The eternal present.

Digging in my story loft for a last-minute Christmas gift.

This is not a scheduled post. I am writing it on Christmas Day because I really have nothing better to do. And that’s a good thing. Writing is my favourite thing to do, so of course I would be doing it whenever I have the time.

I may also make a bagel. That is another of my favourite things.

I also could not help but make a present joke, which is a hint at the story I include in this email.

---

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it’s a good one. If you’ve got the time to open and read this email, thank you for choosing to spend that time here.

I’ve got a Lego dinosaur this Christmas, so I am sorted.

---

Below is a time travel story I wrote as a microfiction in 2015. Looking back, I realise a lot of my writing is about time, either directly or indirectly, and that perhaps I should make this my brand for some future adverts.

Anyway, this story is called THE INTERTEMPORAL HOTEL but back in 2015 it was only called INTERTEMPORAL, and it became my first published story over on the now dead postcardshorts. Back then it was a microfiction.

I’ve also decided to place this story inside the EARTHLOOP universe. In that universe Brigid Pearson has written it, and it’s her first published story, too.

I know, weird choice, but all my best creative choices are weird.

About pen names, you can expect more Rod Grasper action in 2025.

But right now, you can read THE INTERTEMPORAL HOTEL for free on Substack. No downloads, no tech wizardry required. Just click the thing below and you can read it here in this newsletter.

The Intertemporal Hotel is a sci-fi with very slight romance elements featuring a little nod to quantum immortality, amongst other things.

---

---

Note: The book mentioned in the post, Seven Stories about Time Travel, got shelved in favour of making WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? instead. SSATT and the other books in that planned series will still arrive someday, but I want more time to meditate on their direction, as I did when I began redrafting THE STEPHANIE GLITCH in 2021. Since I write most of these books all at the same time, my process feels very organic and sensible when I’m exploring the universes in the pilot’s seat, but I know it can come across jagged and mysterious from the outside as I’m zooming around referencing different stories, so I thought I’d explain.

SSATT is happening one day.

WKTH is happening on March 5th 2025.

---

See you all in a few days!