May Meeting – Comic Relief

The Importance of Comic Relief.

Comic relief is a plot device used to lighten the mood and keep the reader engaged. Commonly used in dialogue and description, comic relief is essential in diffusing tension before, during, or after a difficult scene. Executed properly, comic relief can underscore themes in all genres—including nonfiction! Join us for a rollicking discussion on how we can best use humor in helping our readers both think and feel more deeply when reading our texts. We will also examine comic relief in classical literature; investigate the elements of satire, irony, wit, and sarcasm; determine what makes a scene humorous or contrived; and learn how to avoid breaking a reader’s willingness to suspend disbelief.

Deidre Lovegren

Deidra’s novel The Medicine Girl debuted in July 2022. The sequel, The Medicine Woman, was released in August 2023. The final installment, The Medicine Crone, will be released in Winter 2024. She has published shorter works including 21 Conversations, a collection of dialogue-only stories. The Lady of the Match, a short story collection translated into Arabic, debuted at the Cairo International Book Fair in 2024.

Deidra has also written over one hundred short stories and regularly competes in various international writing contests.

Over her teaching career, Deidra has taught scores of English classes to students from preschool to college. Currently, she is the humanities instructor at a private school in Central Virginia.

Deidra co-hosts “Read Lots Write Lots,” an Australian podcast featuring writers worldwide. In addition, she is a contest judge for the London-based Reedsy Prompts.

Along with the Blue Marble Storytellers team, she organizes writers’ conferences in the United States and Europe. She is also an engaging conference speaker who loves to share her knowledge about the writer’s craft.

She currently lives in Virginia with her husband of 30 years, three sons, and her rescue cats, General Sherman and Cinna.