​Chip creeps up like a fog. “You want something to drink?” He asks loud enough and close enough to be heard over the heartbeat thump of the music.

You tell him the same thing you do every night.

Below the balconied VIP area you watch the crowd of a hundred-plus people pulse like one organism. Dancing among them, like a neon splotch, a girl in a hot pink tube top who is definitely too young to be in here.

Chip’s spider-fingers graze your arm as he passes you the glass of bourbon. Had he left and come back already? Or had he come prepared?

There was a time when you took pleasure in being the only person Chip would get a drink in his own club.

A word smith’s beginner’s guide to art and design

Writers have to do more than write. In this increasingly digital world, that often includes some graphic design. Maybe it’s for making your own book covers. But even if not going down the self-publishing route, it could be for pitch contests online, website banners, marketing graphics, and a whole host of other visual material needed in online spaces.