A One-Star Night: The Unorthodox Poetry of Sonja Ciotti

Book description: With a humorous, subversive, yet poignantly touching flair, Sonja Ciotti has crafted her world-observations into accessible and entertaining poetry. Sonja Ciotti champions the cause of two-term United States Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, to get 'poetry in public places: poetry on busses, poetry on subways, on billboards, on cereal boxes.' In this collection, Sonja Ciotti takes the reader on an amusing journey through everyday life events such as picking up the mail, dealing with corporate jargon, recalling the perks of being a kid, and loving/being tortured by the great outdoors. Underneath the witty demeanor of these observations about life, people, and nature hides a depth of soul that resonates on an authentic and empathetic level.

Well, I wrote a book of poetry!  And then I created the cover for it.  The light-painted star was done by the photography magic of Zak Ciotti.  The book cover layout, typography, and illustration was done by me.  The book is available here for pre-order!
Full cover design.
Inspired by Sonja Ciotti's brilliant writing and overall style, I made the following Book Trailer for her first publication:
2015 hasn't been an easy year for my wife and I. We are closer now because of it all, but we still wish it could have gone differently.
It also happened to be the year that she finished writing and published her first book "A One-Star Night: The Unorthodox Poetry of Sonja Ciotti"
She needed to know of my support for her, and inspiration hit me. This video is my secret project that I worked on for a month to surprise my wife and prove to her how much she is loved by her friends from around the world.
Using footage I captured just for fun with a RED Epic in 4K, this Book Trailer features one poem ("Why Sunsets") read by a dozen of her friends living across the US, in Latvia, Lithuania, and England, using their phones' recording app.
A friend from my youth.
A college roommate. 
A close cousin. 
A new local friend. 
A coworker. 
My sister. 
Another close cousin. 
A Visiting Teacher. 
A friend from Latvia living in England. 
A friend from my film school. 
Another Visiting Teacher. 
A friend from Lithuania living in Latvia. 
A little girl, now grown up, from Latvia serving in Lithuania. 
A friend who served with Sonja in the Relief Society.
Another friend whose voice somehow didn't fit in the reading - she knows of my sincere apologies for leaving her out.
I couldn't have done it without them, common technology, and social media.
I also tricked her into sending me a recording of her playing "The Tennessee Waltz" on her favorite instrument: the ukulele.
She went into shock when she finally saw it just before we went to bed. Literally. Her eyes dilated and everything.
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