The Overnight Bestseller is very pleased to welcome Melodie Campbell, who has over 200 publications and was a finalist for
the 2012 Derringer and Arthur Ellis awards. She is the Executive
Director of Crime Writers of Canada. She's also a very funny lady.
Melodie's first two novels are
A Purse to Die For (mystery) and
Rowena through the Wall (comic fantasy). Her third novel is
The Goddaughter concerning which the
Library Journal said:"Campbell`s
crime caper is just right for Janet Evanovich fans. Wacky family
connections and snappy dialogue make it impossible not to laugh."
.
Over to you, Melodie. . .
“I had the flu once. It was terrible. I couldn’t eat a thing
for three hours.”
I hope you giggled at that line. I think it’s one of my best.
And yes, I am a tad fond of eating. In fact, you could list it as my
major hobby.
My name is Melodie Campbell, and I write comedies. (This
is a
self-help group, right?) Sure I’d like to kick the habit and write
a ‘real’ book with literary merit.
Okay, so that’s a lie. Leave
The Goddaughter behind? Not write a
sequel? I’m starting to hyperventilate. Actually, I love writing
comedies. It’s in my blood.
A GREEK MASK
Some people are born beautiful. But most of us aren’t and we
look for ways to survive the slings and arrows of life. Sometimes we
choose to hide behind a mask. That Greek Comedy mask was the one I
picked way back.
As a means of self-preservation in the cruel world of teenagers, I
looked for the ‘funny.’ More often than not, I made fun of
myself. This was easy to do. I knew the target well and there was a
wealth of material. And it didn’t hurt anyone else, so people liked
it.
When I left school and had a ‘real’ job, I started writing
stand-up on the side. I rarely delivered it – usually I wrote for
others. That led to a regular newspaper humour column, and more.
So when it came to writing novels, I fell back into ‘safe
mode’. Write it funny.
IT’S AN ADDICTION
Worse than chocolate and foreign Counts… Comedy writers take a
situation, and ask themselves ‘what’s the worst thing that could
happen now?’ And then, what’s the funniest?
What’s the
worst thing that could happen to the Goddaughter when
she is reluctantly recruited to carry hot gemstones over the border?
Predictable would be: she gets caught at customs. But I don’t want
predictable. I want funny. Instead, they get stolen. By a complete amateur! It’s
embarrassing, that’s what it is. How is she going to keep this from
her new boyfriend Pete, who thinks she’s gone clean? And what the
heck is she going to tell her uncle, the crime boss? Nothing, of course. She’s going to steal them back. Or die
trying.
And hopefully the audience will die laughing.
But why do it? Why does an otherwise sane individual write zany
and some might say silly comedy, and risk the inevitable hit from
critics who say your book is without great literary merit?
One reason, and one reason only: many readers love it. Their
comments and reviews are heart-lifting. I’ve lightened their day
with romance and laughter, and in some cases given them a story they
can escape into, over and over again. These readers are the whole
reason I keep writing screwball comedies. Yes, it’s true. It
wouldn’t be fun to write if I didn’t have warm and generous
readers.
Melodie Campbell's second novel in the Rowena series is
Rowena and The Dark Lord (April 2013), and she will publish
The Goddaughter's Revenge in October 2013. Follow her comic blog at
www.melodiecampbell.com.
