March Links Roundup

Featuring preteen slang, a bird joke, and funny romance novels

Joe Pera discovers The Who.

Welcome to the monthly roundup for March, where I share links of interest.

I am finishing out the month with a trip to the mountains for my kids’ spring break and have been overhearing a lot of their current preteen slang which I will now share with you:

• Mid: This is to describe something that is just okay (like in the middle, I guess?) Example: My middle schooler reports that he and his friends think the sun is only “mid.” Yes, the thing providing us with middling things like daylight and the ability to grow crops. I guess because it also has some downsides like sunburns?

• Spicy: You might think you already know what this means but you might be wrong. It appears to mean something like cool. Examples of things that my kid has described as spicy: A video game and a fried egg he was eating (that did not have any kind of hot sauce on it).

Thank you for coming to my preteen slang Ted Talk. Hopefully, you can find some way to integrate these terms into your life and keep scrolling for some non-mid links.

nationalparkservice

A post shared by @nationalparkservice

• Funny headline: A lot of Reductress headlines like this one have been speaking to me lately.

• Show: I randomly heard The Who song that an episode of Joe Pera Talks With You is centered around and was reminded that the episode and show in general is great if you are looking for some gentle humor. You can get started by watching this clip from it.

• Book: We recently listened to The Martian during a road trip and although I realize this is not a particularly new pick, I was pleasantly surprised by the humor in the book. I have trouble finding things that make me laugh on audio, I think because the narration plays a big role in it, but I think the humor works well in this one. (Also, there is cussing in this book so probably not a good pick for all road trips with kids).

• Kid audio listen: While looking for something to entertain my kids recently I stumbled on this page of This American Life episodes that kids enjoy and several lived up to that title.

• Humor tips: I appreciated the tips on writing from the point of view of inanimate objects in this piece by Belladonna editor Kristen Mulrooney.

• Insider pitching tips: I liked this behind-the-scenes look at pitching a lighter piece to Insider from

  Anna Rollins
  . Insider runs a lot of short personal essays so they are a good place to check out for essay submissions.

• Novel writing insights: I also enjoyed this two-part post from

  Andromeda Romano-Lax
  on things she did and didn’t need to become a successful novelist. And she has a new thriller coming out in May that has a setting that intrigues me — a luxurious memoir-writing workshop in Guatemala.

• Literary humor submission opp: If you have a more literary-leaning humor piece, lit journal Sequestrum has a call for humor-themed submissions that closes on April 15th.

• Digital comedy application: The deadline on this is really soon but, Gold Comedy is taking submissions for digital comedy teams from women and nonbinary writers.

This month’s funny guest rec comes from humor writer and novelist Lindsay Hameroff.

Lindsay’s debut book Till There Was You is a witty romance novel focusing on the relationship between an aspiring chef and a famous musician. I always enjoy romance books with humor woven in, so I know it will be up my alley.

Lindsays’ recommendation: “I'm currently reading Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee and I am enjoying it so much! It's marketed as a contemporary romance, but one reviewer called it a mom-com and this feels like a perfect description. Laura's descriptions of the trials and tribulations of motherhood (particularly a breastfeeding mom) are so hilarious and so spot-on. I'm belly-laughing my way through it.”

Thanks, Lindsay! Follow Lindsay on Instagram and learn more about her on her website.

• Teaching: Next month I’m co-teaching the above webinar on how to get started writing for parenting publications for the Craft Talks series. Early bird pricing is currently at $15 — you can find more details here.

• New humor: I had a new humor piece about babies taking over the world go up at McSweeney’s this month.

• Substack: I was happy to contribute to this piece about taking writing breaks in

  Heidi Fiedler
  ’s publication Nebula Notebook.

• Pitching guide: I added some fresh new updates to my pitching guide perk for paid subscribers which you can find here.

That’s it for this month. I look forward to seeing some of you in person at the Erma Bombeck conference soon!

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