One Big Catch-Up
I’ve been in the midst of both family issues and finishing a novel, so I’ve left this blog rather untended, I’m afraid. I’ve switched focus to my new Newsletter, which is out every Friday. I’ve kept the appearance and release news from my old mailing list, but I’ve added a load of informal chat, trying for the ambience of my Blogs of Christmas, and so far it seems to be working out. There’s a contest every time too. It’s all working toward a special dream project that I seek people to be in at the start of. If you haven’t done so already, you can sign up here.
So, here we go for a big catch-up.
Firstly, here’s the lovely cover for my Doctor Who novelisation, Twice Upon a Time, by the very talented Anthony Dry. I really like this!
It’s out on April 5th, and there’s a signing with me, James, Jenny, Russell, Steven and the aforementioned cover artist at London’s Forbidden Planet Megastore on April 13th.
Next, there’s lots of Bernice Summerfield news, with many new releases coming up in this, her 20th anniversary year at Big Finish, or Bennyversary if you will. The latest project to be announced (and I know there are several more to come), is Bernice Summerfield: Treasury. This is a collection of short story ‘greatest hits’, available for the first time on audio, read by Bernice herself, Lisa Bowerman. Included is my own ‘Misplaced Spring’, alongside stories by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Terrance Dicks, Steven Moffat, Kate Orman and Rob Shearman. (Hell of a line up, right?) It’s out in August, and you can pre-order now at the link above.
Also, Big Finish have released all the details about Bernice Summerfield: The Story So Far, a new box set of full cast audio adventures set at many points in Bernice’s history. This features adventures by James Goss, Simon Guerrier, David Llewellyn, Jacqueline Rayner, Eddie Robson and Una McCormack (so many of the great writers who’ve shaped Bernice over the years), and features the return of Stephen Fewell, playing Jason Kane, Miles Richardson, playing Braxiatel, the Grel, seeking new facts, and the Drahvins, from the Doctor Who story ‘Galaxy Four”!
You can see details of both these releases here. I’m loving all the attention given to Bernice in her special year.
In other exciting news, this coming June, I’ve got two different Wild Cards stories appearing in two different anthologies!
For those who don’t know, Wild Cards is a book series created and overseen by George R.R. Martin, with assistance from Melinda Snodgrass. It’s been running since 1987, a shared universe that’s seen contributions from more than 40 writers across 23 volumes (and many more online stories and comics). Amazingly, for a super hero universe that diverges from our own in the year 1946 (when the alien Wild Card virus is released and randomly assigns powers and curses to those infected), it’s kept a single timeline going, with the vast majority of characters ageing at normal speed.
There’s an excellent new official website for the range, with tons of content to help you catch up. But you may not need that, because the second of the books out in June features a series of stories spanning the whole history of the virus’ effects… from a UK perspective.
It’s called Knaves Over Queens, it’s edited by George himself, and it’s out (in the UK) in hardcover on June 28th. Here’s the cover (I usually make a point of crediting cover artists, but I can’t find out who did this one).
I love that cover. It doesn’t try to be faux heroic fantasy, or even straight super heroics, but instead captures the punky alternate history style of the book itself. Here’s the blurb:
‘Queen Margaret rules over a country in which such legendary figures as Herne the Hunter, Spring-heeled Jack and Babh, the goddess of war, roam at will. Her Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill – gifted with extraordinary longevity – together with the Enigma ace – Alan Turing – set up a special organization named the Order of the Silver Helix. They will need all the wild cards they can find if they are to deal with the terrifying mutations thrown up by the virus.’
Because, yes, in our timeline Margaret is Queen. And Churchill has been going on too bloody long. Which is what my story ‘Night Orders’ is about. It’s my attempt to do something with the flavour of genuine espionage in a 1970s British context. You can read George’s piece about editing the book here.
The other writers in the anthology are Wild Cards veterans Marko Kloos, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Caroline Spector and Melinda Snodgrass and newcomers Charlie Stross, Peter Newman, Emma Newman, Mark Lawrence, and Peadar O Gulian. It’s great to be in such talented company, and especially great that so many British and Irish writers are featured.
Now, let’s move on to the first Wild Cards volume out in June, which is this one (cover by Michael Komarck)…
Low Chicago is out in hardcover (in the US) on June 12th. The cover is equally lush, but this time in a full-on super hero context. Here’s the blurb:
‘The stakes were already high enough at Giovanni Galante’s poker table that night in Chicago. Poker. Dealer’s choice. Seven players. A million-dollar cash buy-in. But after a superpowered mishap, the most high profile criminals in the city are scattered throughout the past and their schemes across time threaten the stability of the world in George R. R. Martin’s latest Wild Cards adventure. Perfect for current fans and new readers alike, Low Chicago is an all-new time travel adventure that leads to the criminal underworld of 1920s Chicago, featuring a fresh cast of characters from the Wild Cards universe.’
One of those characters is my own Abigail Baker, the Understudy (Wild Cardsauthors own their individual characters, which are used by other writers with permission, royalties being distributed under a points system), who picks up other peoples’ powers like wi-fi. She gets out of her depth in prehistoric times in my story ‘A Bit of a Dinosaur’. There’s… stuff going on in that story which I’m delighted to have been allowed to do, because it speaks to bigger things in Wild Cards continuity, the implications of which may surprise long term fans.
The other writers in the anthology are Saladin Ahmed, Marko Kloos, John Jos. Miller, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Christopher Rowe and Melinda Snodgrass. Again, it’s an honour and a pleasure. As it is to be part of the Wild Cards Collective in general.
So, a busy June on that score. I hope you enjoy either or both!
Finally, the podcast I run with Lizbeth Myles, Hammer House of Podcast, is going from strength to strength. Our latest episode, out now, (#3) is about The Curse of Frankenstein, and I think is the best example of what we do (that is, comment on every Hammer horror film, in UK release order). Tomorrow (27th March), our next Patrons-only episode is out, covering, errr, the On The Buses movie! (Patrons get to add to our schedule either a Hammer non-horror movie, as in this case, or a non-Hammer horror movie that came out at the same time as the original Hammer run, and we’re also covering the Amicus anthology horror movies in this stream.) If you’ve been thinking about becoming a patron, and getting these extra podcasts (available to all Patrons, at any level), now is a good time. You can sign up here.
Phew, lots of stuff! I guess from now on, it’s going to be a bit of a balancing act between putting out weekly content every Friday in the Newsletter, and making sure all the relevant details appear here on the blog. But I think that’s a good aim to have. I hope to see several of you this Friday!
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