I’ll be leaving tomorrow to speak at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Conference which is a great thrill for me. My client Bill Scheft will be speaking there too, as well as one of my heroes Gail Collins.

Erma is another hero of mine and I started reading her books when I was very young and my Mom would pass them to me to inspire me and give me the gift of humor. I’m taking my Mom, a 72 year old English teacher, who still teaches in an 95% economically disadvantaged school district near Dallas. My mom gets the kids in 9th grade who everyone else has “passed along” but those same kids can’t read and often have no one to believe in them. My mom changes all that for them. Several of her students are now in college and many have gone on to work in other careers as well. She inspires them to do more with their lives.

Erma’s writing always inspires me. It is timeless because it is good common sense and elevates the power of humor and love in our lives. Being a humorist is the hardest writing job one can have, yet Erma did it effortlessly. So before I leave for the trip in the morning, I wanted to share my favorite Erma quotes.

1. Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they’re not trying to keep up with you.

10. It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” I’ll be presenting “Overwebbed: Help I’ve Had a Social Media Breakdown and I Can’t Tweet Up”. I’ll also be tweeting from the event so look for hashtag #ebww . I think everyone will be using that one for tweets.

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Is it your dream that everyone mentions your book like they would a must-see movie?

The best way to have that happen is to put your creative thinking cap on and start writing!

“What?” you say.

“Write? I just finished a whole book!! I can’t possibly write one more word! ”

Come on!

Yes, it will be more than one word, but blog posts don’t have to be biblical in length. They do need to be smart, engaging, witty, inviting, empowering, poignant, resource-filled, link-loverly and community-focused!

If you clicked on the vid above, you’ll see how each phrase encapsulates an entire show, just much shorter in length. You can do the same thing with your blog posts about your book and you will be surprised how much your community will begin to link to your posts and champion them out to new folks online!

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9. What’s a query? Can you define it?

8. I have no experience in that subject, but I know I could write an amazing book about it.

7. I don’t need no stinkin’ editorial suggestions.

6. When you say, “That’s not funny,” are you kidding?

5. Couldn’t you just take this book idea because you like me, you really like me?

4. It’s like we’re on a first date, and my Southern accent is overwhelming you.

3. But if you just spent a day with me – you’d know how funny I am.

2. If you don’t take this book I WILL FIND YOU.

1. It’s just like Eat, Pray, Love but less eating, much less praying and bereft of love.

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The season finale of “Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire” aired this week on Comedy Central. This live action series chronicles the adventures of Krod Mandoon (Sean Maguire) and his hopelessly futile band of warriors as they take on the evil Chancellor Dongalor (Matt Lucas). 

This series marked CC’s first foray into fantasy comedy and the six episodes were stellar in presenting a theater-like experience filled with guffaws, slapstick and brainy British humor.

I had a chance to catch up with the one of the leading men of the show, Sean Maguire who spoke about his experience on the show and what scene made him laugh so hard he almost couldn’t finish the shot.

If you’ve not had an opportunity to check out the show – Comedy Central has all the episodes and some gleeful and nefarious extras online.

Here’s our interview, and I highly recommend seeing if you can catch it in reruns or buy the DVD.

Nettie: Hi Sean, thanks for taking time out to do the interview. I’m curious how you feel about the series, what you liked about it?

Sean: I loved the fact that it’s really different from anything on TV. I grew up watching comedies that were slightly unconventional.  I loved the cast and crew and become very good friends with them.

The show was so fun to shoot and we assembled a great bunch of actors and the material was wonderful.

Nettie: The show seems to lend itself to almost a Trekkie experience with their followers? Are you guys starting to see Krod Mandoon followers?

Sean: Actually when we did ComicCon we saw some people dressed up as Aneka’s character and that was very cool. If the seasons keep going we think we may have a little bit of a followers that would start doing that and it would be really fun. We’re just in six episodes and we hope that we’ll really be able to make another ten episodes and really build that fan loyal base.

Nettie: What’s your favorite story about the show?

Sean: Lots of stuff – first all the great people to work with. The show seems really easy because we all had so much fun. Very physical and demanding job. I really felt we were making something we could be really proud of.

Nettie: Is there an instance where you guys had to stop because you were laughing so much?

Sean: A couple of days a week because of Matt Lucas – he is so talented and I’ve never thought I would have the opportunity to play the hero against his villain and everything he does just really inspires you to laughter.

Nettie: What happens after series finale?

Sean: I’m traveling to UK to launch the show there. It’s coming out on June 4th and then we’re all looking at things to go off and do and then hopefully at the end of the summer we can regroup and come back and shoot more of the show.

Nettie: What’s something that no one knows about the show – something that’s really a secret about the show?

Sean: That’s a good question. I don’t know if people know that every network passed on it. Every network said, “No, no, it can’t be done.” But Comedy Central said “That sounds great – if you think you can pull it off.”And we said, “We think we can,” and the BBC got involved and CC and the BBC decided to share it. So it is a co-production which actually as a Brit living in America is a dream come true.

Nettie: Do you have celeb friends that watch the show?

Sean: (Laughs.) Actually yes, because they have to, but also my buddy John Cho who is playing Sulu in the new Star Trek movie watches the show and is very positive about the show. 

Nettie: The show seems like it’s almost a one-act play  – a theater piece. Do you feel that way?

Sean: Absolutely, it’s so carefully put together and even in the slapstick and comedy there really is a wonderful story. In the English version it’s 8 minutes longer than the American version because over here you have to have commercials. So when it comes out on DVD it will almost be an hour of content that the Americans didn’t get to see.

Nettie: That’s really interesting. So while we have the commercials, for all the stuff we’re all too broke to buy, the Brits have more of the story and slapstick in their version?

Sean: (Laughs.) Yes, exactly. I think for people that really love the show they will have a lot more to look forward to with the DVD even before the second season.

Nettie: What about the season finale?

Sean: The toughest scene for me to stay straight was in the finale where Matt explains the history of how we are connected. Matt is the funniest guy in Britain – it’s very hard to keep a straight face when you’re working with him.

Nettie: We’ll have to watch for that scene! Thanks so much Sean and safe travels to England!

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