The Morph-mobile

There are a lot of advantages to being a humor writer ... not the least that we can burp in public without too much of an eye roll ... because people expect it.

But better, we have freedom other writers don't have. We can screw up, and our editor will go, "did you mean to put a weasel in your underpants?"

I mean, for most people, that's a screw up, but for a humor writer not necessarily so. The editor has does some hand-wringing, thinking, "there must be something funny about this that I'm not getting."

How liberating, huh?

Case in point. With my first book, "The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)," there's a point in which my characters jump in an SUV and go off to battle telemarketers. But later on, I described the same vehicle as a mini-van. Later, it was an SUV again.

So my editor sends me a hesitantly phrased email asking, "Was this an 'oops', or is this the incredible morphing vehicle?"

I love putting doubt in my editor like this!

Anyway, yeah, it was a screw up, so I'm glad I had a sharp-eyed editor.

So when you're off writing your gut wrenching love stories, or twisty-turnie mysteries or whatever it is you write other than humor, remember ...

... we humor writers are laughing at you.

Norm

Get yourself some Fang Face today! $2.99 on ebook! A bit more expensive on paper, but worth it. Just go to my website www.normcowie.com, and follow the instructions.

Mo' Stuff from Mo.

It's the last day at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference, and I'm going to talk a bit about the agents who showed up.

If I was listening right, and I'm a guy so I probably wasn't, the Mo. Guild is nearly a hundred years old. Attendee-wise, it was a smaller conference than, say Love is Murder and the Erma Bombeck conferences, but they did a really nice job with the layout, speakers and getting big-name agents.

Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency impressed right out of the box. During dinner, she went around to the tables, introduced herself and had a few words for everyone. What a classy move. She comes across as a danged smart and influential woman and you can't help but be impressed.

Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffrey Literary has a bit of a Tina Fey look to her, and is fun and engaging. She knows her stuff and is passionate about books.

I saved Suzie Townsend of Fine Print Literary for last because I 'clicked' with her. She likes Patricia Briggs books, sarcastic humor and I'm, well, sarcastic and humorous and like Patricia Briggs books. Anyway, she's Peter Rubie's assistant, but also a new and upcoming agent already impressing people 'in the Know.'

A small press publisher, Linda Houle from L&L Dreamspell, was on hand, too, but I didn't get a chance to talk with her.

The conference food was awesome, the hotel complimentary stuff amazing (three free drinks each night, free internet, breakfast, etc. Really nice), and the attendees were a sweet combination of newbie and pros.

Oh, one lady stood out. I had several enjoyable conservations with accomplished children's book author Christine Taylor-Butler. Christine is an engineer by day and has something like forty published books that teach kids about the planet, nature, government, health ... in an entertaining way. Glad people like Christine are out there.

Sorry I didn't say anything funny here. It's early and I haven't had any .. not ANY ... coffee yet.

I must go in search of caffeine.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

Day Two in MISS ouri

Day two at the Missouri - or Mizzura if you're from the state - brought an unexpected surprise. Of course, if it was an expected surprise, it wouldn't have been a surprise. Duh.

Anyway, I didn't expect to know anyone at the conference, so it was surprising to hear my name shouted when I was wandering around the hotel lobby. Raymond Benson, who blurbed Fang Face (woo-hoo!) was in town to give a Mystery Writers of America pitch at the conference.

Raymond, who is most famous in my eyes for his incredible ear blasting piano playing and the fact that the Ian Flemming family engaged him to write nine James Bond books,is a really cool guy, and I'm glad he showed up.

I'm meeting a lot of fun people, though a lot of them are still hoping for their first published book. So I'm giving a lot of advice. It seems the biggest advice they need is the need to establish a web presence before getting published. With Twitter, Blogspot, Facebook and Wordpress and other forums available at the cheap price of free, they need to set something up right now.

I think I've convinced a few people.

Time to go, my stomach has given me the early lunch warning signal. More later.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

The Show Me State

I'm in Missouri for the next three days (if you don't know where Missouri is, take a left at Illinois and go about a block).

This is my first time at the Missouri Writer's Guild Writers Conference. I got here a couple hours ago and right away met the bookseller, Vicki Erwin of Main Street Books, who brought as promised an autographed copy of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer. She didn't bring Heather Brewer, but the book is the next best thing.

Besides owning her own bookstore, Vicki has been published, herself, with more than twenty children titles to her credit. I'm humbled.

Well, not humble. Jealous. Yeah, that's it, jealous. But jealous in a good way.

Besides that, I haven't done much yet, other than hunt down some Chinese food.

Pleasant surprise to find out there is free internet, free lunch, free breakfast, and a nice hotel. I'm off to seek more pleasant surprises and will write again later.

Norm