Introducing Dark Matters
Monthly news, announcements, updates, reviews, essays, bonus content, and more from me straight to your email inbox
Hi, I’m Tim. It’s nice to meet you.
I’m a speculative fiction writer living outside of Washington, D.C., and this here Substacky thingamajig is a way for you and me to keep in touch.
Cool, I guess, but why?
As it turns out, writing fiction very often feels like whispering into a void. The whispers are my fingertips playing over my soft keys, and the void is a blinding white page. To me, though, communication and community are important aspects of writing fiction. I often refer to this as closing a circuit. I can sit behind a computer typing away until the Ragnarok come, but if no one is around to listen to me spout my prophetic nonsense, it’s purely an exercise in self-reflection. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of value in reflection, and there’s a lot of satisfaction and discovery to be had in writing stories for yourself. However, I’m very interested in sharing. Moreover, I’m very interested in hearing what others think and have to say about the stories that find their way out through me.
As our society grows increasingly digitally connected (and as I become an old), I’m finding it more difficult to cut through the social media noise and find my people, so here we are, revisiting (again) that old-timey tradition of a newsletter. This way, if you’re interested in me and my writings, you can tap right into a pipeline that gets you all of the news, announcements, updates, reviews, essays, bonus content, and more. You’ll never miss a thing, and you can talk to me, too! I hope you will. (Please? It gets lonely in this void.)
Trolls and Negative Nancies need not apply
If you’re someone who loves storytelling, especially when those stories build worlds and alter realities in interesting, alluring, and immersive ways and you’re looking to share those experiences with other people through positive, constructive, and holistic means, I want to know you. Friends?
But what, exactly, am I signing up for?
I won’t flood your inbox, if that’s your concern. This will be a monthly (-ish) communiqué. It’s totally free, but Substack offers opportunities for paid subscriptions. I’m a firm believer in literary citizenship and intangible benefits, so I don’t ever intend to slip this thing behind a paywall. News, updates, announcements, and my ramblings will always be free. I might fiddle with paid bonuses, though, in the future. I want to see how things go before I add things.
Wait. Who are you again?
Timothy Johnson is a speculative fiction writer living outside Washington, D.C. His published writing includes the novels The Pillars of Dawn and Carrier as well as short fiction from Gamut, Haven Speculative, Crystal Lake Publishing, and Inked in Gray Press. Learn more at www.timothyjohnsonfiction.com.