It’s true. I love to laugh. I love the music of laughter.
As it says in Proverbs 17:22:
A merry heart is good medicine.
And there have been many occasions in my life where it seemed like a merry heart was the only medicine that helped.
When I was growing up, I always admired the class clown. I wanted to be the class clown, but I was never quite bold enough or quick enough with the quips.
Instead the humor came out in the stories I wrote.
It’s not that I enjoy laughing AT others. Rather, I love the zany, absurd humor that comes from mixing together the quirks and foibles of characters in a story.
One series I enjoyed a lot as a kid was the Alvin Fernald series by Clifford B. Hicks. It’s not hard to see the influence of Alvin, Shoie and Daphne in the characters of Kevin, Mitch and Tanya in The Maker’s Pool.
Another humorous series I enjoy as an adult is the Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse. The humor that arises out of Bertie Wooster’s misguided good intentions is laugh-out-loud funny and helps me put my own goofs in perspective.
More fun to read
A story with humor is just more fun to read. In writing The Maker’s Pool, I wrote a story with the type of humor that I like to read: absurd character-based humor.
Some of the funniest moments in the story arise from Kevin’s willingness to try almost any zany idea, especially when it comes to science experiments, despite Mitch’s misgivings.
Mitch’s younger sister Tanya is an overachiever who means well by pushing Mitch to be a better version of himself in scenes that are sometimes comedic, sometimes touching.
More of a dreamer, Mitch needs that nudge from Tanya to stop dreaming and start doing. But he also resents that he needs a nudge and shows flashes of resentment in humorous ways.
Favorite funny scene
I do have a favorite funny scene. It comes near the end, so I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I just love the humorous payoff when the villain is vanquished. The sheer indignity of it makes me laugh.
Do you have a favorite funny scene from the book? You can share it in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading – and keep on laughing. It’s good medicine!
