Humor by Molly Harper:

My first writing job was as a newspaper reporter. Well, technically, my first writing job was as an obituary writer for my local newspaper. Which should tell you a lot about my personality.

While I working for the paper, I started writing a monthly humor column for the life and style section, mostly silly stories about my home life.  And I noticed that the columns that really got readers’ attention were the ones where I injured myself (a frequent occurrence) or humiliated myself (an even more frequent occurrence.)  So years later, when I started my first novel, NICE GIRLS DON’T HAVE FANGS, I decided that I was going to come up with the most humiliating way possible to become a vampire.

My main character, Jane Jameson, is fired from her job, despite the fact that she’s pretty good at being a youth librarian. She gets a restaurant gift certificate instead of a severance. On her way home from that restaurant, her car breaks down. And while she is walking down the proverbial dark country road, a drunk hunter drives by, mistakes her for a deer and shoots her.  A vampire happens along and saves her by turning her.

I discovered that the same statements that used to get a “what is WRONG with you?” response amongst friends and family, was exactly what people were looking for in their snarky romance heroines.

There is room for humor in any plot. Whether you’re writing a thriller, an erotica, or a horror story, taking a moment for the character to make a funny observation gives the reader a moment to breathe mentally – keeping them from being overwhelmed by the plot.

That said, the humor used must be authentic to the character and move the plot along. Giving the reader a moment to breathe is one thing, but don’t derail a whole chapter to make a joke. The same should be said of the editing process.  Don’t keep a scene that’s slowing you down because you like particular gag. This is a lesson I have had to learn the hard way.  I actually keep a “funny file” full of jokes that I’ve had to edit out of manuscripts, just in case I can find a home for them in another story.

First, you need to figure out what makes you laugh. Do you enjoy broad slapstick?  Or maybe character-driven quirks? This will be your most natural comedic style.

Then you add layers of

–          Weirdos – While your main characters have to be mostly normal and therefore accessible to the readers, they can have as many crazy, quirky friends and relatives as you can come up with. My most popular character is a vampire named Dick Cheney who wears smartass t-shirts and sells counterfeit iPods from the trunk of his car.

–          Dialogue – Conversations between characters reveal intimacy and history between characters without spoon-feeding the reader details. If you have difficulty with this, watch dialogue-heavy TV shows like Castle, Supernatural, Modern Family or anything in the Joss Whedon oeuvre to pick up speech patterns and structure.

–          Hyperbole and Humiliation – In the words of the brilliant Nancy Holder, what can you do to mess up your character’s life further? Say your character has just had an embarrassing interaction with an ex.  That’s bad enough. But how much worse would it be if she compounded that discomfort by realizing she had a cappuccino foam mustache the entire time they’d been speaking? Basically, you kick your character while he or she is down.

–          Pop Culture references – The wonderful thing about pop culture is that it’s a sort of collective consciousness your readers tap into.  Most readers may not be familiar with your hometown mayor’s incompetence, but most of them know about Kim Kardashian’s sex tape. You have to be careful with these as they can date your story. Also, you risk that after your book, which includes a joke about Charlie Sheen, comes out, something horrible happens to Charlie Sheen. And that will make your reader cringe and make you feel guilty. And the references you find funny may not be relevant to your reader. For instance, I am enormous nerd.  A lot of my references are comic book or scifi-related. And sometimes, my editor has to remind me that I am a romance writer, not a columnist for Wizard Magazine.

Tips and Tricks

–          Remember the Rule of Three. Once is an example. Twice proves the pattern. Three times confirms it.

–          Don’t be afraid of well-placed sentence fragments.

–          The closing line of each chapter must suck the reader into the next chapter. Be the bane of nightstands everywhere!

*****

Let’s take a look at Molly’s upcoming release.

Snow Falling on Bluegrass

Bluegrass #3

Amazon|B&N

Parks & Recreation meets The Blue Collar Comedy Tour in this third ebook in Molly Harper’s Bluegrass series of contemporary romances: A love triangle of colleagues heats up the winter lodge where they get snowed in for a week.

Kentucky Tourism Commission employee and executive assistant extraordinaire Kelsey is known around the office for having everything under control. So it’s not surprising that she and her boss, Sadie, have everything planned to the second for the office winter retreat. But there are things even Kelsey can’t micromanage.

An unprecedented snowstorm smothers half of Kentucky and knocks out the power, closes the roads, and generally shuts down the state. Luckily, the lodge has working fireplaces and enough food to keep the staff from turning on each other like something out of The Shining. Kelsey wouldn’t mind being stuck inside if it wasn’t for the tension with her not-so-secret crush, Charlie, the office’s statistician. But handsome Ranger Luke, the lodge’s only employee on hand, is there to take Kelsey’s mind off her discomfort.

Even though this weekend is supposed to be a planning session for KTC, Kelsey can’t help her mind from wandering and finds herself conflicted over Luke and Charlie. Someone’s love will keep her warm, but whose will it be?

*****

A little (or a lot) about Molly:

When Molly Harper was eight years old, she set up a “writing office” in her parents’ living room, complete with an old manual typewriter and a toy phone. And she (very slowly) pecked out the story of her third-grade class taking a trip around the world and losing a kid in each city. She had a dark sense of humor even then.

When Molly was considerably older, she headed for Western Kentucky University, where she majored in print journalism. After graduation, she landed a job with The Paducah Sun and married her high school sweetheart, David, a local police officer. After six years at the newspaper, Molly took a more family-friendly secretarial position at a local church office.

Her husband worked nights and Molly was alone with their small child in the “The Apartment of Lost Souls.” A big fan of vampire movies and TV shows, she decided to write a vampire romance novel. Molly created Jane Jameson, a bit of an accidental loser. Jane is single, almost 30, and a librarian working in Half-Moon Hollow, Ky. She has become a permanent fixture on her Mama’s prayer list. And despite the fact that she’s pretty good at her job, she just got canned so her boss could replace her with someone who occasionally starts workplace fires. Jane drowns her sorrows at the local faux nostalgia-themed sports bar. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer and shot by a drunk hunter. And then she wakes up as a vampire. The three-book Jane Jameson series–which includes Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs,Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men and Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever—was released in 2009.  A fourth and final installment, Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors, was released in 2012.

Molly continues stories in the Jane Jameson universe through her Half-Moon Hollow series,Driving Mr. Dead, The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires, Undead Sublet, and A Witch’s Handbook of Kisses and Curses.  Undead Sublet is a short story in The Undead in My Bedanthology.  A Witch’s Handbook of Kisses and Curses will be released in June 2013.  A special free audio holiday novella, I’m Dreaming of an Undead Christmas, was released in December 2013.

Molly will update her popular Naked Werewolf romance series in 2013. How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf, was released in February 2011, quickly followed by The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf. A third installment, How to Run With a Naked Werewolf, will be released in December 2013.  Her first-ever “haunted house story,” Better Homes and Hauntings, will be released in June 2014.

Molly will launch her first-ever contemporary romance series with My Bluegrass Baby in December 2012.  Rhythm and Bluegrass was released in October 2013.

Molly’s books are published by Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. They are available in print, as e-books and audio books at major book stores and on Amazon. Molly is a native of Kentucky. She lives in Paducah with her husband and children.

*****

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