Alternatives and attics | Erma Bombeck Writers´ Workshop

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Alternatives and attics

Kyran Pittman, a 2012 Bombeck Workshop faculty member, talks about making the jump from blogging to holding a copy of her book for the first time:

It’s a strange and interesting time to make a debut as an author in traditional media. It felt almost anachronistic to hold the hardcover of Planting Dandelions for the first time.

I grew up in a culture rooted in oral storytelling, and I cut my teeth as a writer through blogging, so I’m not especially sentimental about the passing of the age of print.

But I felt a pang for future authors who are unlikely to experience their work as a tactile object, as a made thing. I thought, my God, this could turn up in a yard sale or someone’s attic a hundred years from now. It was an extraordinary moment, and it’s not one I could talk anyone out of seeking, though there are so many alternatives open to writers today.

—Kyran Pittman

Kyran Pittman is the author of Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life, which will be published in paperback in 2012.

Reflections of Erma

Humor writer of the month

Ritch Shydner

Ritch Shydner, author of the newly released Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life as a Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom, has been described as “an incredibly funny observational comedian.” He has made numerous guest appearances on late-night TV as a comic. He also played Al Bundy’s co-worker on Married with Children and appeared in Designing Women, Roseanne and feature films such as Beverly Hills Cop II. He has written for Roseanne, The Jeff Foxworthy Show and HBO’s The Mind of the Married Man. This is his second book. In 2006, he compiled stories of comedians on the road for I Killed, which he co-wrote with Mark Schiff.

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Who's publishing what?

Tweeting secrets

In a newly published book, Get 10,000+ Twitter Followers Easily, Quickly and Ethically, Cathy Turney offers a step-by-step guide for building a Twitter audience. “With a disarming sense of humor” and helpful illustrations, Turney shows even the most nervous technophobe how to grow a flock of followers.

Unbucket list

Fighting midlife inertia, Sherry Stanfa-Stanley stares down a year of fear through what she calls The 52/52 Project. Her exploits range from visiting a nude beach with her 75-year-old mother to going on a raid with a vice squad and SWAT team to crashing a wedding — where she accidentally catches the bouquet. While finding her courage in the most unlikely of circumstances, Sherry ultimately finds herself. For midlifers, fatigued parents and anyone who may be discontent with their life and looking to shake things up, try new things, or just escape, Finding My Badass Self is proof it’s never too late to reinvent yourself — and that the best bucket list of all may be an unbucket list.

SAD!

From humorist/storyteller Dylan Brody comes the opposite of a self-help book. The Modern Depression Guidebook promises to help readers get the deepest possible lows and experience the darkest possible blues in a joyous and darkly funny exploration of life’s inherent sadness.

Stinker

Mike Sacks’ newest book, Stinker Lets Loose!, is described as “the outrageous 1977 filmatic smash in book form.” A former writer for The Washington Post, he’s currently part of the editorial staff of Vanity Fair magazine. He has written for The New Yorker, Time, Esquire, Vanity Fair, GQ, Radar, Believer, Vice, Women’s Health, Salon, Premiere, New York Observer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cracked, MAD and other publications. In addition, he has published four humor books: And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Humor Writers About Their Craft (F+W Press); SEX: Our Bodies, Our Junk (Random House); Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason (Tin House) and Poking a Dead Frog: More Conversations with Humor Writers (Viking/Penguin.) The book is a sequel to And Here’s the Kicker. His podcast, Doin It With Mike Sacks, can be found on Itunes.

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