Is it that time again already?

By Trina Boice

Is it that time again already for another shameless plug?  YES!!!   I'm thrilled to announce the launch of my 8th book, just one month after my 7th book hit store shelves!  YAY!   No, I don't really write them that fast...that just happens to be the timing of their publication.

Life is all about timing, I've decided.  I've known writers who have spent years trying to get their manuscripts published and then, when the book finally hits the market, people call the writer an "overnight success."   The common thread I see that groups successful writers together is persistence.  Even the most talented writer can remain unpublished if he stops believing in his work and gives up in the "hurry up and wait" world of the business of book publishing.

My newest book is one that I started over 2 years ago.  Its journey involved a change of publishers, where it has finally found its home at Cedar Fort!  The book was created to help LDS Cub Scout leaders combine the Primary's "Faith in God" award requirements with the overwhelming myriad of Cub Scout achievements.   Like all of my other books so far, this one offers a giant brainstorm of ideas to help the devoted leader who is outrageously busy. 

The Cub Scout program is very sweet, bringing families together and providing memorable activities that bind hearts.   I became a "Den Mother" when my oldest son was just 7 years old.  He wanted to be a Tiger Cub Scout, but because LDS packs don't sign up boys until they're 8 years old, we joined a school pack and I naively volunteered to lead the group, not having a clue what I was getting myself in to!

My two oldest boys went all the way from Tiger Cub Scout to Eagle Boy Scout!  My third son is currently working on his Eagle Scout project, and my youngest son is still in Cub Scouts.  It's been a wonderful adventure and I'm thrilled to be able to share a few of the things I've learned over the years with moms and dads who may just be starting.

Advancing from Tiger all the way to Eagle takes time.  And so does going from thinking of an idea for a book to autographing the finished product at your own book signing.  Remember, persistence!

What if I'm not funny?

Many people have the misconception that they can't add humor to their writing because they aren't funny. This is a myth. Humor can be learned. Humor has basic formulas that are fueled by what every writer has an abundance of: creativity. I'm living proof of that fact. Before I studied humor, I had no idea how to be funny. But now that I've studied some of the science behind what makes people laugh, I understand that humor comes from a combination of certain factors laid out in a certain way. I recognize it more in other people's work and I can add it to my own.

I'll give you and example of one basic formula that can be learned. One of the most basic ideas in humor writing is incongruity. When two ideas that don't make sense are put together it makes us laugh, whether it be in a character, a plot, or a dialogue. For instance, much of the dialogue in the movie, "The Emperor's New Groove" is incongruous. The two main characters are about to fall over a steep waterfall and the emperor asks, "Sharp rocks at the bottom?" And his companion very calmly answers, "Yup." Then the emperor replies straight-faced, "Bring it on." This dialogue is all said in the most calm manner, making us laugh because it is the total opposite reaction than they should be having to the scary situation.

An example of an incongruous character is in C.S. Lewis's "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". "Reepicheep" is the tiny mouse who is braver than anyone else and a swordsman that no one can defeat, yet he is the tiniest of all the creatures on Prince Caspian's ship. It makes us laugh when this tiny mouse shouts out huge threats at people in a squeaky little voice. The incongruity of someone who is in reality so tiny, but acts like he is ten feet tall is funny.

So if you want to add humor to your writing, but think you're not funny, don't be discouraged! Just take the time to study one of the many books on Amazon.com that teach the formulas for writing humor. It will be well worth your time, because sometimes humor is the edge that gets your manuscript to stand out above the others that are all alike in the slush pile. Good luck! and let me know how it goes!

Kersten Campbell
author of "Confessions of a Completely Insane Mother"
www.kerstencampbell.com
www.kersten4.blogspot.com

Mishaps, Mischief, and Winners, Yahoo!

By Nichole Giles

A few weeks ago, my brilliant, beautiful, and multi-talented coauthor, Cindy Beck, announced that we are giving away a copy of our upcoming book, Mormon Mishaps and Mischief: Hilarious Stories for Saints.

The book itself won’t be on shelves until December, but we can’t wait for its release, and we’re pretty sure our 89.9 million fans can’t wait either, so…yeah. We’re giving away a copy now, and hoping the winner is a patient person, who doesn’t mind waiting for their prize until we actually have one to give. So sorry we can’t give away a llama—as requested—or dinner with a ghost, but perhaps we can send along a free bookmark or…some uneaten Christmas candy.

Or maybe one day we’ll just give away love. It’s all we need, right? (I think that’s what the song says.) But if you want to enter that drawing, you might need to check the updates at the LDS Humor blog.

Our book, Mormon Mishaps and Mischief: Hilarious Stories for Saints, contains humorous, true stories of Latter-day Saints that will have you holding your sides and laughing. It covers everything from bloopers at the pulpit and gaffes at priesthood campouts to blunders during family home evening. The book makes a great gift for yourself, family, friends, or even a Christmas gift for your home teachers—when they finally show up on December 31.
And the winner is…

Niid Raun

Congratulations, Niid! (Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, cheer, cheer, dance.) To collect your prize, please email us your snail mail information to the humor committee at ldshumor at yahoo dot com. Whatever you do, please don’t camp out at your mailbox waiting anxiously for your prize to arrive. You might freeze to death when it snows.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled blog reading!

A Chance to Win "Mormon Mishaps and Mischief"

By Cindy Beck

In case you missed Jillayne Clements' post last night, we’re holding a giveaway here at the Writing Fortress. For your edification, let me just tell you what we are not giving away—a llama, Gila monster or night on the town with Burl Ives (which you'd probably appreciate not winning, since he's passed on).

Most, or possibly all of the prizes are real, live, printed-on-the-page books by authors here at the blog.

Unfortunately, the printed-on-the-page book that co-author, Nichole Giles, and I have written (with stories compiled from other great authors as well) won’t be out until December, but we wanted to give our 90 million readers a chance to win it.

What? We don’t have 90 million readers? Okay … 89.9 million.



Our book, Mormon Mishaps and Mischief: Hilarious Stories for Saints, contains humorous, true stories of Latter-day Saints that will have you holding your sides and laughing. It covers everything from bloopers at the pulpit and gaffes at priesthood camp outs to blunders during family home evening. The book makes a great gift for yourself, family, friends, or even a Christmas gift for your home teachers—when they finally show up on December 31.

How do you win a copy of Mormon Mishaps and Mischief? Just leave a comment on this blog entry and we’ll throw you into the random generator … well, not actually throw you, but your name (which will be assigned a number) into the mix and pull a winner two weeks from now, when Nichole posts her thoughts here. That person will win a copy of the book and we’ll send it when Mormon Mishaps and Mischief comes out in December.

Best of luck to each of you!

~ Cindy and Nichole

LDS Bookseller's Convention

By Trina Boice


When my first LDS book was published, I received an invitation to do a book signing at the annual LDS Booksellers Association Convention in Sandy, Utah. I never even knew that such an event existed. I left feeling excited, rejuvinated and completely inspired.

The good news is that this year's convention starts tomorrow! It takes place August 3-7 at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm. The bad news is that it is only open to members of the LDS Booksellers Assocation and their guests. See what you can do to become a guest!

By the way, Cedar Fort has a terrific reputation for consistently having one of the best booths and is always decked out with impressive decor to coordinate with the theme for the year. This year's theme is "Discovering Treasures." As readers, we all know the thrill of finding a hidden treasure in a great book, whether it be a fun character, inspiring word choice, exciting adventure, or a new mind-expanding idea. Great theme. I wonder if there will be lots of pirates holding books, wandering around the convention hall this year?

I'm telling you, this event is fantastic! My friends call me a giggler...that is to say that I get all giggly and groupie when I meet famous people. It's embarrassing, really. The convention hall overflows with LDS "celebrities" you can meet and have sign their books, music CD's, artwork or DVD's. I brought my camera and made a real idiot out of myself....so much fun.

I love meeting people who have worked hard at improving their talents and who are doing amazing things. It energizes me and motivates me to try harder. Zig Ziglar said "Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully." You get the sense that all of these great musicians, artists and authors truly love the gospel and are trying to use their talents to build the kingdom. I love that.

It's also extremely invigorating to see the latest, greatest, and newest LDS merchandise to hit the market. I absolutely thrill to be around people who are creating, dreaming, and contributing something positive to the world.

To see the schedule of events and learn more about the LDS Booksellers Association, check out their web site at http://www.ldsba.com

Why People Laugh

When I write humor stories, it is interesting to me to see which people laugh at what stories. What fascinates me is that one person can think a situation is hilarious and can hardly breathe because they are laughing so hard, while the next person will just chuckle, or not laugh at all. Why is that? I think it is because each of us come from so many unique circumstances and backgrounds that it depends upon your experience and personality whether something is funny or not. And what is funny to you, may be dumb to someone else.

That is why it is so hard to write humor. Many humorists will admit that they don't know how they do it. They just write on instinct. Dave Barry once said that even though he is basically an expert at humor, if his wife doesn't laugh at what he's written, that means he's failed...even though he knows more about what makes people laugh than she does. But there are some tricks that all humorists know that help them to write in the "laughter zone".

Psychologists have identified certain emotions that spark laughter: surprise and feelings of superiority. People laugh when you surprise them with something that is ridiculous but true. Also people love to laugh at heroes and heroines who are clumsy or naive. The reader thinks it's funny because he knows better than the hero. That is why so many humorists joke about themselves. Because they know that people will laugh when they feel superior.

There are other reasons that have also been identified for laughter which I have taken from the book Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer, which is my favorite humor writing bible.

1. We laugh out of instinct
2. We laugh at incongruity
3. We laugh out of ambivalence
4. We laugh for release
5. We laugh when we solve a puzzle
6. We laugh to regress

The next time you are reading something that makes you laugh, examine your reasons for laughing. Is it out of surprise or because you feel superior...or one of the other reasons on the list? Write your observations in a journal. As you continue to analyze what's funny and what's not and why, it will help you develop your own style of humor and you will begin to unlock the secret to making people laugh.

Kersten Campbell,
Author of "Confessions of a Completely Insane Mother"
humor blog: www.kersten4.blogspot.com
website: www.kerstencampbell.com

Tips for adding humor to your writing

You’ve seen it in movies. You’ve seen it in books. You’ve seen it everywhere and perhaps never noticed it. It’s a humor device called “Irony” and it’s one trick that authors use to make their characters and plot lines interesting and funny. Irony is, to quote Webster’s, “a method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense,” for example, when someone calls a stupid plan, “clever.” That is considered irony.

When used subtly, irony can make your work more saleable, because it makes the characters more interesting and fun to read about. It makes the characters more likeable because it gives them a fault that people can relate to. Who hasn’t thought of himself as something he is really not? It also gives your work more depth. An example from my recent reading is Jonathon Stroud’s Bartimeaus Series. His genie talks like an all powerful, ferocious, intimidating, godlike creature, when all his actions indicate that he is cowardly, and not as strong or smart as he thinks he is. This makes for some hilarious and clever situations that are very fun to read about. Another example from a very popular work is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The “wimpy kid’s” dialogue is laced with irony, making us laugh and fall in love with the character. Even the Berenstein Bears has irony. The Papa Bear is always setting himself up as an expert and he is really klutzy and not very knowledgeable. In the movie, “G-Force,” a dainty, sweet little girl tells someone if they try to put a bow in her hair they will lose a finger. This is funny.

You’ll notice irony everywhere in popular fiction and movies because it makes fiction and movies popular, and it makes the author seem clever. One caution though. It can be overused, and then it makes the author look like he is trying too hard to be funny or sarcastic.

To add irony to your work, take a good look at your character. Is he a body guard? What would be the last thing a buff and burly dude would say or do? You need to surprise your audience. Make him a germaphobe who loves decorating, or have him love something sweet and cute. In the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, the very intelligent and mature sounding boy uses his intelligence to invent things that cause all sorts of hilarious trouble for everyone, making us realize he is not as grown up as he thinks he is. This is the type of interesting character that leaves readers clamoring for more. Author Janette Rallison has made a name for herself lacing her character’s dialogue with irony to make what they say humorous and clever. Read some of her books to study how she does it. As you study other authors who use this device it will begin to make sense to you and you will become an expert yourself.

Kersten Campbell, author of "Confessions of a Completely Insane Mother"
humor blog: www.kersten4.blogspot.com
website: www.kerstencampbell.com

Meet author, Trina Boice!

Would you believe there is still one more author in this writing fortress to hear from? Me! I’m Trina Boice, one of the few non-fiction authors in the crowd. I’ve written 6 books so far with lots more on the way! My 7th will be published by Cedar Fort just in time for Christmas shopping. Yay!

I asked my family how I should introduce myself to you in a clever, creative way and I got quite a few mixed suggestions. My husband said I should tell you about all of the things I’m NOT, so I thought I’d try that first:

“I’m not a super sonic rocket, but I have been known to eat ice cream at lightening speed.
I’m not apathetic, and have the emotional scars to prove it from being a political correspondent for KPBS during last year’s election.
I’m not a crazed, texting teenager, but I do write for Go2.com
I’m not a 95 year old grandma, but I sure would like to take a nap, and some say I’m off my rocker.”

Hmmm....maybe I should try my youngest son's suggestion. He thought I should tell you about myself from the viewpoint of the pencil I write my books with:
“Gee, Trina is really sharp and gets to the point.” Silly pencil. I write with my keyboard.

Then my twin sister encouraged me to write from her point of view:
“Trina is really really good looking.”

Ummm, that's obviously not going to work. So I thought I’d try my oldest son’s idea. He's serving a mission in Argentina and loves language and rhyming.

“There once was a writer named Trina.
She dances, but is no ballerina.
She won California’s Mother of the Year.
She’s LDS and has never drunk beer.
Trina served a mission in Spain
Wow, this rhyming attempt is real lame.”

Ok, since that’s not working out very well, how about I try my 2nd son’s idea? He’s a college student and wanted you to know that I graduated from BYU with 2 bachelor’s degrees and competed on the Speech & Debate team and Ballroom Dance team. I was President of the National Honor Society Phi Eta Sigma and served as ASBYU Secretary of Student Community Services. Later I went on to get two master’s degrees from CCHS. I’d love to get a PhD some day just so people would have to call me Dr. and I could pretend like I really know something.

My 3rd son wanted me to tell you about all of the things he and I have in common. He is studying mixed martial arts, inspired by his mom who has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He doesn’t realize I’d pass out from fright if I were ever really attacked by a bad guy. I received the President’s “Point of Light Award” and he likes to point his laser light in people’s faces. He’s an energetic bundle of joy and I feel joy whenever I finally get energy. He plays all day on his computer and I work all day on mine.

It’s a good thing I don’t have more children or you’d be sitting here all day, reading more of their goofy ideas. Let’s just keep it short and say that I’m thrilled to be writing for Cedar Fort and I’m excited to meet you all! Besides, if I told you what I really do for a living, I’d have to kill you.

A Few Tidbits about Cindy Beck

By ... none other than Cindy Beck





For those who don't already know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Cindy Beck, and I'll be posting on the first Monday of the month. My most outstanding physical features are that I'm under-tall and mostly gray. (My hair, not my face.)

If you looked at the photo above—which was taken sometime in the last century—you might not have observed that I'm under-tall. Mostly because I'm kneeling. However, you probably did notice my cute dog, Corky Porky Pie, who pretty much looks the same today as he did then. I'm sure you'd like to know more about Corky Porky, but he can't type and I can, so you're stuck learning about me.

According to the census taker, my life officially started when I came into the world in Wisconsin. After that, because my dad served in the military, I grew up in several places in the United States.

In college, I majored in entomology (insects), graduating Sum Kinda Buggy from the University of Wyoming. However, I seldom share that information because then people want me to crawl under their homes to check for termites.

Although no one thought of me as funny in school—in fact, most people didn't even think of me at all—I fooled my classmates and grew up to write a humor column for a local Utah newspaper, the Sanpete Messenger.

Despite an irresistible inclination toward humor, my more serious articles and stories have appeared in the Ensign magazine, and in several national anthoglogies—Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers, Cup of Comfort for Breast Cancer Survivors, and My Dad is My Hero.

My current project is a book called Mormon Mishaps and Mischief. It's co-authored with my good friend, Nichole Giles, and will be published by Cedar Fort in December 2009. The book contains anecdotes of the Saints at their funniest ... from an organist who falls alseep at the keyboard during Sacrament meeting, to a Father and Son Camp-out that accidentally includes lawn sprinklers.

(I'd like to interject here that Cedar Fort has some dynamite editors, who not only can edit half the world's manuscripts in a single bound, but also have a sense of humor.)

To read excerpts from my short stories, visit my website. Or, if you're in the mood for humor, visit my blog or the blog that Nichole and I co-author. You can also get updates on Mormon Mishaps and Mischief there.