The Midnight Vault

On the Value on New Friendships and Collaboration

The homie and fine purveyor of hypotheticals

J. Curtis

reached out to me in May of last year, and that started a valuable collaboration and friendship. I’m at the juncture in my life when life starts taking people away rather than introducing them. I recognize this, and when he started talking about getting together for a piece, (we are fans of each other’s work, of course) I agreed. We chatted on the phone for nearly two hours and I was stoked to get to work with the dude.

We exchanged calls, text regularly, and he’s now on my regular postcard list (it’s a difficult list on which to make an appearance, to be sure). So when the madman living on a wooded piece of property west of the Rockies reached out to me to contribute to a Rod Serling/Twilight Zone fiction collaboration with a host of other Substack regulars I jumped at the chance, though, to be sure, this idea was outside of my regular writing. I don’t write sci-fi, horror, or anything that could approach the outer limits of The Twilight Zone. It’s not in my arsenal. I’ve got a fastball, a change-up, a screwball, and a splitter. I don’t have a good curve.

I figured, “fuck it.” I love the show. My dad loves the show. Most of my favorite people love the show. Let’s go. Some of the best choices of my life have been made because of “fuck it.” I better learn how to throw a good curve.

Annie Hendrix

wasn’t mucking about. “What mattered is that I was on a deadline, and I was not going to let myself, my collaborators, or the late Rod Serling down,” she wrote.

We coordinated. We schemed. We synchronized watches. Literally. We set to release our short stories simultaneously on Nov. 24, 2024 as a celebration of Twilight Zone’s 65th anniversary. Blue sapphires are the traditional gift for the 65th, but Rod’s been dead for quite some time, so this was the best we poor Substackers could manage. The reception was a blast to read. So much support flooded our way it was somewhat strange to me, which is fitting in a Rod Serling way.

The collusion didn’t end there. One or two of these co-conspirators decided we should compile and publish and make it all available for sale. A fine idea! So we went back to the editing process and shipped our stuff off. A few financial twists and turns aside, we ended up on a well-known e-commerce site with our book, our ideas, and our teamwork available for purchase.

Here… it’s right here

In four days we went from 109,114th to 46,238. More than 50,000 spots in four days. DAMN! As I mentioned to J, cue The Jeffersons Theme song because we’re movin’ on up!

Family members are proud, friends are excited, and people are paying actual currency for our stuff. This is the good stuff that comes from new partnerships.

It’s the punk rock DIY aesthetic that so many of us were raised on and celebrate. We did this. Professional appreciators and writers put something into the world. In a time of impermanence, physical media holds incredible value. That’s what we did. We made something of value.

Liz Zimmers | Edith Bow | Sean Archer | Bryan Pirolli | Andy Futuro | CB Mason | John Ward | NJ | Hanna Delaney | William Pauley III | Jason Thompson | Nolan Green | Shaina Read | J. Curtis | Honeygloom | Stephen Duffy | K.C. Knouse | Michele Bardsley | Bob Graham | Annie Hendrix | Clancy Steadwell | Jon T | Sean Thomas McDonnell | Miguel S. | A.P Murphy | Lisa Kuznak | Bridget Riley | EJ Trask | Shane Bzdok | Adam Rockwell | Will Boucher