• About Jane
  • Jane’s Writing
  • candid photography

jane, candid

~ just one jane's thoughts on life

jane, candid

Tag Archives: Donna Gephart

funny people

17 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by Jane Bretl in good reads, Writing

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Bill Scheft, Donna Gephart, Erma Bombect Writing Workshop, Gail Collins, Karen Walrond, Tracy Beckerman, Wade Rouse

I love writing conferences.  Every writing workshop I attend leaves me feeling energized, inspired, and armed with, well, armloads of useful information.  This time, I can add one more take-away to the list: the endorphins from laughing until I have tears running down my face.  It is the final day of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop and I am surrounded by the largest group of funny people I have ever seen assembled under one roof.  I have looked forward to this particular conference for over a year.  The chance to meet like-minded writers, authors, bloggers, speakers, columnists and comedians?  Whoa. *Highly recommended experience*

I particularly enjoyed these speakers:

Tracy Beckerman, author of Rebel Without a Minivan and the blog Lost in Suburbia as well as the syndicated column of the same name.  Very funny lady who makes me feel better about a life in the ‘burbs.  (Much like Erma herself.)

Donna Gephart, author of several successful middle grade children’s novels that incorporate humor.  I feel optimism about my work-in-progress nanowrimo middle grade novel, based on her presentation.  I think I am on the right track with the characters, format and plot.

Karen Walford and her beautiful blog chookooloonks — this was a delightful look into how a woman with a passion for writing and photography can leave a former career behind, and follow her heart.

Wade Rouse, author of several best-selling humor memoirs.  This happens to be my new favorite genre to read.  He reminds me of David Sedaris, except Wade lives in the woods, and I don’t think David would do that.  This break-out session did involve an unfortunate incident involving a TV camera and me reading aloud our “assignment” for the day — a personal essay on one of our greatest fears.  All in good fun except I started crying while reading mine, which can lead to my next great essay about my new biggest fear, which is crying in front of a TV camera and room full of strangers while reading out loud.  But he was great.

Add in the chance to talk to the most helpful editor of a regional parenting magazine that I could hope to meet, and hear Gail Collins, Bill Scheft, and many other authors… I need to go lie down somewhere before my head explodes.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

jane, candid

In 2009, I started this blog to share my sometimes thoughtful, sometimes funny, occasionally irreverent thoughts on motherhood, writing for publication and myriad creatures that got along as cats and dogs.

One day, I felt like stepping away from living out loud for awhile. Eh, life happens.

Fast forward five years -- I'll gloss over the details for now -- save to say that lucky for me an unexpected detour has provided some new material.

So here I am, standing at the corner. I've been here before, wondering which way to go. This time I choose living.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 137 other subscribers

topics to peruse in either the traditional or modern sense. You get to choose.

  • cancer, weirder than I thought
  • Foodies
  • get along like cats and dogs
  • good reads
  • Motherhood
  • Photography
  • seasons
  • something important, I'm sure
  • Writing

Posts from back when

Follow jane, candid on WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • jane, candid
    • Join 43 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • jane, candid
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: