June 20, 2025 • 27 mins
Rob Southgate interviews Eric Deckers, a humor columnist and author, about his upcoming appearance at Indie Pop Con 2025 in Indianapolis. Eric discusses his transition from Indiana to Orlando, his 30-year career in humor writing, and his recent book deals with Four Horsemen Publications. He shares insights into his writing process, influences like PG Wodehouse and Christopher Moore, and his experiences with humor columns. Eric also talks about his books, including "Mackinac Island Nation" and "Wither Utopia," and his love for Indiana's breaded pork tenderloin. Listeners are encouraged to engage with Eric on social media and attend Indie Pop Con to meet him.
Order books featured on this podcast direct from 4 Horsemen Publication's website and get 10% all books and 15% off all pre-orders. By buying direct, the authors and the publisher make more money than when you buy from another source. By buying from 4horsemenpublications.com, you support the author and indie publisher which allows them to keep creating great books.
🔍 Episode Keywords:
Eric Deckers, humor columnist, Indie Pop Con 2025, Mackinac Island Nation, Wither Utopia, Four Horsemen Publications, Indiana, Orlando, ghost writing, content marketing, humor writing, Douglas Adams, PG Wodehouse, Christopher Moore, breaded pork tenderloin.
Order tickets for PopCon Indy 2025 at https://popcon.us/popcon-indy/
ABOUT ERIK DECKERS
Erik Deckers is a humor writer who comes to Florida by way of Indiana, “where the real people live.” He grew up wanting to write humor and satire after reading Catch-22, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Breakfast of Champions. After reading those, his biggest goal was to “speak truth to power and swear in books.” He figured he was a natural because he was already a smart ass and knew how to spell.
Erik loves writing humor because he feels dramatic and literary writing is sad as hell, and he refuses to entertain himself with sadness because there’s already enough sadness in life. He has won several editorial awards from the Hoosier State Press Association for his newspaper humor columns. Erik is also a professional ghostwriter, and has co-authored several books on social media marketing, including Branding Yourself, No Bullshit Social Media, and The Owned Media Doctrine. And he is the president of the Kerouac Project of Orlando, and helps run the Writers Of Central Florida Or Thereabouts. When he’s not writing, he enjoys woodworking and visiting used bookstores and independent coffee shops.
You can find Erik at ErikDeckers.com, on Twitter at @edeckers, and on Instagram at @erikdeckers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Southgate (00:00):
Welcome to ink blots. I'm Rob Southgate today.
I have with me author EricDeckers, who is the reason I
have Eric on today, other thanthe fact that he's a fantastic
writer, and we're going to talkall about his books and other
stuff today, he is also one ofthe authors that is going to be
at indie pop con 2025 I bettersay the the year, because people
(00:23):
might listen to this three yearsfrom now and go, Why isn't he
here? Uh, he'll be, yeah, he'llbe there at indie pop con. It's
this month. It's June of, 2025so if you're near Indianapolis,
or love Eric so much, you gottago book those tickets to
Indianapolis, and you can meethim in person and get
signatures, and I think you'reon panels and all sorts of
stuff. So Eric, welcome to theshow. I'm so happy
Erik Deckers (00:46):
to talk to you. Me too. Glad to be here.
Rob Southgate (00:49):
Okay, let's, let's just get right into it. I
have questions for you, Eric, solet's start out with, since the
audience doesn't really know youyet, why don't you tell people
kind of who you are, how weended up here.
Erik Deckers (01:03):
Okay, so I am originally from Indiana. I grew
up there, lived there for 45years, and just moved to Orlando
almost 10 years ago. But I'vebeen a newspaper humor columnist
in Indiana, and I've beenwriting humor for over 30 years,
and got to know the folks atfour horsemen when it was first
(01:26):
starting. And I had pitched theidea of republishing my Mackinac
Island novel, and they said,Sure, if you write two more
within two years. And I said,That would be lovely. And that
was four years ago. And hey, andmy second book is coming out
this year, and I'm startingideas on the third book. So,
Rob Southgate (01:46):
so you're a typical writer where we say two
years and Yeah, four yearslater, we're still trying to get
the second
Erik Deckers (01:51):
exactly I got, like Douglas Adams and
deadlines. Remember, he said heloves deadlines because of the
whooshing sound was by. So it'ssame for me.
Rob Southgate (02:00):
So all right, Eric, I'm gonna ask you a few
questions here. First of all,you said you were a humor
columnist. What area of Indianawere you
Erik Deckers (02:09):
in? Grew up in Muncie and moved to Northern
Indiana for a while, and thenlived in Indianapolis for 10
years before we left. So
Rob Southgate (02:19):
you might have fans that come up to you in
Indianapolis, you never know.
Erik Deckers (02:23):
Oh, that would be lovely. I would like some fans.
Rob Southgate (02:26):
So what, what got you started in writing? I mean,
especially being a humorcolumnist. What? What made you
say? Not only do I want towrite, but I'm funny.
Erik Deckers (02:36):
I started writing in college at Ball State
University and worked for thenewspaper. And when I moved up
to Syracuse, Indiana and was andgot married, I had written a
couple of essays that my wifethought was kind of funny, were
kind of funny. And so I met theowner of two very small
(02:59):
newspapers in Elkhart County,which is kind of a northern
County, and said, Hey, would youever want a humor columnist? And
he said, Sure. Will you do itfor free? I said, Sure. And so
he said, perfect, I can. Hesaid, I'm really interested now.
Yeah, exactly. And so I had noidea how to do it. I had no idea
how to write a column. I justwrote another funny essay. It
(03:21):
was over 1000 words long, thatshould be 750 and it was really
bad, and I didn't know that. Iwas just so proud because I had
done it, but I stayed with it,because Bill gave me the time
and space to figure things out.Yeah, and very lucky, after
talking to people and readingabout it and how to do it, I got
(03:44):
better and better, and mywriting got tighter. And so I
still publish in those papers,and I still do it for free,
because he gave me the big breakthat let me figure out I could
be funny. And so just a lot ofreading and a lot of studying. I
don't know if you can see thebooks behind me, but I've got a
(04:05):
lot of writing books and humorwriting books, and I spent a lot
of time with those so But Billniche gave me that break to
become the kind of writer that Iam, and I just expanded out into
books and radio plays and stageplays and sit pilot or sitcom
(04:25):
shows and movies and more booksand I now, as a result, I own a
content marketing agency where Ighost write blog articles for
companies and books for
Rob Southgate (04:38):
people. Wow, I'm not going to ask too much about
that, because you're ghostwriting, but I do love that.
What a great story, and that isvery inspirational. Because, I
mean, when you're saying you gotthe break, but you stayed with
it, I think that's where I findthe inspiration, because a lot
of people might fall into it,realize, uh oh, and give up.
(05:00):
Yeah or just tampon, and beterrible for a while and then
get fired. But you you worked atit. I love that one time,
speaking of horror columnists,my wife and I had started a
zine. It was called the DeadElvis fan club, and we made it
three issues, but we gotinternational attention. We
(05:21):
ended up being interviewed bythe BBC. We ended up in all
these magazines, and it gotreally great reviews by the zine
world. You know, talk aboutbeing famous in a weird bubble,
but I sent a copy to Dave Barry,okay, and this is before the
Dave Show and all that. Like Iwe'd been in Miami. I'd read his
column. I thought it was funny.I sent it to him, and I said,
(05:42):
Hey, I just want I said, Hey, Ijust wanted to share something
we wrote. I read your stuff whenI was there. It was funny. I
thought you'd like this. And hewrites me back, and he says, I
love to know what kind of creepsare out there reading my
columns. Keep going. And I waslike, it was, it was the perfect
day Barry response. And, yeah, Ilove that. I really do love
that. So here's a question forand this does not have to be
(06:06):
columnists, but in humor, whoare your top three humor writers
right now? I know it changes. Iknow 20 minutes from now, you're
gonna go, Oh, I didn't say oryou don't have to try to impress
me and go, Well, of course, it'sMark Twain. I mean, you don't
who are the top three in yourhead right
Erik Deckers (06:23):
now? PG, Woodhouse, always one of the
tops. Douglas Adams always oneof the tops. 15 years ago, I
would have said Dave Barry, butI started sounding too much like
him, so I had to stop readinghim. But now it's Christopher
Moore. He's a humor novel writerabout paranormal things. Oh
(06:47):
yeah, but not the sparklyvampire paranormal. But rather,
you know, things take place inmodern times, in modern cities
like San Francisco. He writesabout vampires, about death, the
being, not the Yeah, the being,death, yeah. And a lot of those
(07:09):
books sort of intertwine andline up with each other.
Rob Southgate (07:13):
Very cool. Are you a paranormal guy? No, no. So
you're a humor guy, not aparanormal guy, correct? And
guess what? You don't need to bea paranormal guy to appreciate
something like that, right?Yeah,
Erik Deckers (07:24):
and Chris Moore is just hilarious. I met him once
at a book signing in Portland,Oregon, and got to talk with him
for a little bit.
Rob Southgate (07:33):
Were you at Powell's? I know one book store
in Portland. I know onebookstore. We've been there
multiple times, but I
Erik Deckers (07:42):
think it was a Barnes and Noble,
Rob Southgate (07:44):
okay, all right, someday go back, get in that
Powell's.
Erik Deckers (07:48):
Yeah, I've been to Powell's, and they had one of my
social media books. They had mypersonal branding book called
branding yourself. And I took itup to the front desk, and I
said, Hey, I'm the author. Can Isign this? And sure, whatever.
So I signed it and said, Whoeverfinds this, email me and let me
(08:09):
know, and I'll send yousomething else. And I never
heard from whoever bought it,hopefully. Oh, then somebody
bought it and just ignored themessage rather than nobody
bought it. I,
Rob Southgate (08:19):
you know what? I couple years ago, there was an
author that I was talking to whodid a similar thing. They found
their books in a randombookstore, and they went and
they signed all the bookswithout telling anybody, and did
something like that, like, ifyou found this, this is really
me, and contact me and you win,whatever. And I thought that was
such a cool idea. I have yet tofind one when I look, but it's a
(08:40):
cool idea.
Erik Deckers (08:40):
Eric, some of the Barnes and Nobles actually have
author signed stickers, right?So that if you walk in and sign
them, they'll put that on there.But
Rob Southgate (08:49):
in this case, the person was unimpressed. So,
yeah, yeah,
Erik Deckers (08:53):
well, drove the value down.
Rob Southgate (08:55):
That's my life, too. So okay, you're going back
to Indianapolis. What is thething you're like most excited
to do or see or eat? Like,what's your favorite place to
eat there?
Erik Deckers (09:08):
Honestly, part of the reason I'm going back is my
dad still lives in Muncie, soI'm gonna go see him. I am
looking forward to basbo Pizza.
Rob Southgate (09:17):
Basbo. Where is that? What town? There are
Erik Deckers (09:20):
a couple locations. One is downtown, on
Mass Ave. Another one is on it'sin Broad Ripple on 62nd and b,
a, z, B, A, B, E, A, u, x, Bas,Bo. But then they make some of
the best pizza in Indianapolis.There's also pizza King, which
(09:44):
serves a tavern style pizzathat's the ingredients all the
way out to the edge and thenthey
Rob Southgate (09:49):
I'm from Chicago, Eric, you're not telling me
anything here. Yeah, the squarecut does make it taste better.
Yes,
Erik Deckers (09:54):
exactly. So those are my two favorites, and I'm
looking forward to that ifanybody. Visiting from out of
town and you don't want pizza,look for a place, usually just
any kind of bar, tavern or placethat serves burgers and get a
breaded pork tenderloin that'sIndiana's official state
(10:15):
sandwich, like the House andSenate voted on it in Indiana,
Rob Southgate (10:22):
and So Eric, I have a follow up to that. Okay,
one of the episodes, look for itin the ink plots. I interview
Andrew nashberg, who's a horrorwriter, okay? And I asked the
question, you're coming toIndiana for books and brews too.
It's ironically, in Indiana,right outside of it. And I said,
Is there anything you're excitedto do? And he said, I'm a huge
(10:43):
pork tenderloin fan. Andeveryone keeps telling me,
there's a pork tenderloinsandwich that I have to have.
You just nailed it. So I'm goingto tell him, Okay, this is what
it is. Man, get that breadedpork tenderloin That sounds
amazing.
Erik Deckers (10:57):
So it's, it's a, it's a regular tenderloin, but
they smash the hell out of itwith a meat tenderizer, and so
it flattens out and expands. IYeah, I can't, my camera will
not show you know, it's biggerthan my head, and it's, it's
just put on a regular bun. Andso imagine something that's a
(11:20):
quarter of an inch thick, butit's about eight inches across
with the regular, tiny littlebun on it looks comical, like a
fat guy wearing a tiny hat. Andyou know, like you're supposed
to eat it, like this best way tojust cut it up into thirds and
stack it, but I always do itwith mayo, mustard, pickles and
onions, and it's amazing. Thatsounds
Rob Southgate (11:41):
absolutely incredible. So horror writing,
I'm sorry I'm thinking now. I'mthinking about Andrew and horror
comedy writing, or comedicwriting, because comedy writing
is different than human writing.Yes, i What is it that you look
for in a well written horrorstory? Oh, I'm saying horror
(12:01):
again, yeah, I don't read Yeah.So that question just I blew it.
That question means nothing toyou. What do you look for in a
well written humor story? It'sbecause it's humor and horror.
I'm seeing the H in my head andI keep getting them confused.
Yeah, exactly.
Erik Deckers (12:16):
A lot of it is the best humor doesn't doesn't make
jokes like, if you remember orever saw, I think it was still
Harvard lampoons board of theRings, yeah, yeah. To me,
that's, that's not great humor,even though it's the Lampoon
(12:37):
it's not great humor because allthey're doing is changing the
names to be funny, right? Youknow, board of the rings and
dildo Baggins and you know,that's funny the first couple of
times you see it, but not 50,000words. And so if you rely on
joke names to make things funny,that's bad. The best thing is to
(12:57):
put to kind of follow the fishout of water. You put normal
people in a weird situation, orweird people in a normal
situation, and you see how theyreact. And so the humor comes
from the circumstance, not thatyou think, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna stick a joke in here and,you know, make a punch line, you
(13:20):
know, with puns, that's, that'snot good humor. That's, that's
fine for jokes and tellingjokes, but that's not great long
form humor,
Rob Southgate (13:29):
right? Yeah, it doesn't stick around. That is
for sure. It's, it's funny,because I was going to bring up
another one, since you youbrought up that lampoon one,
they have a book Lord of theRings, one that they did called
the wobbit. And I agree. It wasjust they changed the names,
okay, but a friend of mine wroteone called the wobbit. His name
(13:55):
is Paul A Erickson. It's legitfunny. So if you're looking for
the wobbit. Get the PaulErickson one. There you go. See,
I got that plug in there forhim. If I can find a copy, I'll
send it to you, Eric, because Ithink you think it's really
funny when you were writing yourcolumn, did you? Did you have
(14:21):
like a theme throughout, or wasit just today I'm going to write
about this. It would like, you'dkind of get inspired and just
write from there. It
Erik Deckers (14:28):
really varies week to week. Last week, I learned
about the existence of the dullmen's club. Okay, let's hear
about this. So it's just, it'snot even a club. Club. It's just
a loose amalgamation of peoplewho like to talk about things
that other people will finddull. And there's a Facebook
(14:50):
page, wait, the dull men's clubdoll, D, U, L, L, the doll men's
club. And so there's one that'sjust the dull men's club.
There's another one you. Thathas a registered trademark in
the title Wow. They both haveabout 1.3 million members in the
Facebook group, wow. And one ofthe things that that when I
(15:15):
first started researching it,and I've since joined both
groups, but one guy had posted apicture of a bottle of natural
gas that his grandfather hadpurchased in like, the 50s, 40s,
and it still had gas in it, andhe smelled it, and he said there
was no odor. And was thisbecause it didn't have mercaptan
(15:40):
in it, which is the chemicalthat makes natural gas smell the
way it does, or could it havedecayed? And this launched into
a whole big discussion of peoplesaying, well, they had to put it
in there, because they startedputting it there in 1938 and so
that was certainly within thetime. And so it does decay. And
blah, blah, blah, and so this isall very, very boring, right?
(16:02):
Yes, but this is the point ofthe doll men's club, is you find
these little things thatsomebody's gonna hear and go,
Oh, wow, I didn't know that. Andthey just kind of drill down on
it, yeah, and, but what's evenmore fascinating to me, and they
don't talk about this, there arepeople who study this kind of
(16:22):
thing. Somebody figured out thatmercaptan decays inside the
bottle and that it could rendernatural gas odorless.
Scientists, there are somescientists somewhere that have
paid attention to this and havedone the research in the lab,
and they've probably writtenpapers about it. And so if you
(16:45):
think that that the thing I justshared with you is dull, there
are people who devote theircareers to that idea. And so I
just find that utterlyfascinating.
Rob Southgate (16:54):
Can you imagine all those science nerds get
together, and then there's onelittle table of these guys, and
they're like, those are theboring guys,
Erik Deckers (17:02):
yes. And so last week's column was all about
that. This week, in fact,tonight is column night. I write
it every Thursday night. I'mtalking about, should you
maintain and clean your gasbarbecue grill like a nerd, or
do you just let fire take careof it? After every use, you just
(17:24):
crank up the heat and let itincinerate all the leftover meat
and then call it done. This isan argument that my wife and I
have because we're getting ridof my old gas grill, giving it
to a friend, and she says, Youreally need to clean it up. We
should have been cleaning it upall this time. It's like, I'm
giving it away. Yeah,
Rob Southgate (17:43):
you're giving it away. Now, that's the other part
of the argument, though. Eric,yeah, because is it when you're
maintaining it, do you shouldyou clean it or not? Well, and
I'm not gonna tell you mythoughts on it. This is not a
Erik Deckers (17:53):
YouTube video that said you have to take everything
apart and wipe it down and keepit as close to pristine as you
can. And my thought is, this iswhat fire is for,
Rob Southgate (18:08):
well, and it also adds flavor. Yes, exactly. These
are flavor crystals, but youhave to be careful because it
also adds bacteria. So you gotto figure out what that balance
is. And I also have thoughtsabout whether you clean it
before you give it to them, butI'm not going to share it here,
because this is not the dullmen's podcast. Now I'm thinking
(18:29):
we might be on to something.Okay. I don't want to run out of
time before I want to hear aboutMackinac Island nation. I want
you to, like, give us kind ofthe lowdown on that. That's your
first book with four horsemenpublications, which will be at
pop con Indy. And then you haveanother book coming out in
December, which I'm going tohave you on other shows about
that, which is wither utopia.That one, I think it's on pre
(18:54):
order right now, in fact. So youcan go to four horsemen
publications.com look up EricDeckers and pre order wither
utopia. And hey, I'll give him aplug at four horsemen, you get a
discount if you pre order. Ithink it's 15% off. So that's
that's a good deal. So let'shear, we'll hear about whether
(19:16):
Utopia on another show, but thisone, I want to hear about
Mackinac Island nation, I
Erik Deckers (19:21):
will say that the two tie in, although they are
set about 50 years apart, allright? Mac nation takes place in
20 and Mackinac Island is a realisland off of Michigan. If you
ever meet somebody fromMichigan, you ask them where
they live, they always hold uptheir right hand, right? Yeah.
So Mackinac Island is like,right above where your middle
(19:44):
finger would be. And I decidedthis did not really happen. And
some people seem to think maybethis happened, it didn't happen,
but that the that a 200 year oldpeace treaty required. Desired
that the island would bereleased by the United States
and given to whoever livesthere. And this was all part of
(20:09):
the treaty that ended the war of1812 and everyone thought, Oh,
it's just going to be thenatives who live there, so we're
just going to give it to them in200 years. Well, they didn't
know that it was going to be abunch of rich Republicans who
live there, and they suddenlyfind themselves without a
nation, okay? And so they, youknow, they're waiting for
Congress to repatriate theisland, but Congress, being
(20:32):
Congress, is going to take twoyears to adore this. And so the
island has to function as anindependent country for the next
two years, and the guy who isthe reluctant President wants to
just keep his head down, keepthings the way they are until
next together, other people wantit to become a military outpost
(20:56):
for the North Koreans or theRussians. Canada wants it to
become a sovereign nation or asovereign protectorate under
Canada rule. And so there areall kinds of shenanigans going
on. And it's the satire. It's,you know, humorous satire,
satirical book that looks atsort of the state of politics in
(21:19):
the US as it was happening, kindof as a microcosm on Mackinac
Island. On Mackinac, yeah, yeah.Have you been to Mackinac? I
have several times. My wife andI used to go in the late 90s,
and so I sort of had the idea ofthe question, what would happen
if these guys becameindependent? It rattled around
in my head for about 15 yearsbefore I finally decided to
(21:41):
start writing it down. We
Rob Southgate (21:43):
went there a few years ago, and my biggest
takeaway is it smells like horsecrap. Yep, cuz they don't have
cars there, not at all, and wow,the horse crap smell, yes, it's
like stepping back in time andstepping in something, because
that is brutal. But they'reknown for their fudge, yes, so
that is really funny. Thatsounds like a great book. I'm so
(22:05):
glad that four horsemenpublishes you. Yeah. And so
whether utopia is a connectedbut it's not an official sequel,
Erik Deckers (22:13):
correct, correct. So whether you and I'll be very,
very
Rob Southgate (22:16):
give us a brief one on that. We'll go into more
detail on another show. It's
Erik Deckers (22:20):
imagine what happened in pandemic, the way it
got politicized. Happens again.Only everyone is surprised to
find that the new pandemic hasabout a 99% mortality rate. Oh,
and so when the book opens, it's10 years after the pandemic, and
(22:41):
all the conservatives in theworld have died. Okay? So the
Liberals are left to run thingson their own, but because they
don't have any opposition, theyhave screwed it all up. And so I
focus on the fictional town ofAppleseed, Ohio, and everything
(23:04):
takes place there. And peoplewho have read Mackinac Island
will recognize connections tocharacters from the other book,
like one of the minor charactersin Mackinac Island gets name
dropped as a political pundit inwither utopia. Ah, okay, the
(23:26):
daughter of a minor charactergets she gets a scene in wither
Utopia so it stands alone. Youdon't have to read the first
book to read the second one, butif you've read the first book,
and then you go read witherutopia, those those connections
(23:46):
with
Rob Southgate (23:47):
some little Easter eggs hidden in there,
that's so fun. Well, Eric, thiswas really great. Go see Eric at
pop con Indy in Indianapolis.What are the dates? It's June,
2027
Erik Deckers (23:58):
2829 that's my birthday. Oh,
Rob Southgate (24:01):
happy birthday. I'm saying it early. We'll
pretend it was that. Listen tothis, Eric, listen to this on
your birthday. How appropriatethat he said Happy Birthday. But
go buy his book. Go get somesignatures, get some selfies
with him. Bring him some tavernstyle pizza. Show him what's
what. And Eric, this is justreally great. What is the best
(24:21):
place for people to engage withyou?
Erik Deckers (24:25):
I'm on threads, which is the Instagram network,
just Eric Deckers, E R, i, k, A,D, E, C, K, E, R, S, that's my
handle there. I'm also onInstagram, but I don't use it
very much, okay? Or go to Ericdeckers.com that's my humor
blog. All my columns getpublished there.
Rob Southgate (24:44):
Oh, great, great. I encourage everybody to go to
that. And I will also put thisin the show notes, so it makes
it really easy for people tofind you, engage with you, but
that's wonderful. I in fact, Ithink I already follow you on
threads, but if I don't watch mepop up today. So. Eric, this was
really great. Thank you so muchfor being on good luck with all
this and good luck. I hope youdon't take this the wrong way. I
(25:05):
hope you sell out inIndianapolis. I would love to,
yeah.
Welcome to ink blots. I'm Rob Southgate today.
I have with me author EricDeckers, who is the reason I
have Eric on today, other thanthe fact that he's a fantastic
writer, and we're going to talkall about his books and other
stuff today, he is also one ofthe authors that is going to be
at indie pop con 2025 I bettersay the the year, because people
(00:23):
might listen to this three yearsfrom now and go, Why isn't he
here? Uh, he'll be, yeah, he'llbe there at indie pop con. It's
this month. It's June of, 2025so if you're near Indianapolis,
or love Eric so much, you gottago book those tickets to
Indianapolis, and you can meethim in person and get
signatures, and I think you'reon panels and all sorts of
stuff. So Eric, welcome to theshow. I'm so happy
Erik Deckers (00:46):
to talk to you. Me too. Glad to be here.
Rob Southgate (00:49):
Okay, let's, let's just get right into it. I
have questions for you, Eric, solet's start out with, since the
audience doesn't really know youyet, why don't you tell people
kind of who you are, how weended up here.
Erik Deckers (01:03):
Okay, so I am originally from Indiana. I grew
up there, lived there for 45years, and just moved to Orlando
almost 10 years ago. But I'vebeen a newspaper humor columnist
in Indiana, and I've beenwriting humor for over 30 years,
and got to know the folks atfour horsemen when it was first
(01:26):
starting. And I had pitched theidea of republishing my Mackinac
Island novel, and they said,Sure, if you write two more
within two years. And I said,That would be lovely. And that
was four years ago. And hey, andmy second book is coming out
this year, and I'm startingideas on the third book. So,
Rob Southgate (01:46):
so you're a typical writer where we say two
years and Yeah, four yearslater, we're still trying to get
the second
Erik Deckers (01:51):
exactly I got, like Douglas Adams and
deadlines. Remember, he said heloves deadlines because of the
whooshing sound was by. So it'ssame for me.
Rob Southgate (02:00):
So all right, Eric, I'm gonna ask you a few
questions here. First of all,you said you were a humor
columnist. What area of Indianawere you
Erik Deckers (02:09):
in? Grew up in Muncie and moved to Northern
Indiana for a while, and thenlived in Indianapolis for 10
years before we left. So
Rob Southgate (02:19):
you might have fans that come up to you in
Indianapolis, you never know.
Erik Deckers (02:23):
Oh, that would be lovely. I would like some fans.
Rob Southgate (02:26):
So what, what got you started in writing? I mean,
especially being a humorcolumnist. What? What made you
say? Not only do I want towrite, but I'm funny.
Erik Deckers (02:36):
I started writing in college at Ball State
University and worked for thenewspaper. And when I moved up
to Syracuse, Indiana and was andgot married, I had written a
couple of essays that my wifethought was kind of funny, were
kind of funny. And so I met theowner of two very small
(02:59):
newspapers in Elkhart County,which is kind of a northern
County, and said, Hey, would youever want a humor columnist? And
he said, Sure. Will you do itfor free? I said, Sure. And so
he said, perfect, I can. Hesaid, I'm really interested now.
Yeah, exactly. And so I had noidea how to do it. I had no idea
how to write a column. I justwrote another funny essay. It
(03:21):
was over 1000 words long, thatshould be 750 and it was really
bad, and I didn't know that. Iwas just so proud because I had
done it, but I stayed with it,because Bill gave me the time
and space to figure things out.Yeah, and very lucky, after
talking to people and readingabout it and how to do it, I got
(03:44):
better and better, and mywriting got tighter. And so I
still publish in those papers,and I still do it for free,
because he gave me the big breakthat let me figure out I could
be funny. And so just a lot ofreading and a lot of studying. I
don't know if you can see thebooks behind me, but I've got a
(04:05):
lot of writing books and humorwriting books, and I spent a lot
of time with those so But Billniche gave me that break to
become the kind of writer that Iam, and I just expanded out into
books and radio plays and stageplays and sit pilot or sitcom
(04:25):
shows and movies and more booksand I now, as a result, I own a
content marketing agency where Ighost write blog articles for
companies and books for
Rob Southgate (04:38):
people. Wow, I'm not going to ask too much about
that, because you're ghostwriting, but I do love that.
What a great story, and that isvery inspirational. Because, I
mean, when you're saying you gotthe break, but you stayed with
it, I think that's where I findthe inspiration, because a lot
of people might fall into it,realize, uh oh, and give up.
(05:00):
Yeah or just tampon, and beterrible for a while and then
get fired. But you you worked atit. I love that one time,
speaking of horror columnists,my wife and I had started a
zine. It was called the DeadElvis fan club, and we made it
three issues, but we gotinternational attention. We
(05:21):
ended up being interviewed bythe BBC. We ended up in all
these magazines, and it gotreally great reviews by the zine
world. You know, talk aboutbeing famous in a weird bubble,
but I sent a copy to Dave Barry,okay, and this is before the
Dave Show and all that. Like Iwe'd been in Miami. I'd read his
column. I thought it was funny.I sent it to him, and I said,
(05:42):
Hey, I just want I said, Hey, Ijust wanted to share something
we wrote. I read your stuff whenI was there. It was funny. I
thought you'd like this. And hewrites me back, and he says, I
love to know what kind of creepsare out there reading my
columns. Keep going. And I waslike, it was, it was the perfect
day Barry response. And, yeah, Ilove that. I really do love
that. So here's a question forand this does not have to be
(06:06):
columnists, but in humor, whoare your top three humor writers
right now? I know it changes. Iknow 20 minutes from now, you're
gonna go, Oh, I didn't say oryou don't have to try to impress
me and go, Well, of course, it'sMark Twain. I mean, you don't
who are the top three in yourhead right
Erik Deckers (06:23):
now? PG, Woodhouse, always one of the
tops. Douglas Adams always oneof the tops. 15 years ago, I
would have said Dave Barry, butI started sounding too much like
him, so I had to stop readinghim. But now it's Christopher
Moore. He's a humor novel writerabout paranormal things. Oh
(06:47):
yeah, but not the sparklyvampire paranormal. But rather,
you know, things take place inmodern times, in modern cities
like San Francisco. He writesabout vampires, about death, the
being, not the Yeah, the being,death, yeah. And a lot of those
(07:09):
books sort of intertwine andline up with each other.
Rob Southgate (07:13):
Very cool. Are you a paranormal guy? No, no. So
you're a humor guy, not aparanormal guy, correct? And
guess what? You don't need to bea paranormal guy to appreciate
something like that, right?Yeah,
Erik Deckers (07:24):
and Chris Moore is just hilarious. I met him once
at a book signing in Portland,Oregon, and got to talk with him
for a little bit.
Rob Southgate (07:33):
Were you at Powell's? I know one book store
in Portland. I know onebookstore. We've been there
multiple times, but I
Erik Deckers (07:42):
think it was a Barnes and Noble,
Rob Southgate (07:44):
okay, all right, someday go back, get in that
Powell's.
Erik Deckers (07:48):
Yeah, I've been to Powell's, and they had one of my
social media books. They had mypersonal branding book called
branding yourself. And I took itup to the front desk, and I
said, Hey, I'm the author. Can Isign this? And sure, whatever.
So I signed it and said, Whoeverfinds this, email me and let me
(08:09):
know, and I'll send yousomething else. And I never
heard from whoever bought it,hopefully. Oh, then somebody
bought it and just ignored themessage rather than nobody
bought it. I,
Rob Southgate (08:19):
you know what? I couple years ago, there was an
author that I was talking to whodid a similar thing. They found
their books in a randombookstore, and they went and
they signed all the bookswithout telling anybody, and did
something like that, like, ifyou found this, this is really
me, and contact me and you win,whatever. And I thought that was
such a cool idea. I have yet tofind one when I look, but it's a
(08:40):
cool idea.
Erik Deckers (08:40):
Eric, some of the Barnes and Nobles actually have
author signed stickers, right?So that if you walk in and sign
them, they'll put that on there.But
Rob Southgate (08:49):
in this case, the person was unimpressed. So,
yeah, yeah,
Erik Deckers (08:53):
well, drove the value down.
Rob Southgate (08:55):
That's my life, too. So okay, you're going back
to Indianapolis. What is thething you're like most excited
to do or see or eat? Like,what's your favorite place to
eat there?
Erik Deckers (09:08):
Honestly, part of the reason I'm going back is my
dad still lives in Muncie, soI'm gonna go see him. I am
looking forward to basbo Pizza.
Rob Southgate (09:17):
Basbo. Where is that? What town? There are
Erik Deckers (09:20):
a couple locations. One is downtown, on
Mass Ave. Another one is on it'sin Broad Ripple on 62nd and b,
a, z, B, A, B, E, A, u, x, Bas,Bo. But then they make some of
the best pizza in Indianapolis.There's also pizza King, which
(09:44):
serves a tavern style pizzathat's the ingredients all the
way out to the edge and thenthey
Rob Southgate (09:49):
I'm from Chicago, Eric, you're not telling me
anything here. Yeah, the squarecut does make it taste better.
Yes,
Erik Deckers (09:54):
exactly. So those are my two favorites, and I'm
looking forward to that ifanybody. Visiting from out of
town and you don't want pizza,look for a place, usually just
any kind of bar, tavern or placethat serves burgers and get a
breaded pork tenderloin that'sIndiana's official state
(10:15):
sandwich, like the House andSenate voted on it in Indiana,
Rob Southgate (10:22):
and So Eric, I have a follow up to that. Okay,
one of the episodes, look for itin the ink plots. I interview
Andrew nashberg, who's a horrorwriter, okay? And I asked the
question, you're coming toIndiana for books and brews too.
It's ironically, in Indiana,right outside of it. And I said,
Is there anything you're excitedto do? And he said, I'm a huge
(10:43):
pork tenderloin fan. Andeveryone keeps telling me,
there's a pork tenderloinsandwich that I have to have.
You just nailed it. So I'm goingto tell him, Okay, this is what
it is. Man, get that breadedpork tenderloin That sounds
amazing.
Erik Deckers (10:57):
So it's, it's a, it's a regular tenderloin, but
they smash the hell out of itwith a meat tenderizer, and so
it flattens out and expands. IYeah, I can't, my camera will
not show you know, it's biggerthan my head, and it's, it's
just put on a regular bun. Andso imagine something that's a
(11:20):
quarter of an inch thick, butit's about eight inches across
with the regular, tiny littlebun on it looks comical, like a
fat guy wearing a tiny hat. Andyou know, like you're supposed
to eat it, like this best way tojust cut it up into thirds and
stack it, but I always do itwith mayo, mustard, pickles and
onions, and it's amazing. Thatsounds
Rob Southgate (11:41):
absolutely incredible. So horror writing,
I'm sorry I'm thinking now. I'mthinking about Andrew and horror
comedy writing, or comedicwriting, because comedy writing
is different than human writing.Yes, i What is it that you look
for in a well written horrorstory? Oh, I'm saying horror
(12:01):
again, yeah, I don't read Yeah.So that question just I blew it.
That question means nothing toyou. What do you look for in a
well written humor story? It'sbecause it's humor and horror.
I'm seeing the H in my head andI keep getting them confused.
Yeah, exactly.
Erik Deckers (12:16):
A lot of it is the best humor doesn't doesn't make
jokes like, if you remember orever saw, I think it was still
Harvard lampoons board of theRings, yeah, yeah. To me,
that's, that's not great humor,even though it's the Lampoon
(12:37):
it's not great humor because allthey're doing is changing the
names to be funny, right? Youknow, board of the rings and
dildo Baggins and you know,that's funny the first couple of
times you see it, but not 50,000words. And so if you rely on
joke names to make things funny,that's bad. The best thing is to
(12:57):
put to kind of follow the fishout of water. You put normal
people in a weird situation, orweird people in a normal
situation, and you see how theyreact. And so the humor comes
from the circumstance, not thatyou think, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna stick a joke in here and,you know, make a punch line, you
(13:20):
know, with puns, that's, that'snot good humor. That's, that's
fine for jokes and tellingjokes, but that's not great long
form humor,
Rob Southgate (13:29):
right? Yeah, it doesn't stick around. That is
for sure. It's, it's funny,because I was going to bring up
another one, since you youbrought up that lampoon one,
they have a book Lord of theRings, one that they did called
the wobbit. And I agree. It wasjust they changed the names,
okay, but a friend of mine wroteone called the wobbit. His name
(13:55):
is Paul A Erickson. It's legitfunny. So if you're looking for
the wobbit. Get the PaulErickson one. There you go. See,
I got that plug in there forhim. If I can find a copy, I'll
send it to you, Eric, because Ithink you think it's really
funny when you were writing yourcolumn, did you? Did you have
(14:21):
like a theme throughout, or wasit just today I'm going to write
about this. It would like, you'dkind of get inspired and just
write from there. It
Erik Deckers (14:28):
really varies week to week. Last week, I learned
about the existence of the dullmen's club. Okay, let's hear
about this. So it's just, it'snot even a club. Club. It's just
a loose amalgamation of peoplewho like to talk about things
that other people will finddull. And there's a Facebook
(14:50):
page, wait, the dull men's clubdoll, D, U, L, L, the doll men's
club. And so there's one that'sjust the dull men's club.
There's another one you. Thathas a registered trademark in
the title Wow. They both haveabout 1.3 million members in the
Facebook group, wow. And one ofthe things that that when I
(15:15):
first started researching it,and I've since joined both
groups, but one guy had posted apicture of a bottle of natural
gas that his grandfather hadpurchased in like, the 50s, 40s,
and it still had gas in it, andhe smelled it, and he said there
was no odor. And was thisbecause it didn't have mercaptan
(15:40):
in it, which is the chemicalthat makes natural gas smell the
way it does, or could it havedecayed? And this launched into
a whole big discussion of peoplesaying, well, they had to put it
in there, because they startedputting it there in 1938 and so
that was certainly within thetime. And so it does decay. And
blah, blah, blah, and so this isall very, very boring, right?
(16:02):
Yes, but this is the point ofthe doll men's club, is you find
these little things thatsomebody's gonna hear and go,
Oh, wow, I didn't know that. Andthey just kind of drill down on
it, yeah, and, but what's evenmore fascinating to me, and they
don't talk about this, there arepeople who study this kind of
(16:22):
thing. Somebody figured out thatmercaptan decays inside the
bottle and that it could rendernatural gas odorless.
Scientists, there are somescientists somewhere that have
paid attention to this and havedone the research in the lab,
and they've probably writtenpapers about it. And so if you
(16:45):
think that that the thing I justshared with you is dull, there
are people who devote theircareers to that idea. And so I
just find that utterlyfascinating.
Rob Southgate (16:54):
Can you imagine all those science nerds get
together, and then there's onelittle table of these guys, and
they're like, those are theboring guys,
Erik Deckers (17:02):
yes. And so last week's column was all about
that. This week, in fact,tonight is column night. I write
it every Thursday night. I'mtalking about, should you
maintain and clean your gasbarbecue grill like a nerd, or
do you just let fire take careof it? After every use, you just
(17:24):
crank up the heat and let itincinerate all the leftover meat
and then call it done. This isan argument that my wife and I
have because we're getting ridof my old gas grill, giving it
to a friend, and she says, Youreally need to clean it up. We
should have been cleaning it upall this time. It's like, I'm
giving it away. Yeah,
Rob Southgate (17:43):
you're giving it away. Now, that's the other part
of the argument, though. Eric,yeah, because is it when you're
maintaining it, do you shouldyou clean it or not? Well, and
I'm not gonna tell you mythoughts on it. This is not a
Erik Deckers (17:53):
YouTube video that said you have to take everything
apart and wipe it down and keepit as close to pristine as you
can. And my thought is, this iswhat fire is for,
Rob Southgate (18:08):
well, and it also adds flavor. Yes, exactly. These
are flavor crystals, but youhave to be careful because it
also adds bacteria. So you gotto figure out what that balance
is. And I also have thoughtsabout whether you clean it
before you give it to them, butI'm not going to share it here,
because this is not the dullmen's podcast. Now I'm thinking
(18:29):
we might be on to something.Okay. I don't want to run out of
time before I want to hear aboutMackinac Island nation. I want
you to, like, give us kind ofthe lowdown on that. That's your
first book with four horsemenpublications, which will be at
pop con Indy. And then you haveanother book coming out in
December, which I'm going tohave you on other shows about
that, which is wither utopia.That one, I think it's on pre
(18:54):
order right now, in fact. So youcan go to four horsemen
publications.com look up EricDeckers and pre order wither
utopia. And hey, I'll give him aplug at four horsemen, you get a
discount if you pre order. Ithink it's 15% off. So that's
that's a good deal. So let'shear, we'll hear about whether
(19:16):
Utopia on another show, but thisone, I want to hear about
Mackinac Island nation, I
Erik Deckers (19:21):
will say that the two tie in, although they are
set about 50 years apart, allright? Mac nation takes place in
20 and Mackinac Island is a realisland off of Michigan. If you
ever meet somebody fromMichigan, you ask them where
they live, they always hold uptheir right hand, right? Yeah.
So Mackinac Island is like,right above where your middle
(19:44):
finger would be. And I decidedthis did not really happen. And
some people seem to think maybethis happened, it didn't happen,
but that the that a 200 year oldpeace treaty required. Desired
that the island would bereleased by the United States
and given to whoever livesthere. And this was all part of
(20:09):
the treaty that ended the war of1812 and everyone thought, Oh,
it's just going to be thenatives who live there, so we're
just going to give it to them in200 years. Well, they didn't
know that it was going to be abunch of rich Republicans who
live there, and they suddenlyfind themselves without a
nation, okay? And so they, youknow, they're waiting for
Congress to repatriate theisland, but Congress, being
(20:32):
Congress, is going to take twoyears to adore this. And so the
island has to function as anindependent country for the next
two years, and the guy who isthe reluctant President wants to
just keep his head down, keepthings the way they are until
next together, other people wantit to become a military outpost
(20:56):
for the North Koreans or theRussians. Canada wants it to
become a sovereign nation or asovereign protectorate under
Canada rule. And so there areall kinds of shenanigans going
on. And it's the satire. It's,you know, humorous satire,
satirical book that looks atsort of the state of politics in
(21:19):
the US as it was happening, kindof as a microcosm on Mackinac
Island. On Mackinac, yeah, yeah.Have you been to Mackinac? I
have several times. My wife andI used to go in the late 90s,
and so I sort of had the idea ofthe question, what would happen
if these guys becameindependent? It rattled around
in my head for about 15 yearsbefore I finally decided to
(21:41):
start writing it down. We
Rob Southgate (21:43):
went there a few years ago, and my biggest
takeaway is it smells like horsecrap. Yep, cuz they don't have
cars there, not at all, and wow,the horse crap smell, yes, it's
like stepping back in time andstepping in something, because
that is brutal. But they'reknown for their fudge, yes, so
that is really funny. Thatsounds like a great book. I'm so
(22:05):
glad that four horsemenpublishes you. Yeah. And so
whether utopia is a connectedbut it's not an official sequel,
Erik Deckers (22:13):
correct, correct. So whether you and I'll be very,
very
Rob Southgate (22:16):
give us a brief one on that. We'll go into more
detail on another show. It's
Erik Deckers (22:20):
imagine what happened in pandemic, the way it
got politicized. Happens again.Only everyone is surprised to
find that the new pandemic hasabout a 99% mortality rate. Oh,
and so when the book opens, it's10 years after the pandemic, and
(22:41):
all the conservatives in theworld have died. Okay? So the
Liberals are left to run thingson their own, but because they
don't have any opposition, theyhave screwed it all up. And so I
focus on the fictional town ofAppleseed, Ohio, and everything
(23:04):
takes place there. And peoplewho have read Mackinac Island
will recognize connections tocharacters from the other book,
like one of the minor charactersin Mackinac Island gets name
dropped as a political pundit inwither utopia. Ah, okay, the
(23:26):
daughter of a minor charactergets she gets a scene in wither
Utopia so it stands alone. Youdon't have to read the first
book to read the second one, butif you've read the first book,
and then you go read witherutopia, those those connections
(23:46):
with
Rob Southgate (23:47):
some little Easter eggs hidden in there,
that's so fun. Well, Eric, thiswas really great. Go see Eric at
pop con Indy in Indianapolis.What are the dates? It's June,
2027
Erik Deckers (23:58):
2829 that's my birthday. Oh,
Rob Southgate (24:01):
happy birthday. I'm saying it early. We'll
pretend it was that. Listen tothis, Eric, listen to this on
your birthday. How appropriatethat he said Happy Birthday. But
go buy his book. Go get somesignatures, get some selfies
with him. Bring him some tavernstyle pizza. Show him what's
what. And Eric, this is justreally great. What is the best
(24:21):
place for people to engage withyou?
Erik Deckers (24:25):
I'm on threads, which is the Instagram network,
just Eric Deckers, E R, i, k, A,D, E, C, K, E, R, S, that's my
handle there. I'm also onInstagram, but I don't use it
very much, okay? Or go to Ericdeckers.com that's my humor
blog. All my columns getpublished there.
Rob Southgate (24:44):
Oh, great, great. I encourage everybody to go to
that. And I will also put thisin the show notes, so it makes
it really easy for people tofind you, engage with you, but
that's wonderful. I in fact, Ithink I already follow you on
threads, but if I don't watch mepop up today. So. Eric, this was
really great. Thank you so muchfor being on good luck with all
this and good luck. I hope youdon't take this the wrong way. I
(25:05):
hope you sell out inIndianapolis. I would love to,
yeah.
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