Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

My Ko-fi Store now Shops Internationally!

Just in time for the festive season, 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.

Saucer Country: The Finale WIll Be in Comic Stores (with preview pages!)

Those of you who didn’t back our incredibly successful Zoop crowdfunding campaign will be relieved to hear there’s going to be a comic store version of the conclusion to Saucer Country, the UFO mythology comic by myself and artist Ryan Kelly that survived two cancellations. This concluding issue wraps up the whole story and answers all the mysteries. Courtesy of Chris Ryall’s Syzygy company, it’s being published by Image and will be in comic stores on February 7th. But you can bet that almost the only way it’s going to appear in your local store is if you pre-order a copy with that store right now!

Zoop backers should rest assured that the version they’re getting (if they ordered the separate Finale comic rather than the Complete(d) graphic novel) is very different in design, a very limited edition item that will be easily distinguishable from the store version.

You can see the Previews entry for the issue, and see the first four complete pages, here.

“First there was Saucer Country, a dark thriller that blended UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly beautiful Southwest. The story continued in Saucer State... and now, the series reaches its long-awaited conclusion in this special one-shot, as co-creators Cornell and Kelly present the final story of alien abductee Arcadia Alvarado's campaign to be US President... and her search for the truth of what happened to her!”

The Zoop comic and graphic novel are currently at the printers, and we’re pretty sure they should be in the hands of our backers before the end of the year! Thanks again to everyone who supported us. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

My Uncanny Essay

I have an essay in the new issue of Uncanny Magazine (#55) about the annual TV anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas, and now you can read that article (and a feast of the best current SFF) online for free!

I’m Doing a Games Event in January

On January 18th, I’m going to be on a panel at Narrative Design and Trends Forecast for 2024, a Game Republic event in Leeds. If you’re a member of Game Republic you can get in free, and if you’re not, tickets are on sale at that first link. The other panelists are bigtime games creatives, and I gather there are still some more to be added. If you’re in the industry and seek to mingle, check it out!

Con and On Collected Edition

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, thanks to reader Bruce Arthurs, here it is at B&N.)

My eBay Store is now Fully Stocked!

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!

Witches of Lychford: Don’t Forget to Catch Me

That’s the title of the four-part Lychford Christmas Special serial which will be available to paying subscribers to this Newsletter on the four Thursdays of December. (Then a new Lychford novella will start on the first Thursday in January.)

If you subscribe now, you get to read all of the previous episodes, that is the whole last novella, Night of the Gnomes, as well as getting the new episodes going forward. It’s $8 (or the equivalent in your currency) per month, or $80 per year.

Hammer House of Podcast (with December episode news)

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 November episode being about The Satanic Rites of Dracula. 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.

In December, our main episode (with guest Melissa F. Olson) about Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter is going to come out a couple of days later than usual, probably tomorrow, on the 16th (we recorded it last night), then on the 20th we’ll release our Christmas Commentary Track, this one about Barbara Shelley’s Avengers episode, then on the 27th as always we’ll release the first of our episodes about contemporaneous movies from smaller studios, in this case Cat Girl.

It feels like I’ve been looking at this poster way too long.

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

Melissa F. Olson, the urban fantasy writer who’s our guest on HHoP this month has her first comic coming out in January, from Ahoy. #5 of their comedy horror anthology series Project: Cryptid features her story with artist Lane Lloyd about the Hodag of Wisconsin, alongside two other strips and all the usual Ahoy extras. Do check it out.

My Week

Liz came down this week, coming along to the Festive Market on Friday, joining in with my party on Saturday (being a grown-up I had a party at the same time as Doctor Who was regenerating, yes, and then completely regretted it when I was up to 4am watching it). The party seemed to go really well, with lovely Brizz from down the pub arriving late in a Grinch hat and being the life and soul that got everything going again. It was great to have people from all the different corners of my local life in one place, though they did initially deploy themselves to separate rooms and had to be mingled. It was wonderful to have Liz around to be part of things getting all Christmassy. The rest of the week has largely been about me winding down for the season work-wise, though I did send in a pitch for something on Tuesday, and confirmed the date for the single most important meeting I’ve ever been to, early next year.

Thomas’ school life has of course cranked up to full power this week, with 20p for toast every day going to charity, and a packed lunch three days this week as the classes take turns at having Christmas Lunch. He’s now opening three advent calendars every morning, including a big jigsaw in many boxes he’s really proud of. He finished his homework by Wednesday, thanks to Nanny Louise, and yesterday when asked if he wanted to keep up his usual reading aloud homework he declared ‘I just want to have fun’. The holidays are pumping him up with excitement like they do for every kid his age, and it’s kind of wonderful to see.

I’ve had to say to him, though, that this weekend we’ll again be doing a Daddy and Thomas Sunday Morning at home, because the doctors are no nearer working out the cause of my dizziness, and I just sent the car licencing people a report form, which will officially seal my inability to drive. (I hear they usually stop you from driving for six months, and if there’s no second fainting episode, you can resume. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway.) Some days it feels like my B12 supplements have put me on top of this thing. Some days, like yesterday, I feel dizzy all day. The kindly optician told me it’s not an eye thing, but I’m just about at the point where glasses for distance work might be an idea, and it seems they might help a little.

Honestly, I’m tired of worrying about this, and of sharing that worry. The festive season is pushing me to feel warm and happy and surrounded by friends, and this shadow keeps trying to pull me back to catastrophising about the future. If I’m visited by three ghosts I will have some very stern language for them.

This is my last Newsletter of 2024 (though the Lychford serial will continue every Thursday without a break). Next Friday Caroline, Tom and myself will be heading to the Arboretum for their festive lights extravaganza, as always on the last day of term. Then it’s sheer mayhem for Caroline until Christmas Day, when she and Tom will head off to see her folks, and I’ll have a few days of peace and quiet. I’m a little afraid this year of what I’ll find in that quiet, but I hope it might just be peace.

I hope you and yours have the best possible holiday under whichever tradition you celebrate, and I look forward to your kindness and support once again in the New Year.

To Be Continued

Right, now I’m off to Tom’s school to share Christmas Lunch with him. This will be weird. But good.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope to see you all again on January 5th.