J. Curtis

“I like stories that feel a little off in the best way—uncanny, human, and hard to shake.“ – J. Curtis

Man wearing a brown coat against a dark background

J’s projects include the serialized novel ISLA, the Tiny Worlds collections, and T he Midnight Vault, which exists both as a book and a live collaborative event.

He comes from a long stretch in tech and product work, where he learned how things are built, scaled, and occasionally broken. These days he splits his time between writing, editing, and building publishing experiments that keep the focus on the work itself.

Elsewhere // website // substack // goodreads

An excerpt from “The Bear,” collected in Tiny Worlds Volume Two —

Late at night, around the full moon, a bear joins me for tea. I’m still getting used to it.

I suspect you’re wondering how a bear can manage a teacup. The answer is—well, it’s not exactly a teacup. I’ll get to that shortly.

After long days of writing I’m often awoken by characters jabbering until the wee hours. These semi-frequent bouts of insomnia find me outside with a cup of tea. I’ve tried almost everything to get back to sleep, but only the sound of crickets, the night creatures, and a cup of tea seem to work.

Recently, a hulking figure emerged from the woods. His broad shoulders and lumbering gait came through my wife’s hedges, trampling the hydrangeas and boxwood. I’d always thought bears were noisy, but this one moved in near silence.