Interview...author/columnist Celia Rivenbark

"It never occurred to me to publish a book," columnist and author Celia Rivenbark explains. "I had quit work and was staying home with my newborn baby girl when a very small local publisher called to ask if I'd like to compile some of my favorite newspaper columns into a book for regional distribution. I said, 'Sure, why not?'"

Bless Your Heart, Tramp was released by Coastal Carolina Press in 2000 and became a Southeastern Book Sellers Association best-seller before being nominated for the James Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001. Not bad for a book Rivenbark claims to have sold out of the trunk of her car.

Three more books followed. In the latest, Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scatter Hissy Fits, due out on Tuesday from St. Martin's Press, Rivenbark takes on home improvement, Britney Spears and little girl beauty pageants.

How does Rivenbark decide what goes in her books?

"The columns form the framework for the books," says Rivenbark. She writes a weekly column, syndicated by McClatchy-Tribune Media Services, that typically revolves around the subjects of kids, men, pop culture and the south so her chapters often set themselves.

"Some essays are completely new; others are so tweaked you’d never recognize them from their (much-tamer) newspaper selves."

About midway through the process, a dominant theme or section emerges. In Belle Weather, it's home improvement as Rivenbark writes about buying and renovating their house. On the other hand, Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank highlights children and parenting. Re-released by St. Martin's two years ago, Bless Your Heart, Tramp's largest section is entitled "The South" but We're Just Like You, Only Prettier is more evenly split with sections like "The Southern Family," "Couples Therapy, Southern Style," "The Southern Woman" and more.

It takes her a year to a year and a half to complete a book, then another year before it's released from the publisher.

Is humor hard?

In her bio on her website, Rivenbark says writing a humor column is the fulfillment of "her lifelong dream of being paid to be a smart ass." She's good at it, too. Her column has won numerous press awards and We're Just Like You, Only Prettier, her second book published in 2004 by St. Martin's Press, won the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Nonfiction Book of the Year and became a finalist for the James Thurber Prize for American Humor.

"Funny stuff is happening in this world all the time. And by world, I mean the Bush White House," she quips. She admits to having at least one topic she won't touch, but refuses to name it. "If I told you, that would be touching it, now wouldn't it?"

To look at the contents of her books, you'd be hard-pressed to find it. She lampoons everything from couple baby showers to plasma TVs to school fundraisers.

Her brand of southern humor has a wide appeal. Rivenbark column appears in papers from South Carolina to Washington State. A Celia Rivenbark fan club on Facebook has a member from Australia.

"Southerners are weird and crazy and they love language," she says, "We are just a colorful bunch of folks with long stories to tell and, thank God, people like to hear ‘em."

Is it hard for a woman to make a living writing humor?

Rivenbark has been compared to Dave Barry, Jeff Foxworthy and Erma Bombeck but with an edgier, more biting wit. She says she realized that she was funny when Bless Your Heart, Tramp started selling and We're Just Like You, Only Prettier won the SIBA nonfiction book award. "That blew me away."

"I don’t know that it’s harder for a woman than a man," she says, "I do know that, while I’m doing OK, I certainly don’t want my husband to quit his day job anytime soon!"

Nor does she think there's a difference between the genders when it comes to pushing the humor envelope, citing David Sedaris, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart and others.

"It's about even as far as I can tell," she says. "I like to write edgy stuff but I certainly respect the humor greats like Bombeck, who was far from edgy but was very, very funny and relatable."

"That’s the beauty of humor. You can laugh at Bombeck or you can laugh at Kathy Griffin."




Read reviews of Belle Weather at Dew on the Kudzu and Genre Go Round Reviews. St. Martin's Press has an audio excerpt read by Rivenbark.

To learn more about Celia Rivenbark and read some of her columns, visit her website.

Interview...with author/columnist Darrell Huckaby

"If you're standing behind someone in the check-out line and she's searching through every pocket, through her entire purse, for three cents - THREE PENNIES - " columnist Darrell Huckaby says, "you can get mad…or you can look for what's funny." Huckaby always looks for, and usually finds the funny things in life and often that's what he writes about in more than a dozen newspapers across the Southeast. He's a self-syndicated columnist, an author and recently a "spoken word artist" in the vein of Southern humor writers Lewis Grizzard and Jeff Foxworthy.

Has he always been funny?

"Life's more enjoyable if you sprinkle it with humor," he says, adding that people are naturally funny. They do funny things all the time. He's lucky to have a good memory for details but he recommends and sometimes still carries a small pad to jot down things he sees throughout the day. Sometimes it is simply someone walking by who might be dress a little differently or as he told a class at a workshop, "I saw this woman come by. She was carrying her dog but had her three-year-old son on a leash!" Other times it's an overheard conversation, or that woman in the check-out line looking for pennies.

"I write about everything," he continues, "I live in a household with my wife and three children and I teach high school AP history. There's always something going on!" He used to send friends letters full of stories about things in his life and he tried to make them funny. Since he has gotten successful, some of these friends tell him they still have those stories and how much they enjoyed them.

How long has Huckaby been writing?


"I have always thought I wanted to write," he says, "I thought how wonderful it would be to write and have people read it." But when he told people he wanted to be a writer, they laughed at him, so outside of writing for the school paper in high school, Huckaby kept his writing to himself, squirreling away his thoughts and stories in journals for almost 30 years.

His first professional publication came one Memorial Day in the early 1990s (he no longer remembers the year). He wrote about a friend from high school who had been a soldier and had died in Viet Nam. When he sent it unsolicited to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the paper printed it, then other papers picked it up and printed it.

"One clipping got laminated and was left by the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington." It was added to an exhibit with other items left at the wall.

He wrote his first book as a lark in 1995. It was supposed to be the novel his idol Lewis Grizzard never got to write. He wrote it without an outline or any planning, just making it up as he went. Need Two is the story of two college roommates who decided in 1980, four days before the National Championship Game between Georgia and Norte Dame, that they had to be there. "I tell people it is not autobiographical even if that is my roommate standing next to me on the cover."

Then he got an offer to write a column for the local newspaper in Conyers, The Rockdale Citizen. He got along so well with the editor that the once a week column became a twice a week column then a three times a week column. Soon after, other papers began calling him asking if they could print his columns. Now he writes five columns a week for 12 or 14 newspapers and some magazines. During football season, he writes another one about Georgia football on the website DogBone.


He currently has eight books, including three collections of his columns, two novels, a cookbook, a biography and a book about taking his kids to all 50 states, which is due out later this year. He has an audio CD of his stories called "Porterdale City Limits" and does a weekly radio commentary on the syndicated show, "Moby in the Morning."

How does he do all that and still teach high school?

"I'm a morning person," he explains. "I get up at 5:30 and work on my columns before I get ready for school." If he's working on a book, he writes in the evenings and uses his summers off as a teacher to do the rewrites and polishing. He does his speaking engagements on the weekends.

He hadn't planned on pursuing his writing career until he retired to coastal South Carolina. "I'm about 15 years ahead of schedule." He's saving his "serious novel," one he has been working on for years, until retirement so he can devote more time to it. He'd like to publish it with a national publisher but it would require the freedom to do promotion tours and other things.

"I still have a 15-year-old at home who needs me here to be her daddy more than I need to be out promoting a book," he says. He'd also like to write a screenplay, maybe for his first novel Need Two. He'd like to do more speaking because he enjoys meeting and getting to know people.

"I think I'm privileged to be able to write and have people enjoy my work. It's still just a grand adventure," he says with genuine enthusiasm.




To learn more about Darrell Huckaby, his books and speaking engagements, visit his website.

Workshops & Retreats…Santa Barbara Writers Conference

This column briefly profiles writers' workshops, retreats, seminars and conferences. Inclusion in this column is not an endorsement.

What is the Santa Barbara Writers Conference?

There's actual two Santa Barbara Writers Conferences: the smaller poetry conference in March and the comprehensive summer conference in June. The dates for this year's summer conference are June 21-26. It will be held at the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort.

The workshops cover such areas as story crafting and structure, screenwriting, humor, creative nonfiction, children's literature, marketing as well as several genres of fiction, poetry and memoir. The workshop activities include instruction plus readings and critiques with fellow students and instructors.


There are also panel discussions, guest speakers, late-night "pirate workshops" and "The Ultimate Write-Off Reality Show." You can register for the Agents and Editors Day and for a manuscript review.

There is a Young Writers Program for students 14-18. Students can participate in all conference activities but there are other special presentations as well.

Who are the instructors?

There are 33 workshop instructors. Click here to see the full list: faculty. The book jackets featured represents work from the faculty. Special guest include: (book signings will follow each presentation)


Ray Bradbury - opens the conference with a keynote speech.
Joseph Wambaugh - author, screenwriter, his latest book Hollywood Crows was released in March.
Bob Mayer - presents How to Pitch to an Agent/Editor followed by a book signing.
Jane Heller - author, journalist, her latest book Some Nerve came out in paperback in November.
Luis Alberto Urrea - author of The Devil's Highway, The Hummingbird's Daughter and others.
Sue Grafton - receives the Barnaby and Mary Conrad Founders Award for Fiction with a Q&A.

How much might this cost you?

To attend the full conference is $725 and includes all workshops, special lectures, panels, speakers' presentations, opening night barbecue, closing dinner and award ceremony. Manuscript evaluations are $40 and must be received by May 15. Meet with an Agent and Editor is $35.


The conference has a "Taste of the Conference" option which runs from June 21 through June 24, giving you access to the workshops, but not all the special events. Individual tickets will be available for purchase for some of the events not included with the discounted tuition. The tuition for "Taste of…" is $475.

The Young Writers Program tuition is $525 and allows the students access to all conference classes, presentations and activities as well as special Young Writers activities.

Registrations must be received by May 15. Online registration is available here: Registration. Rooms at the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort run at the conference rate of $225. You must mention the conference to get that rate.

The Details:


Santa Barbara Writers Conference: June 21-26, Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort
Workshops in several fiction genres, story crafting and structure, creative nonfiction, children's literature, humor, screenwriting, marketing, poetry, memoir and the Young Writers Program for students 14-18.
Fees: Full conference - $725, Taste of… - $475, Young Writers Program - $525, Manuscript Evaluations - $40, Meet with an Agent and Editor - $35, Rooms - $225
Online registration is available. Registration deadline: May 15






NOTE: Don't forget The Virtual Book Tour by Font Literary Agency & Writing Centre is coming April 8. Click here to read more about Lover's Hollow author Orna Ross.

An Interview...with humorist Cappy Hall Rearick

Humor columnist Cappy Hall Rearick began her writing career in the 5th grade when she wrote a poem about a litterbug. It won a $5 prize and was published in her hometown newspaper in Orangeburg, SC. Today she has a wall full of awards and three books under her belt. In the last 25 years, she has authored five successful columns for newspapers and magazines. She came to column writing as a way to replenish her South Carolinian roots while nearly 3000 miles away.

"I was living in Los Angeles and was terribly homesick," she says. She contacted the editor of the Times and Democrat , the same paper that published her 5th grade poem, and asked if he might like a weekly column about her life out there. "He jumped at the chance because small town people are dazzled by Hollywood glitz."

"Alive and Well in Hollywood" ran for 5 years in the early '80s. Other columns include: "Simply Southern," "Putting on the Gritz" and "Simply Senior," which currently appears in Charleston's Lowcountry Sun, and "Tidings," a column on writing. She also writes an e-column called "Simply Something."


Cappy's first book, Simply Southern (2002), is a collection of her columns as is her third, Simply Southern Ease (2006). She also has a collection of Christmas short stories, Simply Christmas (2004). All three have garnered raves from readers and reviewers. In addition, she collaborated with a local restaurateur, Barbara Jean Barter, for Barbara Jean's Cookbook, a collection of recipes seasoned with Cappy's Southern humor.

Her columns often feature her family, but that's ok with her husband Bill, aka "Babe," and the "grandkids from hell." "My two sons are still trying to figure me out. Good luck with that, kids!" she quips. "The grandkids love (that) I immortalize them in my stories. I've got great grandkids, and fortunately, they all have a good sense of humor."

"I just asked (Bill). He stopped just short of declaring it his 15 minutes of fame."

Cappy says she probably owes her sense of humor to her mom, but southerners are just innately funny. "Southerners learned as far back as the Civil War that laughing when they felt like crying was a good survival tool. (They) relish their crazy relatives and southern authors love to write about them."

Cappy will teach humor writing at the upcoming Southeastern Writers Workshop. She has taught for the workshop before and also works annually with minority students in the Glynn County School where she lives. She truly loves sharing her craft with others.

"Have you ever heard teachers say they learn as much or more than the students they teach? That's one thing I like about teaching. The other," she adds, "and most important is classroom energy. It's palpable and energizing."

Who was the biggest influence on her writing life?


Cappy touts Edgar Allen Poe for teaching her about mystery and intrigue. James Thurber's "The Night the Bell Fell" showed her the power of humor. "I laughed until I cried." As an adult, she loves Flannery O'Connor and humorists Erma Bombeck and Paula Wall.

What's the best advice she's ever gotten?

An author she knew while in California told her to write from her heart without worrying about whether it would be published. "Her thought was that if I put too much thought into publication, I would edit the piece to death," Cappy explained. "Her advice turned me into one of those writers who must write, instead of one who does it for fame, fortune, or whatever….This is not to say that I don't like to get paid…that's always a good thing!"

Do you want to know more about Cappy?


Check out Cappy's website. There you can read columns, check out where she'll be appearing, find links to writers organizations and sites dedicated to writing, humor and the South. There's even a page where you can purchase her books. Cappy's books are also available online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other booksellers.