Now this its twentieth year, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the nominees for the annual Scribe Awards, which honour those in various categories of tie-in writing.
There’s a strong showing this year for Doctor Who tie-in tales and British authors publishers in general – including, to my surprise, DC Thomson, who have an issue of Commando penned by Julian Michael Carver among the nominations. I’m sure it will come as a surprise to a lot of Commando readers to know Commando 5899 (Home of Heroes): Frostbite, drawn by Paolo Ongaro, published in October 2025, has media tie-in connections!
Titles published by Big Finish and Titan Comics have a large number of nominations in the list.
Congratulations to all the nominees! President Jonathan Maberry will announce the winners in July at San Diego ComicCon.
Founded by Lee Goldberg and Max Allan Collins, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers acknowledges and promotes those working in an often overlooked and underrepresented facet of publishing and the entertainment industry.
(In general, all information below is based on publisher-supplied material. All links are AmazonUK Affiliates, unless otherwise indicated)
Best Adapted Novel
(Novel based on a screenplay or teleplay)
Adam Cesare – The Toxic Avenger: The Official Movie Novelisation
Mutant mayhem is coming to this twisted corner of New Jersey!
Experience this action-packed, irreverent, gory and outlandish saga of vengeance and twisted justice, adapted from the 2025 reboot of the classic cult comedy-horror extravaganza, The Toxic Avenger.
Toxie is back in this official novelisation of the 2025 reboot of the beloved cult classic, starring Peter Dinklage and Kevin Bacon.
When a struggling janitor is pushed into a vat of toxic waste, he is transformed into a mutant freak who must go from shunned outcast to underdog hero as he races to save his son, his friends, and his community from the forces of corruption and greed.
Christian Francis – In The Mouth of Madness
Sutter Cane’s Most Anticipated Novel Has Arrived! In the Mouth of Madness is the long-lost novel fans have been waiting for.
Readers of his earlier book (The Hobbs End Horror, The Thing in the Basement, The Breathing Tunnel, Haunter in the Dark, The Feeding and The Whisperer of the Dark) will recognise his signature blend of psychological terror and cosmic dread.
Sutter Cane has always been a figure shrouded in mystery. Critics have called his writing “dangerously immersive” and “deeply infectious.” Although sales records are incomplete or missing, many believe he has outsold every living author.
The story follows John Trent, an insurance investigator assigned to find Sutter Cane after his sudden disappearance. What begins as a simple missing person case soon spirals into a nightmare. Trent learns that Cane’s fiction doesn’t just reflect reality, it may shape it…
John Passarella – Return to Silent Hill: The Official Movie Novelisation
In the latest Silent Hill film, based on the classic psychological horror video game Silent Hill 2, brings the iconic psychological horror franchise back to the big screen. When James receives a mysterious letter from his lost love Mary, he is drawn to Silent Hill, a once-familiar town now consumed by darkness. As he searches for her, James faces monstrous creatures and unravels a terrifying truth that will push him to the brink of survival.
Josh Reynolds – Return of the Monster Men
Thirteen months after their horrifying experiences in the East Indies, Bulan-the man once known as Townsend J. Harper, Jr.-and his fiancée Virginia return the isle of terror where their adventures began. In their hearts lies a burning question: What truly happened to Number Thirteen, the soulless monster unleashed from Professor Maxon’s vats?
But they are little prepared for the answer, or to confront the shadowy faction of a foreign power that has seized the island hoping to unearth its dread secrets for nefarious purposes. And when a new brood of monsters emerges from the vats and is let loose upon the island, no one is safe… for Number Thirteen is alive and well, and he is angry-as are his terrifying, monstrous kin, who seek vengeance for their own unholy creation.
Tim Waggoner – Terrifier 3: The Official Movie Novelisation
No more clowning around. The unholy novelisation of Terrifier 3 is a horrific splatterpunk event! After surviving Art the Clown’s Halloween massacre, Sienna and her brother are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they’re safe, Art the Clown returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe…
Best Audio Drama
Kirsten Beyer & David Mack – Star Trek: Khan
Starring Naveen Andrews (Khan), Wrenn Schmidt (Marla McGivers), George Takei (Sulu), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Sonya Cassidy (Dr. Lear), Olli Haaskivi (Delmonda), Maury Sterling (Ivan), Mercy Malick (Ursula), and Zuri Washington (Madot)
Marooned by Captain James T. Kirk on Ceti Alpha V, Khan Noonien Singh and his followers begin building a new civilisation, but this strange new world harbors a number of secrets…
Georgia Cook – Doctor Who: Halloween – Party Favours (featured on Doctor Who: Halloween: Sea Smoke and Other Stories, available direct from Big Finish)
Dare you step into the shadows? Terror awaits across time and space. Silent assassins, primordial evils and horrors that defy imagination – the Doctor’s universe has never been more terrifying.
Tim Foley – Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures – Hooklight, available direct from Big Finish)
There is a light that must never be lit…
When the TARDIS runs aground in the ancient realm of Morning, the Doctor learns that a powerful force has reemerged. A lamp filled with a mythical substance known as Hooklight has been discovered – and this could mean the end of everything.
A great quest begins against the forces of chaos, encompassing many new friends and foes. Without their ship and without each other, the time travellers will be tested on their journey to the Dark Forge. And not everyone will survive…
Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle – Doctor Who: Zygon Century – 1935: The Miracle of Pendour Cove, available direct from Big Finish)
Freddie Trewella has found a mermaid, beautiful and strange, washed ashore in a Cornish bay. He names her Vorvoren, and she comforts him in his harsh life of servitude to a zealot father.
As they grow together, Vorvoren shows Freddie her secret power, to change her appearance into anything she desires. But Freddie has secrets of his own, terrible secrets, and soon Vorvoren’s great adventure among the humans becomes a nightmarish fight for survival…
Alfie Shaw – Doctor Who: The War Doctor Rises – Fallen Heroes, available direct from Big Finish)
On the backwater planet of Falk, the mayor of the small town of Oakview has been murdered. Two investigators are sent in to catch the killer.
But unbeknownst to everyone on Falk, they’ve just been caught up in a war beyond their imagination. A war that will change Falk forever.
Best Graphic Novel
Jake Black & Daniel Kibblesmith – Rick vs. the Universe: Beth Till Death, available direct from Oni Press
Mad-with-power co-writers Daniel Kibblesmith (Loki) and Jake Black (Sonic the Hedgehog) join totally-run-amok artist Suzi Blake (Aggretsuko) for the next seismic special tying together Rick and Morty’s first-ever summer event!
With the impending nuptials of Prime and Parm Universe, love is in the air, and Jerry, being Jerry, has a stupid idea. Things have been rocky with Beth lately, what with separating and getting back together and then the arrival of Space Beth. So to return to solid ground with their marriage, Jerry is going to re-propose and ask Beth to renew their vows. One problem: Jerry doesn’t know which Beth is the one he married. Actually, no one does!
Eric Campbell & Jody Houser – Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons: The Rise of Hellfire
Spell slinging, sword swinging, and the luck of the dice have shaped the lives of the Stranger Things boys well before they had real monsters to face. This D&D crossover delves into Eddie Munson’s past and his rise to de facto leader of the Hellfire Club, and explores his recruitment of Lucas, Dustin, and Mike. Throughout, there are brilliant glimpses into the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons that they explore together.
This book highlights what really makes tabletop RPGs great through the lens of the hit Netflix series. At first, the Mirkwood gang is hesitant to join a new campaign without Will and El, but Eddie conjures up his charm and does his best to inspire them to answer his call to adventure. Reflecting on the legendary campaign that got him hooked, Eddie remembers how the original Hellfire crew navigated the weird social dynamics of Hawkins High, seeking new party members to help take on a vicious manticore that nearly wiped out their party, proving time and time again that the party is always stronger than the individual adventurer.
Rumours about Eddie’s bad reputation make Lucas worry that joining his club might hurt his chances of making the basketball team. But when the dice are cruel, Eddie’s true character shines through, earning all of the boys’ respect. Eddie Munson ushers in a new age for Hawkins High Hellfire Club with an exciting conclusion to Mike, Dustin, and Will’s first big Hellfire Club victory.
An action-packed fantasy love letter to the nerds of the eighties who dared to roll dice before it was cool, written by Jody Houser (Critical Role, Doctor Who) and Eric Campbell (Frank Frazetta’s Dawn Attack), and expertly drawn by Diego Galindo (Stranger Things: Tomb of Ybwen). Collects Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons: The Rise of Hellfire #1 – #4.
Julian Michael Carver – Commando No. 5899: Frostbite
Caught in the chaos of the Battle of the Bulge, the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division thought they had enough problems. In the depths of the frozen forests, though, their comrades were mysteriously disappearing. Tasked with finding the missing soldiers, Private Howard Kennedy and nine of his fellow troops were sent off into the snow in search of answers. What they found hidden among the frozen trees would haunt him for the rest of his days!
Chris Ryall – Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis
Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel is a unique 160-page graphic novel that presents an alternate version of Francis Ford Coppola’s visionary film, created and written by Francis Ford Coppola, adapted by Chris Ryall in collaboration with Coppola, and illustrated by Eisner Award–nominated cartoonist Jacob Phillips.
The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare.
Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
This graphic novel is a unique, standalone interpretation of the larger world Coppola created; or as Coppola himself put it,Megalopolis: An Original Graphic Novel is “a sibling of the film, rather than just an echo.”
Best Original Novel – General Fiction
Raymond Benson – Ian Fleming’s Felix Leiter: The Hook and the Eye
Felix Leiter – James Bond’s trusted friend and ally – takes center stage in a brand-new adventure by legendary 007 novelist, Raymond Benson.
It is 1952. Felix Leiter has returned to Manhattan after losing his job at the CIA. Determined to continue doing what he loves, he finds himself working at Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. What starts as a simple surveillance job turns into a matter of life and death when Felix stumbles upon a murder and the beautiful, yet secretive, Dora Wysocki. When Felix agrees to accompany Dora on a road trip from New York to Texas the mystery grows – along with the heat between them – as danger and deceit lurks behind every corner.
Sarah Cawkwell – Thunder’s Edge: Echoes of Memory
After a strange meeting leads to dire prophecies of a horrible future, a Hacan war hero must chart an expedition across the galaxy to locate a mysterious planet to save the universe from destruction in this high stakes thrilling space opera tie-in to the game, Twilight Imperium: Thunder’s Edge.
Harrugh Gefhara – the Golden General and retired leader of the Hacan – wanders the deserts of his homeworlds seeking answers and escape from the galactic intrigues of his past. When a traumatic meeting leads to a dire warning about the destruction of the universe, the reluctant hero dons his armor once more and gathers old friends and foes to explore the mysterious planet called Thunder’s Edge. Guided by a peculiar artifact and visions he cannot understand, his expedition into uncharted space quickly becomes one of pure survival as he and his crew suffer a sneak attack from the insidious Nekro Virus, crash landing them in unknown territory. There, they discover the foretold ominous plans for the future are worse than Harrugh ever imagined and it will take all his cunning to outwit the fate the Nekro has in store for the galaxy.
Max Allan Collins – Return of the Maltese Falcon
Hardboiled noir that picks up where legendary author Dashiell Hammett left off, telling the story of iconic private eye Sam Spade and the quest for the priceless Maltese Falcon.
Legendary mystery writer Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel about detective Sam Spade: The Maltese Falcon, the most famous private eye story ever told. But the case was never really solved – the priceless golden, bejewelled bird that men and women had been dying to possess turned out to be a fake.
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Max Allan Collins (author of Road to Perdition) brings closure to this crime classic, reuniting all the surviving members of the original cast alongside femme fatales, crooked collectors, and greedy gangsters for one more thrilling, deadly chase through the streets, wharves, morgues, bars, and back alleys of 1920s San Francisco – and finally answers the question, Whatever became of the Maltese falcon…?
Barbara Early – Murder, She Wrote: Snowy With a Chance of Murder
In a nod to Rear Window, this newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series finds Jessica Fletcher coping with an injury that leaves her homebound – and a murder just outside her window!
Jessica Fletcher has taken a nasty spill on the ice, leaving her in a wheelchair for several weeks. She tries to work on her latest manuscript but finds herself distracted by a new neighbour moving in across the street. There’s good reason for her to be distracted, because soon after unpacking his sparse belongings, Mr. Rymer is out in the front yard, building somewhat risqué (read: naked) snow sculptures.
James Hornby – Cwej: The Midas Touch
An alien parasite gives Larles the ability to reshape space and reality itself with the power of her mind. Cwej is worried, especially since the first thing she destroyed was one of his bodies. The Superiors are closing in, her powers are getting more potent, and a strange rodent-faced man named Gastar has some sort of stake in her destruction on a molecular level. Can Larles find a cure before the parasite kills her, or will her remorse get there first?
Terrie Farley Moran – Murder, She Wrote: The Body in the Trees
It’s leaf-peeping season in Cabot Cove, but for someone, it’s killing season! A quartet of friends from Florida have come to Maine to experience a New England autumn, complete with hiking in the woods and fishing. When one of them goes missing, the town rallies to find the presumably lost but otherwise safe tourist. But when newspaper editor Dan Andrews is biking on the trail along a ridge, he looks down and sees a leg caught in the branches of a tree. Count on Jessica Fletcher to uncover the secret reason the victim came to town… and how it led to her murder.
Best Original Novel – Speculative Fiction
Delilah S. Dawson – Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft: Heir of Strand
A party of adventurers must brave the horrors of Ravenloft in this official Dungeons & Dragons novel.
Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.
Shaun Hammill – Solomon Kane: Suffer The Witch
The first novel based on Robert E. Howard’s uncompromising Puritan anti-hero. A haunting and intense Gothic mystery for readers of Christopher Buehlman, John Langan and Brom.
Puritan. Fiend. Fanatic.
Solomon Kane.
In the wake of several grisly murders, Solomon Kane has been summoned to Windsend, England, to determine a woman’s guilt. Is Sybil Eastey a witch? And is she behind these gruesome crimes?
His first night in Windsend, Kane awakens from horrific nightmares only to witness a man being torn asunder. Fear quickly turns to something more sinister and the villagers are ready to lynch Sybil before Kane intervenes.
Kane must establish Sybil’s true nature and solve the macabre mystery before more blood is spilt. However, nothing is what it seems in Windsend.
Tim Lebbon – Conan: Songs of The Slain
When an old friend is attacked, Conan the Barbarian, now King of Aquilonia, picks up his sword again in search of vengeance. However, mysterious enemies assail the Cimmerian in this action-packed tale by New York Times Bestselling author, Tim Lebbon.
KING CONAN
When Conan of Cimmeria was a prisoner of war on the verge of death, he made a promise to a fellow prisoner, Baht Tann. Conan would grant a favour, wherever and whenever Tann called it in, in return for Tann’s meagre water ration. The men escaped, parted ways, and the rest is history. After a life filled with violence and tumult, Conan met his destiny and became King of Aquilonia.
Married with a child and presiding over a period of peace and stability, the legendary barbarian’s sword has been sheathed for too long. When Baht Tann arrives in Aquilonia, he is wounded, his wife has been murdered, and his two children kidnapped. He asks Conan to save his children and avenge his wife. It will be a perilous journey, chasing men with no honor. Conan leaves without hesitation.
Disguised as a scruffy wanderer and armed with a broadsword, Conan ventures into hostile lands in pursuit of Tann’s assailants. He is soon beset by assassins and learns there is a price on his head. Unknown to Conan, for reasons of honor, revenge and glory, powerful warriors want him dead. Violence and vengeance ensue as Conan takes on his mysterious foes and attempts to fulfil his promise.
David Mack – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Ring of Fire
A new adventure based on the thrilling Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds!
When murder and sabotage imperil the time-sensitive and top-secret mission of a team of civilian scientists, Starfleet deploys Captain Christopher Pike and the Enterprise crew to Kathara Station, a classified research facility located above the accretion disk of a black hole.
Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley soon discovers the station’s director, Valkeya, is hiding secrets – but so is Captain Pike, who many years earlier visited this same black hole on a mission that went tragically wrong, and whose consequences have haunted him ever since.
Caught in the crossfire on the station are Science Officer Spock, Nurse Christine Chapel, and Security Chief La’An Noonien-Singh, whose romantic entanglements old and new threaten to unravel their bonds of friendship.
As enemies converge upon the station, can Valkeya and Pike both atone for the mistakes of their pasts in time to avert a tragedy? With time running out, the survival of Kathara Station, the U.S.S. Enterprise, and dozens of innocent lives hinges on their acts of contrition…
John Jackson Miller – Batman: Revolution
It’s summer, and Gotham City has cause for celebration. The last vestiges of The Joker’s toxic legacy have finally faded, just in time for the mayor to partner with retail magnate Max Shreck to stage a Fourth of July celebration for the ages. But not everyone is rejoicing. Batman’s eternal vigilance continues as threats from rival gangs and masked criminals escalate by the day. Meanwhile, on the streets, protests grow in opposition to the city’s lavish excesses.
No one is experiencing the struggle between Gotham’s optimism and doubt more than Norman Pinkus. The Gotham Globe’s humble copy boy, he’s the unacknowledged mastermind behind the newspaper’s mega-popular Riddle Me This word puzzles. But Norman harbours a secret. He is the smartest man in Gotham City, using his prodigious skills to solve crimes anonymously for years via the police tip line – before Batman even knows there’s a crime to solve.
While neither fame nor fortune finds Norman, he believes in the promise of Gotham and what’s right… until he doesn’t. The man no one notices watches time and again as the city and its leaders cast their eyes high above the rooftops toward Batman. Dejected and unappreciated, Norman devises a scheme: With the help of dangerous new friends, he exploits the simmering tensions of the long hot summer to draw the Caped Crusader into a volatile game of riddles to crown Gotham’s true savior. As they clash, Norman, now known as The Riddle, and Batman will uncover hidden secrets about Gotham’s past that will have dire consequences for the city’s future.
Tim Waggoner – Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God
A new chapter of the Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures massive narrative event: Scourge of the Serpent Men. A thrilling story about Conan the Barbarian facing violent abominations written by Bram Stoker Award Winning Author Tim Waggoner.
Uzzeran, a sorcerer, and his serpent men take over Ravenhold monastery, a sanctuary for humans who have been experimented on by sorcerers. Uzzeran intends to create a race of human-serpent men hybrids. The sorcerer conducts unspeakable experiments on the residents, hoping to learn how to create hybrids. However, he fails and the residents become hideous monsters.
A monk named Renwick and a resident named Valja escape and go to the city of Charnhelm in search of help. There they encounter Conan battling several young warriors out to make a name for themselves by killing him. Valja hopes Conan can free Ravenhold from Uzzeran and the monstrosities he’s created, but Conan is uninterested. Vaija’s pleas hold no sway over Conan, but he relents when he learns that Uzzeran is the sorcerer. Conan has unfinished business with the sorcerer and sees an opportunity for revenge. The trio band together and form a team to fight Uzzeran and reclaim Ravenhold.
Bryan Young – BattleTech: Outfoxed
Led by Katie Ferraro, the Fox Patrol has traveled to the Hinterlands, seeking work for a small mercenary company. Unfortunately, too many close calls have made Katie a bit cautious, and the jobs she finds aren’t ones that pay well enough to keep up the unit’s morale, much less their coffers.
When they take a bigger job, they have no idea they’re going up against Lord Leon Hansen, son of the Duke of Tybalt, and the leader of a mercenary unit called Hansen’s Hawkeyes. Humiliated by his defeat, Leon vows revenge against the Fox Patrol, and schemes to destroy them for the insolence of their very existence.
Katie must fight to keep her unit together and alive through all of Hansen’s attempts at sabotage, assassination, and destruction… Could Hansen’s burning rage and limitless resources really mean the end of the fabled Fox Patrol?
Best Original Novel – Young Adult / Middle Grade
Jennifer Brody – Stranger Things: Starcourt Mall Escape
Explore Hawkins with fan-favorite character Eleven in a novel based on the iconic Netflix series Stranger Things.
It’s summer vacation, and everyone in Hawkins has plans―everyone except Eleven. She feels trapped by her overprotective father and wants to break out and find a normal teen life like she sees in her magazines. Luckily, Eleven’s not alone. Her friend Max needs to flee a troubling home life and an increasingly dangerous older brother. They decide to escape together, and in Hawkins in the summer of 1985, there is only one place to go: the all-new Starcourt Mall. Will midnight movies and an overnight party in the food court be the solution to their problems? Or will Eleven and Max discover that a little freedom can lead to a lot of trouble, and that the ghosts of the past are never far away?
Filled with details from Netflix’s series Stranger Things, this novel explores Hawkins – and Eleven’s place in it – like never before.
Carrie Harris – Lady Lovely Locks: Snagged
Perfect for fans of fairy-tale reinventions, cosplay, and pop-culture nerdom, this officially licensed Lady Lovely Locksstory proves that, sometimes, you have to become the hero of your own story.
Sixteen-year-old Leigh Carroll has been through it – when she lost her mom as a baby, she and her dad had to move to a small apartment in Philadelphia where they are scraping by. Leigh has an afterschool job at a hardware store and her dad works nights, so they never see each other. Despite everything, Leigh has been able to maintain her signature snark and has found an escape through something she’d never expected… cosplay.
It’s in this pursuit where Leigh’s life takes a turn for the supernatural-when she decides to build a costume based on a dated book series called Lady Lovely Locks. It’s about a princess of the same name who, on the surface, wears frumpy dresses, lives in a magical castle, rides a horse named “Silky Mane,” and has rainbow hair infested with long-tailed rodents called “Pixietails.”
Leigh finds a way to re-interpret this character for the 2020s and has everything she needs, except the rainbow-streaked hair. At a comic convention, she meets a mysterious old woman selling what appears to be an authentic, vintage Lady Lovely Locks wig. When Leigh gets home and puts it on, she finds herself magically transported to Lovely Locks kingdom. And, somehow, she now is Lady Lovely Locks. But it isn’t until she finds a painting of her mom hanging in the walls of a castle that she realises more than magic has brought her here…it’s fate.
George Ivanoff – The Tomorrow People: Kidnapped!
Returning to the Trig from a holiday on a distant planet, the Tomorrow People’s transport beam is intercepted.
Elizabeth and Stephen arrive safely on the Trig but John, Tyso and Tricia find themselves at the isolated conference centre and are seen as terrorists.
What sinister forces are behind the kidnapping and why have the Tomorrow People been brought here?
And will they be able to avoid capture?
Una McCormack – Doctor Who: Robot Revolution
What if the story of your life is written in the stars?
Belinda Chandra grew up longing to travel – but never imagined rocket ships would be part of the deal. Abducted by killer robots and taken to a strange planet, Belinda must join forces with the Doctor to put right a revolution that might just be her fault…
Reach for the stars as the Doctor and Belinda – as played by Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu – embark on their first adventure together. This novelisation of Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who script comes from best-selling tie-in author Una McCormack.
Eugene Myers – Little Nightmares: The Lonely Ones
Enter the world of Little Nightmares in this never-before-told original story! Based on the hit videogame series.
Ruse remembers water, darkness, and then nothing. Nothing – and then suddenly she’s awake in a shaking room she doesn’t recognise. She doesn’t recognize these other kids either – one a small girl with a frayed rope dangling from her neck, the other a starved-looking boy wearing a tattered mask over his mouth and nose.
Wherever they are, it isn’t safe. Flashing colours and bizarre sounds filter through the cracks in the wood, giving way to a nightmarish carnival. Ruse knows that she needs to get out of here, but are her new companions friends, or enemies?
When one wrong move can land you in the arms of monsters – and worse – Ruse will have to find a way to survive. Can she and her new companions possibly endure this frightening and twisted world? Or will they be warped forevermore by its dark influence?
Best Short Story
Alfie Shaw – “Aftercare,” featured in the BBC Books collection, Doctor Who: The Adventures After
This tale follows the events of the TV story, “The Angels Take Manhattan”‘ (a sad tale”, as Brian Williams tries to come to terms with Rory’s death.
Julia Vee – “Three Times Lucky,” Reclusion: The Game, featured in Reclusion: The Anthology
You can get an absolutely free copy of the Reclusion anthology by signing up for the Card Advantage Games mailing list at reclusiontehgame.com
Zheng Yi Sao is the focus of this adventure, which covers about ten years of her life, from the time she meets the pirate lord Zheng Yi in a brothel, through their marriage, his death, and her subsequent rule over the fleet.
Robert Jeschonek – “Ghost Station Zero,” included in Cold War Cthulhu
Cold War Cthullu is a narrower focus on the premise of the first PS anthology, That Is Not Dead. If the Old Ones have been lurking about since elder eons, people should have noticed in periods other the timeframe of the original Lovecraft stories. THAT IS NOT DEAD took the premise back into remote Antiquity. Cold War Cthullu brings it forward to the period of about 1950-1989.
“Surely with all that spying and top secret research both the CIA and the KGB must have known something about the eldritch forces that haunt our planet,” postits editor Darrell Schweitzer, “and tried to make use of everything from dimensional gates to Deep Ones to shoggoths. But at the same time this is all secret history, not alternate history. Many of the readers lived through this period and we know that Cthulhu did not rise and devastate the world, any more than Godzilla really stomped Tokyo. What really happened?
“The stories were required to dovetail into known and remembered history, even though what happened behind the scenes and undercover may be very different from what the public was aware of.”
Tim Waggoner – “Conan: Marked for Death”, Heroic Legends
Wounded, thirsty and stranded in the desert after a job gone bad, Conan is desperate. To make it out alive, he bands together with his fellow surviving mercenaries.
Conan trusts none of them, and the feeling is mutual. Fine. Everyone knows where they stand. But when a cursed treasure is discovered, distrust turns to suspicion. Conan knows enough about dark magic to leave well enough alone, but will greed get the better of his new ‘friends’?
• International Association of Media Tie-In Writers
With thanks to David Mack for the news tip
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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