Rather than treating these many months of silence as a gap needing to be filled, I'll simply say that I've been incredibly busy. September marks the culmination of many of the projects I've been working on and, since they're all newsworthy, there's much to share with my faithful subscribers.

"Carnivale," the HBO series that employs me as their technical advisor, kicks of its second season this week.

The DVD edition of Tod Browning's classic 1932 film, "Freaks," will be shown on Turner Classics and is now available to buy or rent. A documentary is included on the DVD and you'll find Todd Robbins and myself liberally sprinkled throughout it with appropriate commentary.

The fourth edition of Freaks, Geeks and Strange Girls will be out this month and signed copies will be available via this site. I'll be doing a special edition of Czar News regarding this.

Nathaniel Knaebel's "Step Right Up," an anthology of carnival, circus and sideshow stories featuring the works of twenty-five authors, (including myself), is now available from major book sellers. This is an absolute "must have" for any fan of the subject matter, as it runs the literary gamut from Mark Twain to Ray Bradbury.

But there's a personal event that's far brighter and worlds more dazzling than any of the preceeding. I've had the incredible good fortune to have discovered one of the rarest gems on the planet, so brilliant and multi-faceted that nothing can be compared. Her name is Mary Spencer and we were married on Sunday, Sept. 12th aboard the Yacht Starship in Tampa Bay. Feel free to raise a glass of pink lemonade in a toast to the Czar and Czarina!