Chasing Dave

I'm chasing Dave Barry. You know him, tall dude, shaggy hair, Pulitzer Prize winner. But it's not about what he is that has me chasing him. It's what he isn't.

A member of the Humor Writers of America.

Yet.

When I decided to create the Humor Writers of America, it's because I realized it was something that had to be. A place where people could Google 'humor' and get this big fatty website stuffed with writers of fun stuff. I was a member of Mystery Writers of America, SCBWI and the Missouri Writers Guild... yet, these weren't my real homes. Sure, I write some YA, but some of my stuff isn't. There might be some mystery in my books (like why the heck did I write them), but I'm not especially into whodunit.  But my books all had humor. Fun stuff. Slapstick. Satire. My tongue has been in my cheek so much it's wearing a groove.

But when I looked for a group that I could join devoted to humor, there was nothing.

My next step was to approach some humor writers and ask them to start one. A bunch of topselling thriller writers got together, basically over drinks, and created the International Thriller Writers (read here for their story). But look at who those writers were, Lee Child, Barry Eisler, David Morrell). And look what it's become. The answers when I asked around varied around the theme, "Great idea, I'll be happy to join if someone starts it."

I'm a realist, I know what I am at this stage in my writing career. I get good reviews, schools love to have me talk to their kids, I'm good at speaking .. but I'm not Lee Child, Barry Eisler or David Morrell. If I build the baseball field, there's no guarantee that anyone other than field mice will show up.  So I didn't want to start a group, because I didn't have the confidence I could attract the names  that would make it a success. But I did know it's a worthy idea, something that should be.

The Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop changed all that. I had started the Humor Writers group a couple years ago, but didn't really solicit members or so much other than keeping the admittedly sketchy site up to date. But when I met with Teri Rizvi, the founder of the workshop and she agreed to a loose affiliation with the group, and better, allowed me to introduce it at breakfast, and even better, is allowing me to use the email list of the attendees.

With this victory in hand I approached a few of the speakers at the conference, and readily signed up best selling authors W Bruce Cameron, Mary Lou Quinlan and David Henry Sterry. When I approached Lisa Scottoline, whom I'd met a few years ago at Love is Murder, she accepted nearly before the words were out of my mouth. It's clear from their reactions that it's an idea that's overdue.

So it's happening now despite my fears and insecurities about it. Best selling author Tim Dorsey accepted just the other day, so we're building momentum. Momentum to what, I'm not sure. But the boat has launched.

Now if I could only get Dave Barry on board.

Norm

(Norm Cowie is author of seven humor books and is founder of the Humor Writers of America)

Leaving the Toilet Seat Up at Erma Bombeck Writers Conference

If you're a humor writer, what better fun than going to a conference of humor writers, for humor writers, about humor writing? The Erma Bombeck Writers conference only happens every other year, and if you want to get in, you have to strike fast. It sold out in twelve hours.

Fortunately, I made the cut, though I got into a secondary hotel, playfully nicknamed Redemption Island by its outcasts. That meant a shuttle, and missing a shuttle meant forking over thirty five bucks for a taxi, and worse, risk running into a certain cab driver who told anyone who boarded that he hated Americans. Kind of a weird way to ask for tip.

Still, it was a four day conference, and that meant my house would be empty of me, so I created a dummy in my clothes and left it in my favorite chair, with slim hopes my wife would be able to tell the difference. If you know history, you know the word 'guy' comes from Guy Faulkes who was executed in 1606 after trying to blow up the British Parliament. Afterward, kids would drag dummies through the streets and to this day in England they hang Guy in effigy every November. We guys were named after this dummy, so nobody should be surprised if one has trouble telling one from the other.

The weather was perfect, the polar vortex shoved back into Canada where it belonged, and the daffodils were blooming, as were we very-weary-of-winter Ermites (as we started to call ourselves). When I got to the hotel, I learned I forgot just one thing, a brush. That meant I would have to arrange all four heads on my hair manually every morning.They didn't object, though a couple of them decided to celebrate their new freedom by standing up to look around, so I looked a bit like a unicorn. I also left the toilet seat up, because, well, you simply don't do that at my house with two daughters and a wife. Still, it felt liberating in a Gloria Steinem sort of  way. And when I saw the pool was about the size of the enlarged liver of a drunk,  I took this as a sign I should skip swimming and any other form of exercise and get to know fellow writers in the bar.

At the conference itself, I quickly ascertained we guys were considerably outnumbered (using mad math skills my daughters claim are genetically bequeathed to all guys).  I suspect if we had been at a Dave Barry conference, the odds might even or go the other way.  A couple of us guys got together and counted up the male attendees listed in the program. Even allowing for Ronnie being a woman, and Val being a guy, we guestimated eighteen guys ... out of more than three hundred attendees,bringing to mind Custer on a certain wind swept prairie.

These woman touches manifested in the made- for-rabbit lunches featuring salads, fruits and veggies ... and chocolate cake smothered in sugary frosting. Most writers conferences don't feature the variety of cakes, cookies and brownies that adorned our plates.

Still, we guys weren't dismayed, despite some tense moments in a a few very pro-women sessions, particularly the panel, "Women Writing Their Lives - Truth Telling, Wisdom and Laughter" with Suzanne Braun Levine, Gina Barreca and Ilene Beckerman.  While my sympathies were with the women, I admit there were a few moments where I thought I might have to defend myself by tossing a piece of cake as a diversion while I made my escape.

I went to this conference with some very defined goals, the first to hang with and connect other people of humor, who would rather laugh than cry when reading, or at least laugh while crying. I also wanted to introduce everyone to the Humor Writers of America, because we need to band together more than just once every other year. And I wanted to kick myself in the butticus about blogging, because, frankly, I suck at it. As George Dubya Bush would say, Mission Accomplished on all fronts, and you are reading the results of one of these goals.

As often happens, I got way more out of the conference than I expected. I got to appreciate the raw comedic talents of humorists who bravely tackled Stand Up Night. The pitch sessions also brought out writers who were tentative about their abilities, but still had the courage to stand up and tell everyone who and what they were. The resulting enthusiastic applause was not fake or sympathetic, but was well earned and authentic.

We were all reluctant to leave, and I'm sure a few people shed tears. I shed tears, too, but it was because when I got back to my car, I discovered my car door dented and scraped from some inconsiderate lout (who obviously wasn't an Erma attendee).

Norm

author of seven books and founder of The Humor Writers of America
www.normcowie.com

Review of Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel's LUNATICS

One of the main characters pees on Sarah Palin.

If that doesn't make you want to read the book, it's because you don't like fart jokes, you don't laugh at pratfalls, the 'f' word makes you uncomfortable, and you never enjoyed Dave Barry's stuff.

Barry's Pulitzer Prize articles appeared every Sunday in the Chicago Trib, and gave me something to laugh at whenever the comics page disappointed. And he rarely failed with his exploding cows and alert readers. I was hooked on Dave Barry for years.

Then he turned his remarkable talents to writing fiction with Big Trouble and Tricky Business and if you love wacky stories that will leave you grinning like a monkey in a banana tree, read the books.

Any time two writers collaborate on a single work, it's sometimes difficult to see each writer's efforts. When Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson wrote their Peter Pan YA series it wasn't so hard. If there was a funny part, it was probably Barry. But there weren't enough of those for me.

Not so for Lunatics. I have to admit, I don't know Alan Zweibel, but if he truly wrote any parts of Lunatics, he's in Barry's league (he won the Thurber award, so he probably is). I downloaded a Zweibel book after reading Lunatics.

You can tell they had a blast writing this.  And I'm sure I don't even get all of the jokes. Dave Barry's assistant Judy Smith even gets a cameo as an NBC China correspondent. I'm sure there are a lot more inside jokes that went over my head.

Yes, this is a sophomoric book. Yes, there's too much 'naughty' language. But if you want a book that takes lunacy to another level, you won't find a better read.

And Sarah Palin gets peed on.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Norm
http://www.normcowie.com

Humor Writers of America

Yeah, I know what you're saying. How pretentious... calling yourself Humor Writers of America.

Well, the joke's on you. I am .. sort of. But there are so many other humor writers, and do you know what? We don't have a home. There's no such thing as Humor Writers of America (or HA, as I coined it).

Thriller writers have a home, romance writers have a home, as do children's writers, sci-fi, mystery, etc.

But we humor writers. Nope, we're just a joke (pun intended).

A few years ago I got a start on it by creating the Humor Writers Ning, but then they wanted money to host, and I didn't want to pony up the dough. So I let it die. But the idea isn't dead. My last three books had the Humor Writers Logo I designed on them. Why? Heck if I know.

And, as of yet, no one's even questioned it.

The joke's on them.

I'm not done with this, and some day I might even talk the Erma Bombeck folks into getting on board. I got interest from Dave Barry and some other humorists who see the need for somewhere for humorists to hang their Whoopie Cushions.

In the meantime, we are not banded, probably a good thing, because humorists are the most innovative, imaginative, creative and wacky people in the world.

It will happen though.

Norm Cowie

http://www.normcowie.com