RuFF is Rod Carley’s highly-anticipated fourth novel. This historical fiction, which is published by Northern Ontario’s Latitude 46 Press, transports us to Elizabethan England, where we witness Shakespeare struggling through a midlife crisis while trying to win a national play competition to secure the King’s business. Hilarious hijinks ensue, with whip-smart dialogue and a captivating tale that touches on salient social issues that persist today, including equality, justice, and censorship.
Humour and incisive wit combine to create a compulsively readable and thought-provoking novel from this Leacock Award long-listed author. We know RuFF will be a favourite book of the year for many and we are tickled to have Rod Carley here with us to talk about humour writing.
Bring home RuFF by Rod Carley, published by Latitude 46.
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring humour writers?
A: Everyone has a different sense of humour. We all find different things funny for different reasons. This is why it’s important that before you sit down and try to write, you think about your own personal sense of humor and how you want to mine that to produce a piece of humor writing.
Accept that you have the potential to be funny. Writing humour might come more easily to some, but everyone has the potential to be funny. Find a voice—maybe it’s your main character—to channel your humor through. Trying to mimic other people’s styles in humour writing won’t work. If you try and write in a style that isn’t your own, or if you try and force yourself to be funny in a way that isn’t you, the effort behind your writing will show.
Humour is subjective. When you write a novel or collection of short stories that you hope will be funny, you can be guaranteed that not everybody will find it funny – you just hope some people will find it funny! Readers have the same reaction (to various degrees) to a romance novel, horror novel, or a mystery novel. But with a humour novel, some readers will find it the funniest thing they’ve ever read. Others won’t find it funny at all. It’s a challenge. Much like trying to catch a dragon. So, all you can do, is hope your sense of humour coincides with enough readers to make it worthwhile.
Use humour sparingly. Don’t overdo it; be specific. Your purpose is to grab the reader’s attention and help you make points in creative ways. Be sure your humour doesn’t distract from or demean the true purpose of your narrative.
Above all, make it fun for yourself. If it ain’t fun for you, it won’t be fun the reader.
Rod Carley.
More about RuFF:
Rod Carley is back with another theatrical odyssey packed with an unforgettable cast of Elizabethan eccentrics. It’s a madcap world more modern than tomorrow where gender is what a person makes of it (no matter the story beneath their petticoats or tights). Will Shakespeare is having a very bad year. Suffering from a mid-life crisis, a plague outbreak, and the death of the ancient Queen, Will’s mettle is put to the test when the new King puts his witch-burning hobby aside to announce a national play competition that will determine which theatre company will secure his favour and remain in business. As he struggles to write a Scottish supernatural thriller, Will faces one ruff and puffy obstacle after another including a young rival punk poet and his activist-wife fighting for equality and a woman’s right to tread the boards. Will and his band of misfits must ensure not only their own survival, but that of England as well. The stage is set for an outrageous and compelling tale of ghosts, ghostwriting, writer’s block, and the chopping block. Ruffly based on a true story.
More about Rod Carley:
Rod is the award-winning author of three previous works of literary fiction: GRIN REAPING (long listed for the 2023 Leacock Medal for Humour, 2022 Bronze Winner for Humour from Foreword Review INDIES, a Finalist for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Humor/Comedy, and long listed for the ReLit Group Awards for Best Short Fiction of 2023); KINMOUNT (long listed for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour and Winner of the 2021 Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction from the Independent Publishers Book Awards); A Matter of Will (Finalist for the 2018 Northern Lit Award for Fiction).
His short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian literary magazines including Broadview (winner of the 2022 Award of Excellence for Best Seasonal Article from the Associated Church Press), Cloud Lake Literary, Blank Spaces, Exile, HighGrader, and the anthology 150 Years Up North and More. He was a finalist for the 2021 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize.
Rod was the 2009 winner of TVO’s Big Ideas/Best Lecturer Competition for his lecture entitled “Adapting Shakespeare within a Modern Canadian Context. He is a proud alumnus of the Humber School for Writers and is represented by Carolyn Forde, Senior Literary Agent with The Transatlantic Agency. www.rodcarley.ca.