JOHN P. WALLMAN
AUTHOR OF THE DARK MATTER SERIES
John currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his brilliant English wife Deb. She keeps his life fun and bright while he writes about the dark and macabre. He might be a Boomer, but he feels more like a late-Millennial.
John is the first son of Jack (John P., Sr.) and Willie (Dwillis) Wallman. He has a brother Mark, and a sister Mary Louise whom everyone calls Mimi. He enjoys visiting his twin sons, Lance and Drew, and their families—especially his grandchildren.
He’s retired his tennis racquet and taken up pickleball. He and Deb enjoy the occasional clinic and pickup play. He reads a lot of fantasy and science-fiction, he loves to watch a good British mystery or thriller—but he really enjoys a good horror story. If he’s not watching BritBox with his wife, he’s engrossed in one of the various incarnations of Star Trek.
The first half of his adult years he spent as an English/language-arts teacher. The second half he has been all over the place: human capital management, the nuclear industry, corporate retail, and lately snow and ice management.
When he was ten years old, he had his first taste as a writer. Inspired by the classic movie War of the Worlds and its source novel (he read an abridged version), he wrote his own Martian incursion tale “Earth Invaded.” He copied it neatly onto notebook paper and took it to his teacher who agreed to read it to the class—sight unseen. That may have been a mistake, for as she read the gruesome parts, there were quite a few grimaces among his fellow students. John was delighted. At the end, the class gave him a standing ovation. He knew then he wanted to be an author.
In college, he began a high-fantasy novel where he developed the concept of Dark Matter. Life happened, and he had to put it aside.
Fast forward to his teaching years at South Middle School in Morgantown, West Virginia. On a challenge from his students, he wrote the beginning of a vampire story that later became the seed story for The Dark Matter Series.
Years after leaving teaching, he was laid off during the Great Recession. What to do as he waited for the economy to bounce back? He dug up that old vampire story and embarked on a journey of reluctant heroes and angels and vampires and lyl. Looming over all was the return of the Queen of the Night.
Now, John’s dream of becoming an author has come true. His first novel, THE DARK STIRS, released in June of 2022, and the second of the series, THE DARK GAMBIT, recently released in April 2024. Number three, THE DARK HARVEST, is in progress. He has two related pieces he calls satellite stories because they revolve around the four books of the series; they can be found on Kindle Vella. He has two more planned.
His next dream is to finish the series… and perhaps expand it. It will take a lot of perseverance, a lot of courage, and a lot of faith. He’s inspired by these words of the famous writer-producer Shonda Rhimes:
“Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.”