Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Pocket Gamer Connects London

I’m going to be on a panel at a games event this month! Pocket Gamer Connects London runs on 20th-21st January. I’ll be part of the panel ‘The Art Of Writing For Games – Lessons From Other Narrative Formats’, which will be at 4.30pm on 21st January in Track Room 3, in the Beyond Games track.

XTNCT is Out Again!

The current issue (#190) of the Hachette partwork 2000AD: The Ultimate Collection includes the complete XTNCT by myself and artist D’Israeli.

“ON A FAR-FUTURE EARTH, ONLY A FEW HUNDRED HUMANS SURVIVE AND WAGE WAR against themselves using genetically engineered plants and animals. A Crack team of GM dinosaurs have sworn revenge on mankind and are seeking to make them extinct…”

It’s great to see one of my favourite strips back in print.

For Your Awards Consideration

The project I’ve had out in 2024 that I’d like to put forward for any award nominations you might be considering this year is The Complete(d) Saucer Country by myself and artist Ryan Kelly, published by Image. (It’s weird not to have put out anything that would qualify for the Scribe Awards, but having had a Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story or Comic run last year I might have a shot there.) Thanks very much for considering it.

Telefantasy Time Jump Starts This Week!

On January 13th (or perhaps 14th, we’re working it out), Lizbeth Myles and I will be starting our new podcast, Telefantasy Time Jump. It’s going to be about the history of fantastic television in the UK, going year by year, starting with 1953. (But we’ll be talking in the first episode about all the shows that came out before that date.) Each episode one of us will pick a UK series from that year for us to watch two examples of, and the other one of us will select a show from the rest of the world in that year to talk about on our extra monthly episode for Patreon supporters. (Everyone who’s at the £3/$3 level or above.)

If you’re a current Patron of Hammer House of Podcast, you don’t have to do anything (except set your patronage to the £3/$3 level if you want the extra episode). The HHoP Patreon site will simply turn into the TTJ site and memberships will be carried over. (If you got HHoP through a podcast app, you may have to re-subscribe.)

You can now find the new podcast at these links on Instagram (where it’s /telefantasytimejump/) and Bluesky (where it’s TelefantasyTJ.bsky.social).

Of Shadows, Stars and Sabers

I have a new short story in a new original anthology, Of Shadows, Stars and Sabers, edited by Jendia Gammon and Gareth L. Powell, and I’m alongside a stellar group of authors, including Adrian Tchaikovsky, David Quantick, Stark Holborn and Lizbeth Myles! The book is out on February 11th, and is available for pre-order from all these different online stores (and physical ones). On February 22nd at 2pm there’ll also be an in-store event for the book at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego.

My Ko-fi and eBay Stores Re-Stocked!

I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, for shipping worldwide.

Similarly, I’ve now re-stocked my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices.

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 helped connect Alec Nevala-Lee to one of his sources for this wonderful piece in The Atlantic about Sherlock Holmes and copyright law.

My Week

I delivered my non-fiction book yesterday! (And I’m due to have a chat with my editor later today.) It’s about comics, I’m very proud of it, and that’s all I can say right now, but there’ll be an announcement soon. One of the enormous things I’ve been referring to sidelong also made significant progress.

All of this is because Tom went back to school this week. I’ve had time to get back to my 10,000 steps a day, and, having weighed myself after a December where I consumed heartily, I’m less daunted by the task in front of me, getting back to my ideal weight, than I expected to be.

I also ‘shook the trees’, dropping a line to everyone who’s got a project of mine on their desk, and the results were enormously heartening. I have new work tp consider in the year ahead.

Not being able to go to the Gallifrey One convention in L.A. this year has me sighing a little. I’m going to be pining for it as I see all those amazing cosplay photos. Mind you, given how horrifying the fires out there are right now, I worry that might all still be going in a month or so when the convention’s on. So many friends have been caught up in all that. I’ve always been serious about climate change, terrified of where it’s going, and I’m doing all I can to play my part in turning the world around. Yes, we should put pressure on companies and nations to fix what they do. But one also has to fix one’s own house. You all knew that. Sorry.

I can’t wait to get back to writing fiction. The demands of research and precise quotes don’t compare for me to the thrill of making a world come alive.

Finally, I just wanted to share something Thomas said, on looking at the box of one of his jigsaws: ‘It says 3000 pieces… but that can’t be.’ The look on his face when we told him, his reaction to the idea that the world will always be presenting him with the next level of challenge, was priceless.

To Be Continued

The first episode of Telefantasy Time Jump should be out before the next Newsletter. Fingers crossed!

And I hope to see you all here again next week.