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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 an author, sonuva’ preacha’ man, PhD-dropout, singer-songwriter, daydreaming doodler, publicist, PUN-isher, mixtape maker, & pop-culture junkie. He is represented by Seattle, WA-based literary agent Jenée Arthur, who is...
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...
BIO: Something’s Bacon in My Brain

BIO: Something’s Bacon in My Brain

Since I’m only a blogger and aspiring author at this point, people ask what I do for a living. I work for Allen Press (http://allenpress.com/) in Lawrence, KS. My wife Becki, on the other hand, works as a Physician Assistant in Topeka, KS. She brings home the bacon. I bring...
Latest entries
Roger Ebert's Kidnapping Doppelgänger

Roger Ebert’s Kidnapping Doppelgänger

I sent this story out line-by-line as a series of tweets last Friday, thinking it might make for an interesting approach to storytelling. It apparently was not. Not a single Twitter follower of mine commented on it, although I received a few comments on Facebook. Notably, “Chad, you really are weird. Do you know that?”...
IMAGE Essay: "The Disrobing Trees" + The Radiohead/Plato Paper I Mention Therein

IMAGE Essay: “The Disrobing Trees” + The Radiohead/Plato Paper I Mention Therein

The Disrobing Trees Today on IMAGE Journal’s “Good Letters” blog, you can read my latest essay, “The Disrobing Trees.” In the essay, I briefly allude to a paper I wrote in graduate school while sitting in front of a window that allowed me to observe a tree undergo its annual autumnal transformation. Below—for better or...
What Werner Herzog Got in Zee Mail From Us

What Werner Herzog Got in Zee Mail From Us

In 2008, I pitched a documentary idea to New German Cinema director Werner Herzog via snail mail. I sent the same pitch via email. His office completely ignored my snail mail, but replied to my email. In a tone that was both kind and playful, his employees explained that Mr. Herzog was otherwise engaged with...
Nightmarriage 2012: Invisible Training Wheels

Nightmarriage 2012: Invisible Training Wheels

I have noticed that whenever my wife and I experience anything new in the realm of parenthood or “Babyland,” as I like to refer to it, we take extra safety precautions to ensure that all is well. If parenthood is a bicycle, that is, we reach for the training wheels when these incidents arise. The...
Nightmarriage 2012: The Paralytic Shopping Spree

Nightmarriage 2012: The Paralytic Shopping Spree

I am learning a new parental dance. I call it the Paralytic Shopping Spree. Consider if you will, the ecstatic excitement that accompanies going on a shopping spree. The knowledge that you have been dropped like a consumerist paratrooper into a retail paradise that is yours to pillage and plunder. But there is a catch....
"I Am Og" (Virtual 7" from 1991, When CTJ Was 13)

“I Am Og” (Virtual 7″ from 1991, When CTJ Was 13)

Early on in my “music career,” I was impressed with the recording techniques employed by the producers of the Chipmunks’ music. Which is to say, I recorded this song with my sister at a very slow tempo, played it back at high speed on the “high-speed dub” setting on my home stereo, and then recorded...
The Innocence Mission: IMAGE Essay + the VHS Tape We Sent the Band

The Innocence Mission: IMAGE Essay + the VHS Tape We Sent the Band

My latest essay, “The Flowering Dark,” is now available to read on IMAGE Journal’s “Good Letters” blog. Read it here.  The essay looks at Lent through the lens of the Innocence Mission’s Birds of My Neighborhood LP, or at least how this record impacted a solemn season of my own life. At the end of...
Download CTJ's Free 35-Song Anthology: "Source Materials & Sorcerer Materials"

Download CTJ’s Free 35-Song Anthology: “Source Materials & Sorcerer Materials”

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM HERE, OR USE THE WIDGET ON THE SIDEBAR!  A hearty thanks to the following people for inspiring me to assemble this musical madness: Ben Chlapek, for making a mix of only my songs for his friends a few months back, even if it meant they might all (Gasp!) unfriend him on Facebook....
Guest Post by Joshua Madden: CTJ's Only Fan Issues Writing Advice for Christians

Guest Post by Joshua Madden: CTJ’s Only Fan Issues Writing Advice for Christians

(Editor’s Note: Chad and his wife Becki call Evie, their 4-month-old daughter, “Evie Wonder” when her head movements resemble those of a certain songwriter. You need to know this to understand Josh’s opening reference.) Since Chad Thomas Johnston has described me as his only fan – something that I think “Evie Wonder” would vehemently disagree...
Virtual Gallery: Danny J. Gibson's "Mouth Breathing at the Wick to the Apocalypse"

Virtual Gallery: Danny J. Gibson’s “Mouth Breathing at the Wick to the Apocalypse”

A Word from CTJ: My very good friend Danny J. Gibson has done it again. This March, he wants to land his flying art saucer in your head-space and set up an outpost there. Enjoy this virtual gallery, and consider it a foretaste of what you will experience in the event that you should be...
NOW ACCEPTING: Art Submissions for "Nightmarriage" eBook

NOW ACCEPTING: Art Submissions for “Nightmarriage” eBook

As if you artists already don’t already make zilch for all your hard work, I am now offering you another opportunity to create something out of nothing for nothing. Starting today, I am accepting art submissions for my “Nightmarriage” eBook. If you’re wondering what that means, it’s pretty easy to explain: Throughout my short career...
"The Cannibal and the Eucharist" Essay on IMAGE's "Good Letters" Blog

“The Cannibal and the Eucharist” Essay on IMAGE’s “Good Letters” Blog

  Today my essay “The Cannibal and the Eucharist” is available to read at IMAGE’s “Good Letters”  blog. It describes my none-too-brave encounter with singer-songwriter Michael Knott’s song “Kitty” as a sophomore in high school. “The Cannibal and the Eucharist” is my first essay for IMAGE. I hope to write many more for them if...