“It’s Okay to Hate Your Writing”: A “Writers Write” Interview with Andi Cumbo
Writer, writing teacher, and editor Andi Cumbo recently interviewed me about writing on her website. Read up, and follow Andi on Twitter at @andilit. Excerpt “People tend to handle critiquing me with kid gloves because I have OCD, and I’m very sensitive. But in the past year, having finally written publicly on a regular basis, I...
Book Review: Joel Heng Hartse’s “Sects, Love, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Life on Record”
Shortly after my daughter Evie was born in October, one of my Twitter friends and followers, Zondervan author David Jacobsen, was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, Rookie Dad. I planned to review it at a time such as this, but then David derailed the whole thing by directing my attention...
An Open Letter to Everett True: 5 Songs from the Boy Who Listened to “Nerdvana”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I originally posted this piece on January 9, 2012. On April 1, I received a tweet from Everett True regarding this piece. It said, “I reckon we should reprint that on Collapse Board. what d’ya think?” He posted the article on the evening of April 2 here. At the top of the piece,...
My Book: The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope
Above: “The Nirvana-Shaped Hole in My Heart,” by Danny J. Gibson. More high-resolution images of the art from The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope can be found here. About the Book Author Chad Thomas Johnston’s The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope: Essays at Play in the Churchyard of the Mind is an essay-driven creative memoir that explores life through the lenses of theology, pop culture,...
Introducing Dakno Gurpstan & His Art for My Book, “The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope”
It is difficult to effectively photograph a piece of art that is eight-feet wide. But Dakno Gurpson’s (Left) art for my book, The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope, is eye-popping enough (at least in my estimate) that, until we get a professional to shoot this artistic albatross, the picture below will suffice. I told Dakno I wanted the art...
Some Ideas Really Do Start on Napkins…
I sent my book to my editors and designated readers this week. After spending three years with it in the privacy of my home and mind, letting others read it is a bit of a frightening thought. But it is also the point of writing a book (unless you are J.D. Salinger and prefer to...
Book Art Video (Starring Porchie the Cat and Elliott Smith)
Danny J. Gibson shot this video yesterday. Enjoy! Porchie Doing What She Wants to on the Book Art
“Howser’ Book, Chad?”
Art above and below by DJG Design for the forthcoming book, The Stained Glass Kaleidoscope. Ever since I took it upon myself to wrap up work on my book by September 15th, people I see on a regular basis say the same thing whenever they see me: “Howser book?” This means “How’s your book?” At...
All the Weirdness of His Wilderness
Kansas City artist Danny J. Gibson (www.djgdesign.com) has created a plethora of original pieces for my book. He spent 10 hours on art this past weekend alone, which is really no special feat for Danny. I suspect he would not sleep at all if he did not have to, just so he could create art...
Henry Darger’s Imaginary Collateral
For your enjoyment and/or torture, I present you with a PDF of a paper I wrote on artist Henry Darger during the Spring 2007 semester of my time as a doctoral student at the University of Kansas. It is titled Imaginary Collateral: An Analysis of Henry Darger’s Religious Predictions and Threats. I wrote it for...
The Beginning of a Glorious Failure
Welcome to my new blog, which my brother-in-law Matt Damon brought to life. He is the IT wizard behind the curtain in my blog land of Oz. Thank you Matt, and thank you to all of you who are helping me realize my dream of writing my very own book. It is called The Stained Glass...