Writing Satire

You don’t have writer’s block. You have writer’s preparation. Writers: Rewriting the First Paragraph Until Retirement is a painfully accurate and wildly funny satire about the writing process — specifically the part where nothing gets written but everything gets optimized. Inside this hilarious comedy about aspiring authors and creative procrastination, you’ll discover: the endless search for the perfect opening line coffee rituals more advanced than the actual manuscript playlists created for chapters that do not exist notebooks purchased for “creative breakthroughs” ...

For fans of Dolly Alderton and HBO’s Hacks, a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny debut novel about faking it (and “making it”) as a writer in Hollywood. TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist...

Penniless and downtrodden at the loss of his wife and one of his daughters, Samuel Clemens turned to writing. The short stories and essays in Letters from the Earth find Clemens—under the pseudonym of Mark Twain—at perhaps his most quizzical and questioning state ever. Written as diary entries, Twain penned a series of letters from the point of view of a dejected angel on Earth who observes the many curious natures of man. These pieces, gathered by Twain's literary executor, feature sharp takes on the inconsistencies of Christianity and farcical criticisms of American life.

'A rollicking, brilliant book' GARETH RUSSELL 'Hugely enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES A rollicking narrative history set during the extraordinary summer of 1726 when Jonathan Swift arrived in London from Dublin, with a draft of Gulliver’s Travels in his bag. Jonathan Swift settled into his great...

Known to historians as "the First American," Benjamin Franklin is without a doubt the most accessible of America's founding fathers. His writings have inspired millions of Americans, and even now, more than 200 years after his death, his wit and humor still brighten lives all across the world. But what was this great man's view on faith? Was he really a Deist as so many historians have proposed? Was he a humanist like so many of his French friends? Is there any possibility that he could have been a Christian? In this unique volume, Bill Fortenberry has collected everything that Franklin ...

A “hilarious…hugely entertaining” (Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City) novel that captures the complexities of marriage, art, friendship, and the fictions we create in order to become the people we wish to be. A creative writing professor at a third-tier college in upstate...

Pix just wants to hunt monsters, craft armor, and pay off her college loans. Her partner Jaz does too. She just wants to pet the monsters more. While wearing impractical hot pants armor. And wielding a sword so massive she needs magic gems to carry it.

In Mustard Seed they discover a massive underground complex stretching through miles of ancient lava tubes, and Mister Frostie grows up in a familiar, almost mythical mid-century small town with parks and stores and movie theatres and schools, even a miniature golf course. It's a time capsule full of people meant to preserve a tiny seed of the human experiment—just in case the human experiment blows up in the lab.

I've always been her shelter in the storm. Hockey players. MMA fighters. Rock stars. The boys in blue. Even sexy SEALs have all offered to slay my dragon - or in my case, my stalker. Why can't they get it through their thick, stubborn heads that I can take care of myself? I'm no damsel! But...what if the real villain in this story is me? Now the one person I've never been able to resist has appointed himself as my protector.

What if your soul got tired of working overtime? In Dear Diary, My Soul Got a Second Job, Joseph Santiago opens the door to another wild, funny, tender installment of The Life and Creative Works of Mr. Joe. Inside these pages, dragons argue with chairs, fae take notes on human sincerity, teahouses appear where they absolutely should not, and table manners become a map for survival. There are crawfish boils, strange conventions, field guides for not looking like a problem, and the kind of New Orleans wisdom that arrives with gravy, music, and a warning to eat something before trying to ...

He published Chapter One. The universe said ‘lol no.' Jayden Cross is an unemployed writer with a messy apartment, a disaster sleep schedule, and exactly zero control over his life. That all changes the moment he publishes Chapter One of his LitRPG serial—Isekai’d Apocalypse Dungeons Who Fight Monsters—on RoyalWrit. Instead of modest traffic and polite silence, Jayden unlocks WritTrack™, an intrusive author-leveling interface that treats publishing like a raid boss. His first follower triggers a Level Up. His first one-star review unlocks Dramatic Self-Loathing (Mild). And his ...

The internet is not okay. This book explains why. The Art of Memes is a sharp, strange, laugh-out-loud field manual for anyone who has ever sent a screenshot, survived a group chat, laughed at a raccoon, or watched a joke die the moment a brand said, “We understood the assignment.” Part meme history, part comedy guide, part survival manual for online culture, this book explores how memes spread, why they work, why they die, and why one badly cropped image can explain modern society better than a college lecture. Inside, you’ll discover: How memes evolved from folk jokes, forums, image...

Available to listeners for the first time, Sucker’s Portfolio showcases a collection of seven never-before-published works from Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Short, sardonic, and dark, these six brief fiction stories and one non-fiction piece are consummate Vonnegut with piercing satire and an eye for life’s obscene inanity. Also available for the first time is an unfinished science-fiction short story, included in the appendix.

He beat the Algorithm. Now he has to survive the Subscription Model. Jayden Cross finally reached Rank #1. Which is how he accidentally unlocked monetization. The moment he activates Pageon™, seven gilded corporate avatars--known as the Gilded Seven--descend with mentorship contracts, sustainability lectures, and “recommended defaults” that override his choices. They call themselves guardians of balance. They insist they’re protecting the ecosystem. They quietly begin throttling his growth. In Chad Steele’s world, that “balance” manifests as glowing patron buffs, bureaucratic ...

Master the Art of Making Readers Laugh Why do some writers effortlessly make us snort coffee through our noses, while others try desperately to be funny and land with a quiet, terrible thud? The difference isn't talent — it's craft. And craft can be learned. USA Today bestselling author Steve Alcorn draws on more than 25 years of teaching experience to break down the mechanics of humor writing: how to find comedy in everyday life, build jokes that actually land, sustain a funny voice across hundreds of pages, and get your humor out into the world. From Aristophanes to TikTok, from ...

ESPN's star comedic duo, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, bring their radio and TV sports shtick to the listener in this hilarious audiobook, which includes their definitive list of rules to live by. This is for all ESPN devotees, all Mike and Mike fans, and fans of audiobooks like Dennis Miller's Rants and Tony Kornheiser's As Bald as I Want to Be.

In What Just Happened?! Marina Hyde slashes her way through the hellscape of post-referendum politics, where the chaos never stops. Clamber aboard as we relive every inspirational moment of magic, from David Cameron to Theresa May to Boris Johnson.

Acerbic, wisecracking and hilarious, this is the definitive essay collection from New York legend and satirist, Fran Lebowitz, star of Martin Scorsese's hit Netflix series, Pretend It's a City. 'The gold standard for intelligence, efficiency and humour. Now and forever' DAVID SEDARIS 'She's...

When Pauline Piper reads in the local paper that her old schoolmate Marjorie has published a book and is going to sign copies of it in the local library, she suddenly remembers that she has always wanted to write one. Despite her admission that she has never been able to express herself very well in words, she enlists the help of her patient husband John, a great reader, unlike herself, and begins to pen her very first novel.In her candid account of the ups and downs of authorship, Pauline steers us ably through the process of writing her first work, from its inception to publication day ...

Fantastic universes and personal dramas collide as a group of friends blur the line between real life and fiction with delightfully disastrous results from the acclaimed author of the “timeless and original” (The New York Times) The Body Scout. Perennially single, socially awkward, and...