"The Fear in writing comes from exposing you thoughts, your emotions, your experiences, your ideas, your talent, your intellegence, and ultimately yourself to public scrutiny and possible scorn."

Well, no – it's not the typical sort of statement you'd expect from the pen of Pat McManus, a former EWU professor and one of America's foremost humor writers. But, the fear of writing, rules for writing humor and scores of other writing-related discussions, are a big part of his latest effort - The Deer on a Bicycle - Excursions into the Writing of Humor, published by the EWU Press.

McManus is the author of 14 books, four stage plays and hundreds of freelance articles for Outdoor Life, Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated, TV Guide and many other publications. He came to Eastern's Cheney campus on April 11 to autograph books, read from The Deer on a Bicycle, and talk about the trials of writing humor.

All proceeds from sales of the book will fund an endowment for EWU to provide scholarships for creative writing students and to help support the Eastern Washington University Press. This is the first of McManus' 14 books to be published by the EWU Press, which annually produces approximately six books, usually literary works. The book combines McManus' notes and stories with commentaries used in writing workshops given around the Pacific Northwest over the past two decades.

"In order to save myself undue thought on matters of organization," writes McManus in the preface to the book, "I have employed the same system of order for this book that I once used as a professor: chaos. To help readers find their way through the chaos, however, I have created Newton, who asks questions randomly about various topics as we go along, much as did the participants in my workshops. I reply with equal randomness, and occasionally with wild abandon."

The book, then, is a series of questions and answers, funny stories and commentaries by the author Æ many of them humorous – about writing and his own experiences in becoming a writer. Among the numerous topics covered are:

• My Life and Weird Times, or How I Became a Writer of Humor
• Why Write for Magazines?
• Can One Learn to See Funny?
• What Do You Believe is the Ultimate in a Prose Style?
• Is it Scary to be a Writer?
• Can you Define Humor?
• What About Timing, Anticipation and Surprise in the Writing of Comedy?
• Is Pain Funny?

Who reads Pat's books?

"There is a misconception that all my readers are hunters and fishermen," says McManus. "But there are people from all walks of life who identify with the incidents and the kinds of humor in my books, whether they're outdoors people or not. "He says his fans have ranged from a five-year old genius to a woman who restores paintings for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to an elderly Boston matron "whose idea of an outdoors experience was going out to the front porch to retrieve her newspaper."

McManus was a faculty member at Eastern for 23 years, teaching English and journalism between 1959 and 1982. He first appeared in a large way on the national literary scene in the late 1970s with the publication of his first book of outdoor humor, A Fine and Pleasant Misery. He served as associate editor at Field & Stream from 1977-82 and he continues today as editor-at-large for Outdoor Life. Four of his books Æ The Grasshopper Trap, Rubber Legs and White Tail-Hairs, The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw and The Good Samaritan Strikes Again Æ were on the New York Times Bestseller lists. "All the years I taught at Eastern, I thought I had the greatest job in the world," he says. "Everyone was so supportive of my writing. I'm just glad to be able to give some support back."

Parts of the book discuss the process of marketing a story or article, using McManus' own experiences to point out the difficulty of selling an idea to a publisher.

"So much of it has to do with what you put in your query letter," he says. "I remember watching some kids on rubber rafts shooting the rapids on the Clearwater River. I tried to sell the idea for an article by describing just that to publishers, but there was no interest. So then I wrote some more places and asked 'would you be interested in an article on Rocky Mountain surfboarding'? Suddenly, everybody wanted that article."

Autographed hard cover copies of the book can be purchased by alumni for $20, plus tax.* This is a 20% percent discount off the regular price. (The paperback version is available to alumni for $8.76 plus tax* – also a 20% discount. If ordering, please add a $3 shipping and handling charge.To order your copy using Visa or Mastercard, call 1-800-508-9095. Or send checks to EWU Press, MS-1, 705 West First Avenue, Spokane WA 99201. * Washington residents only - add 8.1% tax to your order.