2012 Bombeck Workshop faculty: Jim Higley

The workshop for humor writing, human interest writing, networking and getting published

Jim Higley is the Bobblehead Dad — writer, motivational speaker, radio show host and cancer warrior. His favorite role, however, is dad to his three kids. Jim writes a parenting and family column, “Bobblehead Dad,” for Chicago Tribune’s TribLocal. He is also author of the award-winning Bobblehead Dad: 25 Life Lessons I Forgot I Knew and inaugural winner of the World’s Greatest Dad Challenge, sponsored by Man of the House. He’s online at BobbleheadDad and on Twitter at @jimhigley.

Reflections of Erma

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A7B18D19B9CCCD30

Humor writer of the month

Diane Kelly

“How can taxes be funny?” Diane Kelly gets that question. Her answer? “In the same way M*A*S*H made war funny.” She’s counting down to the release of her latest book, Death, Taxes and a French Manicure, coming out Nov. 1. She has won more than two dozen Romance Writers of America awards, and her fiction, tax, and humor pieces have appeared in True Love Magazine, Writer’s Digest Yearbook, Romance Writers Report, Byline Magazine and other publications.

See past winners

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.

Who's publishing what?

Got your trophy husband?

Lisa Tognola’s parody ad for a “Hunk of the Month” club (made of “medical grade plastic … as close as you’ll get to the real thing”) is included in the new Valentine’s Day anthology My Funny Valentine. The compilation’s editors came to her, she said.

“Since creating my blog last summer, I’ve benefited from increased exposure online. The co-author of My Funny Valentine spotted my work and suggested I submit a Valentine’s Day themed piece for consideration in her book,” she said.

The collection was released Nov. 30.

Horsing around

An 80-year-old is missing and possibly kidnapped. Or he’s just playing a big joke on everyone. That’s the premise of Horse Races and Paint Stores: The Anti-biography of Duffy O’Day by Patrick Kennedy, just out on Kindle this week.

Talk to your TV?

The wonderful USA Today columnist Craig Wilson, returning as a 2012 faculty member, has a few thoughts on conversations with the idiot box.

Dept. of Double Entendre

Katrina Kittle and her writer friends remind us that writers do it wherever they can. Read more here.

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