Showing posts with label Book Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Writing. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

WHY I LOVE WRITING HUMOR



I have always loved to read and to laugh. After all, it's been said that laughter is the best medicine. Some of my favorite humor authors have served to inspire my own writing. I love the zany humor of Carl Hiaasen and Armistead Maupin. Armistead especially inspired me since he, too, wrote a series of humorous books such as I have.

Humor is such a wonderful escape from the cares of life. My life has been filled with many dark moments and I have used humor to chase the darkness away. Hopefully, my readers will also be able to do the same thing with my series of books. The first book is entitled "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude". The first sequel is called "Babes in Bucksnort" and that will soon be followed by "Have A Heart".

Writing humorous books is also a wonderful escape for me. Wrapped in the spell of inspiration, I spontaneously spin outrageously funny tales that will make my readers laugh from the beginning to the end of the books. That's my own satisfaction too since I laugh out loud as I write the books. It's a wonderful escape for me and I have never had more fun in my life.

I have been inspired by many humorous anecdotes from my own life. I used to work with mentally-ill clients who had some of the funniest delusions. While my own characters are not delusional, I have drawn from my past experiences with humor in my life to create funny characters.

They have zany names like Fartley Dinkledorf, Lula Mae Bunsaplenty, Muchmore Mayhem, and Jules Jesslike Pappas to name a few. In the case of Jules, he was so named when the nurse held up the little baby for his mother to pick a name. She took one look at the little baby with the large endowment and immediately thought of his father. That's when she exclaimed “Jewels just like Papa's!”

In the case of Fartley Dinkledorf, he is a little boy who takes perverse pleasure in passing gas. Poor Sister Mary Olga! She decides to take a chance and to cast him as the baby Jesus in the annual Christmas pageant. True to form, Fartley lets one rip while in the manger. That's when Sister Mary Olga exclaims, “Fart!” That's also when the Reverend Mother abruptly ends the show.

Priscilla Bunhead is a prudish spinster who wears her hair in a tight little bun. I maintain that it's so tight that her mind is closed shut like a steel trap. She's a busybody who is always digging in the dirt and she finds plenty of that in the fictional town of Bucksnort, Wisconsin. When she learns that she's surrounded by gay people, she goes on a crusade to get them evicted from the Snortlands. It makes for wonderful conflict and great humor because she gets hers in the end.

Yes, I love humor and thank God I've got an active imagination! From that place, I am able to conjure up all kinds of hilarious scenarios. As I go along my merry way, I continue to find new inspiration which has led me to write a total of eleven books in the series. My readers won't have to thirst long between books since I have an arsenal of side-splitting laughs available for them. The beautiful thing is that I haven't run out of ideas yet.

I love to entertain and that is what I promise you. I have created books that you won't want to put down and for which you will be craving the next one. From beginning to end, you will find yourself in stitches of laughter. This is my calling and my gift to you.

Enjoy your journey!

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

"The Sister Mary Olga Book Series"

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" is available at Amazon.com in Paperback for $13.95 PURCHASE HERE Kindle Format is available at Amazon.com for $3.99 PURCHASE HERE

"Babes in Bucksnort" is available at Amazon.com in Paperback for $13.95 in Paperback for $13.95 PURCHASE HERE Kindle Format is available at Amazon.com for $3.99 PURCHASE HERE

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

So, you want to Write a Book




Each of you has a book in yourself. After all, you all have your life stories. That is a starting point; at least it was for me. I wrote my memoirs about recovery from multiple addictions and mental illness. It helped me to heal and to learn how to put my thoughts down on paper. You can do that too.

Each of you is creative energy. You may not realize it. Just let yourself sit with that thought for awhile. Then try putting a pen to paper when the inspiration comes. You will be amazed at what can come out for you. It is your creative energy expressing itself.

Maybe you will express yourself through writing a poem. Perhaps it will be an anecdote from your life. Perhaps you will find the creative impulse to write a short story. Okay, that's a beginning. Try to keep going. You do have a book in you.

Use your imagination. Let it flow as you put your pen to paper or run your fingers over your keyboard. Believe in yourself and you will create. If it's meant to be, it will be. Whatever you can dream, you can also realize. Don't allow any negative thoughts or excuses stand in your way. Affirm to yourself, I am writing a book.

Practice every day or so. You don't have to write much. Just keep at it and you will find yourself moving in a forward direction. Before you know it, you will be on your way to writing that book.

Okay, now the book is written. The question is, how can you publish it? That's easy these days. While the traditional publishing industry is very hard to break into, there are many self-publishers. Just google that and you will come up with many. Check them out. Many of them will charge you very little to publish your book. You may not have a best-seller, but you can publish your book if you truly want to do it.

That's what I did. While I didn't publish my memoirs, I have written several books about a wayward nun named Sister Mary Olga Fortitude. She loves her bourbon and her Marlboros. That always gets her into trouble with her Reverend Mother who is a reformed prostitute. The zany characters don't stop there. I just let my imagination continue to create my zany characters and hilarious situations.

Once my first book, The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude, was published, I just kept on going. My next book, Babes in Bucksnort, was soon out. I'd never had more fun in my life and I was off on an adventure! That's when my challenges began. After all, I was embarking on a new career and I wanted to make a success of it. Now, it was time to promote my book and I realized I needed help.

I hired a wonderful publicist by the name of Mindy Schwartz of Full Circle Administrative Services. She created a marvelous blog for me and I began to write articles such as this one. She began to post them all over the internet.

Then I began to get radio interviews. It was an exciting time to revel in my experience as I shared it with my listening audience. After all, it's no good unless you give it away. While I wanted to make a success of my book, I also want to inspire my listeners to be all that they could be too.

If you have ever dreamed of becoming an author, I encourage you to take these simple steps. You can do it. Dream a little while. Then take some action. Dreams do come true.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui
Davis' s Sister Mary Olga Book Series is available in both Paperback and Kindle Format.

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" (Kindle Format $3.99)
"Babes in Bucksnort" (Kindle Format $3.99) Purchase Here
Babes In Bucksnort

Saturday, March 5, 2011

HOW I CAME TO WRITE MY BOOKS


Believe it or not, I have actually written my memoirs. After I finished that project, I wondered to myself, “What can I do next?” That's when I came up with an idea. I remembered the character of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude which I had developed in order to entertain a colleague of mine while I had been working as a social worker.

That's when I developed the character of Sister Mary Olga. I soon began to develop the other zany characters until I had created an entire cast. I would call up my friend and I would leave her voice-mails during which I would create spontaneous outlandish and hilarious scenarios. She loved it and that gave me a lot of joy!

At the point when I had finished my memoirs, I thought to myself, I bet I could write a book about these crazy characters! So I sat down and I wrote a “The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude” in a little over a month. The thing was, I still had more ideas...so, I wrote another. Guess what? I hadn't run out of ideas yet! Over the course of the next two years I wrote nine novels in the series and I still haven't run out of ideas!

Around the time that I was getting ready to have the first book published, I asked my mother-in-law if she would pose in a nun's habit as Sister Mary Olga on the cover of my book. You see, to me, she embodied my mental concept of what Sister Mary Olga should look like. She said, “Sure, Davis! I'll do it for you!”

Unfortunately she passed away before that could happen. As she lay on her deathbed, I said to her, “Jan, I'm going to get you on that cover one way or another!” Thanks to the marvelous illustrator for my cover, that person was able to create a nun's habit over her picture. Once that was done, I dedicated my first book to her.

Only in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would become an author! Yet suddenly I began to write as if it was my full-time job. If you wonder what I'm doing now, I'll tell you. I'm polishing the other books in the series so that they will be fine and outrageously funny gems like the jewel of this first book that I've created. You can now read the newly-published first sequel. It's called Babes in Bucksnort..

After the second sequel, I travel back in time to trace Mary Olga's journey from the time she was dunked into the baptismal tank at the Bucksnort Baptist church up until she became a Catholic and later became a nun. I continue to move forward in time which has given me the opportunity to create many more delightfully zany characters as well as to trace the history of the endearing characters you'll be enjoying in this first book.

I must admit that I'm going to be leaving you hanging after the second sequel, but don't worry, I'll pick up the current story line later. I don't think I'm about to run out of ideas for a very long time! Sister Mary Olga and her friends have taken on lives of their own. That's given me a joyful sense of purpose in my own life.
Author Davis Aujourd'hui
Books:


You can obtain either of Davis's Novels in Paperback or Kindle Format.