Judging a Book by Its Cover

Judging a Book by Its Cover

Regardless of whether a book is published in physical or digital form, one thing is certain: It needs a great cover. I’m a book collector from way back, and I will say with no shame that I have purchased books based solely on their cover. There are unread books...
Freak Night: A Poem

Freak Night: A Poem

Ever since I saw Tod Browning’s Freaks (1931), I’ve had a sort of nightmarish fascination with that kind of sick, sideshow horror. It doesn’t help that my friend Kirk Whitham is obsessed with midgets. But it was that movie that cemented my own...
Two NaNoWriMo Surges

Two NaNoWriMo Surges

I can’t remember who first turned me on to NaNoWriMo—that is, National Novel Writing Month, which is the month of November. It was a few years ago that I first heard about it. It’s an annual internet-based novel-writing project that challenges participants...