Rather unexpectedly, it's been revealed that the Big Finish book of Doctor Who audio scripts is to be released this month.

The first issue of the Doctor Who spin-off comic featuring the Doctor's daughter, Miranda, is now available to pre-order from the official website.

Mad Norwegian Press have announced that following the success of their Doctor Who spin-off book, The Faction Paradox Chronicles, a series of novels will commence publication in 2003. The first of them will be written by Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles and will be available in both paperback and hardback.

Space: 1999 — The Forsaken, from Powys Media, has been released with two different covers.

Human Nature, the 1995 Doctor Who novel by Paul Cornell, started its online serialisation at the start of November on the BBC's official Doctor Who site. The Dying Days by Lance Parkin remains available to read.

Big Finish are reported to have a further two anthologies of Doctor Who fiction planned for release in 2003.

FANDERSON, the official Gerry Anderson fan club, have announced that their next publication after the recent reprint of Space: 1999 — Earthfall will be a new novelisation from EC Tubb. Space: 1999 — Earthbound will contain the previously un-novelised episode Earthbound, and also novelisations based on the original draft scripts to The Exiles and The Immunity Syndrome. Note that FANDERSON publications are only available to club members.

Powys Media have announced details of their next Space: 1999 novel. It will be called Survival and is to be written by Brian Ball who wrote one of the original first season novelisations.

Other books they have in the pipeline include Year One, which will be a revised limited edition hardback omnibus of the original season one novelisations. Year Two will follow the same format, with the addition of a novelisation of The Taybor by Michael Butterworth who originally novelised the season two stories.

A list of the authors writing for the forthcoming Doctor Who anthology from Big Finish has been released.

Simon A Forward, Sarah Groenewegen, Simon Guerrier, Paul Magrs, Todd Green, Joseph Lidster, Andrew Collins, Alison Lawson, Mark Michalowski, Paul Leonard, Tony Keetch and Ian Potter will all be writing stories, with Jim Sangster providing an introduction and links.

Further details have also been released about the contents of next years book of Doctor Who audio scripts. Due to be published in September, the book will contain the rehearsal scripts to Loups Garoux by Marc Platt, The Holy Terror by Rob Shearman, The Fires of Vulcan by Steve Lyons and Neverland by Alan Barnes.

Two comic spin-offs based on various Doctor Who novels are currently in the planning stages.

The first, from Comeuppance Comics, will feature Miranda, the Doctor's adopted daughter from the popular novel Father Time by Lance Parkin. Further details are expected in the next few months. If you visit the website you can sign-up to a mailing list to receive further information as it becomes available.

The second comic is coming via Mad Norwegian Press, publishers of the I, Who guides, and will feature the exploits of Faction Paradox, the time-travelling voodoo cult featured in various novels including Alien Bodies, Interference and The Ancestor Cell. So far this year, Faction Paradox spin-offs have included Faction Paradox: The Book of the War and two audio dramas from BBV — The Eleven Day Empire and The Shadow Play.

Telos have revealed that BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, will not be renewing their licence to produce Doctor Who novellas when the current contract expires in March 2004.

This has come as something of a shock, as only a few months ago Time and Relative was voted the best 'Previous Doctor' book to be released in 2001 by readers of Doctor Who Magazine.

Slightly better news for Telos is that Goblin City Lights, the Simon Clark short story from the Urban Gothic: Lacuna and Other Trips anthology, was the winner of the Short Fiction award in the 2001 British Fantasy Society awards.

Details have been released about a new Doctor Who short story anthology which is to be released by Big Finish Productions. Short Trips: Zodiac, edited by Jacqueline Rayner, will contain twelve stories and be available in hardback from December.

Two other books covering aspects of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio CD's are due to be published in 2003. The first, a hardback script book containing rehearsal scripts for four of their audio dramas, will be released in September 2003. The second book is to be a large-format hardback that will cover the production of all the Doctor Who audios produced by Big Finish up to Zagreus, a three CD story scheduled for release in November 2003 — the fortieth anniversary of Doctor Who.

Telos Publishing have announced plans for up to nine new Doctor Who novellas in 2003. Authors already signed up include Louise Cooper and Mark Chadbourn, both of whom are new to the world of Doctor Who.

Telos have also recently been nominated for Best Small Press in the British Fantasy Society awards 2002. Nominated for Best Short Fiction are Goblin City Lights, and Telling the Tale — both of which were published in the Urban Gothic: Lacuna and Other Trips anthology.

The November novella, Doctor Who: Foreign Devils, will include The Whistling Room — one of William Hope Hodgson's original Carnacki stories. As the stories are now out of copyright they can easily be found on the net, although the only location I've found all nine is here.

BBCi have announced that Human Nature, the 1995 Doctor Who novel by Paul Cornell, will be the second book to be made available on the official website. It's expected to go online in October and will be accompanied by notes from the author. Illustrations are being provided by Kim Plowright.

The release of I, Who 3, the latest in the series of guides to the Doctor Who books and audios, has been moved back to April 2003.

A new edition of The Prisoner by Thomas M Disch has been released in the USA by eBooks.

From 23rd of May the BBC's official Doctor Who site will be serialising Lance Parkin's highly sought-after novel The Dying Days. This was the final book to be released by Virgin before the Doctor Who licence passed back to the BBC in 1997. The serialisation will be accompanied by notes from Lance Parkin and illustrations by Allan Bednar.

From September the number of Doctor Who books will decrease to one a month, with Eighth Doctor Adventures and Previous Doctor Adventures being released on alternate months. There is currently no news on whether the schedule will revert to two books a month after the fortieth anniversary of the programme in 2003.