The second short story in the first volume of my new anthology series, Dark Matter, is entitled – The Zeitgeist Chapters.

It tells the story of a struggling young writer who unwittingly sells his soul for an idea, to a mysterious stranger in a Zoot suit. This stranger goes by the name – Mr. Zeitgeist.

But what is the Zeitgeist?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the noun zeitgeist is in a letter penned by the school inspector, slash, poet & writer, Matthew Arnold in 1848.

The dictionary defines its meaning and etymology as –

The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.

The word is German, and comes from Zeit ‘time’ and Geist ‘spirit’.

So my character became defined as a sort of – ‘Time Spirit’ – a Midnight Man, if you will, who appears in a dark alley before my protagonist, Jacob Jacket.

You can read the full story in –

My Brother’s Eye – Dark Matter Volume 1