Two candidates told us this fall that change was coming. What they didn’t say was that they were really talking about the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. As some of you know, longtime workshop director Tim Bete has moved from a part-time to a full-time position with St. Mary Development Corp., a nonprofit that creates and manages housing for low-income seniors and working families. It’s an organization in whose mission he strongly believes. Moving to full time means a decrease in much of his freelance work, including that with the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.
So, Tim asked your humble narrator to step in. Tim is an enormous help to me as I move into the workshop director’s role and we begin planning the next workshop, scheduled for April 2010. I met Tim when I joined the communications staff at Erma Bombeck’s alma mater, the University of Dayton, in 2002. I’ve been a frequent workshop attendee and pitched in behind the scenes as Tim put past conferences together. In my Clark Kent day job, I’m a writer and editor for UD’s alumni publications. Once upon a time, I thought I'd get a Ph.D. in Irish lit., but all kinds of funny things happened there. You can reach me at erma@udayton.edu.
Tim isn’t vanishing. He plans to be at the 2010 workshop “in a role,” he writes, “that allows me to spend more time with attendees and hit the bar a bit earlier.”
So, chances are, you’ll actually see more of Tim at the next workshop. That’s change I think we can all believe in.
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’”
Latest news...
AND THE WINNERS ARE
National Society of Newspaper Columnists announced the Will Rogers Writing Contest winners:
First place: Wyoming author Richard J. Maturi for his essay, "Dateline: Point Barrow," a commentary on the current political season.
Second place: Joel Fry of Wichita, Kan., who submitted a series of briefs written in the form of "Will Rogers Telegrams."
Third place: Jeannie Cale of Pryor, Okla., who channeled Rogers to report on the Democratic and Republican parties' conventions.
Jeffrey Gurian was part of the writing team at a recent Friars’ Club celebrity roast for charity. He gives a peek behind the curtain.
ROOKIE MISTAKES
Self-publishing authors often make them; self-publishing veteran Judy Cullins offers five to avoid.
NOW BOARDING...
In his new book Globejotting, Dave Fox provides a tutorial on documenting far-flung journeys without distracting yourself from the travel experiences themselves.
WHO, ME?
Who would use a column for personal gain? Jeff Kramer explains.
WHAT CAN’T SHE DO?
Tina Fey was everywhere this fall. But according to the Chicago Tribune, “she has shrugged off her growing stardom with typical self-deprecation.” Read here.
WIN FRIENDS, INFLUENCE PEOPLE
In October, This American Life explored stories of climbing to be No. 1. The show, broadcast on 500 public radio stations weekly, also accepts submissions.
NEXT ERMA BOMBECK WRITING COMPETITION TO BE HELD IN 2010
The Washington-Centerville Public Library announced it will hold its writer’s competition every other year to coincide with UD’s Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop. Past winning essays and competition details are available here.
The 2008 London Book Festival will honor books worthy of greater attention than they’re getting. Grand prize includes cash and a flight to London or Los Angeles. Entries due Nov. 25.
BIG SCREEN CONTEST
Fat Rock Productions wants scripts from “undiscovered women”. The winning script will be filmed. Deadline is Dec. 12. More information here.
ON DEADLINE
Writersweekly.com is taking entries for its Winter 2009 24-Hour Short Story Contest. Contest start time is noon central time, Jan. 24, but you must enter in advance.
WARM UP
Chicken Soup for the Soul still wants your stories. End-of-year deadlines approach for pieces on college experiences and extraordinary teenagers. Golf stories are due by Dec. 1. Read more here.
Call it hipster Judaism. The daughter of an Ashkenazi Holocaust survivor and the descendant of a Sephardic chief rabbi of Sarajevo, Klug is an American-born journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, and Philadelphia Inquirer, to name a few.Her new book, Cool Jew, is No. 8 on Amazon's list of Judaism titles and No. 4 on its humor/religion list.
If you'd like to be considered as our featured writer, send Matt an e-mail with a link to your Web site or a writing sample.
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Book giveaway
Each issue we give away a book on writing to a few subscribers to our newsletter. If you're subscribed, you're entered to win! This issue's winners are:
See Dave Konig as “Newsweek reporter Todd Graham” in an exclusive pre-election report filed by The Onion.
LAST CHANCE
Sophfronia Scott is doing one last run of The 21-Step Guide to Writing, Publishing & Marketing Your Book.
SAILING THE HIGH SEAS
Tim Bete's trailer for The Guide to Pirate Parenting won the Reader's Entertainment TV Best Author Made Book Video for October. His story, “We Are Dragon-Slayers,” was selected for A Chicken Soup for the Soul “101 Best” Books.
PAST WORKSHOP ATTENDEES
MADE IN AMERICA?
Kelsey Timmerman sets out to learn the origins of his five favorite items of clothing in Where Am I Wearing?
UM, MY BOOK?
Tracy Beckerman was a good sport to do a piece for CBS’s The Early Show on “shopping your closet.” What they didn’t mention? Her new book. NBC did better when she appeared on The Today Show.
Angie Klink’s “Watergate: the Warm Fuzzies” appears in Republican Soul.
MORE SOUP
Saralee Perel will have three stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution, due out in December. She’s also a new contributor to Funny Times.
FRIENDS CALL HER THE LITERARY ‘GRANDMA MOSES’
Christina Cahill was runner-up in the Ohio AARP’s essay-writing contest for her essay “Second Chance.”
BELTWAY SPUD
Sherry Antonetti lives in Washington, D.C., but her posts on a discussion group caught an Idaho editor’s eye. Her (paying) weekly humor column in Idaho’s Island Park News launches Nov. 21.
Using formats in your writing allows you to produce material faster and funnier -- and sell more pieces.Read more.
Anatomy of a first book
Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop director, Tim Bete, recently sold his first book. How did he sell it? What type of query letter did he use? What would he do differently if he did it over again? Read about his process from book concept to book signing.
8 ways to promote
your writing online
Thinking about using the Internet to jumpstart your writing career? Here are eight ways to promote your writing online. Read more.
Anatomy of a query letter
How do you write a killer query letter? Book marketing guru Steve O'Keefe provides a straight-forward formula. Read more.
Selling to regional
parenting magazines
Brette McWhorter Sember's kit provides an easy way to sell reprints.
Until you sell your work, you're not a freelance writer. You're just a writer. Read more.
Secrets of the best seller lists
It's all a game, and the cards are stacked in favor of the big New York publishers, who have the money to promote new titles and generate a burst of sales. Read more.
Startling statistics
So you want to write a book. Well, why not? So does about 80 percent of the United States population according to a survey by the Jenkins Group. Read more.
Move over, Grisham...
Author Judy Gruen has some interesting -- and humorous --ideas about how to promote her new book. Read more.
Injecting humor
into your writing
Author Mary Emma Allen shows how to find the humor in everyday life. Read more.
Write brain
closed for business
Tired of having people assume you can write anything, anywhere? Deb DiSandro is, too. Read more.
25 ways to market your book
Connie Corcoran Wilson shares how she promoted her book, "Both Sides Now." Read more.
ERMA BOMBECK'S HUMOR STILL LOVED A DECADE AFTER HER DEATH by Jim Hannah, Associated Press
She kept homemakers in stitches with her writing on marriage, kids, dirty dishes and how to hang the toilet paper. Ten years after Erma Bombeck's death, her humor still has an audience. Read more.
ERMA BOMBECK: FROM COPYGIRL TO SUPER HUMOR COLUMNIST
Born in Dayton in 1927, Erma Bombeck began her writing career in junior high school writing columns in "The Owl," the newspaper for Emerson Junior High. Read more.
REMEMBERING ERMA BOMBECK by Terry Marotta
It's 10 years now that Erma's been gone. The great humor columnist whose work once appeared in some 900 newspapers died the 22nd of April, 1996, and I for one have never stopped missing her. Read more.
YOU CAN WRITE!
Erma slipped a humorous essay under the office door of Brother Tom Price, a UD English professor who served as faculty adviser to the literary magazine, The Exponent. "He said to me three magic words: `You can write,'" Erma recalled. Read Erma's essay.
ERMA ON WRITING
In an interview with Erma, which was published in the Winter 1991 issue of the University of Dayton Quarterly, Erma explained her writing process. Read more.
EFFIE, ERMA'S
ROYAL PORTABLE
Erma wrote using a typewriter for her entire career. While attending the University of Dayton, Erma used a Royal portable that she affectionately called, "Effie." Read more.
'SCUSE ME WHILE
I BAKE A PIE
Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock. Erma Bombeck cooked with chicken stock. Jimi set his guitar on fire. Erma set a few roasts on fire. The similarities are endless. Read more.
MERRY WIVES AND OTHERS
So, you hated history in high school. This history of domestic humor writing will pique your interest. It includes many speakers from past Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, including Art Buchwald, P.S. Wall and Liz Carpenter.Read more.
