I was gifted a pass to the 34th Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts on Saturday. You probably guessed something inspirational happened as this makes the third post this week, after a pretty long dry spell, at this bloggy thingy.
I was inspired —actually I’m stealing a good idea.
Charles Demers was the author I enjoyed the most and the person who is victim of my theft. I’m not talking about Ivanka Trump stealing as in using another persons words, but I’m taking his idea and I’m hoping it’s okay.
Charles Demers used each letter of the alphabet as a header, and wrote 26 essays, that became his latest book.
The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts on Awful Things, is a good read so far. (I’m only up to D.) This book was described as both a funny serious book and a serious funny book. I wish I had it on audio. I’d like him to read it, as I’d prefer to sit back and listen as he described each chapter.
This alphabet thing couldn’t have been his original idea either. There are a lot of alphabet books out in the world. And, since my writing isn’t going out into the world, because I don’t count the www. as the world, and only about 20 people read this bloggy thing. I figure it is okay and will help me get ideas. I need a topic to write about or this becomes too “dear diary” for me.
So, while I am not stealing the work of Charles Demers – I take inspiration and plan to write and post 26 stories with an A to Z type focus. (Notice I did not commit to do it in 26 days!) C is also for Crazy!
Today, C is for Charles. I’m not really on a first name basis with Charles Demers — I might have waited for the letter D to write this, but the only other topic that I could think of with the letter C was CisforCan’tthinkofathingtowrite so I’m being bold enough to use his first name.
Charles was hilarious on Saturday. I liked him right away. I laughed out loud during his talk and decided to buy his book without being asked. I’d like to invite him to my next birthday party. I might even put Charles Demers on the list of names I’d give when asked the parlour game question of who, dead or alive, would you most like to have dinner with. He wouldn’t be on the list if I was ever truly granted this request, but he was a fun one, and I’d totally enjoy sitting around a table with him.
I related to Charles often during his talk. I nodded in agreement and with familiarity as he spoke. It’s not that we have much in common, we don’t, in fact nothing in our lives are similar, except when someone asked him where he got his humour.
He said, he has always known he was funny. He was funny like some people are tall or have blue eyes. He claimed the family trait of funny. He said he comes from funny, just like some people come from families with freckles or curly hair.
I also come from funny. And while I’m not a comic and I’m certainly not the funniest person in our family. I totally relate to this.
I got my funny from my mother, Alice. The same woman I got my small feet, older brother, and big boobs from.
I got the idea to steal, from my dad.