My Introduction to Erma

A recap of my trip to Dayton for the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop

Welcome to Deep Dives, a bi-monthly subsection of TMI! Here, I dive deeper into my thoughts about a topic that doesn’t fit in the weekly newsletter.

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My first ever Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop was SO. MUCH. FUN!

I drove down to Dayton, which was about 5 hours each way. Honestly, when I thought about it, it felt kind of negligible with getting to the airport early, taking a flight that’s a little over an hour, then either renting a car or getting an Uber to the hotel. Plus, I think the drive was cheaper because it was just 1 tank of gas each way.

And I got to stop at a Mickey D’s for a dramatic story to share!

As promised, here’s a Deep Dive about my experience. Rather than go day-by-day like I did with AWP, I decided to focus in on some of my favorite (and least favorite) parts of the conference. So, without further ado:

The Good

First off: I am so happy I was able to stay in the sanctioned hotel. While we did require travel over to the area where the sessions were held, they offered a shuttle. During the events at the hotel in the evenings, it was amazing to be able to quickly run back and forth to my room without a 20 minute walk like I had at AWP.

They also fed us here — everything was included: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. At AWP I did manage to get a Chipotle day in, but it was honestly very nice to not have to think about where I was going to eat, and when, and how much it would cost. The food was just…there. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad, either — and there was plenty of it.

There was a mini Barnes & Noble bookstore set up onsite where we could buy the books of the keynote speakers, the instructors, and Erma Bombeck herself! Friday night, the conference hosted a book signing, which gave us an opportunity to chat further with the authors and have them sign their books. It was great to have set-aside time to chat with them. I wish they hadn’t sold out of some of the books I wanted, but they did offer us a discount if we wanted to buy them from Barnes & Noble later, which was nice!

The Better

One of the things I really liked was that the sessions ended up being much more educational than the ones at AWP. That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything at AWP, because I definitely did — but most of those sessions were geared toward panel discussions rather than being instructor-led. They also repeated a number of the sessions, so if you couldn’t attend during one time slot, you could try to catch it during another.

In particular, there was an excellent memoir class taught by Kelly McMasters (Memoir: The Landscape of the Personal) which I attended the second half of and went back to the next day so I could experience the whole thing. It really got my brain turning! The class wasn’t something I expected to resonate so much with, but it really made me start thinking a lot about accessing my memories. It’s kind of crazy just how much your brain remembers about certain people and places that just isn’t present consciously unless you go on a spelunking expedition, like we did during the session.

Dayton is very cute! I wish we’d had more time to spend exploring the city. (One other big difference with AWP is that there are a lot of offsite events at local bars, libraries, etc.) The convention had organized a tour on Saturday afternoon to an Erma Bombeck exhibition at the college’s museum and to her gravesite at a nearby cemetery. However, my pals and I ended up skipping it and going to grab some pizza and fro-yo at Old Scratch. It was a nice change of pace where we could sit and chat.

Afterward, we swung by the cemetery where Erma Bombeck is buried on our own. We saw a haunted child’s grave, a memorial to Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Erma’s actual grave.

The Best

My two favorite sessions from the weekend were taught by Ann Garvin (Pitch Your Book in Two Sentences) and Tiffany Yates Martin (The Biggest Mistakes Writers Make). Both were incredibly educational and I took tons of notes. In different ways, they were both helpful in regards to editing and honing in on your story. I walked away from those classes with a completely new mindset about how to tackle my novel.

I also picked up Tiffany Yates Martin’s book Intuitive Editing, which is chock full of excellent tips on, well, getting your story straight.

I was really inspired to dig back in to my novel when I left AWP, but Erma kicked that inspiration into high gear. Unsurprisingly, I’ve got a whole host of projects I’m working on at the moment, but I’m committed to not starting anymore (hold me to this, please?) so I can get back to the book as soon as they’re finished.

BUT: there’s no question that the best part of the entire workshop was getting to meet people I know from the internet. Of course I was excited to meet up with my friend I knew from my writing group over the last couple years for the first time in person (hi Nat!) — but I also got to meet some folks I know just from reading their work and commenting on each other’s work on online.

I absolutely love when you meet someone in person after knowing them online and they turn out to be exactly who you expected them to be. And all of these lovely ladies were that, and somehow even cooler than I hoped!

I walked away from the conference with a bunch of new friends and ideas for new joint projects, which is more than I could have asked for or expected. I’m so excited to keep chatting and working with these fabulous ladies, and hopefully to see them at another Erma or our own retreat sometime soon!

We love a photobooth with ridiculous props!!

The…Weird

Nothing’s perfect, right?

I feel I’d be remiss not to talk candidly about every part of the conference.

First up — I don’t consider myself “young” by any means, but the demographic skews toward folks a couple of decades or more older than me. It also skews very white. This meant some pretty inappropriate jokes told during the stand-up on Saturday night, as well as heavy usage of the word “tribe,” which was…not great.

AWP was extremely diverse, and also very considerate of accessibility. Erma was definitely a big change from that environment — including lacking access to microphones in some classrooms, making it difficult to hear the instructor.

And finally, much of the conference seemed to really enjoy the final keynote speaker, who was a gentleman that writes under his grandmother’s name (as a pen name). While I understand his reasoning (keeping her name alive), I find it a little hard to get past what feels like appropriation. Also during his speech, the crowd broke into a rendition of “Delta Dawn,” which, while hilarious, is a bit before my time.

Fortunately I was with a group of comedy writers, so everything ended up as a laugh — no matter how weird.

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Overall, I really enjoyed the trip. It’s wildly different from AWP — mostly because it’s smaller and the community feels more tight-knit, but also in overall vibe. The workshops are held every two years, and I would absolutely go again (especially if my friends are going)!