A few years ago we had guest posts from humorist, Slim Randles, who created this fictional group of guys who hang out at the Mule Barn Truck Stop and trade yarns - as in story not thread. One of those men, Dudley, has been writing a book for years now and never quite seems to get it right. Sharing Dud's attempts to finish, and maybe even get his book published, has always been a nice comedic relief, and goodness knows we all need some comedic relief now and then. Slim Randles has become a good friend through the years that he has shared his weekly columns with me. First when I was Managing Editor of WinnsboroToday.com, an online community magazine that ran for about seven years. After it ceased publication, Slim generously allowed me to continue to use his columns on my blog and here at BRP. The column is syndicated in several hundred newspapers across the United States, and a collection of the columns became his book Home Country . Now, here's the latest from Dud and his wr...

I probably don't need to say this, but will say it anyway. Whatta year!  Given that this month's theme focuses on humor, I thought I'd offer up lists of humorous reads for your consideration. After all, laughter is the best medicine, right? And a great stress-reliever. Or so they say. (And who is "they" anyway...? Oh, never mind! Blame my digression on the caffeine-fueled hamster-powered wheels of my brain.) Before I start listing, let me point you to this Blood Red Pencil interview  with romantic comedy author Rich Amooi . A former Silicon Valley radio personality and wedding DJ, Rich now writes romantic comedies full-time. And if romantic comedies are your forte, after checking out Rich's website  you might want to pop over to this Popsugar list: 25 Fluffy Romance Novels That Will Make Your Heart Feel So Full .  On to other lists, starting with genre-specific and non-fiction. I tried to pick lists that were created (or at least updated) this year, just to ha...

One of the aphorisms we hear most frequently is that humor is subjective. All comedians know this. A comic can kill an audience with laughter on a Thursday night and put another audience into a coma with the exact same jokes on a Friday night. Who can say why? Great humor allows us to recognize and laugh at ourselves…at our foibles, our prejudices, our unsustainable beliefs, even at our goals and aspirations. But it is difficult to find truly funny works of fiction that can resonate with universal audiences. I often think of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, one of my all-time favorite books. Most authors can only dream of achieving the success Amis had with his first novel, which won the 1955 Somerset Maugham Award for Fiction. I read it in high school, 12 years or so after its 1954 publication. I still have that first U. S. edition and keep it where I can see it just by lifting my head from my keyboard. That simple act makes me smile, because seeing Lucky Jim on the book’s tatter...

This post was originally written and posted in September 2019, but in so many ways it is still applicable. This has been such a challenging ten months for so many of us since the first wave of the Corona virus brought us COVID 19, and now we're bracing for the second wave. How do we stay positive and upbeat through all the ways it impacts our lives? It was easier, I think, to deal with the challenges and limitations back in the spring when we thought they were short term.  We were positive. We were strong. We girded our loins and covered our faces and said we would get through this. We had no idea the pandemic would drag on this long and certainly didn't envision celebrating winter holidays without the usual family gatherings. For many of us, Thanksgiving was a bust, and the Winter Solstice Holidays, Christmas for me, aren't shaping up much better.   So, what do we do? Like I said back in September 2019, we can laugh or we can cry. I'll do my best to follow the advice I...

After a few weeks of patience-testing events, as in "life happens," it was a pleasure last week (here in September) to have a day when I could relax in my lawn chair and watch the neighbor’s half dead tree (a really big tree) get dismantled and dropped by one of those expert tree removal companies. Besides that, I had the arborist from my other favorite tree company stopping by to tell me how to take care of the new trees in our yard to get them ready for winter. In late April, I had visited a large tree farm and purchased two crabapple trees and a Sensation boxelder. Their guys planted the trees in June, and I had meticulously watered and inspected them according to instructions. They were looking great! The arborist arrived and I explained about the new trees and what I needed to know for fall and winter care. He looked at the trees and described the trunk wrapping and mulching process. As we were ending the discussion, I pointed to my boxelder and briefly explained our...

Source: Bored Panda I watched a horror movie recently which contained several laugh out loud moments. The movie wasn't satire or parody, but the main character had hilarious lines while navigating traumatic action. Humor released the tension gas pedal just enough without ruining the plot. If handled properly, humor can be utilized in any genre. Let's explore a few examples. In a Comedy, the plot thrives on the writer's ability to be funny. They must master plant and pay off. They learn to set up the joke, stretch it, then drive the punch line home or twist it. Rhythm is critical. It can't be one continuous joke or gag. It is important to know how to reign in the humor when needed. Con, Heist, and Prison Break stories have moments of great tension during attempts to achieve the plot goal. A few funny lines can break up the tension after a near miss or a play gone wrong. The main character or one of the secondary characters can be a smart aleck. In Fantasy, th...

Since we are focusing on the humorous side of things this month at the Blood Red Pencil, it's only right that I provide some light-hearted reading possibilities for your consideration. Let's start with mysteries (because I am all about the mysteries). Stop, You're Killing Me! Has a great list of humorous mysteries . The list is alphabetical by author, starting with Douglas Adams and ending with Sue Owens Wright.  Parker Memorial Library (no relation!) in Massachusetts includes a list of humorous mysteries for you to peruse.  Listopia over at Goodreads has a Humorous Mysteries list also (of course!), with 227 books.   But that's NOTHING compared to the 2,916 books on the Listopia Humorous Romance Books list.  You can also check out the list over at Fiction Obsessed on Best Funny Romance Novels to Read . Image by Prawny from Pixabay To building family bonding over belly laughs, you might want to glance through one of the following lists...

Hello my dearies. I'm greeting you on behalf of my cousin, The Style Maven. And in case you're wondering, I'm not her, pretending to be someone else. Rather, I'm her snarky cousin in charge of policing errant body parts - eyes and other parts that are sometimes asked to do things that...well, seem to be a bit of a challenge, to put it politely. Not so politely, I'd say to the writers, "What the hell were you thinking?" So, before I totter off to lunch with my bingo friends, let me set forth a few of the most irritating things I stumble over whilst trying to enjoy a good story. Let's start with eyes. How many times do you see them rolling when they shouldn't roll? I cringe when I see them struggling to do the bidding of an author. You could say I'm super sensitive to this and should take an allergy pill before opening the next book I hope to enjoy, but why should the onus be on me, the reader? Really, my darlings, consider from whence...

In keeping with our April theme of humor, I have another fun book to recommend. Everything Smells Just Like Poke Salad Linda Swain Bethea and Kathleen Holdaway Swain File Size: 2101 KB Print Length: 263 pages Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited Publisher: Weaverback Press (July 21, 2016) Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC Language: English ASIN: B01IVUXROQ BOOK BLURB -  Born to a struggling farm family in the deepest of The Great Depression, Kathleen enjoys a colorful childhood, enhanced by her imagination, love of life, and the encouragement of her family. She's determined to build a better life for herself, getting herself into hilarious situations all along the way. Distinguishing herself in school and the community, she never takes her eyes off her goal.  Just as she's about to get started, she meets Bill, the man who is going to help her on her way. Everything changes. And then changes again. This is true story of a remarkable woman who will inspire y...

You don't have to write a Comedy to take advantage of humor in your fiction. Whether reading Young Adult fiction or murder mysteries, I love reading a passage that tickles my funny bone. People do tend to look at me as if I am crazy when I laugh out loud while sitting in an airport or in a physician's waiting room. However, a well-written passage can leave a smile on my face for days. So what are some ways to inject comedy into your story? 1. Colorful Characters No matter the genre, you can insert fun secondary characters. They are often the most memorable. Don't insert them for just for color (every character should serve a purpose) and avoid clich é s. 2. Playful Banter There have to be resting beats between tense or emotional crises in a story. Injecting a little clever back and forth dialogue can provide that relief. 3. Absurdities There are funny things in daily life readers relate to. From pet humor to dealing with toddlers, we can all appreciate life...

Illustration by R. Crap Mariner , via Flickr Did you wake up? If yes - Your life could be either. Continue the quiz.       If your answer was no, please let me know how you’re reading this. Who made your breakfast? If the someone was human: NON FICTION. If the someone was a house elf or woodland creature: FICTION.       Note: If your situation is the latter; when was the last time you gave them a pay raise? Just a soupçon of non-fiction in your fictional life. You dragged yourself to the computer and are sitting there now with a large mug of coffee/tea, reading this post because you are procrastinating: NON FICTION.  You danced to your computer and are reading this post before noon because 5,000 words have already flowed onto your keyboard and you’re taking a wee break before you spew out another 5,000 before creating a gourmet meal with organic vegetables from your garden: FICTION. Your pet sits at your feet/on your lap/on your keyboard de...

Photo by Abi Skipp , via Flickr Each of us knows the pain. We sit at our desk/dining table/log in the woods, inhale, and poise our fingers to tap-dance across our keyboards. Nothing comes. We exhale, crinkle our noses, and reposition our hands. Still nothing. Here are methods which have worked for me. Love them…use them…throw them aside. Have a bath. Words flow. However, if you haven’t brought a pen/paper with you and have it resting on the tub’s edge/handy table, those words will disappears as quickly as the water down the drain. Go for a drive. I learned this technique from a writer-friend. It does work. I talk to myself and talk my way out of the problem. However, use a recording app or something similar. Writing notes and driving is not recommended. I also keep a pad of paper and pen in the car to record sporadic inspirations….once I’ve reached my destination of course! Safety first. Walk. Not an amble or a stroll... a walk. Swing those arms. Turn on that recordin...

1. The leftovers lurking in the back of your fridge are old. What’s new are the fuzzy tentacles spreading their way across its surface. What to do? Your house, your rules.  2. My cat is old. His ways of dealing with the younger new-to-us cats is resigned acceptance. You can almost hear him muttering “Youths….”. He’d roll his eyes if he could. I feel sure of this.  3. The resolution to eat healthier is an old one for many of us. I approach it in a new way by defining ‘healthier’ as ‘happier’. Hey. My house, my rules.  4. Many resolve to eat one new food a day. I did this; I tried chocolate-dipped red liquorice. Don’t judge, it was a gift. And…resolution successful.  5. The other old resolution is to exercise more. My new take is to concentrate on the ‘more’. Remember, one more step is more. Resolution successful.  6. I have a constant old problem with procrastination. This year I’m trying a new approach, which I’ll write down soon.  7. I had an o...

Slim Randles is back again this month with an update on how Dud is doing with his book - or not doing. Dud seems to be having trouble with his protagonists and antagonists, and keeping them straight. Maybe he needs to subscribe to this blog for some help. Poor guy has been slaving away for too long on one book. Dud rounded the corner on his block and headed for the edge of town at an easy jog. Well, easy for an Olympic miler, he thought. It was making him breathe hard and he wasn’t even a block from the house. But this is the price. Oh yes, the price I must pay for my goal, as Doc had reminded him a few weeks ago. “Dud,” said Doc, “I worry about you spending so much time agonizing over that book of yours.” “I have to do it, Doc,” Dud said. “There are still so many things to plan in the book. Things like the duchess’s daughter and her relationship with the truck driver on special assignment …” “I know that, Dudley,” Doc said, giving Dud a friendly arm squeeze, “but what you ...

To write, you need to focus. You can write anywhere - in a coffee shop, at your dining room table, on the train - but you need to concentrate on the words you’re putting on the screen or the page not on the world around you. You need - -   Question: What colour does a Smurf turn if you choke it? - - - to shut your mind to distractions. To immerse yourself in the world you are creating on the page. You must listen to your characters. Discover their rhythms. Their flaws. Their - -   Question: Why is the letter called ‘double u’ when its two ‘v’s joined together?  - - motivations. Every character is unique because so is every writer. We all crave different surroundings. Some write best while listening to music. Many require silence. Others write while surrounded by people, while a number crave solitude. But all writers - - -   Question: Why do we press harder on the tv remote when the batteries are dead?  - - - must develop discipline. You must b...