Text Box: I’ve always written books with a humorous bent.  Which is why, I guess, I’ve frequently been asked to speak about writing comedy.  But those first few requests produced some angst when I realized that I didn’t have a clue about how to did what I did!  Humor just comes naturally around my house.  So, being a total geek (the kind who used to love writing research papers...sick, isn’t it?) I started researching comedy.  What makes things funny.  One of my early ah-hah comedy moments was when I realized that COMEDY ISN’T UNIVERSAL.  I polled friends on t.v. shows they found hysterical and...sometimes I just didn’t get it.  I didn’t see what they saw in that brand of humor.  Text Box: Monty Python is a great example.  I started watching it and I didn’t get it.  Then I watched a sketch about the Spanish Inquisition.  Two people sitting on a couch, looking at pictures and chatting about inane topics when...red robed priests break in the room and shout, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”  Wow, how stupid, I thought.  Later in the show, another boring sketch when...you’ve got it, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”  By the end of the show, the minute a door popped open and I caught that first glimpse of a red robe, I’d start laughing.  It was a great example of a RUNNING GAG.  And as I wrote it up for my upcoming talk I realized, I’d done a running gag in my first Harlequin Duet, without realizing what I was doing.  I didn’t give it a name.  Throughout the story the heroine keeps referring to her first kiss with the hero.  He keeps insisting that it was mouth-to-mouth (she blew up the chemistry lab in school).  Finally, they kiss and she realizes what kissing him was really like.  She turns to him and says, “Wow, it was mouth-to-mouth.”  Ah-hah...I realized I wrote running gags.  Who knew?!!  LOL

Text Box: I’ll confess, I’m not a write-by-the-books sort of writer.  So much of what I do is instinctual, brought on by years and years of reading a book a day.  Mainly, I take the story in my head and try to capture it on the page.  So as I listen to someone at a workshop describe some aspect of writing, I frequently get those ah-hah moments where I think, hey, I do that!  I guess my greatest Ah-hah moment would have to be when I realized that I needed to trust myself and my storytelling. 

Text Box: Holly Jacobs, www.HollyJacobs.com Text Box: Upcoming books: THE HOUSE ON BRIAR HILL ROAD, Harlequin Everlasting Love, 10/07 The Moments, an eHarlequin exclusive short story, starting 9-10-07 EVERYTHING BUT A GROOM, Avalon Books, 12/07 EVERYTHING BUT A BRIDE, Avalon Books 2008 EVERYTHING BUT A WEDDING, Avalon Books 2008 SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER, Harlequin Everlasting Love, 8/08 THE PTA MOM TRILOGY, beginning 10/08 Text Box: Awards: Last year’s HERE WITH ME won an Award of Excellence, Write Touch Readers' Award, Golden Quill Award, National Readers' Choice Award

 

Text Box:  www.HollyJacobs.com THE HOUSE ON BRIAR HILL ROAD, 10/07 The Moments, eHarlequin Weekly Read, starting 9/10 thru 10/29/07 EN BUSCA DE SU PRINCESA: (Looking For His Princess), 10/07 EVERYTHING BUT A GROOM, 12/07 Award of Excellence, Write Touch Readers' Award, & Golden Quill Award Winne National Readers' Choice Award Winner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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