Welcome to the Substrate

We are taught early on to fear the rot. We are told to keep our gardens manicured, our structures sound, and our monsters neatly tucked beneath the bed. We are expected to smile through the structural collapse of our own ecosystems.

But there is a quiet violence in being expected to thrive in a poisoned ecosystem.

Welcome to Rooted in the Dark.

This space is dedicated to fiction for the end of the system. It is a place to explore the biological dread of our changing world and the horrific, beautiful reality of being human when the rigid containers we’ve built finally break.

My work heavily explores the concept of the monstrous feminine. In literature and in life, a female monster is rarely an alien invader. She is simply nature refusing to be pruned. She is what happens when we stop apologizing for our own survival.

As I continue to work on my current project, Mycelium, I will be using this space to share dispatches from the substrate. We will talk about radiotrophic survival, the psychological weight of decaying systems, and the messy, unapologetic reality of taking root in the dark.

The neat, polite narratives have already failed us. It is time to see what grows in the aftermath.

Thank you for stepping into the dark with me.

— Lizzie Andrews