INTRO

Hello! It’s time for me to join what feels like the majority of publishing in 2026: I am attempting to write a newsletter. For now, I think I’m aiming for one a month - or thereabouts - just as a little space that's mine and not burdened with the many curses of social media.

So, hi. If you've come here by mistake, here's an introduction: I'm Ollie, and I write comics (mostly. We’ll get to that below). The big one is my book with incredible illustrator Kelsi Jo Silva, THE RESTAURANT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD. Or, if you're in North America, OFF MENU. Same book, different title. I've also written for things like 2000AD and RED SONJA. I'm mostly known for writing queer YA comics at the moment, but trying to spread my wings a little more - particularly in the direction of horror.

So. Hi. That's me. I don't bite. I also don't really have a fixed plan for these newsletters, so let's try some segments. Some of these might be regular. Some of them might be occasional. Some of them might be banished after one brief appearance and never seen again. Sometimes I might write an essay (I’ve got a couple in mind…)

THE NEWS

The one piece of news I have at the moment is that THE RESTAURANT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, by me and Kelsi Jo Silva, has been shortlisted for the Leeds Book Awards! This is a school librarian led award, and we're on a shortlist of 3 titles in the Teen Graphic section. It's an honour to be shortlisted, and I'm very excited for the rest of the process. You can check out more info HERE.

This is a shortlist assembled by school librarians. Over the next few months, schoolchildren in Leeds will be reading all of the books and voting for their favourites. In May, I get to go and talk to them for a bit and then find out who won. I am more than a little bit excited.

2025: A YEAR THAT HAPPENED

2025 was, frankly, pretty terrible, and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that. THE RESTAURANT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD came out in January, and after that every single project went wrong in increasingly absurd and infuriating ways. I won’t bore you with the details, but I can assure you it has not been a lot of fun: frustration on frustration, and a lot of waiting for no good news at all. Absolutely no work came in at all for the entire year, which is a new low point!

So what I did instead was learn and write, and when new work opportunities arise, I'm going to be so much better prepared for them. I'm a better writer now than I was last time anything I wrote was published, and I'm READY.

WHAT AM I WRITING?

So, what does 2026 look like for me?

I've got four projects on the go in various stages. None under contract, all pitches at this stage.

let's do some codenames! All the cool writers are making up codenames for their work.

PROJECT RS is a middle grade pitch with some very dear friends. We've been working on it for a while, and it's time to retool and refresh. It needs a new format and new eyes on it this year.

PROJECT SONG is a YA pitch, returning to a beloved co-creator for a second project. We know the story, we know the vibe, we've been making each other cry with it for months now: we just need to get schedules lined up.

PROJECT DISAPPEAR is a YA script about sad boys and trying to kiss a ghost. I wrote it a few years back, and it's never quite managed to find its home; it's been sat in a cupboard for a while now, and 2026 is the year when I'm going to dust it off, find the juice it needs, and introduce the world to some of the worst vibes I've ever written.

PROJECT V is the big one. This is the novel. It's… Probably adult? About 90,000 words of anxiety, dismemberment, and letting all my academic background loose on a novel. Currently deep in draft 3, hoping to get it out on sub later this year.

This is a new one for me, and it's been a terrifying learning experience! But learning new tools is fun, and I believe in this story very strongly.

WHAT AM I READING?

Poetry! January has been a month for poetry. I've read an awful lot of Ted Hughes, which has been lovely and only sometimes heartbreaking.

I read a lot of novels and pull them apart to see how they work. I'm a fast reader, and a voracious devourer and dismemberer of fiction. Learning tricks from other writers is fun and rewarding! Sometimes, though, it's nice to focus on something else: on the sound of words, the tiny precise movements of only a handful of clauses, the maximum emotional effect in the minimum space.

I started reading Hughes for research: I wanted to look at how he adapted Ovid, and how we talk about landscape and the divine (I have my reasons! You'll find out later). It's become something more than just research, though; his bleak revelry in nature and transformation is something special, and I can't stop reading.

So that's my recommendation. Go and read some poetry.

WHAT AM I WATCHING?

Let’s talk a bit about a movie, and then a bit about a TV show. That feels like a nice format, I think.

Movies! What are movies? Well, the Most Movie I’ve seen in a long time is Marty Supreme, my first cinema trip of 2026. Two hours of “Oh no, the consequences of my actions”, as everyone's favourite damp rat boy Tiny Tim Chalamet proceeds to get himself into Situations over and over again. We love to see a horrible man experience Consequences.

On the serialised front, I’ve been watching Oshi No Ko, the anime adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s manga. I’ve not read the book yet, but Akasaka’s work on Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is some of the best, spikiest, most complicated teen comedy I’ve ever encountered. Oshi No Ko is difficult to talk about: it’s a high-concept reincarnation nightmare about the horrors of the entertainment industry and how it destroys the lives of young women. It’s occasionally very funny, using that to make its subject matter palatable, but ends almost every episode on a propulsive, desperate note of dread that I can’t get enough of.

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?

It’s been an intense few months of editing. That means it's the Book Playlist at all times, which has a vibe I can only describe as “night out gone wrong.” I don’t want to share the whole playlist, because it feels very personal! But here’s the song that just came on as I write this newsletter: ionnalee’s Not Human. Give it a listen. Then maybe go and have a listen to some of her back catalogue: there are some lovely terrible vibes through all of it.

FRIENDS MAKING THINGS

I know some very cool people making very fun things!

This month, I recommend that you go and subscribe to the patreon of Restaurant at the Edge of the World co-creator (and award-shortlisted artist!) Kelsi Jo Silva’s patreon.

I also think you should go and preorder Worst Man, by Brandt&Stein. This is going to be one of 2026’s best books, and I’ll talk about it more later. Maybe next month. But for now, you should get in there early.

OUTRO

This has been: a first attempt at a newsletter. I’ll see you next month sometime, unless I forget.

Is there anything in particular you’d like to see from these? Let me know! Do you have any music with terrible vibes that you think I should listen to? Please tell me about it!

• Ollie, Edinburgh, Jan 2026