, at the above link. It’s about a sceptic who encounters a community with a lake monster, and I’m very proud of it.

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 in May, and can be pre-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 April episode being about 1971’s Twins of Evil. 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.

We’re also now offering advertising slots (on the regular episodes only) to anyone who’s got something they’d like to sell to that highly engaged audience. If you’d like to ask us about advertising something of yours, just drop us a line at [email protected] with HHoP in the subject line. (We reserve the right to not take your ad for any reason.)

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!

My Week

Liz Myles has been visiting this week, and it’s been great fun to show someone around local attractions one doesn’t normally visit. It feels like a holiday, and that might have been exactly what I needed. We went and played mini golf in the real world, when usually we play it in VR on the Meta Quest 2! (Liz admitted to clicking on her club to advance to the next hole, and I tried to walk through the scenery.) We’re aiming to work sitting in the same coffee shop at some point, and I did actually do a bit of work while she was out with Caroline, finishing the copy edits on Secret Invasion to the point where that novel is now off to the printer.

Thomas, meanwhile, has had a brilliant week, getting two personal bests on Times Table Rock Stars, but also, more importantly, displaying some excellent calming down skills when he got cross. He’s very pleased with himself for having earned two Brilliant Day stickers on the same day. Our games of ‘ball’ every evening, with him bouncing on the trampoline and kicking back the football I throw to him are now thankfully back to not having any rules. They did, however, continue in the monsoon we had the other night. Liz thought he’d taken an interest yesterday in the DOTA match she was watching on her laptop, but he was actually more keen on the brand logo of the device, something he’s seen before in the adverts he explores on YouTube. Is he going to be running brands in the future? Or maybe he’ll be a designer.

I’ve had a big creative idea this week too, and next week you’re going to see the first announcement of it. I’m looking forward to starting something entirely new, using Substack as the platform.

To Be Continued

It’s always true that when I have a good week, it’s a shorter column. Sorry! (But, err, not sorry for the happiness.) Next time around will be the launch of that new creative venture, and I’ll let you know straight away if the UK WWW2 situation improves.

I hope to see you all next week!