A novel
Studio 6
Across sixty years in a New York rehearsal building, artists leave behind unpaid rent, stolen work and the evidence of what ambition costs.
Featured novel
They Called It
Love Anyway
Three connected files follow the long reach of violence through families, intimate relationships, and the human need to call cruelty love.
The catalogue
Murder, music, flight and a country without television.
The catalogue moves from New York rehearsal rooms and damaged families to disputed records, civic pressure and an America where moving images are illegal at home.
The Transmission Era · Book One
The Room
In 1963 alternate America, certified household receivers can listen back. Walter Miller follows prepared inspections into Water Street, where the state’s story is waiting before the facts finish happening.
Book Two · Forthcoming January 15, 2027
The Cut
Clara Voss enters Water Street’s administrative aftermath in 1964, where correction, attribution and the public record carry human consequences.
Four stories
Set Pieces
Four stories about a football run, a gifted boy, a travelling guitar and a motel window, each following performance into consequence.
Historical short fiction
A Claim Against the Dark
A contested mining claim turns testimony, civic ambition and paperwork into a fight over who owns the record.
The Transmission Era
America could hear the world.
It was not permitted to watch it move.
In 1963, Walter Miller, Charlotte “Charlie” Prudhomme, Ellen Dallow and the Water Street households uncover the link between redevelopment, receiver surveillance and consequences prepared in advance.
Journal
Why I Love…
Why People Call It Love Anyway
Love is often the last word people use when they have run out of explanations but still want to be forgiven.
Why I Love Rooms You Have to Rent by the Hour
The romance of rehearsal rooms is mostly bad ventilation, cash in envelopes, and someone insisting the piano was already out of tune.
Why I Love People Who Ruin the Blackboard
Every institution says it wants talent until talent needs the part of the blackboard reserved for Tuesday’s spelling words.
The author
John Thomas Donnelly
John Thomas Donnelly writes literary fiction, crime, suspense and alternative history. His books move from murder and family betrayal to secret government programs, music, aviation and forgotten corners of history.