New IMAGE Journal “Good Letters” Blog Essays from CTJ

Art by Anselm Kiefer. “Book with Wings.” This work appears on the cover of the latest IMAGE Journal. Subscribe to IMAGE here.

I am seriously behind on blogging. That’s because we have been vacationing, and I’ve been promoting Nightmarriage, writing new pieces, and networking.

That being said, here are my five most recent essays for IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” blog. The first, I wrote shortly after Roger Ebert passed away. The baseball essay is a personal favorite of mine from recent months. “Nebuchadnezzar, Nevermore” is far from my best, if only because I wrote and released it at the same time Nightmarriage came out—if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of me scraping the bottom of the barrel while you read it. At the same time, Caroline Jarboe, fellow “Good Letters” blogger and contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered thought it was funny, and I think she’s funny, so at least someone liked it!

My friend Mark Thorne, who is a professor of antiquities at Wheaton College, wrote me after reading “Smiling Skulls: On Death and Diversion” to tell me that he loved the ending of the essay. He also remarked (and I am paraphrasing here): “You’re getting better! Your newer essays are way better than your old ones, which smelled of gym shorts fermenting in a junior high locker after a sweaty round of Dodgeball!”

Of course, I am exaggerating here. I am glad I have friends like Mark to keep me humble. Thanks for reading, folks.

On Roger Ebert and Cinematic Stockholm Syndrome

IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” Blog/Patheos.com, April 10, 2013

Of Parsonages and Pirates

IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” Blog/Patheos.com, May 1, 2013

Before the Fall of Baseball

IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” Blog/Patheos.com, May 22, 2013

Nebuchadnezzar, Nevermore

IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” Blog/Patheos.com, June 10, 2013

Smiling Skulls: On Death and Diversion

IMAGE Journal‘s “Good Letters” Blog/Patheos.com, July 10, 2013

“Chad Thomas Johnston is an author, sonuva’ preacha’ man, PhD-dropout, singer/songwriter, music producer/sonic reducer, daydreaming doodler, gorilla/guerilla publicist, cinemaddict, & pop-culture obsessive. He is represented by Seattle, WA-based literary agent Jenée Arthur, who is currently shopping his debut manuscript to major publishing houses.

Follow Him on Twitter: @Saint_Upid