National Humor Month

It is National Humor Month.

In which particular nation, was not specified. As people all over the globe can use a little more comedy in their lives these days, Apprentice Writer will not quibble. Instead, she will celebrate by highlighting some things that made her laugh.

MOVIE - 'I'm With Lucy' : A contemporary romantic comedy nobody saw or heard of, but which deserves a wider audience. Starring Monica Potter (kind of a younger, blonder Julia Roberts), the story begins with the heroine being publicly and humiliatingly dumped by her boyfriend, and then follows her on multiple flashback dates with very different men, one of whom she will marry in the end. Mr. Apprentice Writer criticized how easy it was to predict which suitor she would end up with; AW informed him that that's not the point. The point is how enjoyable the process of getting there is for the viewer. And it is, not least because of the excellent supporting cast including Gael Garcia Bernal, John Hannah, Anthony LaPaglia, Henry Thomas, and David Boreanaz.

BOOK TITLE - 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' by Paul Torday: AW picked this up purely on the title (Fishing! In a desert country! The author either has unbelievable comedic muscle or chutzpah or both), and hopes it will live up to to the titular originality. It won a Wodehouse prize for comedy fiction, so we'll see. Report forthcoming.

BOOK - 'The Spellman Files' by Lisa Lutz: AW had heard of this first-person private investigator series for some time, and finally started reading Book 1. So far, living up to its description of 'Bridget Jones meets Colombo'. Report forthcoming.

WRITER ADVICE - 'Good Luck with the Sex Scenes - The Writing Profession' by Lisa Gabriele (via The National Post): Career advice too good not to share.

"Thirteen ways of becoming an author:

1. Start Small.
Put aside a few words every week. Whatever you can afford. Words you won't miss. After a while, you'll have a few hundred words, then before you know it, you'll have a few thousand, and then suddenly you will have a book. Hopefully a good one that you can retire on. Writing a second book is really hard, and inadvisable.

2. Write what you know.
But be careful. Just because you know To the Lighthouse by heart does not mean you should write that book. Somebody else already did.

3. If you hit a writer's block, stop and take a break.
Try to keep breaks under ten years in length."

Continuation in next post.