From Greg Enslen.com:
Events, activities and other hometown items going on in and around Tipp City, Ohio
Erma Bombeck Workshop
Last week I attended the Erma Bombeck Workshop, a writer’s conference held every other year at the University of Dayton. I’ve always been a fan of Bombeck’s work and enjoyed her books, such as If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? However, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference—especially as it focused on humor writing.
It began Thursday evening at the Marriott near Welcome Stadium, where the Dayton Flyers play, with a large dinner for all of the participants. I arrived late (I’m not used to having to be places on time anymore, and I didn’t account for traffic and an accident on I-75) and found an empty seat at table full of women. Being surrounded by hordes of women was to be something of a theme at this conference, I soon discovered. Apparently, male writers should be watching their backs—evidently, women are the rising tide in new fiction. Dinner was good and the speakers were interesting—up first was Erma Bombeck’s husband, who read his favorite column, a poignant piece about children tearing up a father’s yard.
The keynote speaker was Alan Zweibel, a screenwriter and one of the original writers on Saturday Night Live (SNL). He described his early career writing jokes for comedians in the Catskills at $7 a joke, to getting discovered by Lorne Michaels, creator of SNL, and joining the fledgling cast, which included John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, and Garrett Morris. The most moving story revolved around his friendship with Radner, whom he knew from when they met on SNL until she passed away from ovarian cancer in 1989.
Friday and Saturday were taken up with coursework, broken up by lunches and dinners. All the classes were at least 90–95% women. The downside was that I heard lots of talk about the foibles of “menfolk.” The upside of that was that there were never any lines at the bathroom.
The courses fell into two distinct areas—working on the “craft” of writing, and marketing and publicizing the work. I ended up doing about half and half—the “craft” courses were more interesting by far, but the marketing courses had me scribbling down notes on how to improve my website and increase the chances of getting “discovered” by a publisher.
Now I’ve got 50 pages of notes to go through and review. First on the agenda? A full redo/update of my website and social media presence. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.
Around Town
- Fun Fair returns to Broadway this Friday, April 29, from 5 to 9 pm. The Fun Fair is sponsored by PALS, Broadway’s parent volunteer organization. See you there!
- “Growing Native Plants” course at the Tipp City Public Library, April 28 at noon.
- Tickets are selling fast for the “What a Girl Wants” Fashion Show for a Cure at Harrisons on May 5 … Kelly says only 40 tickets are left!
- The Tipp Roller Mill Children’s Theater will perform “The Glass Slipper” on May 4 and 5 at 7 pm and May 6 at 2:00pm.
- The Tipp Community-Wide Garage Sale is coming up on Saturday, May 5 from 9am to 4pm.
- The graffiti “artists” who recently decorated our downtown have been caught and charged. They turned out to be two local kids and another from Troy. I hope they make them clean up the mess or sweep the streets downtown all summer.
- My kids are still talking about the performance of “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” they attended at the high school last weekend. Bravo to all the musicians and singers who made this performance a success!
Check In With Me
Hear something interesting for “Tipp Talk?” Visit my website at www.gregenslen.com and drop me a line using the “Contact Me” page, or email me at genslen@yahoo.com. And don’t worry—I won’t quote you unless you want me to!
