September Links Roundup

Writing books, mom jokes, and a funny TV show

Welcome to my monthly links roundup for September, where I share items of interest (to me, and hopefully you).

The school year is in full swing here which has meant my youngest son had to select a musical instrument. (A requirement in 5th grade at our school, but I think not true of all schools, from what I hear?)

I played the trombone in 6th and 7th grade and while I liked the actual playing of the instrument I did not like lugging it onto the school bus. I was jealous of the flutists (flautists?) who could fit their instruments in a backpack and the percussionists who only had to bring drum sticks to school.

So my main musical instrument selection advice was: Maybe choose something smaller.

Photographic evidence of the trombone and some other style choices I was making in the late 80s.

My older son selected a smaller instrument at first: clarinet. But then as soon as he could, he switched to bass clarinet and now also plays tenor sax, so he has not one but two big instruments. And after some deliberation, my youngest has selected, drumroll, the trombone. He’s also mentioned maybe eventually going for Tuba.

So basically, my kids are tougher than I am. And if anyone is in need of a band for your party, parade, or Oktoberfest celebration, get in touch.

In the meantime, keep reading for other links of interest from this month…

• Mom joke: Important reminder for moms.

• Short humor:

  Carlos Greaves
  ’s satirical look at the 1000 fans model made me laugh. Just waiting for a butler in a tuxedo to ring my doorbell any day now.

• Funny TV: I’ve been watching My Lady Jane on Amazon Prime and am enjoying it. It’s a historical romance with a sarcastic narrator and some fantasy elements that feels like it has Princess Bride vibes at times.

• Multiple subscription solution: For freelancing, I often want access to a lot of paywalled publications to read what they are publishing, but I can’t subscribe to them all. I recently realized that an Apple News Plus subscription helps with this problem. It gives you access to many publications for one subscription fee. If you read a lot of publications, it may be worth checking out.

• Cookbook: I have enjoyed Caroline Chamber’s recipes on her Substack, so I got her new cookbook with the same name What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking. It’s been fun to try out some new recipes and is helping me a bit with the what to make for dinner decision overwhelm.

• Humor opportunity and tips: I saw this pitch call for humor headlines for Hard Times and the How to Write a Satire Headline doc the editor shared looks helpful too.

• Literary submission opportunity: Literary Mama had closed for submissions for a while but now they are back open.

• Pitch call: Spotted this spooky season call for submissions too.

• Cartoon book: This month I’ve been reading Your Caption Has Been Selected, which offers insights into the New Yorker Caption writing contest. It also has insights into how cartoons work in general and as you may expect, lots of cartoons. It’s a little niche, but worth checking out if those topics interest you (shout out to

  Heidi Fiedler
  for recommending it in the comments of a previous post!)

• Novel writing book: I’ve been working my way through the exercises in Blueprint for a Book and have found them helpful. I’ve stalled out a bit because I need to figure out more of what I want to do exactly, but I plan to return to it when I have more of a plan.

• Substack interview: I enjoyed being a part of the Finding Art in Life conversation series on the Postpartum Production Podcast Substack from

  Kaitlin Solimine

• Writer workspaces: I also had fun sharing a photo of my (cluttered!) workspace for the Substack post that

  Liz Alterman
  did about where authors work. You should check out her post and Liz’s new suspense book.

Closing joke:

julievickwriter

A post shared by @julievickwriter

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Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. I’m the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

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