April Links Roundup
Erma, eclpises, and several other uses of the letter "e"
Welcome to this month’s roundup where I share links of interest.
I started the month by attending the Erma Bombeck conference in Dayton, Ohio, and sticking around for a couple of extra days for the total solar eclipse (which my husband and kids came out for too).
We had clear skies for the eclipse and it was nice to watch it in a low-key environment. I had driven from Colorado to Wyoming for the 2017 eclipse and while the watching part was great, the traffic driving back from it was the opposite of great, so I think I was bracing for more of the same, which luckily did not come to pass.
We drove a short distance from the hotel we were at to a National Historic Park and watched the eclipse with a small crowd that was there. It was fun to be in a crowd that cheered at totality and I am bad at describing why the experience is so cool (and even worse at trying to capture photos of it), but definitely endorse seeing one if you can.
My kids also enjoyed it so I asked my middle schooler if he would now be upgrading the sun from its previous status of “mid” after the eclipse he said, “Well, that was more about the moon.” Sorry, sun, I’m trying.
Keep reading for what has been entertaining (distracting?) me this month and some takeaways from the Erma Bombeck conference.
Short video: The Ryan Gosling Oscar performance led me to go back to the classic SNL Papyrus skit, which still makes me laugh.
Book: I just started the humorous essay collection Congratulations the Best is Over and am enjoying it so far.
Short humor: I appreciated the literary jokes in this short humor piece riffing on the new Taylor Swift album. Also, shout out to Taylor Swift for including some nods to the Dead Poets Society movie in her video.
TV: I have recently been watching the two reality shows I watch most consistently — Top Chef and The Amazing Race. Watching the second one has renewed my commitment to teaching my kids to drive a stick shift so they can be prepared in the unlikely event that they ever become Amazing Race contestants. I encourage you to do the same.
Google Easter egg: In writing my intro about the eclipse I accidentally discovered that if you go to Google and type “solar eclipse” something kind of fun happens. So give it a try.
Gift book writing: I appreciated the insights into writing a gift book that Evan Waite shared in this interview on Caitlin Kunkel’s Substack
Humor piece writing: Fellow humor Substacker
shared some helpful tips for writing humorous forms in this piece on the Brevity blog.Humor class: Slackjaw editor Alex Baia is offering a free humor writing workshop through Write or Die on May 11th that you may want to check out.
Erma Bombeck conference takeaways: I enjoyed getting a chance to talk shop with other writers (if you are reading this and talked to me there then yes, I am talking about you!), and I got some good takeaways from the sessions. A few that stuck with me:
In Mark Shatz’s session, he talked about printing out a draft of a piece and highlighting all the humor in it to see if it is coming as frequently and in the right spots that you want it to — something I think you can do for your own draft but also to study how other pieces are working. I’m going to try it out in the future.
In
’s session she talked about having a notes app file to record observations, something I have been trying to do more of lately. Even though I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all of them yet, I feel like it’s helping me to collect things for future potential use.In Jane Freidman’s session on social media, she encouraged us to think about what we want to be known for on social media. Trying to figure out what to post on social media as a writer can be tricky at times, so asking yourself that question might help to focus your feed.
Not a lot to report from me this month so I’m going to take this opportunity to ask some poll questions. I’m thinking of teaching a humor-related class in the future and am curious about what you might want from such a class.
If a humor writing class would interest you, what would you prefer the topic to be?
The poll has a character limit but the first option would be humor writing techniques you can use in a variety of different situations and the second would be a class more specifically focused on satire/short conceptual humor (the type of which you see in McSweeney’s and New Yorker Shouts).
That’s it for this month! Oh, I just realized it’s April 25th so I think I am obligated to share this as the closing joke:
Need a gift book for the new or expecting parent in your life? I’ve got just the one.
*This newsletter contains affiliate links for which I will receive a small commission when you purchase through links at no additional cost to you.
Ha! Always good to have Bill Shatner in a post.
Yaaayyy, Top Chef and The Amazing Race are so much fun. I often wondered how and when people on The Amazing Race go to the toilet. I mean, everything's so stressful, do they even go?