LOVE TO LAUGH?

I love books that make me laugh. If a writer can elicit a smile, chuckle or make me giggle out loud, I rate the book as a winner. Laughing makes me feel good. I like leaving a story with a smile on my face.

Writing humor, however, it is not an easy task. Those of us who write humorous novels must rely solely on the power of our words. Photos, actors and sound tracks are not available to bring our humor to life. We must craft the situations and reactions using just the right language and dialogue. Sometimes it works and other times (more often than not) the scene goes out the window.

I know I won’t always be able to make everyone laugh. After all, we each have a different idea of what’s funny. There are even people I refer to as "humor-challenged." So, I just have to go with what feels right. How do I use humor in my writing? I look for the humor in everyday life. People would rather laugh than cry when faced with difficult life experiences such as death, disease or hardship. I play off experiences I’ve had, nearly had, or have happened to a friend. Most importantly, I’m not afraid to laugh at myself. I find the best humor comes from within -- an honest, hair-brained moment I can share with others through the eyes of my fictional characters.

I filled my latest Lexi Carmichael mystery novel, No Place Like Rome, with lots of humorous situations. Lexi gets herself into the stickiest of situations and causes even more mayhem and chaos trying to get out of them. I know that if I can make myself laugh, that's half the battle.

Read more about NO PLACE LIKE ROME here.

Now the question is, how much do you love to laugh when reading?

HERE COME THE GEEKS!

The fourth book in my geeky cyber mystery series, NO PLACE LIKE ROME, drops this Monday, November 25, and I'm pretty excited about it! 

For those of you not familiar with the series, Lexi is a geek first-class—a gamer, hacker, book nerd and fangirl who double-majored in mathematics and computer science and has zero social skills. Her day job for a hot new cyber-intelligence firm has landed her an exciting case on behalf of the sexiest uberhacker in the universe, code-named Slash. Slash's uncle in Rome has been accused of siphoning money from the Vatican Bank and it’s up to Lexi to hunt the hacker and clear his name.

Here is a short excerpt from the book:

I’ve loved listening to music since I was a little girl. Not because I’m musically gifted, but because notes, themes, chords and tempo all have an intrinsic mathematical logic that speaks to me. After all, music is defined by its numeric divisions, such as a beat, a measure or a bar. Musical scales are actually harmonics based on the numerical ratios present in the Fibonacci series, which are a sequence of integers beginning at zero and one and continuing with each new number being the sum of the previous two.

I know all of this because I’m a geek first-class. My name is Lexi Carmichael and I’m a mild-mannered twenty-five-year old who, thankfully for music aficionados, is not employed in any part of the music industry. By day, I work as the Director of Information Security at a hot new cyber-intelligence firm just outside of Washington, D.C. By night, I’m a gamer, book nerd and fangirl (Bond, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings). I’ve got long brown hair, no discernible curves and zip in the social skills department. I double-majored in mathematics and computer science at Georgetown University with a specialty in cybersecurity. Ask me to talk about a rigorous axiomatic framework or computational complexity theory, and I’m all over it. Ask me to make small talk and I’ll imagine myself jumping off a bridge.

Haven’t tried a Lexi Carmichael adventure yet? Well, you’re in luck! The first book in the series NO ONE LIVES TWICE, is now available everywhere ebooks are sold for ***FREE***.  But hurry, this offer ends on November 30!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FROM CARINA PRESS OR HERE TO DOWNLOAD FROM AMAZON.COM OR HERE FOR BARNESANDNOBLE.COM.

So, who is your favorite geek of all time? Albert Einstein? Sheldon Cooper? Copernicus? Vint Cerf? Thomas Edison? Inquiring minds want to know!  :)

Julie Moffett is a bestselling and award-winning author who writes in the genres of mystery, historical romance and paranormal romance. Learn more about Julie and her books on Facebook, Twitter and her website. She has won numerous awards, including the EPIC 2011 Award for Best Action/Adventure Novel, PRISM Award for Best Romantic Time-Travel and Best of the Best Paranormal Books of 2002. She has also garnered several nominations for the Daphne du Maurier Award, the Holt Medallion and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.