Guest Post by Author Liz Marshall
We writers take
everything way too seriously. Not only should we enjoy life – and writing is a
huge part of our lives, so by all means, let’s enjoy it – but: why is our writing so
serious? People like humor. This was proved twenty years ago by Janet Evanovich,
who stood the mystery-thriller genre on its head with her first book, One
For The Money. Her squirrely heroine, Stephanie Plum, bungled her way
through life, solving mysteries by accident and luck, and finding love along
the way – and people by the millions bought her book. She has over thirty-five
thousand followers on Twitter alone, and is still pumping out Stephanie Plum
novels to legions of adoring fans.
Yes, I hear you. You say
your book is non-fiction? Self-help even? Not the stuff of comedy, surely. And
yet: everywhere I go, someone is recommending – nay, imploring that
I read Write. Publish. Repeat, a non-fiction, how-to book for
indie publishers. Excellent book, best-seller, chock full of information – and
the authors wisecrack all the way to the bank.
Or, consider Exit
Man, by Greg Levin. It’s a novel about a very unfunny subject: assisted
suicide. Levin had the option of playing it straight, as his character
questions his ability to do the job, the morality of helping people take their
own lives, and the constant fear of being caught by the police. And he does
play it straight, while also making ironic observations. A lot of
ironic observations. As of this writing, he has twenty-one reviews on Amazon,
the vast majority of them five star, and almost without exception readers
highlight and appreciate the humor above all else.
Nelson DeMille, a
successful author by any standard, writes mystery/thrillers. I’m reading his Panther right
now, a grim tale about an Al Qaeda operator in Yemen who is wanted by U.S.
anti-terror operations for plotting the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. John
Corey, the main character, is a tough, no-nonsense ex-NYPD FBI agent. Well,
he’s no-nonsense when he has to be, and he always gets his man, but there’s a
lot of downtime on that no-nonsense stuff, and he fills it with wisecracks.
Pages and pages of his snarky observations on people, places, things, and
anything else that’s put in front of him. And we readers just keep reading his
books.
I, too, am finding that
when people reach out to tell me how much they enjoyed my book, it is the humor
they mention first and foremost. And I’m listening.
The funny thing is, Seeing
Eye didn’t start out be funny. Rory Wilson, the main character, does
not see the humor in her situation. If anything, she’s depressed at being
estranged from her family and angry at being cursed with a gift she doesn’t
want – and that’s before the murders start happening. But, somehow, this ironic
tone emerges that I’ve left in and even expanded upon. I didn’t think about it
too much, to tell the truth, it just felt right. And I’m glad I did.
This advice isn’t for
everyone, of course. If the normal reaction to your humor is eye-rolling or
grimacing, tread carefully. I’m just saying, if you can pull it off, go ahead
and jump in there – readers like it.
About Liz Marshall: She
was born and raised in New York City, and moved to Phoenix to raise her
children. Seeing Eye is her first book, written at the ripe
old age of - well, she won't say, but it was a bit old. And very ripe. Prior to
publishing her novel, Liz had a short story, Falling Into Place,
published in the 2012 Desert Sleuths Sisters in Crime Anthology, and a poem, Woman
Eye, Man Eye, published in the Winter 2012 Issue of Canyon Voices. She is
currently working on the sequel to Seeing Eye - A Day at the Fair,
to be titled “Seeing Eye – A Walk in the Park.” See: http://www.LizMarshall.Co Twitter: @elizmar987 www.facebook.com/AuthorLizMarshall
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Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog
© 2014
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