My new imprint, Snake Fossil Press, will be ready for business on October 31. Snake Fossil will accept parody submissions beginning November 1, 2007.
Guidelines for submissions will be posted here within the next week or so.
October 14, 2007 by Rusty
My new imprint, Snake Fossil Press, will be ready for business on October 31. Snake Fossil will accept parody submissions beginning November 1, 2007.
Guidelines for submissions will be posted here within the next week or so.
Oh…I must …I must submit…
Check your e-mail Rusty!
I like it, Velmonturna. It has a few key elements: sounds like something poo-boi would say, rambles, is missing a word or two in a sentence, goes on for one huge wall-of-text paragraph, and has a couple of totally off-the-wall sentences.
Poo-boi actually has written most of those insults and references at one time or another, which lends it a certain air of realism — but stylistically, it’s a little off. You could make more use of screwed-up punctuation, lose a few capitals at the beginning of sentences, and cobble together unrelated thoughts in a single sentence (take two sentences, remove the period, and smash them together).
But damn, I nearly lost it when I got to the morbidly obese part and the 5-gallon bucket. That was hilarious.
Here’s a tip I’ve found useful: it helps to down a Rusty Nail (classic on the rocks, or straight up) before beginning. And I don’t even like scotch. It makes my fingers just klutzy enough to make plenty of typos by hitting multiple keys simultaneously.
It is hard trying to write Nickolaus-style especially since I am big on grammer and spelling. I know that it was a little too good grammer wise, but there is always next time. I actually had to look up “gay slang” online for a lot of the insults. I really tried to make that entry in Nick’s point of view and really tried to get inside his head the best that I can. The morbidly obese mother and the five gallon bucket was actually based on a true story, not Nickolaus related however, so I used that as a background for Nicky’s “Bucket of piss!” insult. I am trying to have Nicky speak about past events in order to reflect on why he does and says some of the things he does today. I wrote all of that in less than five minutes, but I think it turned out alright. I am glad you like it and be prepared for more in the future.
It makes my head swim trying to imitate his style. Sometimes I get it nearly right, and sometimes I don’t quite nail it. For parody blog entries, rambling is key.
If you ever attempt a parody short piece, another key element is to have one or more continuity errors. It’s tricky to make them seem as though they aren’t forced, but when done properly, confuses the reader, which is a Pacione hallmark.
For five minutes worth of effort, I say bravo!
Like I said there will be more Pacione-styled writings in the future. The hardest part, other than trying to write in his style, is to come up with something new and over the top without going too over the top. I want to make the reader go “…Wait what?” and become completely dumbfounded at what they just read. Here is an example of the level of dumbfoundedness I am trying to go for:
Boss: What are you doing siting there reading that comic book? You’re suppose to be doing your report.
Employee: Maybe the answer is in this comic book or maybe it isn’t. I won’t know that until I finish reading it.
Boss: …
Bwahaha.
“Did you get dressed in the dark this morning?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“You’re wearing one black and one navy sock.”
“My dog doesn’t like brown.”
“My dog doesn’t like brown.”
I had one of these moments in one of the comments I left on here. Try to find which one.
Hint: It was recent.
I can’t help feeling that Bill Griffith was inspired by someone very much like our favorite mental midget when he came up with Zippy the Pinhead.