Writing Funny in Unfunny Times by Lois Winston
I write two humorous amateur sleuth series, The
Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries and The Empty Nest Mysteries. Currently
I’m working on the second Empty Nest Mystery—or I’m trying to. It isn’t easy to
write humor when there are so many horrible things happening in the world.
I live eighteen miles from Lower Manhattan. My
husband, son, and daughter-in-law all commute into New York every day. Fourteen
years ago I watched in real time as the second plane flew into The World Trade
Center and as both buildings collapsed. I couldn’t write for six months. It’s
hard to be funny when the world has turned grim and deadly.
I’m dealing with a similar anxiety now as
events unfold around the world. Somehow it feels wrong to write about
murder—especially in a humorous voice—given what’s happening. And the very last
thing I want to do right now is write something dark and grizzly. I wrote dark
and grizzly prior to 9/11. I can’t do that anymore. I’d much rather make people
laugh than scare the you-know-what out of them.
I’ve never understood why people can’t just get
along. One of my best friends has a completely opposite political view from
mine. Politics is the one thing we disagree on, but our friendship is too
important to let our political views tear us apart. We agree to disagree. End
of discussion. We know we’ll probably never convince the other to change our
views, so we don’t try. We respect each other’s right to our own beliefs. Too
bad the rest of the world can’t do that.
A few years ago I began thinking about the
difficult task parents have these days in explaining our violent world to their
children. It’s impossible to shield kids from reality these days. Thanks to
social media and 24/7 news they hear and see events as they happen.
I was recently reminded of a song from South Pacific that talks about how
children have to be taught to hate. We’re not born with bigotry and prejudice
built into our genes. We learn it. The other day I saw a clip from a
documentary about children as young as three years old being instructed by
jihadists on how to shoot guns. These babies are being taught how to kill
anyone who doesn’t espouse their philosophy.
But just as children can be taught to hate,
they can be taught that hate is wrong. They can be taught that it’s better if
people learn to get along with each other. That’s why I wrote The Magic Paintbrush, a chapter book for young children.
When
nine-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister Zoe are snowed in for days
with nothing to do, their complaints land them in every guy’s worst
nightmare—the kingdom of Vermilion, a land where everything is totally pink! At
first Jack is mistaken for a spy from the neighboring kingdom of Cobalt, but
Zoe convinces Queen Fuchsia that they’re from New Jersey and arrived by magic.
Queen
Fuchsia needs a king, but all the available princes in Vermilion are either too
short, too fat, too old, or too stupid. Jack and Zoe suggest she looks for a
king in Cobalt, but Vermilion and Cobalt have been at war since long before
anyone can remember. Jack and Zoe decide Vermilion and Cobalt need a Kitchen
Table Mediation to settle their differences. So they set out on an adventure to
bring peace to the warring kingdoms—and maybe along the way they just might
find a king for the queen.
Without being preachy, The Magic
Paintbrush addresses the issue of differences, in this case, a
kingdom that is all pink at war with a kingdom that is all blue for longer than
anyone can remember—so long that no one even knows what started the feud. It
takes two children from another land to point out to the rulers of both
kingdoms the benefits to getting along and how we're really all the same
inside.
Now, if we could only convince the
rest of the world to follow this philosophy…
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USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery,
romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter
books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically
acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature
answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and
needlework designer who often draws much
of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences
in the crafts industry. Visit
Lois/Emma at www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts &
Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Tsu at www.tsu.co/loiswinston, on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/anasleuth, and onTwitter at https://twitter.com/Anasleuth. Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.MyAuthorBiz.com/ENewsletter.php?acct=LW2467152513
Comments
Kathy, so glad you enjoy Anastasia! She's on hiatus right now while I try to get going with the second Empty Nest mystery, but she'll be back with a new adventure sometime late in 2016.
PS - a few months ago I read an article in the WSJ about special classes that were being offered to teach children how to be nice. As a parent, it seemed obvious that my job description included teaching my children how to be good people and citizens.
As for those classes you read about, makes you wonder about parents who abdicate their responsibilities and pay someone else to do what they should be doing. I know people lead busy lives, but jeez! IMHO people who can't find the time to teach their kids how to be decent human beings shouldn't have kids in the first place.
I am almost certain that my political views are opposite yours, but that's okay! I know my congressman's email addy and I often write to him so that he knows what I'm thinking, not what my party is thinking. Really who does agree with their party all the time?
The difference for so many of us in the USA is that we disagree and keep going. It's impossible for us to even comprehend the way some people think. So we teach our children to respect all people, but how do we teach them to respect those who would like to see us dead? We can't. Is that not what they are doing to their children?
It's a serious situation with no easy answers.
Nancy, I remember that Star Trek episode. Star Trek was full of allegorical stories like that. Gene Roddenberry was a genius, but unfortunately, I'm not sure how many of those stories had the impact on viewers that he hoped for.
And I completely understand why you'd want to write something that does work out...our world is such a mess right now, and we need all the hope we can find.
I'm sure your book will help to spread that hope.
(Oh, and I made sure to Tweet about this, too.)
GBPool, sounds like we need more people in this world like your parents.