Subscribe

"Nightmarriage" Q&A, Pre-Order Info, Book Excerpts, Free Audiobook MP3s & More

“Nightmarriage” Q&A, Pre-Order Info, Book Excerpts, Free Audiobook MP3s & More

Pre-Order CTJ’s Nightmarriage e-book here NOW for 20% Off and secure a free audiobook version of this whimsical memoir.  Pre-Order the Print Edition Here for $11.99 (Price will increase to $14.99 on May 28th) http://www.electiopublishing.com/index.php/bookstore#!/~/product/category=4758361&id=23264229 Pre-Order the E-book Edition Here for $3.19 (Price will increase to $4.99 on May 28th) http://www.electiopublishing.com/index.php/bookstore#!/~/product/category=4758362&id=23242380...
Chad Thomas Johnston: BIO

Chad Thomas Johnston: BIO

Art Above: “My Hurricane Brain.” My first collaborative artwork with Danny J. Gibson (@DJGKCMOUSA). My doodles. His wizardry. Chad Thomas Johnston is a slayer of word dragons, a guitar Charmer, a PhD dropout, a pop-culture junkie, a stay-at-home-dad/Chad, a house-husband, and a cat herder. He is also a regular contributor...
CTJ Designs "Building a Life Out of Words" Book Cover

CTJ Designs “Building a Life Out of Words” Book Cover

Just finished my first ever paying book cover design! It’s nice when dead presidents can validate your meager attempts at art. Thanks to Shawn Smucker for giving me a chance. It was a pleasure, despite the fact that it took me around 30 hours to create from start to finish. I began...
CTJ PRESS: News That's Fit to Print for a Man Who's Fit to Be Tied

CTJ PRESS: News That’s Fit to Print for a Man Who’s Fit to Be Tied

  Joshua Madden (@maddenjoshua), Arts & Entertainment Editor of The Baylor Lariat, picked my brain and found 27 cents in lost change and a stale Funyun from 1997 in the folds of my gray matter. The resulting feature is the first and only solo interview I have granted for any publication, and hopefully...
Rubblebucket Tours for "Omega La La" LP, Sings Omega Lullabye for Evie

Rubblebucket Tours for “Omega La La” LP, Sings Omega Lullabye for Evie

I was already off work this week, attempting to help the wife keep our almost 3-week-old daughter from sabotaging sanity and sleep alike, but it was Rubblebucket that really made my week. It’s one thing to take perverse joy in the knowledge that your coworkers are handling all the “TPS...
My Book: The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope

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...
CTJ Lands Publication in "FrontMatter" With Article on eBooks & Scholarly Publishing

CTJ Lands Publication in “FrontMatter” With Article on eBooks & Scholarly Publishing

I wrote an article for Allen Press‘ publication FrontMatter, and it appeared in the newly published volume 16 issue yesterday. It is available for reading here. The article is titled “eManifest Destiny: Implications of the eBook Frontier for Scholarly Publishing.” Most shocking of all about this piece is the fact...
Nobody Wants to Be the Stinky Kid: CTJ Creates Planetary Recycling Poster for Allen Press, Inc.

Nobody Wants to Be the Stinky Kid: CTJ Creates Planetary Recycling Poster for Allen Press, Inc.

I created the above poster (click on it to enlarge it) for Allen Press, Inc., my place of employment here in Lawrence, KS. First, I sketched the shapes and facial expressions for each planet. Then I used GIMP, a freeware raster graphics alternative to Adobe Photoshop, to “ink” the images....
Buy My T-Shirts. Give Baby Evie a Future. You Know Writers Make Bupkis.

Buy My T-Shirts. Give Baby Evie a Future. You Know Writers Make Bupkis.

http://www.cafepress.com/ChadThomasJohnston The madness begins now (now now now … sinister echo). Most of my drawerings are too low-res for Café Press’s guidelines, but I am making sure all of my new ones lend themselves handy creations such as this nifty marshmallow sandwich totebag. You’re capitalists, so I don’t have to...
CTJ Creates Cover Art for Author Dwain Smith's New Book "Bullheaded"

CTJ Creates Cover Art for Author Dwain Smith’s New Book “Bullheaded”

In February, one of my contacts on Twitter, Claudia Hall Christian (@ClaudiaC), indirectly introduced me to Washington D. C.-based author Dwain Smith (@DwainSmith). She informed her followers that I was interested in creating book art, as I love drawing (in addition to writing). But I gave Claudia a little extra...
My Honorable Mention Essay Entry in Belle & Sebastian's "Write About Love" Contest

My Honorable Mention Essay Entry in Belle & Sebastian’s “Write About Love” Contest

Today I received notification from Matador Records that I have been awarded honorable mention in Belle & Sebastian’s Write About Love essay contest. We were limited to 300 words, and I did the best I could with what time I had.  We honorable mention essay writers will receive an autographed...
Latest entries
Unsung IMAGE Blog Essays, "Nightmarriage" Update, & Reader's Challenge

Unsung IMAGE Blog Essays, “Nightmarriage” Update, & Reader’s Challenge

I have been busy lately, so I am behind on updating my site. Between writing more for IMAGE Journal‘s blog, finalizing Nightmarriage, vacationing in Phoenix, Arizona with my family, and chasing an 18-month-old around the house, I am lucky to attend to my site at all. Thank you for your patience, all five of you...
Transformer: Exploring Todd Solondz’ "Palindromes" Through the Eyes of the Russian Formalists

Transformer: Exploring Todd Solondz’ “Palindromes” Through the Eyes of the Russian Formalists

Overview I wrote “Transformer: Exploring Todd Solondz’ Palindromes Through the Eyes of the Russian Formalists,” in 2006—one semester before I dropped out of my PhD program. I have learned much about writing since producing this work, but I am publishing it here despite its flaws because it will never see the light of day if...
"It's Okay to Hate Your Writing": A "Writers Write" Interview with Andi Cumbo

“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...
"Jesus Died for Somebody's Sins (But Not Mine)": New IMAGE Blog Essay

“Jesus Died for Somebody’s Sins (But Not Mine)”: New IMAGE Blog Essay

Read my essay, “Jesus Died for Somebody’s Sins (But Not Mine),” at IMAGE Journal’s blog at Patheos.com here.  Excerpt: “Patti Smith’s 1975 debut album, Horses, famously opens with the line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Smith goes on to sing, ‘My sins my own, they belong to me, me.’ I think about...
"A Requiem for Rejects": New IMAGE Blog Essay

“A Requiem for Rejects”: New IMAGE Blog Essay

Read my essay, “A Requiem for Rejects,” at IMAGE Journal’s blog at Patheos.com here.   “‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’—Isaiah 53:3   Six or seven years ago, a coworker...
"Girl Unafraid (to Speak)": Words Evie Says

“Girl Unafraid (to Speak)”: Words Evie Says

  “Heaven Knows I’m Adorable Now” Evie says new words all the time. It blows our minds every time she opens her mouth and utters something new. I got Simon Goddard’s Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and The Smiths for Christmas this year, and thought Moz might make a most excellent tutor for our tiny...
Jennifer Harris Dault's "The Modern Magnificat: Women Responding to the Call of God"

Jennifer Harris Dault’s “The Modern Magnificat: Women Responding to the Call of God”

My friend Jennifer Harris Dault’s book, The Modern Magnificat: Women Responding to the Call of God, is out and on sale at Amazon.com today. Buy it if: a) You like women. b) You like books. c) You like books about women responding to the call of God. d) You like woman who do not send...
"Constructive Disruption: On Derek Webb's Mind 'Ctrl'" - A Two-Part IMAGE Blog Feature

“Constructive Disruption: On Derek Webb’s Mind ‘Ctrl’” – A Two-Part IMAGE Blog Feature

My two-part feature on Derek Webb is live at IMAGE Journal’s blog. I interviewed him in person on October 20th in Leawood, Kansas, and it was one of the highlights of my year. I worked hard on these pieces, and I hope it shows. Over 1,300 people have already shared the first part of the...
Author Amanda Lynch Births Bouncing Baby Book, "Anabel Unraveled"

Author Amanda Lynch Births Bouncing Baby Book, “Anabel Unraveled”

My talented friend Amanda Romine Lynch is the proud mother of a debut novel today. It was born at midnight, weighs $4.99 USD, and measures the length of whatever e-reader or tablet you happen to own. Congratulate Amanda, buy her book Anabel Unraveled (which I titled), and follow her on Twitter at @thebookprincess. Thanks to...
Long Time, No Blog (Break Out the Yule Log)

Long Time, No Blog (Break Out the Yule Log)

I am not dead. Neither is my blog. Although I really do not think of it as a blog anymore. It is a website that gathers all of my polished, pretty writings into one Interweb basket like a cache of inedible Easter eggs. Since we are technically closer to Christmas than Easter, I would recommend...
The "Eric Campuzano Attic Tape" Bootleg: The Prayer Chain and I, Part II

The “Eric Campuzano Attic Tape” Bootleg: The Prayer Chain and I, Part II

ORIGIN OF THE BOOTLEG When I was a freshman in college at Southwest Missouri State University—now Missouri State University—I received the cassette below in the mail from Prayer Chain bassist Eric Campuzano. As I mentioned in my other post about the Prayer Chain (read it here), I was in the habit of writing the band...
New IMAGE Essay + Spotify Playlist + NIGHTMARRIAGE Pre-Order

New IMAGE Essay + Spotify Playlist + NIGHTMARRIAGE Pre-Order

NEW IMAGE JOURNAL BLOG ESSAY, “THE ARMCHAIR ASTRONAUT” + SPOTIFY PLAYLIST Read my latest IMAGE Journal essay, an adaptation from The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope titled “The Armchair Astronaut,” here. In the meantime, I am providing you with a Spotify playlist I assembled as a companion to this essay. It is inspired by my dad, who loves...