All Rileyed Up

I have a book review up over at Literary Mama. Here’s an excerpt:

Turkish author Elif Shafak long espoused the motto: “dreams first, family later… maybe,” and her memoir, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within traces her fraught journey from writer to mother to mother-writer. Early in her memoir, Shafak asks readers a question once posed to her: “Do you think a woman could manage motherhood and a career at the same time and equally well?” For many years, Shafak’s answer to this question was no. As a successful author and self-proclaimed nomad, Shafak wandered the world, writing and publishing in her beloved Istanbul, in the US and in Europe. But her decision to postpone motherhood and wholeheartedly pursue a career was not without inner turmoil.

Also at Literary Mama, an author interview and novel giveaway. An excerpt from the interview:

What is the highest compliment you can imagine receiving from a reader of your book?

For so long, I shared my writing with only a handful of people. Since the book came out, I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of readers. Many have taken the time to not only read the book but to write or tell me what it meant to them. That, to me, is the highest compliment. To know that it touched someone, that they connected with it, were moved by it, stayed up late reading it, reconsidered some aspect of their own lives because of it…now I’m the one with tears in my eyes.

If you have never read Under Construction, then you are missing out. Never have I witnessed such a passionate disdain for the yeti and hippo. He also has a cool wife, and adorable kiddies.

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started as a way to get back into something that took creativity. My job at the time had just beaten me down again for wanting to attempt something that was innovative. I needed to re-awaken the creative side of me and create an outlet for that creativity

2. Did it work?

I think that it did work pretty well. It was not the creative outlet that I think I was looking for, but it did springboard me into a few online communities that have allowed me to stretch and grow creatively. So blogging has been my gateway drug to creativity.

3. What kinds of online communities? Writing ones? Graphic art ones? Something else?

Primarily artistic communities. The main one was “The Drawing Board” which brought me into a move appropriate for me artistic community at “Ten Ton Studios.” The issue with The Drawing Board was that it could not handle sarcasm terribly well and Ten Ton seems to be made from it.

4. Ah, sarcasm. Also known as the lowest form of wit. Would you agree or disagree?

Pfft! Sarcasm is one of the highest forms of wit, if done correctly. The problem is all the talentless hacks out there using sarcasm like a formulaic shotgun. I blame this on the whole “not” phenomenon.

5. Who do you think is to blame for starting the “not” phenomenon? Wayne’s World?

More specifically Mike Meyers

6. So do you dislike Mike Myers in general or just hold the “not” thing against him?

I don’t think I had anything specifically against Mike Meyers until he recently started making the same movie over and over and over and over and over… If he were able to create some new humor instead of dragging out the same set of jokes and pratfalls I think I would hold considerably less against him.

7. Did you see Love Guru?

I think I saw “enough” from the previews.

8. I imagine you made the right choice by avoiding it. I watched about the first 20 minutes before throwing in the towel. My husband thought it was funny though. But enough about Mike Myers. Are there any other SNL cast members/alum who you harbor ill will towards for impacting American pop culture in a negative way? (Personally, I’m not fond of those MacGruber commercials. And though it’s not a cool thing to say right now, I’ve had enough of Tina Fey too.)

I have never quite understood the mass appeal of Adam Sandler.

9. Personally, I’m part of the mass appeal. Adam Sandler is funny (or at any rate, used to be). He also appears to be a generally nice guy. I think if I was famous like him, I would totally put my circle of friends in all my movies. If you were going to make a movie, which of your friends and/or celebrities would be in it?

I do not want to suggest that Adam Sandler doesn’t do some funny stuff, but the overwhelming adulation for him is a bit confusing. Hmmmm… If I were in a movie who would accompany me… it would have to be an epic movie with an ensemble cast of thousands–
Friends: Wifey, Capt McArmypants, Dr B Dawg, Lord Pithy,
Celebs: Andy Richter, Most of the Muppets, Jack Black, Jim Gaffigan, Bruce Campbell, Nancy Travis, Lucy Liu (Little Man has a cute little crush on her because she was Viper in Kung Fu Panda), and throw in a swimsuit model.

10. I’m going to overlook the fact that I have not been included (don’t give me that “but I said cast of thousands” argument) in favor of this question: Um, why Nancy Travis?

Ummm… ah… Next question please…

11. Wow. Now I’m fully intrigued. You should have just lied and said something like “I really loved Three Men and a Little Lady.” Speaking of which, what did you ever make of that rumor that there was a ghost in Three Men and a Baby?

Sadly, my crush on Ms. Travis started with, oddly enough, “So I married an Ax Murderer,” which is the funniest Mike Meyers movie because it is all new material in that one. As for the ghost in Three Men and a Baby? I have seen the stills and the frame by frame stuff and honestly I find that it is inconclusive. I have not heard what anyone thinks of that since HD and digital came to the forefront. I would love to see what shows up with better scrutiny now.

12. Best line in “So I Married an Axe Murderer?”

Now, that was offside now, wasnnit? He’ll be cryin’ himself to sleep tonight on his huge pilla.

13. Excellent choice. On to other questions, did you celebrate Easter?

We had a nice meal with family and the kids each got a basket, but that was about it.

14. What would you say is the best use for leftover hard-boiled eggs?

Cobb Salad?

15. I just finished my second egg salad sandwich of the day and may have filled my egg quota for the day. So perhaps cobb salad tomorrow. Do you know why they call it Cobb salad?

I am only guessing here, but I suppose the first person to create the salad had the last name of Cobb. It seems that Wikipedia agrees with this guess.

16. What a boring origin. I was hoping for something wild and exciting, perhaps involving a train wreck or underground elves, dare I hope both? That sounds like the kind of question I would send you for your 20 questions. Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever asked you — how did you come up with the idea of a 20 Questions Tuesday?

It started with not being able to come up with topics for posts, so I would scour the internets looking for questionnaires and such. Most of the early ones ended up being 20 questions long. Much like the game 20 Questions. I started doing it more often and then I started asking people I knew for 5 random questions a piece. Then I came up with topics for the questions because the people complained loudly about how hard it was to come up with 5 random questions. Then I made it a regular feature and thus 20 Questions Tuesday was born. So it shall be written, so it shall be done.

17. Are there any particular 20 Question Tuesday posts you are especially fond/proud of?

Hmmm… I honestly do not have a great gauge on what works with the 20QTues and what doesn’t. I have really been enjoying the interviews. Those are fun. Either me interviewing or being interviewed. The ones about the family are fin ones as well, but if I were pressed to think of a particular one of the 132 20QTues’s that I have done, am not sure I could come up with anything concrete.

18. Wow, that was a very roundabout way of saying no. I guess that’s how it feels when people ask me to pick a favorite something or other. Have you ever considered interviewing a yeti hunter, and if so, what would you ask such a person?

I have tried to stay away from any actual cryptozoologists, mainly because I do not want to seem belittle the work that is being done by the actual scientist cryptozoologists and I do not want to interact with the crackpot bat-shit crazy cryptozoologists, what would I ask? So have you bagged a yeti… you know what I mean, *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

19. Imho, I think that would be an excellent question to ask an actual scientist. Scientists have senses of humor too, you know (not to mention an appreciation for Monty Python references). On to your other enemy, The Hippo — I was at the library today and saw they had put out stacks of poem-in-your-pocket cards (likely to celebrate National Poetry Month). One of the poems was “The Hippo,” and went like this:

“A Head or Tail — which does he lack?
I think his Forward’s coming back!
He lives on Carrots, Leeks and Hay;
He starts to yawn — it takes All Day –

Some time I think I’ll live that way.”

–Theodore Roethke, “I am! Said the Lamb”

Any thoughts on this?

It burns

20. We are at question 20. For all my interviews, the last question is the same: anything else you’d like to say? (if you don’t like that question, the alternate option is this: who is Wifey’s Nancy Travis and how do you feel you measure in comparison?)

I think the burning fire of all consuming hate that I have towards the hippo is a good note to end on.

As you may or may not know, April is National Poetry Month. At the library, they’re showcasing collections of poetry and giving out Poetry-in-a-Pocket cards for people to carry around little poems. To celebrate National Poetry Month, I’ve got a wonderful interview for you with Ginny Kaczmarek, Assistant Editor in Poetry for Literary Mama and fellow New Orleans lover. She also blogs at Ginny’s Tonic and Broadsided.

1. Are you doing anything locally to celebrate National Poetry Month?

I’m embarrassed to say not much. As the stay-at-home mom of a young child, I don’t get out much. I do try to participate in local readings–there are several weekly and monthly poetry series — and to stay abreast of what’s going on around town, but now the decision is whether it’s worth getting my husband or a sitter to put our kid to bed (not to mention wanting to be in bed scarily early myself).

So I content myself with Poets.org’s Poem-A-Day and doing what I can through Literary Mama to keep the poetry flowing.

2. What first turned you on to writing poetry (a certain poem or poet, a moment or inspiration, an object, or…)?

Even when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a writer, and I read and wrote poetry along with fiction and nonfiction all through school. But it was as an undergrad at San Francisco State University that I had that moment of Ah-ha! We were studying some really difficult Language poetry and I realized that there really wasn’t any big secret to “getting” this — it was all about my interpretation of the words on the page and how they made me feel. The rest — the craft, the theory, the history — was just tools of the trade, like the mechanics of photography or music. That opened up the possibilities of poetry to me, as if I discovered that the big mystery of poetry was that there wasn’t any mystery at all. To me, poetry is not that different than sculpture or knitting or painting. Once you learn a bit about the basics, you can create whatever you want — and likewise, read it with more pleasure.

3. Knowing nothing about poetry, I wonder: how much editing goes into a poem? I always had this notion that they just come out as they are, but given that fiction is 10 % first draft and 90 % revision (at least for me) I’m wondering what it’s like for poetry.

I think it’s the same as for fiction or any other art form: you have an idea (or a word or a phrase), you write it down, then you play and work the language until it’s in a shape that pleases (or surprises) you. Maybe occasionally a poem comes out “whole,” but I think that’s rare. I think traditionally, poets have been responsible for perpetuating that myth of the poem that springs forth from the poet’s brow. The Romantics (Wordsworth, Keats, etc) were particularly fond of writing about themselves and their art like that, and then the Beats took up the mantle of “first thought best thought.” But Ginsberg, Kerouac, all those guys revised like mad! The trick is to make the poem feel spontaneous, but it takes a helluva lot of work to get it there. I console myself by remembering that Walt Whitman, the master of spontaneous-sounding poetry, only wrote one book, which he revised over and over for his entire adult life. Makes my year-old unfinished poems seem a bit less pathetic by comparison.

I was also surprised by how much editing happens once a poem is accepted by a publication; the editors often ask to tweak this or that or chop lines here or there to improve the poem. It’s not like in a workshop, but I find it comforting to know there’s room for improvement even after I’ve submitted something, that it doesn’t necessarily have to be Norton anthology-worthy from the get-go.

4. Who are your favorite poets?

I like so many different poets for different reasons, and I’m always discovering new ones (or old ones I never read deeply before). I go through phases, too. Lately I’m really into formalist poetry, sonnets, villanelles, rhymes and meter, so I’ve been reading Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, for their takes on old forms. I love Thom Gunn, who wrote formal, British-proper poetry about biker gangs and his gay lovers and the plague of AIDS in the ’80s. Annie Finch inspires me with her feminist formalist experiments. I love Beth Ann Fennelly’s work, which is funny and true and elegant, and Wendy Cope for sheer hilarity. X.J. Kennedy, Billy Collins, and Kay Ryan remind me that poetry can be both fun and meaningful. I recently re-discovered Walt Whitman, whose longer works take my breath away, but the shorter ones tend to leave me thinking, eh? Then I feel better that even a genius has off moments. And shout-outs to Adrienne Rich for her complexity and Elizabeth Bishop for precision.

5. You recently recommended Blood Dazzler on the Literary Mama Essential Reading list, which is a collection of poetry inspired by Hurricane Katrina. What are your thoughts on literature that incorporates current, life-altering events such as Hurricane Katrina or 9/11?

Ooh, good question. I just heard Billy Collins read, and his opinion was, “Poetry’s not about history, it’s about time,” meaning that poetry shouldn’t take on current events as much as universal themes. But I’d have to agree with my professor, John Gery, who taught that the poet has importance and value in society because of her ability to offer deeper, personal–and yet universal–commentary on the events of our day. I think immediate, event-based poetry can be an extremely valuable tool to help us understand the world around us. The challenge is to create poems that are still relevant 5, 10, 50 years from now, to discover how the personal or immediate translates into a universal, timeless expression of the human condition. Blood Dazzler did that impressively, transforming the personal stories of a collection of characters living through the hurricane and its aftermath into a mythological tale of heroes and villians in beautiful, powerful language.

6. How long have you lived in New Orleans?

I’ve lived here almost eight years. My husband and I first visited on our honeymoon in 1998 and didn’t want to leave. In a way, we didn’t.

7. I enjoyed reading your post on the violence that besets New Orleans. In consideration of that, what is it that makes you love New Orleans? Actually, that would probably be too long and complicated an answer, so why don’t you tell me three things you love about New Orleans instead?

Glad you liked the post. Living here is all about contradiction, the beauty and the violence, the third-world qualities despite our American address. I guess I love those contradictions, how this is a city unlike any other. The physical beauty of the place–the architecture, the flowers (now in glorious bloom; the streets smell like jasmine), the majestic oaks–overwhelms me sometimes. I also love the decay, the sense of history, the mish-mash of cultures and customs. We’ve got world-class music, art, and literature, and at the same time, lots of local, street-level performances that feel like anyone can join in, that we are all part of the ongoing project that is New Orleans. I feel like I could spend my life uncovering all of the facets of this city and always find some new way to participate in its culture, its community. I never felt that sense of belonging anywhere else I lived.

8. Besides Literary Mama, what other publications have you worked with?

I worked as a copyeditor for about 7 or 8 years, at CNet.com and then freelance for a variety of tech and computer book publishers. I went to grad school to focus on my first love, poetry, and was a reader for Bayou magazine and a copyeditor for Ellipses through the University of New Orleans. I am just beginning to develop relationships with Women’s Review of Books, Umbrella Journal, and Rattle, which I am hoping will continue, and am always looking for others.

9. What advice do you have to newbie and longtime poets who seek getting their work published?

Gosh, I’m still figuring it out myself! I guess first, just start sending your work out there–it doesn’t do any good sitting in your desk (or on your computer). You’ll get rejections–everybody does–but it’s the only way to get acceptances. To better your chances, seek out journals, contests, and magazines that have a niche you might fit into: for my work, I look for journals that focus on formalism, feminism, motherhood, New Orleans, and the South. A good way to begin developing relationships with editors is to submit book reviews, interviews, and essays about poets or poetry; they get to know your name and might look at your consequent submissions more closely. Definitely follow up with any that reject your offering but invite you to submit in the future–don’t let your bruised ego get in the way! I am also learning to take more risks: to submit to what might seem like a long shot, to offer my meager expertise when I see an opportunity (that’s how I got my gig at Literary Mama). Once you develop a reasonably thick skin, “No thanks” no longer seems like the worst thing to hear, and you begin to get more yeses. Start a blog–it’s a fun way to have a place to publish your stuff, get some feedback, and offer examples of your writing to potential editors.

10. How does one go about getting their work reviewed in Literary Mama?

Book authors and publishers send their books (or informational queries) to the reviews editors, who then contact me or other reviewers to see whether we’re interested or able to do reviews. I think authors who have had poems published on Literary Mama might contact Sharon Kraus, the poetry editor, about their forthcoming books, and she’d pass the info along to the reviews editors. Sometimes I find something on my own, by reading another review of a book or seeing a poem I like in a journal or online and looking into the author, and then I pitch it to an editor.

11. So I know you didn’t make it to the Tennessee Williams Festival this past year, but you’ve attended in the past. Tell me about seeing Yusef Komunyakaa. Did you hear him read his work aloud and/or speak on the subject of writing poetry? How did he inspire you?

I do usually go to the festival, but missed it this year. Seeing Yusef Komunyakaa a year or so ago was amazing. It was just him and an interviewer in an intimate conversation (well, as intimate as it can be with an audience). I was impressed with Komunyakaa’s ease and grace, his humor and his intensity. I’ve long admired his work, so hearing him speak about writing and living as a Louisianian was inspiring. Seeing someone like him makes poetry feel necessary, important–as if what poets have to say (and the ways in which we say it) are valuable resources for greater communal understanding. At the same time, I felt like he made poetry seem accessible, like any other vocation, one that requires hard work and gives personal satisfaction in equal measure. As much as I regard his work with awe, I felt like I got a glimpse into the worker at his bench, hammering it out. It gave me and my hammer hope.

12. To end with a lighthearted question, what is your favorite Mardi Gras parade and why? (I’m partial to Krewe d’Etat, on account of a wonderful memory associated with my first attendance of it.)

Krewe d’Etat is wonderful–I love the political satire and the emphasis on skull and skeleton imagery (the wannabe goth in me!). This year I caught a blinky gargoyle! But my favorite has got to be Muses, the all-women krewe that also has clever satirical themes (this year’s was Muses 009: License to Swill) and the best floats. Who doesn’t love a giant, sparkly shoe or an enormous bubble bath complete with blowing bubbles? Not to mention how generous and creative the women are with the throws: hand-decorated shoes, high-heeled shoe beads, shoe bracelets, (see a theme developing?) drink coozies, martini-glass-shaped beads…it’s just such a great time. Oh, I almost forgot the walking krewes in between the floats: the New Orleans Rollergirls on skates, the Rolling Elvii (dudes dressed as Elvis on mini-scooters handing out silk scarves), the Pussyfooters and the Camel Toe Steppers (grown women in costume dancing en masse). One of these years, I’m gonna get myself in there: I think being a Camel Toe Stepper would be a blast! That’s the parade that I’ll stand in the rain for. You get the best throws that way.

13. Anything else you’d like to say?

I think I’ve said enough! Thank you so much for your interest!

So are you ready to celebrate National Poetry Month? Check out Literary Mama’s poetry. Some really great selections in there!

This post contributed to Thursday-13.

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Happy Swallows Day! Today is the day we celebrate the return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano. Parading and festivities to continue on through the weekend. Since not all of you will be able to join me for them, here’s a little online celebration.

Please meet Kathryn Fitzmaurice, a local author whose debut novel, The Year Swallows Came Early, is a work of middle grade fiction featuring Eleanor “Groovy” Robinson. Groovy is an 11-year-old girl with dreams of cooking school and a life full of (sometimes unhappy) surprises. Join her and her best friend Frankie as they take tentative steps into the world of parents’ mistakes, betrayed feelings, and the power of forgiveness. (There’s a more detailed story description on Kathryn’s site).

1. You were first inspired to write by your grandmother, a science fiction author. Have you ever penned any science fiction?

Kathryn Fitmaurice: I have never written any science fiction or fantasy. I always think that those science fiction/fantasy authors must be very talented in order to create an entire world. Just think of all the details they make up!

2. Your main character in The Year The Swallows Came Early, 11-year-old Eleanor “Groovy” Robinson, is named after your grandmother. Are there any personality quirks that your fictional Eleanor and the real Eleanor share?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: The only thing they share is their name. But Groovy’s great grandmother, Eleanor Robinson, whom she is named after; her character is almost exactly how my own grandmother was. My own grandmother (the real Eleanor Robinson) had a porcelain owl collection, she wrote very late at night, and was interested in paranormal happenings. I tried to make the character in the book very much like my own grandmother. I did this to honor everything she had done to encourage me in becoming a writer. Of course she never got to read my book, but it still feels really special to me.

3. I love the article in the OC Register about your journey from inspiration to published book and your grandmother’s inscription in the Emily Dickinson book. Have you ever shown your grandmother’s box of unpublished writings to anyone else?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: My family has seen them, and then I showed them to the photographer at the OC Register. My mother and I go through them sometimes, but no one else has seen them. Here is a photograph of a few of them in a pile:

These were from her short story collection. I really love reading them along with the detailed notes she wrote to herself about her characters and their personalities, etc.

4. How long did it take you to write The Year the Swallows Came Early?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: It took me three years to write the story. Of course, a lot of it was done (revised) the last year, after I got an agent.

5. Your second book is about Groovy’s friends. Do you intend to write more books about these characters or are you going to stop at two?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: The second book is about Frankie. It’s written from his point of view. I’m still revising it right now. He is more difficult to write about than Eleanor because he’s much more complicated. I’m not sure if I’ll write one about any of the other characters. I think it would be fun to write one about Marisol, though. She’s so bossy and talented at the same time!

6. You’ve woven a lot of food into your tale. Does food play a large role in the second book as well?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: No, food does not play a big part in the second book because food is not really a part of Frankie’s day to day life. In fact, the only thing he really likes is cheese sandwiches!

7. Did you ever attend or want to attend cooking school yourself?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Well, here is where I admit that I completely can’t stand to not only make out a grocery list, but go to the market! I cook because I have to. I have two teenage boys who are always starving, but really, I don’t enjoy cooking that much.

8. How did you come to choose writing Middle Grade instead adult fiction?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Yes, it is considered middle grade fiction, for readers ages 9-12. I enjoy writing for this age because kids these ages are still so hopeful about their world and all the possibilities that may happen. And also, when I first started the book, my own boys were about this age, so I was reading (with them) a lot of middle grade novels.

9. What are some of your favorite Middle Grade (or YA) books?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: I enjoy anything written by Kate DiCamillo, Debra Wiles, Sharon Creech, Susan Patron, Ann Martin, and Katherine Hannigan….I could go on for awhile here. There’s so many amazing writers today.

10. What is your writing schedule like, ie do you have a set time every day during which you write?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Usually, I write every weekday between the hours of 9am and 3pm. But that doesn’t always happen. I drink very strong green tea while I write and try not to answer the phone (unless it’s my mother!). My dog, Holly, sits with me in my home office. She is a very big help!

11. Do you find you spend more writing time with the computer keyboard or pen and paper? Pros or cons of either?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: I always write the first draft on the computer, then print it and make revisions in pencil. I need to see it on the floor all layed out so I can cut and paste sections together. Then I retype it back on the computer, print it again, make more revisions, etc., until it is done. This usually takes SEVERAL times before it is ready to be read by my agent, who usually (luckily!) sends it back again for another draft. Then, once the publisher, Molly O’Neill at HarperCollins, sees it, she will also have suggestions to make it better. There is the copy editor, who looks at it after the editor and helps me find the discrepancies I may have overlooked. On one page of the manuscript, there could be up to ten sticky notes from the copy editor suggesting changes.

12. Though you grew up in Arizona, you now live in California and set your story in a California town. Do you find the California landscape/environment inspires your writing?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: I have always loved living in California. I’ve lived in three houses since I’ve been here, all within a couple of miles from each other. But Arizona is really beautiful, too. I love the desert almost as much as I love the beach.

13. Anything else you’d like to say?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Thank you very much for interviewing me!

Kathryn has graciously offered to give away one signed copy of The Year the Swallows Came Early. To enter the giveaway, please check out Kathryn’s site and leave a comment here by midnight Pacific time Wednesday March 25 (which happens to be my birthday) telling me why you want to read this book or what you enjoyed learning about Kathryn. The more entertaining the comment, the more appreciative I am…

US addresses only.

EDITED: The winner is Edj! Come on down!

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This post contributed to Thursday Thirteen.

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I met Mary Patterson Broome a few months ago when she was on the Duke Fightmaster Show and she was so funny I asked her if I could do an interview with her on my blog. She immediately responded yes and it took me almost three months to send her the questions. This is why I will never be a top tier blogger.

The world of stand up comedy is so intriguing to me. I love watching it, on TV and live. I imagine it would be so fun to do, but find it incredibly daunting. I think I would really take it to heart if people didn’t laugh. I have all the respect in the world for anyone who does stand up, especially one as nice as Mary Patterson Broome.

1. What prompted you to go into stand up comedy?

Talking is really the only thing I’m good at. My friends always told me I was a great story teller and I’ve always loved performing - especially when I have total control of the content, which is something stand-up allows and plays or improv comedy do not.

2. What were some of your previous jobs before stand up comedy, and do any of those jobs make it into your act?

Oh yeah. I was a page (glorified usher) at CBS where The Price is Right tapes. I had to wear a red blazer with shoulder pads and a bow tie. I felt extremely attractive, as I’m sure you can imagine. Definitely have that experience in the ole’ routine.

3. What is your favorite thing about stand up comedy?

I love that it’s live and in the moment. There is no other art that gets an instant response. Of course if you’re not getting laughs, that is sometimes not the most fun aspect of it!

4. And your least favorite thing?

My least favorite thing is some of the time wasted just waiting for 8 minutes of stage time. I’m told this is part of paying your dues as a young comic but some times showing up at 7:00 PM and not getting on stage until 10:30 PM is exhausting.

5. Have you ever totally bombed with an audience? How do you handle that?

Yes. Like, the bomb.com. It’s brutal but the longer you’re a comic and the more you get on stage, the less and less you care if one set doesn’t go well. It happens to EVERYONE…or so I’m told.

6. What advice would you give to someone interested in doing stand up comedy?

Take a writing class and learn how to write a joke. Don’t just get up there and ramble because your friends tell you you’re funny. Strangers will expect you to have set-up and punch. Write as much as possible and get on stage as much as possible. Be nice to every comic you meet because they’re usually the ones that book shows you’ll want to be doing when you first start out!

7. Who are some of your favorite comedians?

I love Seinfeld and Jeff Foxworthy. I tend to lean toward comics on the clean side but I also love Doug Benson and Chelsea Handler.

8. Where do you come up with your material?

It’s usually all based on personal experience. I can usually twist any weird interaction with someone, whether it be a total stranger or a guy I’m dating, into a joke (not surprisingly, the guys I’m dating don’t so much enjoy that). I have some stuff about being from the South and my parents, too.

9. Where do you hope your comedy ultimately takes you (eg: movies, talk show, Vegas casino, comedy tour, etc)?

I’d actually love to get acting roles based on my comedy. I find that most comedic actors and actresses are basically themselves (is that grammatically correct?) in every role, with slight variations. I did a lot of acting growing up but felt more pulled to stand-up after college. I’d love to get back into acting through stand-up at some point. I would also love to do the road with my stand-up act.

10. I notice a lot of comedians use YouTube and MySpace to promote their work? How do you think the internet has changed the face of comedy?

It’s completely changed the face of comedy. A person can convince cyber space that he or she already has full-blown comedy career just by having a good-looking MySpace page! I think it’s good though because a comic can create and produce a ton of content then immediately get exposure for it. A performer can develop a fan base on the internet which sometimes really appeals to agents and managers, a great thing for performers without representation. Having said that, it’s kind of sad that these industry types can just pull up YouTube now instead of going out to a comedy club to check out new talent live.

11. How would you describe your style of comedy? Who would you compare yourself to?

This question is still tricky for me. I’d say I’m definitely clean so if someone’s looking for raunchy stuff, I’m probably not their gal. I make observations based on personal experience but sort of make fun of the fact that it’s coming from a limited, upper-middle class white girl perspective. I don’t like to compare myself to anyone. I’d like to think every comedian brings something new and different to the table.

12. Top three places in LA for good comedy?

My top picks are the Hollywood Improv, The Laugh Factory and O’Brien’s Pub in Santa Monica (okay, I really just love this bar but the comedy on Thursday and Sunday nights is free and fun!)

13. Any thing you’d like to say?

Get off your computer and go see comedy LIVE. It’s much better that way. If you live in the LA area, check out Mary Patterson Broome’s MySpace page for her upcoming appearances, and enjoy this clip:

I’m pretty funny…

This post contributed to Thursday Thirteen.