Chronicling life’s funny moments

By Dan St. Yves

Bruce Cameron with Dan St. Yves

From the release of 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter (adapted into the hit ABC TV show starring the late John Ritter), Bruce Cameron has become the gold standard for award-winning humour-writing. The hilarious follow-up, How to Remodel a Man led to an appearance on Oprah, and his latest book, 8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter has been optioned for a major motion picture by the producers of The Devil Wears Prada and Forrest Gump.

What the devil does this have to do with real estate, you might ask? Well, Mr. Cameron’s writings – both in book format and his syndicated newspaper column – has a strong focus on family, is quite often set in a home, and therefore straddles the category just enough, I figure. Plus I was fortunate enough to spend some time talking with him in Ventura, Calif. last summer. I asked him then if he felt that writing humour, particularly about his family, had perhaps changed his life.

“Yeah, I was actually an executive-type working for General Motors, which used to be a car company,” he says. “What happened was that my writing got to the point where it could sustain me – so I left the business and went into writing full-time in 2002. 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter had been out for about six months, and I moved to Hollywood to try breaking into show biz, which is a lot like trying to break into someone’s house. All the alarms go off, and everyone tries to keep you from getting inside.”  

What was the genesis of 8 Simple Rules?

“The genesis of 8 Simple Rules was my teenage daughter. I had this little cute girl – who wore bunny slippers and wanted me to read her a story – and one night she went upstairs, and when she came down the next morning she was wearing make-up, and a sullen, surly attitude, and I thought ‘oh, my gosh, something horrible has happened to my child!’ Then all of a sudden I realized I was under siege from ANOTHER direction, which was all these boys were suddenly coming to the house, and I couldn’t stop them. It was like being in a zombie movie! These smelly, ugly things would come to my door, trying to get into my house – I’d send them away, and then two more would show up. So, I came up with these rules, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. I sent the list out over the Internet, and it was an instant hit.”

Your next book, How to Remodel a Man, was a pretty inspired concept.

“How to Remodel a Man came from my sense that there was this whole group of people out there who wanted to change men. And for wont of a better term, I’ll call these people ‘women’. I had this sense that there was this whole group of people out there that might be intensely interested in a man, writing from ‘the inside’ giving them some tips and techniques on exactly what they need to do to alter the male of the species. You know what they like to do – they like to buy a man at the store, and then take ‘em home and make alterations.”

Cameron’s next book is a diversion from his humour writing, although there will be some amusing moments, blended with what he hopes is inspirational as well. A Dog’s Purpose, the story of a life written from the perspective of a dog, will be released this year. Hey, dogs live in homes too.

Check out all that is W. Bruce Cameron at www.wbrucecameron.com

You can also listen to (or download) this interview in full from http://thatdanguy.libsyn.com/, or if you subscribe to iTunes, it’s available as a free download from “thatdanguy’s podcast”.

Humour columnist and author Dan St. Yves was licensed with Royal LePage Kelowna for 11 years. Check out his website at www.nonsenseandstuff.com, or contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .