Humour in Writing - or not by Victoria Chatham

AVAILABLE HERE

I would love to say I inject humour into all my writing but that just isn’t so because I find writing humour incredibly difficult. It isn’t that I don’t have a sense of humour. I do but, as I tend to be a visual person, ie: I learn best by seeing and doing, it follows that I find visual humour, such as slapstick comedy, the funniest. That is not easy to write and if humour does find its way into my writing, it’s more by accident than design.

Being funny, and humour as a whole is subjective. I remember a movie from the early 80s called ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy.’ Very briefly, a Kalahari bushman encounters civilization and its stranger aspects. It was a low budget of $2.5 million South African film, which netted about $20 million. I couldn’t stop laughing at it, my kids barely cracked a grin. Another movie which I found funny and fortunately they did, too, was 'Start the Revolution Without Me,' starring Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder as two pairs of identical twins, one aristocratic (The Corsican Brothers) and the other set poor. As France is about to be torn apart by the revolution, both become victims of royal plots. 

So, what is humour? Like the example above, what one person finds funny another won’t. It’s a bit like beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Humour is defined in Webster’s dictionary as having the quality of being amusing or comic. Wit, on the other hand, is defined as having a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humour. Forms of wit include the zinging one-liners aka Violet, the Dowager Duchess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. Other forms of humour can be satirical, self-deprecating, surreal, or plays on words as this by John Lynn: his legacy will become a pizza history.

But in every instance, I come back to the slapstick comedy routines favoured by Victorian music hall and vaudeville audiences everywhere. These I remember, not from personal experience (I'm old but not that old!) until the advent of BBC TV’s series The Good Old Days, but from hearing my aunts and uncles talk about them and sing songs when I was little. One of my father’s favourite acts, Wilson, Keppel, and Betty, did a sand dance routine and they still make me laugh. You can check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn83cCEpZV0

Before we had a TV in the house, we listened to radio programs such as Hancock’s Half Hour, Round the Horne, and Much Binding in the Marsh. Later there were TV programs with the comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python. These were all the English programs but I Love Lucy and the Carol Burnett Show were amongst my favourite classic comedy shows. Who could ever forget Carol Burnett's priceless performance as Scarlett O'Hara?

And then, of course, there is humour of  Donald McGill’s classic but saucy English seaside postcards of the 50s and 60s. They were risqué humour at best but that didn’t prevent one of his postcards, featuring a bookish man and an embarrassed pretty woman sitting under a tree, with the caption: "Do you like Kipling?" / "I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled!", holds the world record for selling the most copies, at over 6 million. (source: Wikipedia.) That was the upside. The downside was a police raid on stores in Ryde, Isle of White, confiscating 5,000 of his postcards for indecency.

I love reading books that make me laugh out loud. Elizabeth Dearl’s Diamondback and Stuart J. West’s Zac and Zora series are recent reads that did exactly that. They are the positive side of humour. The negative side of humour is about deriding, belittling, demeaning and ridiculing which are all aspects of bullying and there is nothing funny in that.

I find it impossible to write about the scenes that make me laugh. What I think I do manage from time to time, is more wit than humour. I can only hope my readers agree.

​Victoria Chatham

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How Dare They Teach Women to Read by Diane Scott Lewis

Last month was Women's History month (we only get one month?)

Women have been fighting for equal treatment for centuries. And education, learning to read, was one of their desires.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, many women, especially the poor, could not read. It was viewed as a waste of time to teach them when they were to be child-bearers and house keepers. Women were taught to be useful, sewing, cooking, etc.
The richer girls were taught to embroider to beautify their husband's home.
Men handled the complicated contracts, leases, government business. Reading as a leisure activity was unheard of, even for men.

Between the 1500’s and the mid-eighteenth century, male literacy grew from ten to sixty per cent. Women, with less opportunity, lagged behind, ranging from one to forty percent, but still an improvement. Female literacy grew the fastest in London, probably with the rise of the merchant class.

As literacy grew so did the desire for books. A spurt in publishing started in the late seventeenth century.

Books had been rare, usually of a religious bent. Cookery books were found in many households. Sermons and poetry were the most widely published literary forms. History books were national or Eurocentric.

In the eighteenth century a new phenomenon, the populace wanted to read for pleasure.

Books became widely available from lending libraries, booksellers, and peddlers: abbreviated versions of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, or Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones.

Periodicals, such as the Gentleman’s Magazine, advertised what new novels were available to order and purchase from the booksellers.

The large circulating libraries offered places where patrons could browse, gossip, flirt, or actually read a book. Novels and romances were the most checked-out. History remained popular.

Library at Margate

The fee of three shillings a quarter kept out the poorer people, but libraries were still a bargain because books weren’t cheap.

Unfortunately, libraries earned the reputation as places full of fictional pap for rich ladies with nothing better to do. Men remained the majority subscribers, visiting to read or discuss religious and political controversy.

Church libraries offered books to the poorer, though not the variety.

Coffee houses maintained collections of books, to be read on the premises. Any man, merchant or laborer, could wander in, order punch, and read a newspaper—a sign of English liberty.

Even the illiterate were encouraged to buy books so their more literate friends could read to them.

In 1650 few country houses had a room set aside for books and reading, while in the late eighteenth century a house without a library was unthinkable.

With this wider reading public, more women authors and romantic writers emerged, such as Fanny Burney and Ann Radcliffe. Women read critically to lift the mind from sensation to intellect as well as men.

Fanny Burney

Everyone profited from increased literacy, education and the availability of the written word. Why teach women to read? Because, as earlier thought, their minds are not feebler than men's

Source: The Pleasures of the Imagination, by John Brewer, 1997

For a heroine who does far more than read, she decodes ancient Greek during the American Revolution, check out my historical novel, Her Vanquished Land.

Purchase Her Vanquished Land and my other novels at BWL

For more info on me and my books, check out my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Scott Lewis lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty puppy.

Earth Day Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary by J.Q.Rose

Terror on Sunshine Boulevard
Paranormal Mystery
Click here to find more mysteries by JQ Rose
from BWL Publishing

Earth Day Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary

by J.Q.Rose

Earth Day April 22
Image courtesy of pixabay.com by PrettySleepy

Since 1970, April 22 has been designated as Earth Day. This year, Earth Day celebrates its 50th anniversary with the ongoing goals to stop the destruction of our environment and to preserve our world for future generations. 

The movement brought awareness to saving our climate by stopping factories belching black, toxic smoke into the air, factories dumping toxic waste into our water systems, the unlimited use of pesticides and the destruction of the wilderness and loss of wildlife.

According to the Earth Day site, "Earth Day led to the passage of landmark environmental laws in the United States, including the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. Many countries soon adopted similar laws."

In 2020, citizens from around the world focus on the dire need for us all to take care of our planet.

People today are more environmentally conscious. Schools and families make an effort on this day but also throughout the year to educate children to care for our earth. Even the simplest thing like not littering makes a big difference and is an easy lesson for our kids and for us to learn and choose to do.

Being good examples to kids by turning off lights in a room when not in use, not letting the water faucet run and separating recyclables from trash reinforce the importance of saving our environment from destruction.

Reading eBooks is environmentally friendly. Thousands of books can be stored digitally on e-readers and reading devices, saving trees that otherwise would be cut down for making paper.

What are some ways you can help our environment, not only on Earth Day but every day? Please leave a comment below. Thank you.

About J.Q.Rose

J.Q. offers readers chills, giggles and quirky characters woven within the pages of her mystery books. She and her husband live the snowbird life, traveling to Florida in the winter and to Michigan for the summer where she spends time with her family including four grandsons and one granddaughter. Travel, photography, reading and playing pegs and jokers help to keep her out of trouble when she isn't writing fiction and non-fiction.

Click here to connect online with JQ.

Saluting All Health Care Workers - Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor, #MFRWAuthor #Nurses, #Doctors #Respiratory Theripists

Saluting All Health Care Workers

During the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping apart from other people. The nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and other health care workers have been close up and personal with others. As a former nurse, long retired, I can understand how they feel. They are afraid and have to face death after death. This will make a large impact on their lives and how they live when this is over. They are our warriors and deserve our respect and prayers. I’m sending healing thoughts to them and to those they care for.

 Below is one of my medical romances.

Isolation humour, by J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - DarknessDescends 

Short-listed for Best Young Adult Book 2018,

The Word Guild

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

As a writer, I'm used to staying home for long periods of time in my own creative world, in the playground-of-my-mind as I like to call it. But a forced stay-at-home is not so easy. I miss my family and friends.

This pandemic has altered routine. Nothing is 'normal' anymore. Headlines about COVID-19 are found on every social media platform. Deaths/ confirmed cases / pending cases - these statistics are broadcast from news outlets around the world, pretty much on an hourly basis. I want to close my eyes and cover my ears to temporarily halt the onslaught.

So I've come up with a distraction of sorts. 

I search for light-hearted content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even CNN. There are hundreds of light-hearted pieces out there. So, to brighten your day and shift from the sad realities choking our collective mood, I'm sharing a few pieces I've found and/or copied and/or revised.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
all the rest have thirty-one
except March and April which have 8,000

Only in Canada, eh? 
Remember, social distancing equals two hockey sticks.

And while we're on the topic of hairs....

Stay safe everyone.  

J.C. Kavanagh, author of

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Google Trends, a Powerful Tool

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Want to know when the next snowfall will arrive in Calgary? What about the spread of the coronavirus epidemic? How about a recipe for apple pie? These are just three of the about five billion daily searches on Google, accounting for an astounding 90.5% of all searches on the internet.

The question arises as to how to make sense of these searches. Are some items searched more often than others? Are some searched seasonally? Can searches be categorized—for example, relating to book purchases?

These questions have more than a curiosity appeal, given that Google’s ad revenue amounted to $135 billion in 2019. There is big money to spend, and to make, with Google. Having the ability to use Google in marketing and promotion affects every business with an on-line presence, and even for purposes other than sales.

For example, a blogger may want to know what the hottest trends are in fashion. An epidemiologist may want to investigate the country with the most searches per capita of a virus. A marketer would like to know if the band he’s promoting is trending in a particular province.

Fortunately, for the common man or woman, there is a tool to help search searches. Google Trends was launched in 2006, but only became the robust tool that it is today in 2012.

To use Google Trends, one needs to enter the following website: trends.google.com. On the website, there is an “Explore” bar, where one can put in the search terms. For example, I chose the United States as my geographic region, entered “Apple Pie,” and several sections showed up. One, “Interest over Time” revealed a large spike in the search for this term in the last week of November which, being Thanksgiving in America, makes sense. The next section showed that Pennsylvania, for some reason, evinced the greatest interest for “Apple Pie.” Google Trends also allow you to compare searches: I compared ‘Apple Pie recipe’ with ‘Cherry pie recipe.’ The winner: Cherry pie, by a mile! 

More powerfully, it also allows searches by categories, such as Books, Games, Education, and so on. What about the hottest trends? Google Trends has a section that lists the top twenty of searches, by day, of all topics. On another page, called ‘Real Time Trends,’ shows the number of searches in real time, per hour, in a graph of the top searches.

A very simple use of Google Trends would be in Search Engine Optimization: the use of terms that would generate the greatest interest in a blog, a website or a product description. But Google Trends has turned out to be a lot more subtle and revealing than many expected. For example, the search ‘is my son gifted?’ was shown to be more popular then ‘is my daughter gifted?’ Similarly, the search ‘Is my daughter overweight?’ turned up more times than ‘Is my son overweight?’ Searches like these show cultural attitudes in statistically significant ways.

It takes times to become a competent user of Google Trends. Fortunately, over forty free lessons are available on the website itself. For authors, bloggers, businesspersons, or for anyone who is interested in public trends, it is a wonderful tool!

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper," a fantasy, and "Karma Nation," a literary romance. www.mohanashtakala.com

He is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com)

Writing in a changed world...by Sheila Claydon

My author page at Books We Love

In my book Miss Locatelli, Arabella has to up her game very swiftly to help save the family jewellery business when her grandfather becomes gravely ill. I wonder how many of us will have to step in to do something similar, if not as dramatic, as Covid 19 continues to sweep across the globe. 

Certainly here, where I live in the North West of the UK, many people are already working very differently as they search for ways to keep their businesses going. Local stores that once could rely on the footfall of regular customers for income, have introduced  delivery services. Yoga and Pilates teachers now stream classes online. Childcare nurseries and pre-schools are doing the same with singalongs and fun activities. Bridge clubs are playing online, and, for the less experienced, also providing lessons. All banking is done online and doctors are carrying out most of their consultations online, except to the very vulnerable. Restaurants are now delivering meals to those people isolated at home and providing takeaway for others. Taxi drivers are delivering food. Shop assistants from high end department stores are stacking shelves in supermarkets, while security men have moved from nightclubs to the supermarket carparks to ensure that everyone follows the strict social distancing rules imposed on us all.

Of course we adapt and one of the British ways of adapting is to resort to gallows humour, so dark jokes abound, as do amusing home made videos of whole families singing coronavirus themed songs to well known tunes. And we are surprisingly obedient. Very few people are flouting the guidelines put in place by government as it tries its best to manage the pandemic. Instead we cross the path when we see neighbours approaching on our daily dog walk, and conduct our conversations across a 2-3 meter gap. We socialise online too. Nearly everyone I know speaks to friends and family daily, mostly on Skype or similar, and share meals and drinks across the ether as they chat. My own granddaughter will be 18 next week and plans are already in place for an online all day party where family and friends can check in at any time on a digital platform that will allow them to speak to one another as well as the birthday girl. It won't be the same, but it will still be fun, and thanks to the wonderful delivery drivers who have kept working throughout, she has a lot of presents to open too.

There are so many other ways in which we are all adapting, from downloading newspapers online  instead of looking forward to the ubiquitous daily delivery that was so much part of British life, to young families spending a lot more time with their children, and throughout it all we wonder what will happen when this is all over. Will we revert to our old ways or will some things have changed forever? Only time will tell but I do have a separate question of my own.

Will books change? Will writers find that they are adapting their stories to an altered existence. We have all read stories written in the past century that appear very outdated, where the characters appear less than realistic in both their attitudes and speech. Neither historical fiction nor contemporary, they no longer seem to fit our mindset. Of course fantasy and futuristic novels will still resonate but what about family sagas, contemporary fiction, even crime novels. How will the global pandemic affect them? Will writers be able to produce stories that ignore our changed world...should they? It's a philosophical question that only time can answer.

In the meantime, stay safe everyone.