Humor by Diane Burton

What is it about humor that appeals to so many yet eludes others? I was a serious child. Oldest of seven, the one left in charge, the responsible one. That carried over into my adult life. Until I met a certain guy with a wicked sense of humor. He could tease me out of my seriousness and helped me find my own sense of humor. I was smart enough to grab onto that guy, and we’ve been married for almost forty-six years. I’m still too serious at times in real life, but I can let go in my writing.

While I love science fiction movies, like Star Trek, Star Wars and Serenity (Firefly spinoff), romantic comedy is my favorite type of movie. Romancing the Stone, It’s Complicated, Something’s Gotta Give, Six Days, Seven Nights. Falling in love is serious business, but without that spark of humor it came be maudlin. 

Humor comes in many forms. Give me wicked banter any day over slapstick. I never understood the appeal of the Three Stooges. Maybe that’s a guy thing. I loved the Saturday morning cartoon Rocky & Bullwinkle because of the dialogue. Same with the Muppet Movie. When they were young, I took my children to see that movie at an afternoon matinee. The best part was the dad behind me who, along with the few other adults in the theater, couldn’t stop laughing at all the “good” parts—like “gone with the Schwin.” I love that the writers of children’s movies slip in the comedic touches for the adults.

I said I’m not fond of slapstick, so how do you explain my love of the Stephanie Plum series? The physical comedy is laugh out loud funny. Author Janet Evanovich knows how to take a situation, twist it, turn it on its ear and make it hilarious. I should never read those books in bed because the bed shakes from holding in my laughter—don’t want to wake the Hubs with laughing out loud.

Life is serious. The news every night keeps getting grimmer and more disturbing. Comedy is an antidote to life. The value of humor is vastly underrated. In fact, rarely has a comedy won an Oscar, with the exception of It Happened One Night (1934). In fact, it won 5 Oscars. Actors whose forte is their comedic timing rarely win Academy Awards. What do they receive awards for? Their dramatic work.

Medical studies tell us that laughter releases endorphins, nature’s natural pain killers. Laughter relaxes the skeletal system, reduces stress, lowers the blood pressure and regulates the heart rate. According to inspirational speaker Marilyn Meburg, your liver needs laughter because it gets no exercise. The liver is the organ in your body that gets rid of toxins. So, if you’re not laughing you’re neglecting your liver.

Give your liver and the rest of your body that antidote to “real life” and enjoy a good comedy.

When I wrote Switched, a science fiction romance, it was not a good time. My stories had been rejected time and again. Finally, I wrote for fun. I wasn't going to submit it because (back in 1999) no publishing house was buying sci-fi romance. Or so I thought. In 2000, a small niche publisher of paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction romance heard about my story. (A friend of a friend mentioned it to the owner.) I was encouraged to submit. And they bought it. Yay! The editor told me she laughed so hard, she fell out of bed reading my story. That made me feel so great.

Switched came out in 2001 and was available for two years before the rights reverted back to me. Many years later, a friend told me about self-publishing in e-book version. She said the book was just sitting there doing nothing, why not? So in 2011, I self-published Switched. People bought it. Wow. I was on a roll. Since then, I've self-published 11 books with one more on the way. I believe that humor sold Switched more than the science or the romance.

Blurb:

As if being kidnapped by aliens isn't bad enough, Jessie Wyndom discovers they grabbed her by mistake. She wise cracks past her fear especially when she learns she was part of an experiment separating Terran twins before birth. Her twin just took Jessie's place back in Ann Arbor, Michigan while she gets to twiddle her thumbs on an Alliance of Planets starship. The only good part is the hunky captain. Except. He's so unemotional he could be Mr. Spock's double.

Captain Marcus Viator's well-organized life is turned upside down by the free-spirited female from Earth. Problems with the starship prevent him from returning her to her home. Together, they discover treachery and true love.

Switched is available for 99₵ at Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ Smashwords

What are your favorite comedy books or movies?

Diane Burton combines her love of mystery, adventure, science fiction, and romance into writing romantic fiction. She blogs here on the 16th and 30th of each month. She shares snippets from her stories every weekend on her blog.  Her latest release is NUMBERS NEVER LIE, a romantic suspense, available at Amazon, free on Kindle Unlimited. 

This post first appeared on Christine Warner's blog on 9-26-2012. It has been tweaked and expanded for today.

Movies: Love 'em, Hate 'em by Diane Burton

I love movies. Almost as much as I love reading. Give me a rousing action-adventure or a laugh out loud romantic comedy or, better yet, an action-adventure with romantic comedy. Knight and Day (Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) fits that last category. Bruce Willis’ Die Hard movies combine action adventure with a lot of humor. Fantasy and science fiction movies with humor and/or romance also appeal. Star Wars, Star Trek. I love being swept away into another dimension with likeable characters.

I won’t go so far as saying I hate serious drama, I’m just not a fan. While I can appreciate the talent that goes into making films like Lincoln or Schindler’s List, they aren’t on my “watch again” list. When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey came to the theater, I wanted to see it. Hubs (who isn’t into fantasy but often indulges me) said he couldn’t sit through a 2 hour, 50 minute movie. So what did we see instead? Lincoln (2 hours and 40 minutes). Great performances by Daniel Day Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Sally Field, but for me, the movie dragged.

One of the things I hate about the Oscars is the lack of recognition for comedy. The quote “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” has been attributed to various actors. That’s not as important as the quote itself. Comedy takes perfect timing and the right touch. It can’t be too heavy-handed (like some of the James Bond movies). I love sparkling wit, as in movies like It Happened One Night and All About Eve (both of which won the Oscar for best picture, by the way). Why is it that back in the “olden days” of the 30s and 50s, comedy was recognized and now it’s not?

My taste in movies is about the same as my taste in books. I'm not a fan of literary fiction, either. So I probably won’t see most of the Oscar nominees. But I will continue to enjoy my action-adventure-romantic-comedy-scifi-thrillers.