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| FATHERS QUEST EXCERPT |
Her series combines elements of serious and silly, weighty issues and just plain fun. Debra's series tagline gives you a hint of what to expect, "In this town—and in this TV show—life imitates art."
Today Debra discusses writing humor into her stories and gives us a scene she didn't think would make it into her book. I have to say just picturing a scene like this cracked me up.
I love to read books that contain elements of humor. It doesn't have to be over-the-stop. In fact, slapstick is extremely hard to write. Believe me, I've tried. I usually get a scolding from my editor.
Something like,
“You're trying too hard here.”
“I don't find this humorous.”
“Less is more.”
Or the worst: a sad face.
I dread upside-down-heart sad faces. (Don't you think that should be an icon? And who agrees we need a thumbs-down on Facebook?)
Sorry. I digress. The point I'm trying to make is, with humor, everything is relative. I write the scene I see in my head and sometimes—not always—it works.
For example, I did NOT expect the following scene to make the cut in my book, UNTIL HE METRACHEL. And, yet, my editor adorned it with smiley faces and LOLs, and I've heard from a lot of readers who said it was their favorite scene in the book.
What do you think? Thumbs-up or upside-down heart?
She’d turned to finish picking up the boxes but something stopped her.
Rufus glanced around. “Uh-oh.” He put his hands on his hips. “Fred,” he boomed. “What have you done to Rachel’s…um…sex toys?”
Rufus leaned down to pick up the object Rat Girl had dropped beside his booted foot. The handle of the hot pink whip was as long as his forearm but tapered to a fine point, which was adorned with ribbons and brilliant purple feathers. He couldn’t have been more surprised if a marching band of elves had suddenly appeared.
He cleared his throat and picked up the gaudy, over-the-top instrument of…um…pleasure? He hated to admit he wasn’t sure how it might be used, but his initial impression of Rachel had changed. And a certain part of him could even envision testing out the silly thing. With her.
“Oh, my,” she said, her gaze following as a couple of bright feathers drifted back to the snow.
“Sorry,” he said, handing the whip to her, blunt end first, as if it were a knife or a loaded pistol.
Her chin rose with a kind of dignity Rufus admired, but her attempted smile betrayed her. “Faulty boxing. That happens when you hire family,” she said, a little hitch in her voice.
He was a single step away from her. Even in the dry, cold breeze, he could smell her. Not the cedar, pine, dog and earth he was most familiar with, but something fresh and feminine that he realized with a start he’d been craving. Their gazes met and held for what felt like too long. Especially given the nature of the objects scattered on the ground around them.
He was the first to move. He started toward the wreck of a box, intending to cram anything and everything back inside. She jumped sideways, arms out, to block his efforts. “No. Please. I’ll do it. This is so embarrassing. When I see my brother…”
Words spilled out of her mouth at a rate Rufus’s brother would have called super-soundic. Even as a little kid, Stephen was always making up new words.
He gave a mental shake to return to the moment. What part of this situation made me think of Stevie?
Farce. Stephen had loved gross-out comedy. The more inane the better. Their parents had hoped he’d out-grow it. Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
He was stuck in memory lane when he heard her low, “Uh-oh.” Her inflection sounded pained.
Since she’d positioned herself to keep him from seeing the worst of the spill, he had to peer around her to discover what unspeakable horror had her momentarily frozen in place.
“Yowch,” he said, one hand dropping to his groin without conscious thought. “I’ll replace it.”
Rachel looked at the horrified expression on Rufus’s face and wasn’t sure whether to laugh or pray for the earth to open up and swallow her alive. It was a sixty-five dollar, nine-inch, all-too-realistic looking dildo that Rachel had unwrapped at her bridal shower to the jeers —“Trust me. It’s better than the real thing,” one woman had proclaimed—and cheers of other party goers. Her friends and co-workers had even named it for her. “Dexter.” After the HBO serial killer with a conscience.
At the moment, Dex was giving extreme pleasure to the dog with the big, squarish head. Fred, she believed. And Fred was chomping on the pliable “life-like” rubber with such gusto his master actually looked pained by the image.
She fought to contain the laugher that started bubbling up from that horrible well of inappropriate responses that her exhusband had hated so much, but she simply couldn’t it hold back. Within seconds she was doubled over, howling. Tears—the Chris-Rock-on-a-roll kind—obscured her vision and she actually had to
grab Rufus’s arm for support until her ab-scrunching guffaws diminished.
“Oh, wow,” she said through her sniffles. “I needed that.”
Around here, we refer to that as the “Sex toys” scene. Who woulda thought, right?
Tell me what makes you giggle in a book or when you think the author is completely out of her mind...and your name will go into a drawing for one of my books. They don't all have sex toys, but I guarantee there will be humor.
Presently, I'm at work on my new book and, as usual, I walk a line between serious and silly, weighty issues and just plain fun.
RomanticTimes BOOKreviews, and it's one of your choices...if you're into that sort of
thing. ;-)
Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eHarlequin You can find all the books of her Sentinel Series listed on Debra's Website. Books are available in both print and ebook.
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In 2000, her first romance novel was published by Harlequin for its Superromance line. That novel, THAT COWBOY'S KIDS, has recently been re-released, bringing Deb's total number of published books to 30. Her May 2010 release, UNTIL HE MET RACHEL, was honored by RTBook Reviews as the Reviewer's Choice for "Best Superromance of 2010."
In addition to her two current Superromance titles, RETURN TO THE BLACK HILLS and A FATHER'S QUEST, Deb is enjoying a renewed flirtation with short stories. Her first Kindle release, "A Hundred Years or More," looks at that special bond between a pet and his owner, and what happens when a pet--in this case, a parrot--outlives his owner.
