Dear writer,
Were you one of the 350 writers from across the country in Dayton two weeks ago for the 2010 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop? If so, then you recognize New York Times columnist and 2010 keynoter Gail Collins.
And let's not forget novelist and Letterman writer Bill Scheft.
And speaking of Bill, did you happen to catch what he said about the workshop a day later on his very funny blog? I'll give you his lead: "You looked like you were shocked at how well it was going." Hint: He was.
You can check out more images on our Facebook page. We've got photos of keynoters Loretta LaRoche, Steve Doocy and Bruce Cameron, plus other faculty members like Tracy Beckerman, Karen Walrond, Suzette Martinez Standring, Katrina Kittle and Donna Gephart, plus attendees and so much more. Take a look to see what you missed if you weren't there. Take a moment to relive it if you were.
And the icing on the cake was Mo Rocca, who was there with a film crew covering the workshop for CBS Sunday Morning piece scheduled to air Sunday, May 9, Mother's Day. I mean, how cool is that?
But I'm prattling on and on. Really, I'm embarrassing myself. You don't have to take my word for it. Check out the links below for the reviews from our faculty and attendees. If you want to hear for yourself what they're writing about, order your own copy of the 2010 workshop recordings. Proceeds help us fund future worlshops.
Speaking of future workshops, we're already looking ahead to the spring of 2012, when we'll host our next Bombeck workshop. I hope you'll consider joining us in Dayton at Erma's alma mater then.
In the meantime, Mother's Day is upon us -- the perfect time to enjoy "Poor Mother" (PDF), a column Erma wrote as a college student. It appeared just before Mother's Day in 1947 in the University of Dayton's student newspaper and was filmed for the CBS Sunday Morning piece.
Keep writing & happy Mother's Day,
Matthew Dewald
Workshop director
If you didn't attend in 2010, you can still purchase the 2010 workshop recordings. (If you purchase the 2010 recordings, you also get a copy of the 2008 recordings at no additional charge!) Our proceeds go to funding future workshops.
From Erma’s desk ...
“Do you know what depression is? It's sitting in your doctor's examination room. In a paper dress. On a cold table. And it's the high spot of your week.” (from "Dumpy Paper Dress--March 31, 1977," which appears in Forever Erma)
Latest news… (2010 recap edition)
DOESN'T IT ALWAYS GO THIS WELL?
Bill Scheft was hilarious as the Friday night keynoter. We assumed he was just being gracious, but a day after the workshop, he explained why the big grin on his face was so real.
THROUGH THE LENS OF CHOOKOOLOONKS
Karen Walrond, the creative mind behind the award-winning blog Chookooloonks.com, had no idea what she was doing at the workshop when she arrived. Her very kind opinion? "This was sincerely one of the most enjoyable conferences I have ever attended." Don't miss her amazing portraits from the workshop either.
WHERE TRACY BECKERMAN GOES, MO ROCCA FOLLOWS
Yes, Mo Rocca and CBS Sunday Morning were at the workshop. And they came because of Tracy Beckerman, who proudly calls herself an "Erma Bombeck conference success story." She tells you all about life in the spotlight, with a digression about ducks, on her blog "Lost in Suburbia."
WADE ROUSE AND THE WADETTES
For bestselling memoir writer Wade Rouse, the 2010 Bombeck workshop was a very personal way to connect with his mother, with whom he used to exchange ... well, I don't want to tell his story for him, but you don't want to miss it.
LET'S KEEP CHASING OUR DREAMS
That's the deal attendee Jennifer made with fellow attendees. "It was magical like that," she writes.
ERMA PUT THE 'BOMB' IN 'BOMBECK'
For those of you not hip enough to know, "being the bomb is a good thing," explains Clare on her blog "It's all good in the (mother)hood." Read her workshop recap.
IN-JOKE ALERT: E.B. HERON
HER BEST LINE TO MO ROCCA?
Faced with the opportunity to say something to Mo Rocca, this is what Leslie came up with: "My husband thinks you're hot." How'd that work out, Leslie? Read for yourself.
MAUI, MOAB ... DAYTON?
Linda Stamper Boyne, who writes for Vail Daily in Colorado, answers the question we're all thinking: "Why would a nice girl like me choose to vacation in Dayton, Ohio?" She explains.
THOU SHALT NOT COVET, NOT EVEN A LITTLE
Gail Kent compares her envy of Christian Lander's Cinderalla story ("11 million flipping hits in two months!") to Tiger Woods' apparent approach to the 10th commandment (or ninth, depending on your religious disposition).
THE BIG NECESSITY
Not to quibble, but Joanie Buettgen writes in her tale of restroom woe that there were "less than 20 men in attendance" at the workshop. For the record, that's not correct. It should be "fewer than 20 men."
DEPRESSION: A SIDE EFFECT OF NOT ATTENDING?
Stacey Hatton didn't attend the workshop. I'm no doctor, but my nonmedical opinion is that she regrets it.
BRINGING IT HOME
Susan Matheson arrived home with a stack of new reading and "a bit concerned that [her reading] list may take more than a year." Read about it here on her blog, Bedside Table Books.
ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE
Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson and a friend of Erma Bombeck's, spoke at our first workshop in 2000. She died in late March. Read her obituary here.
Copyright 2010, University of Dayton
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2010 Workshop
Sponsors
Erma Bombeck
Writers' Workshop
Endowment
created by Ralph and Cindy Price Hamberg in memory of her cousin Brother Tom Price, S.M.
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All about Erma
FIRST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ERMA BOMBECK
When 350 writers saw the premiere of the first documentary produced about Erma Bombeck's life, they were quick to applaud her legacy.
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 Time Magazine's 1984 cover story on Erma, "Erma in Bomburbia." And see the cover.
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.
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Article archives
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Humor writer
of the month
Multitasking Jean Rubin is stressed in Scottsdale: endless errands, caring for an elderly mother, helping with her kid's fertility problems and her husband's political campaign. Marcia Fine, the writer behind Jean Rubin, swears she is less stressed. And why should she be? Stressed in Scottsdale is the third book in her Jean Rubin series. No stress, right? Marcia handed me a copy of her book at the workshop, and it's had me laughing for the last two weeks.
If you'd like to be considered as our featured writer (or you read someone who should be), send an e-mail with a brief bio and a link to your Web site.
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Who's publishing what?
WORKSHOP FACULTY
PEOPLE SURVIVE THAT?
At the 2010 workshop, Donna Gephart celebrated the publication of her second book, How to Survive Middle School. "This funny, tender novel . . . is relatable and compulsively readable," says Publishers Weekly.
APPLES OF OUR EYES
In her latest New York Times column, Gail Collins looks at current political debates as she suspects a teacher might.
THE KIND OF PERSON I AM ... SO FAR
Hovering somewhere around the age of 40, Karen Walrond reflects on the woman she's grown to be.
MOVING FROM THE PAGE TO THE BIG SCREEN
WORKSHOP ATTENDEES
Sue Langenberg has collected 100 of her columns in Hot Flashes by Sueanna, scheduled for release July 1.
Dave Fox, author of the bestselling book Globejotting, has been teaching travel writing for more than a decade. Now he's taking his classes on the road with Globejotter Tours.
Molly Campbell, named an honorable mention in the local humor category of the 2010 Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, got a new gig writing for Momicillin Publishing. Read her latest contribution here.
Saralee Perel continues to widen her audience with contributions to the Chicken Soup series. She also has a new book in the works, The Dog Who Walked Me, the story of the dog who became her caregiver after a major spinal cord injury.
And a cast of many, who are posting their columns daily on our new Facebook page. Become a fan and let us know what you're writing.
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Favorite articles
The structure of humor
Using formats in your writing allows you to produce material faster and funnier -- and sell more pieces. Read more.
Selling to regional
parenting magazines
Brette McWhorter Sember's kit provides an easy way to sell reprints.
Freelance selling
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.
