Almost a decade later, author resurrects a print book for Kindle
When Saralee Perel first published Raw Nerves in 2004, it was a traditional paperback. And why not? Amazon.com, nine years old at the time, had only just finally started turning its first profits, and the concept of digital books was largely just that, a concept.
But despite being a “recommended mystery” by Independent Booksellers, “the book just didn’t get any distribution or traction,” said Perel.
Welcome to 2011. Perel, a nationally syndicated columnist, has re-released the book on Kindle, hoping it will find an audience the second time around. A “comedic thriller,” it tells the story of a Cape Cod psychologist with a patient who wants her dead. Balancing the terror and humor requires deft use of transitional scenes, Perel said, for example, following a scene with a scary patient session with a transitional drive home before something funny happens when her character opens the door.
“That transitional scene can be a drive, a phone call, anything that makes the changeover to humor flow smoothly,” Perel said. “That also works for any emotional change — from terror to humor to sadness.”
She’s hopeful the rerelease through Kindle will help Raw Nerves make the transition to sales success. “The good thing about Amazon’s program is that it gives the book a second chance,” she said. “And me, too.”
2012 Bombeck keynote speakers announced
The 2012 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop features an exciting line-up of keynote speakers with extensive experience in print, television, theater and film. The keynoters include:
• Alan Zweibel, winner of the Thurber Prize and an original Saturday Night Live writer.
• Gina Barreca, who has been called a “feminist maven” by Ms. Magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman.” by Dave Barry.
• Ilene Beckerman, who was nearly 60 when she began her writing career and whose book Love, Loss and What I Wore became an Off-Broadway hit.
• Jeff Zaslow, who has told the stories of some of the most inspirational people of our time through his Wall Street Journal column and bestselling books, including The Girls from Ames and The Last Lecture.
• Adriana Trigiani, whose bestselling Big Stone Gap launched her career as a novelist, sequels and a screenplay.
Read more about the faculty and the workshop here.
An interview with Erma Bombeck
In 1991, Erma Bombeck gave an interview to the alumni publication of her alma mater, the University of Dayton. The Q&A was wide-ranging, covering everything from deadlines to writing process to her college years. And she tells the very inspirational story of English professor Brother Tom Price, S.M., who told her three inspirational words: “You can write.”
Read the full interview here.
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.
“Tracy Beckerman Has a Gift”
That’s the opening line of one of the latest articles about columnist and EBWW regular Tracy Beckerman. If you know Tracy like we do, then you probably thought of several ways to complete the sentence that follows.
The gift, of course, is funny writing, as you can read in her “Lost in Suburbia” column.
An Army of Ermas
We teethed on Erma Bombeck columns before our mothers snatched them away and framed them. As a new generation of humor columnists emerges from behind the SUVs and sexting our husbands, we’re hoping for a little Erma-ism to pop through so we can stand our kids again.
Marcia Fine
In 2000 Marcia began to pursue her dream of writing. Having written two satires about the upscale Scottsdale crowd, she then took a different direction and completed two more books.
Terri Weeding
A writer of humorous women’s fiction. Her novels feature quirky characters and outrageous scenarios. Terri lives in Phoenix with a houseful of girls, and one very tolerant husband. She is currently working on her second novel, Maddy and The Double Buzz.
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 
An 80-year-old is missing and possibly kidnapped. Or he’s just playing a big joke on everyone. That’s the premise of 
The wonderful USA Today columnist 
