With the right (wrong?) amount of perversion, innocuous book covers can reveal their dirty truths. Here I look at four such covers, extracting from them the perverted undertones. Publishers should be ashamed. After watching, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay updated on new videos
Posts By Caleb J. Ross
Caleb began writing his sophomore year of undergrad study when, tired of the formal art education then being taught, he abandoned the pursuit in the middle of a compositional drawing class. Major-less and fearful of losing his financial aid, he signed up to seek a degree in English Literature for no other reason than his lengthy history with the language. Coincidentally, this decision not only introduced him to writing but to reading as well. Prior this transition he had read three books. One of which he understood.
(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series) The Simpsons are back, this time with two references in a single episode, one of classic literature and one of contemporary comedy. Or so I assume the latter is of contemporary comedy; I haven't actually read Tina Fey's Bossypants. But Mr. Burns has, as evidenced by this screenshot from "Them, Robot," the seventeenth episode of season 23: Robots display human emotions by appreciating literature, notably the novella (though the girth in the above screenshot would imply novel-length) Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.
After more than a few (a few+2) questions regarding the paperback availability of my first story chapbook Charactered Pieces, I've decided to do something with the distribution rights I've been squatting on for a couple years now. Why the squat? Laziness, mostly. Re-available for your tactile reading pleasure, Charactered Pieces: stories is now back in print. Right now, it's only at Amazon, but the rest of the internet stores should catch up within the next couple of weeks. Spread the word. Tell your friends that the too-orange book with the weird hermaphroditic foot penis thing is now holdable in their very hands. Get the paperback version here: http://www.amazon.com/Charactered-Pieces-Caleb-J-Ross/dp/0615622135/
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I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June. If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!! I'll be teaching: PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block. SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for…
When anthology editor S.S Michaels approached me last year about contributing a story to the Ice Picks: Most Chilling Stories from the Ice Plaza anthology, I hesitated for a moment. I never thought of what I write as horror. Grotesque? Sure. Morbid? Sometimes. Horror? No. But the more I thought about it, the more I accepted that a stretched definition of horror (never mind that I didn't even consider a narrow definition at all) could very well encompass my work. Other people have thought of my work as horror, so I broke down and thought of the solicitation as a challenge. I came up with "Different People Entirely," a story of a breaking family that embarks on a vacation to the Ice Hotel in Scandinavia. How does the family fare? Read for yourself. The anthology contains stories from the following authors: Jeremy C. Shipp Caleb J. Ross Robert R. Best David…
A beautiful few words from reader Frank Edler: "These are fairly short bursts of that unique domestic fiction that Ross not only has a penchant for writing but also executes to a level that could earn him the moniker of 'Father of Domestic Fiction'. If another writer tells stories quite like this, I do know know of him or her...Once again I walk away from another of Caleb J. Ross' work with an uneasy feeling. ..The author is brilliant at looking at a tender moment and peeling away the layers to reveal the disturbing grotesque. We connect with it because under all our facades lies a bit of that same ugliness to some degree or another. I must now venture forth into his longer works, STRANGER WILL and I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE KEVIN....I can not wait to have my emotions unsettled a little bit more." Read the full review…