I’ve always loved diners. They’re where I meet friends, where I write, where I go when I just need to sit with my thoughts. A cheap mug of coffee and a corn muffin can make me happy in a way nothing else quite does. There’s something comforting about the clatter of dishes, the endless refills, the mix of people; some alone, some laughing with friends, the waitresses who know everyone’s names, the cooks you glimpse in the back. Every person has a story that led them there in that moment.
That’s part of why I chose a diner as the opening setting for Black Coffee. It feels almost impossible that such a place, so warm, so ordinary, could also be the backdrop for horror. But maybe that’s where the real unease begins, not in distant castles or abandoned mansions, but in the everyday places we think we know best.
Black Coffee is my new experiment in serialized storytelling: part novel, part unfolding conversation. Each Thursday (hopefully!) I’ll be sharing a new chapter here on Substack. You can also find a dedicated page for it on my website (seraphimgeorge.com/black-coffee), where it will live alongside my other books, poems, and plays.
I won’t give away too much just yet. Only this: the story begins in a diner with a cup of coffee that never seems to grow cold, and from there, it unravels into something stranger and darker.
The first chapter can be found below. I hope you’ll join me at the table.
Liking the hook, but curious to know where you found a diner that lets you sit around and write for only a coffee and a cornbread...
I love the smell of new ideas and coffee.