Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Witches of Lychford: Night of the Gnomes Started This Week!

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 episode one is 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 a couple of weeks 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.

My Portsmouth Comic Con Schedule

I’m very much looking forward to appearing at Portsmouth Comic Con just on this coming Saturday, 3rd June. Here’s what I’ll be up to:

11am: My own Spotlight Panel (Panel Room 2).

1pm: Rogues Gallery: Horror Film and the Monsters that Make it Scary, with Emma Austin, Simon Hobbs and Rebecca Janicker. (Panel Room 1).

I’ll have a table, with a selection of my works available, signing whatever people bring. If you’re going, to come and say hello.

The Witches of World War 2: New Interview and New Ordering Info

#ThisMagicKillsFascists

There’s a lovely new piece up at Newsarama about my new graphic novel The Witches of World War 2 (with artist Valeria Burzo and colour artist Jordie Bellaire) including an interview with me.

And it should now be easy to get your local UK comic shop to order the book. Just ask them to go to this page on the PreviewsWorld Pullbox.

Forbidden Planet Online has a lovely discount, so order it with them here.

Amazon UK is proving a tougher nut to crack, but TKO are working on convincing them that the book is out before July.

If you’d like the digital edition, Amazon UK has that now.

If you’re in the USA, you can straightforwardly order either version from Amazon in the normal way at this link or from your local book or comic store.

As soon as TKO sort this, I’ll let you know and do something of a relaunch for the UK. Meanwhile, 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.And TKO and I have come up with some lovely character graphics for each of our leads. Here’s the fifth of them.

Weird Tales #367 is Out Now!

I’m proud to say I have a story in the current 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 can be 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.

London Film and Comic Con

I’m going to be at London Film and Comic Con on Saturday, 8th July. Do come along and say hello!

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.

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 Olsen!) 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 May episode being about 1971’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. 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.

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

The first thing I should say is thank you to all you generous people who donated to the Go Fund Me I highlighted last week. Kirsty’s cause got funded within a few days, with a bit more besides to cover travel expenses. You’re all brilliant.

It’s a great relief that my brain has settled down. I’ve gotten into a routine of long walks listening to BBC radio downloads and podcasts, hanging out with Thomas (who finally got used to his mouth gel just as he finished the course, his mouth is fine now) on his half term break and popping into the pub for a single berry cider at teatime, and sitting outside to drink it while reading. I’ve managed in the gaps to do good little bursts of work, continuing on the new crime spec script, doing lettering drafts on Con and On and getting three weeks ahead with the gnomes. (I’m going to need to build up a good margin of scheduled episodes ahead of San Diego.) The Lychford writing is very satisfying, both in terms of pleasure in the craft of creating cliffhanger episodes, and in directly attracting an audience. A lot of what drives me is that stand-up comedian’s certainty that everyone is going to desert them - created by the weird circumstances of my childhood - which leads to a skill set designed to pull an audience in and hopefully please them. In shows, to realise one’s defining trait is usually depicted as the moment the therapy is successfully concluded, but I’ve known for decades what drives me and it doesn’t make much difference to how I feel.

I say this as preamble to help explain why two things, both to do with my teatime berry cider, so cheered me this week. Firstly, a builder I’d got on with down the pub seemed to get suddenly distant, leading to some paranoia, but the other day I asked after his roof repairs and he was perfectly civil, and indeed revealed himself to be as socially awkward as I am. And secondly, my friend (ly acquaintance?) the ex-mayor told Caroline that he’d liked it when I’d come over to join him at his table, that it was good I felt I could ask to join him and his wife. Ah, social vindication!

So that’s me all over, completely at home onstage at Comic Con in front of thousands, alone at the bar fretting over pleasing random builders. We get USAF aircrew at the bars in this town, and they just talk to anybody and simply cannot see the mazes the English create for themselves. Good for them.

To Be Continued

I hope I’ll see some of you in Portsmouth tomorrow. Do say hello.

And I’ll see you all here again next week.