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Draft:T.D. Johnston

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  • Comment: Has some opinions on the article or contains words like "love", "passions" and "admired", see WP:NPOV. TheNuggeteer (talk) 03:25, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
T.D. Johnston
Johnston in 2015
Johnston in 2015
BornTimothy Dwight Johnston
July 18, 1961
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pen nameT.D. Johnston
Alma materDavidson College • Antioch University
GenreLiterary • suspense • crime thriller
Years active2003-present
Notable worksReciprocity • Friday Afternoon and Other Stories • Weeding for Eisenhower: Stories
SpouseStacey Hammond (2003-present)
Children3
Website
tdjohnston.com

T.D. Johnston (born July 18, 1961) is an American author best known for his crime novel, Reciprocity[1], as well as his award-winning short fiction.

Early life

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Timothy Dwight Johnston was born July 18, 1961, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Robert and Ruth Johnston. Johnston's family moved to Durham, North Carolina, where his father served as headmaster at Durham Academy.[2]

Johnston's love for fiction was fostered in his middle school years. He was brought up a student-athlete, excelling in football[3], baseball[4], basketball[5], and swimming[6]. In high school, Johnston was the only sophomore on Durham Academy's state championship basketball team[7], and he started at quarterback in football[8] and in centerfield in baseball. After his sophomore year in Durham, his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Johnston attended the University School of Milwaukee[9], lettering and starting in football, basketball and baseball.

Johnston enrolled at Davidson College in 1979 and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1983. While at Davidson, he played varsity baseball as a freshman before focusing on student government. He served as student body president in 1982-83.[10] He was also elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges in recognition of outstanding merit and accomplishment as a student.[11]

He received his Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 2003.[12]

Career

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After graduating from Davidson in 1983, Johnston worked for Procter & Gamble in Memphis, Tennessee.[13] He left after a year to move back to North Carolina and worked at First Union. In 1986, Johnston left his job to pursue creating board games on the basis of sports. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he created a total of five games between the years of 1986-1992: Alley-Oop![14][15], Touchdown, Grand Slam[16], Hornet Mania, and Tiger Trivia. Alley-Oop! became successful in the region of Charlotte and the Carolinas. In addition to board games, he created the Garden Express[17] and Dairy Express.[18] [19] Johnston spent a number of years in the entrepreneurial world before becoming an English teacher, basketball coach, athletic director, and ultimately preparatory school headmaster.

Johnston spent nearly twenty years teaching English, World Literature, and Creative Writing at several of America's top college-preparatory schools, including Ransom Everglades, Pace Academy, and Sewickley Academy, and was a head varsity boys basketball coach whose teams averaged over twenty victories per season and all advanced to the state playoffs.[20]

Johnston headed two college-preparatory schools, Beaufort Academy[21] and Triangle Day School[22], before leaving the school world to focus full-time on writing fiction and editing the acclaimed Short Story America anthology series of short fiction by today's authors.[23]

Short Story America

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In 2010, Johnston, with a great love for short fiction since childhood, and already a published author of short stories himself, developed a website promoting the art of the short story. Short Story America continues today and has published seven volumes of selected short stories in their anthology series.[24] A year later it was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the Top 50 Online Literary Magazines in the world.[25]

The Works of T.D. Johnston

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Johnston's short stories have been featured in literary magazines such as Hobart Pulp ("The Closing")[26], PineStraw Magazine ("The Errand"[27] and "The Guest"[28]), Y'all Magazine ("Weeding for Eisenhower"[29], "The Glad Promise"[30], and "Shoebox Love"[31]), O. Henry Magazine, Mulberry Fork Review, Literary Juice, and Civil War Camp Chest, and literary anthologies such as Rod Serling's Books' 'Submitted for Your Approval' ("The Interruption of Thomas Darrow"), and Short Story America's seven anthologies of contemporary short fiction ("Sixth Period", "Gratuity", "The Interruption of Thomas Darrow", "A Game of Chess", et al)[32] where he served as publisher and editor.[33]

Reciprocity

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Johnston's debut novel, Reciprocity, was a finalist for the International Book Award for Best General Fiction in 2022.[34] Reciprocity was optioned by Universal Television Studios, and is in development by Universal as a multi-season television series.

Influence

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Johnston's short stories are described as literary, and his novels are thrillers. This follows his reading passions from throughout his life. As a reader, he has always admired the literary masters of the short story, from the American greats (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Raymond Carver, John Cheever et al)[35] to the Russian masters like Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, and Leo Tolstoy.[36] As a fan of novels since middle school, he's gravitated to the thrillers of Alistair MacLean, Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett, Stephen King, Peter Straub, John Grisham, and Frederick Forsyth, and to authors of cautionary dystopian tales like George Orwell, Upton Sinclair, Margaret Atwood, and Sinclair Lewis. His reading preferences have naturally influenced his writing.

Johnston has also been deeply influenced by Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone, as those stories are fiction as commentary, an important characteristic of much of Johnston's fiction.[37]

Personal life

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Johnston is married to Dr. Stacey Hammond Johnston, with whom he has three children: twins Brooke and Taylor (b. 2003)[38], and Nick (b. 2013)[39]. They met in 2002 as educators at Pace Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.[40] They were married in 2003. Johnston and his family currently reside in Orange Park, Florida and Beaufort, South Carolina.

A huge baseball fan, Johnston has been in the same fantasy baseball league for 36 years.

Works

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Novels

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  • Reciprocity (2022)[41]

Short Story Collections

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  • Friday Afternoon and Other Stories (2016)[42]
  • Weeding for Eisenhower: Stories (2021)[43]

Other

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  • Series Editor for Short Story America, Volumes One through Seven[44]

Upcoming Novels

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  • The Daffodil Society (2025)
  • The Furtherer (2026)
  • The Temples of the Graces (2026)
  • The Purple Testament (Reciprocity, Book Two) (2025)

Awards

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  • Winner of the 2017 International Book Award for Best Short Fiction (Friday Afternoon and Other Stories)[45]
  • Finalist for the 2022 International Book Award for Best General Fiction (Reciprocity)[34]
  • Finalist for Historical Novel Society's Solander Prize for Short Fiction (for the short story, The Interruption of Thomas Darrow)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Reciprocity by T.D. Johnston". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  2. ^ "Mission & History - Prep School Durham NC | Durham Academy". www.da.org. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  3. ^ "Northwestern Prep suffers 34-0 defeat". Wisconsin State Journal. 1977-10-23. p. 38. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  4. ^ "Little League -- "Johnston, hit a grand slam homer"". The Durham Sun. 1973-06-12. p. 16. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  5. ^ "Wildcat's Speed Hurts Wayland -- The Daily Citizen". Daily Citizen. 1978-01-07. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  6. ^ "Dolphins First in Swim Medley". The Herald-Sun. 1971-11-28. p. 39. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  7. ^ "Cavalier Awards -- The Durham Sun". The Durham Sun. 1977-04-08. p. 42. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  8. ^ "Lack of Depth Worry at Durham Academy". The Herald-Sun. 1976-09-07. p. 14. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  9. ^ "Class Notes: Fall/Winter 2017-18". www.usm.org. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  10. ^ Blodgett, Jan (2011-01-18). "Student Body Presidents – Davidson College Archives & Special Collections". Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  11. ^ Randall, Henry Pettus (1983). Who's who among students in American universities and colleges. Internet Archive. [Tuscaloosa? etc., Ala.]
  12. ^ "Meet T.D. Johnston". canvasrebel.com. 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  13. ^ "Salad Bar Goes Way of Pizza -- On Wheels". The Charlotte Observer. 1989-05-22. p. 42. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  14. ^ "New Board Game in Works to Star Best of Final Four". The Charlotte Observer. 1988-04-03. p. 127. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  15. ^ "Alley Oop!". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  16. ^ "Grand Slam". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  17. ^ "Salad Bar Goes Way of Pizza -- On Wheels". The Charlotte Observer. 1989-05-22. p. 42. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  18. ^ "Milk bottle on the doorstep moo-ves back to the future". The Charlotte Observer. 1991-03-19. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  19. ^ "As a city awakens, 2 express milkmen are ready to call it a day". The Charlotte Observer. 1991-04-22. p. 27. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  20. ^ "Johnston, athletics director at Pace, took Ransom Everglades to state championship each season". The Atlanta Constitution. 2000-12-07. p. 257. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  21. ^ "Tim Johnston to take over as headmaster -- The Beaufort Gazette". The Beaufort Gazette. 2004-05-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  22. ^ "Headmaster Tim Johnston at Triangle Day School, 1999". The Herald-Sun. 1999-02-15. p. 44. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  23. ^ "Former BA educators create website promoting short story writers -- The Beaufort Gazette". The Beaufort Gazette. 2010-01-19. p. 28. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  24. ^ "Short Story America". shortstoryamerica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  25. ^ "Writer's Digest". Writer's Digest. 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  26. ^ "The Closing by T.D. Johnston". www.hobartpulp.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  27. ^ "March PineStraw 2010 by PineStraw Magazine - Issuu". issuu.com. 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  28. ^ "January PineStraw 2012 by PineStraw Magazine - Issuu". issuu.com. 2012-01-01. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  29. ^ Staff, Y'all (2019-08-03). "Weeding For Eisenhower - A Short Story". Yall.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  30. ^ Staff, Y'all (2020-01-30). "The Glad Promise- A Southern Original by T.D. Johnston". Yall.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  31. ^ Staff, Y'all (2020-11-04). "'Shoebox Love' - A Southern Original". Yall.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  32. ^ "Short Story America". shortstoryamerica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  33. ^ Reports, Staff (2016-08-17). "Johnston next author up on literary tour". Post and Courier. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  34. ^ a b "International Book Awards - Honoring Excellence in Independent & Mainstream Publishing". internationalbookawards.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  35. ^ "Island Packet - Beaufort author Tim Johnston talks about the art of the short story".
  36. ^ "Duotrope - Editor Interview: Short Story America".
  37. ^ Sundahl, Daniel (2016-06-15). ""Friday Afternoon and Other Stories," by T. D. Johnston". Southern Literary Review. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  38. ^ "March of Dimes gives premature twins a chance". The Beaufort Gazette. 2005-04-21. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  39. ^ "Birth Announcements - The Beaufort Gazette". The Beaufort Gazette. 2013-04-14. p. 33. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  40. ^ "the write stuff: A chat with Tim Johnston, author and editor of Short Story America – The Island News – Beaufort, SC". 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  41. ^ "TD Johnston - Reciprocity". tdjohnston.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  42. ^ "TD Johnston - Friday Afternoon and Other Stories". tdjohnston.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  43. ^ "TD Johnston - Weeding for Eisenhower". tdjohnston.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  44. ^ "Short Story America". www.shortstoryamerica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  45. ^ "International Book Awards - Honoring Excellence in Independent & Mainstream Publishing". internationalbookawards.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
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