Konstanz Silverbow's Blog, page 10

Silverbow Promotions Virtual Book Club

Welcome to Silverbow Promotions Virtual Book Club! 

The first Tuesday of every month we’re going to highlight one author, one book. All participants will read the featured book during that month. And at the next meeting, we’ll discuss what we loved (or maybe didn’t love) about it. 

There will be games, giveaways, “get to know you’s” with the authors, teasers for upcoming books, and more! 

Can’t afford the book we’re reading that month? No worries! For those who wish to participate but are unable to purchase the books, the authors will be providing e-copies. However, if you are given a free copy, we ask that you please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

We also encourage those who are purchasing the books to please leave your review on Amazon and Goodreads as well. 

These events are not only to help the authors gain new readers and more reviews but to help readers find their new favorite books!

Have questions? Comments? Are you an author wishing to participate? Send Silverbow Promotions a message.

January's Featured Book & Author: In Her Eyes by Cadence Rae. RSVP HERE! 

Guest Post by September C. Fakes ~ Writing Humor

Introduction
I've been to a few workshops on writing humor, and I've read about writing humor, but the funny thing is, none of them really taught me how to actually write humor. But yet they all said the same thing: Writing humor is hard, harder than writing seriously, because if you fail at humor, you fail horribly.

I heard it so much, it made me fear failure rather than strive to develop that writing talent. For years I avoided writing humor, period. But the catch to that is that I also often hear how humor is a huge draw for an audience.

I read recently in Showing & Telling by Laurie Alberts that humor is hard to teach and that some writers believe it can't be taught at all. If you know these writers, send them to this post, or send them to this post.

People think writing humor can't be taught because they don't know how to teach it. Some people can write humor, but can't teach it. They don't know how they are funny because it's just intuitive and natural to them. I was at one workshop on humor, and the only "how-to" tip they gave was that humor had to just come up naturally in the story. But professional comedians slave away and work their butts off writing their jokes, and then practicing them. That's not natural. Sure, some comedians do improv (Whose Line is it Anyway? was one of my favorite shows), so they're more natural, but I believe most comedians have to work to be funny.









Look at shows like The Office. Those writers obviously know how to write that kind of humor. And they use some of the same humor techniques over and over--that's not just happening, that's planned out. It's formulaic. Look at the Marvel movies. They have their own style of humor too. I once read an interview with Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, in it he talked about how insanely difficult it is to come up with jokes sometimes.

So yes, writing humor can be hard. But it's not impossible. After all the (non)advice I got on writing humor. (Sure, some of them did mention one or two humor tactics, but not how to do them) I decided to take it into my own hands. So I've studied humor on my own, and I've made my own "How to Write Humor" article that actually tells you (or rather myself) HOW to write humor, by going over 15+ humor methods.

It's way too long for me to include all those methods in this blog post, so today, I'm just sharing two techniques. To see all 15+ methods, you can go here.

Method #1: Overstatements and Exaggerations
An overstatement or exaggeration is playing up something--making something seem bigger than it is.

Humor articles I did read said exaggeration or overstatements are a no-no, and then go on by giving examples like "My room was so messy, it looked like a bomb had gone off." Well, guess what? That's just a bad example. It's cliche. And just. . . blah. (I'll explain why it doesn't work in a second.) The articles are right, don't write that one! But the articles are wrong in saying that there are no good exaggerations. That's not true. There are loads of good exaggerations and overstatements. Most parodies and spoofs are exaggerations.

Here is a spoof trailer for the movie The Number 23. I haven't seen the original movie, but I saw the trailer for it. Watch how this spoof exaggerates that trailer for humor:



If your exaggeration is cliche or generic, it'll fall flat. That's one reason why "My room was so messy, it looked like a bomb had gone off" doesn't work, but the second reason is it's been exaggerated too much. If you exaggerate too much, it'll be ridiculous and sound stupid.

"Wait," some of you might be saying, "but that spoof and so many other stories are hugely exaggerated."

That's because how much you can exaggerate depends directly on what kind of story you are telling. Some stories are like the spoof I shared--their whole purpose is based off the mechanics of exaggeration and overstatement. But most stories aren't like that. At the beginning of your novel, you are setting up reader's expectations about what kind of story this is going to be. If your exaggeration takes you too far out of the realm you've created, it'll fail. You just need to take your exaggeration far enough.

So, if your story is pretty true-to-life and regular, you don't want to compare a character's bedroom to a bomb going off. The voice of your narrator also sets up boundaries for exaggeration. How far you can take overstatements depends on voice.




Read the way J.K. Rowling takes her exaggeration just far enough outside the realm of Harry Potter's world and the realm of her narrator's voice. The set up is that Harry is eating in the Great Hall next to Ron. Lavender arrives, and they start making out. Then Hermione enters (bold mine).

"Hi, Parvati!" said Hermione, ignoring Ron and Lavender completely. "Are you going to Slughorn’s party tonight?" 

"No invite," said Parvati gloomily. "I’d love to go, though, it sounds like it’s going to be really good…. You’re going, aren’t you?" 

"Yes, I’m meeting Cormac at eight, and we’re-" 

There was a noise like a plunger being withdrawn from a blocked sink and Ron surfaced. Hermione acted as though she had not seen or heard anything.
"-we’re going up to the party together."

Comparing two people pulling apart from kissing to a plunger and blocked sink is totally an overstatement, that, coupled with "Ron surfaced," made readers laugh.

Want another example of exaggeration? Here is a (clean) clip from Zoolander.



See how it plays up Ben Stiller's "look" to be outside the realms of reality?

In the Amazing Spider-man when a thief pulls out a knife, Spider-man fall down and says, "You've found my weakness! It's small knives!" and he start's acting like he's terrified. He even asks a hilariously stupid question: "Is that a real knife?" And even funnier is that the thief answers seriously, "Yes, it's a real knife." That's an example of a character using exaggeration. So your characters can exaggerate things for humor too.



So you don't have to blacklist exaggeration.

I also think one reason people have a problem with exaggeration is because it tends to be the go-to humor tactic for beginning writers, who are still learning how to do it and who might not be aware of the other humor tactics available.

Method #2 The Understatement
The technique I see almost always addressed after people put-down the overstatement is the understatement. The articles I read say, "Hey, don't use overstatement. It's bad. Use understatement instead." They refer to understatement with good reason. It can be easy to do and can have a powerful effect.

The understatement is the opposite of overstatement. Instead of playing up a part of your story, you greatly downplay it.

I'll give you an example. In Trigun, the protagonist is an outlaw with a $$60 billion bounty on his head, and he's the best gunman on the planet, partly because, unknown to those around him, he's not human. He has superior skill, aim, speed, and everything to make him basically unbeatable.

Contrary to his outlaw reputation, he loves kids and plays games with them around town, acting like an idiot in the process. In one episode, he enters a quick draw tournament to earn money to help a family in need. The town's kids witness him ace each category. Then we hear this dialogue exchange between two of the kids:

Kid: Woah! Vash is in the tournament!
Kid 2: Now he's cool enough to join our club.

If you're watching the show, you're laughing because "Now he's cool enough to join our club" is a huge understatement, because there is basically no one more skilled--"cooler"--than Vash, so the idea that he wasn't cool enough to qualify for a children's club is hilarious.

Source
This humor tactic works like this: You show your audience something or someone extraordinary, then downplay it. You can downplay through dialogue or just through your narration. You can even downplay through description.

Now, just like the overstatement, this one can go wrong too. I've seen some understatements that just make me want to facepalm because they are so cheesey or unrealistic. In one book I read in elementary school, there was a character who downplayed every near-death situation by saying, "Piece of cake" afterwards, and even back then, I groaned every time, though if I didn't understand why. The worst part, was that "Piece of cake" was the last line of the novel too. (I almost threw up.)

It didn't work partly because it was cliche, so the joke fell flat; the other part was that it was downplayed too much. Just like you can exaggerate things too much outside the realm of your novel, you can downplay too much. It can fail the same way, so pay attention to cliches, your type of story, your narrative voice etc.

Context can help that from happening. In the Trigun example, the kids had no clue that Vash was a super humanoid capable of ruling the world, if he wanted, and they'd never seen him shoot his gun before, so the understatement wasn't stupid coming from them. They meant it genuinely and we understand why.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into Gringott's, one of their goblin companions gets killed when a dragon breathes fire all over him. Ron says, "That's unfortunate." And people laughed because it was an understatement.

Let's take a second and compare the two tactics we've covered so far. They usually work best like this:

Overstatement: set up something ordinary --> exaggerate it
Understatement: set up something extraordinary --> downplay it.

To see all of my humor methods and how to write them, go to my master list here.



Sometimes September C. Fawkes scares people with her enthusiasm for writing and reading. People may say she needs to get a social life. It'd be easier if her fictional one wasn't so interesting. September C. Fawkes graduated with an English degree with honors from Dixie State University, where she was the managing editor of The Southern Quill literary journal and had the pleasure of writing her thesis on Harry Potter. Today she works for a New York Times best-selling author, is penning a novel, and sharing writing tips on her blog, which you can find at www.SeptemberCFawkes.com

Heart of Orion by Laura Bastian

Book Title:  Heart of OrionGenre:  YA Sci-fi
~ About the Book ~
Holly discovers she can teleport anywhere with only a thought. When Jai is injured, she is forced to take him back to Rommader for neither of them will survive the breaking of their soul bond. Upon arrival, they learn Queen Amira has been kidnapped. On a ship traveling across the universe, Amira is forced to develop a formula for an amulet with unlimited traveling power--or her captors will murder her husband. Unwilling to let her enemies have that much power, Amira must devise a plan to escape while pretending to cooperate, but in order to do so, she realizes she must make an amulet. Can Holly find a way to save her, or will Amira figure out the formula and make it home on her own without being lost in the cold, dark heart of the universe? 
Purchase Links:  ~ Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ 

~ About the Author ~ 
Laura grew up in a small town in central Utah and now lives in another small town in northern Utah. She always loved stargazing and imagining life outside her own little world. Though they grew up only thirty miles apart, she didn't meet her husband until they went to college. A graduate of Utah State University with a degree in Elementary and Special Education, Laura has been using that training as she raises her children and writes make believe worlds. You can usually find her on her laptop either typing away, or on social media interacting with friends.
~ Stalk the Author ~ 
~ Amazon page ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ 

Beyond Orion by Laura Bastian

Book Title:  Beyond OrionGenre:  YA Sci-fi
~  About the Book ~ 
Amira traveled across the universe to avoid an arranged marriage only to find herself forced into another upon her return hours before her father’s death. As his only heir she should have ruled Rommader uncontested but discovers he's signed an unbreakable marriage contract and finds herself a new bride. While she might be forced to work with Marcus, she refuses to be his wife in any way other than name. 
As they deal with assassination attempts, visiting dignitaries from other planets leveraging for political gain, and the discovery of unlimited teleportation, her feelings for her husband soften. Marcus proves himself a competent king and kind man, and her admiration for her husband grows stronger, but she refuses to allow herself to fall in love. 
An unknown foe tries to steal the formula for unlimited travel, giving them the potential power to conquer the universe. Amira and Marcus must work together to stop the thief, but when King Marcus is abducted, Amira may be forced to choose between her husband and her crown. 
Purchase Links:  ~ Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ 

~ About the Author ~ 
Laura grew up in a small town in central Utah and now lives in another small town in northern Utah. She always loved stargazing and imagining life outside her own little world. Though they grew up only thirty miles apart, she didn't meet her husband until they went to college. A graduate of Utah State University with a degree in Elementary and Special Education, Laura has been using that training as she raises her children and writes make believe worlds. You can usually find her on her laptop either typing away, or on social media interacting with friends.
~ Stalk the Author ~ 
~ Amazon page ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ 

Eye on Orion by Laura Bastian

Book Title:Eye on Orion
Genre:  YA Sci-fi
~ About the Book ~ 
Falling in love with your gorgeous new neighbor isn't a bad thing, but when he turns out to be the bodyguard of a princess from a planet nine billion light-years away, life gets complicated. 

Seventeen-year-old stargazer Holly Adams never imagined she’d find herself trying to prevent the overthrow of an alien government. When Jai and his sister Amira move into the house down the street, Holly is immediately drawn to them. Jai acts suspicious of her from the start, making Holly more curious about their oddities. When Holly learns they are from a different planet, she does what she can to help protect Amira from Shander, a man who wants to marry her by force in order to take over the kingdom her father rules. 

Mistaken identity, a botched kidnapping, and a first kiss that bonds Holly and Jai for life are hard enough, but when Shander believes Holly to be the princess, things get even more dangerous. 

Purchase Links:  
~ Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ 
~ About the Author ~ 

Laura grew up in a small town in central Utah and now lives in another small town in northern Utah. She always loved stargazing and imagining life outside her own little world. Though they grew up only thirty miles apart, she didn't meet her husband until they went to college. A graduate of Utah State University with a degree in Elementary and Special Education, Laura has been using that training as she raises her children and writes make believe worlds. You can usually find her on her laptop either typing away, or on social media interacting with friends.
~ Stalk the Author ~ 
~ Amazon page ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ 

NEW(er) RELEASE: Ring of Truth by Jaclyn Weist

Title: Ring of TruthSeries: Silver Script (I'll just call them A Silver Script Novel)Author: Jaclyn WeistGenre: Clean, Contemporary romance

~ About the book ~  
Erin doesn’t have time for a relationship. After six years of late nights and mind-numbing assignments at her job as a marketing executive, she’s finally landed the coveted Smithson Jeweler’s account—which means her love life will have to wait a little longer. 
When the actress at the first commercial shoot upsets the director, Erin finds herself cast as the leading lady alongside Jake, a handsome up-and-coming actor who rescued her cat from the streets and stole her heart. 
Flustered, she walks away from the shoot wearing the diamond ring, and her mom mistakes it for an engagement between Erin and Jake. Both are desperate enough to get their parents off their backs that they just run with the lie. 
Now Jake and Erin have to figure out how to admit their story is false without hurting their parents or destroying the friendship they’ve gained with each other.
~ Buy the Book ~
~ E-book on Amazon (FREE at the time of posting) ~ Paperback on Amazon ~ 


~ About the Author ~  
Jaclyn is an Idaho farm girl who grew up loving to read. She developed a love for writing as a senior in high school, when her dad jokingly said she was the next Dr. Seuss (not even close, but very sweet). She met her husband, Steve, at BYU, and they have six happy, crazy children who encourage her to keep writing. After owning a bookstore and running away to have adventures in Australia, they settled back down in their home in Utah. Jaclyn now spends her days herding her kids to various activities and trying to remember what she was supposed to do next. She has published six books in a year, and her mind is still reeling from the awesomeness. Her books include The Princess and the Prom Queen; Magicians of the Deep; the Luck series--Stolen Luck, Twist of Luck, Best of Luck, and Just My Luck, a novella. 
~ Stalk the Author ~ 
 jaclynweist.blogspot.comwww.facebook....

Teaser:
“It’s so good to see you.” Her mom’s eyes flitted between Erin and Jake. “And who is this?”
Jake stepped forward and held out his hand. “I’m Jake. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Suzanne. This is her dad, Bill. Erin has said ... nothing about you. How long have you two been dating?” her mom beamed.
“We’re not—” Erin blurted out just as Jake said, “A few months.”
Erin could feel her face redden. “Yes, what he said. We’ve been together for a ... while. I just hadn’t told you yet.”
“Did you hear that, Bill? Our daughter’s been sneaking around with a guy.” Mom pretended to be upset, but she was practically dancing.
“It’s great to meet you.” Her dad held his hand out to Jake again and pulled him into a hug.
Jake looked at Erin over her dad’s shoulder, and Erin cringed at his stunned expression. What had just happened?
“Do you have the ring already?” Her mom stared at Erin’s hand. “Oh, you do. Let me see!”
Erin held out her hand as she felt her face redden. She should stop this. She should tell them right now what happened. But she couldn’t speak as her mom oohed and ahhed over the diamond and had to show her dad. 

COVER REVEAL: Beauty's Thief (Finding Gold, Book Four)!

 Beauty’s Thief (Finding Gold, Book Four)
Not every monster has claws—not every beauty is kind.
Born a princess, raised to be queen, but living as a servant, Avalyn never realized she would pay the price for her father’s mistakes. Now Avalyn is living in a castle not her own, a slave to an evil witch who wants revenge on the man who betrayed her trust and ruined her.
For Avalyn, her real punishment has yet to begin.She will be cursed to work for the witch for the next one hundred years unless true love can find its way into the castle and into her heart.
Now the princess’s freedom rests in the hands of a lowly thief who cares only for himself.

2015 Christmas Card Exchange Sign Ups!

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NEW RELEASE: Rockery Boy by Wendy Knight!

Harli is a musical prodigy with a psycho-jealous mother and a world famous grandmother. And her boyfriend? He’s the lead singer for the hottest band in the country.
And he seems to have forgotten her completely.
Harli does the only thing she can do. She breaks up with him.Levi might have everything he’s ever wanted, but when Harli walks away, he’ll do anything—give up everything—to get her back. She’s his Sunshine, and without her, the glittering lights of fame are dark and cold. He might be living the dream, but it’s not a dream he wants if she’s not in it.
~ Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ 
Wendy Knight is the award-winning, bestselling author of the young adult series Fate on Fire and Riders of Paradesos. She was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, no touching the knives…you get the idea). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big—her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing. 
Social Media Links:~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ ~ Wattpad ~ Pinterest ~ Amazon ~ 

Only Half Alive 2 Year Publiversary Saleabration!!

Book: Only Half Alive Author: Konstanz Silverbow Genre: YA Paranormal Romance


The world's darkest creature will be their brightest hope! 

While darkness haunts her, she craves the light. Christina is a demon, but she doesn't want to be. She is willing to sacrifice everything to change it. Only one person stands in her way, and he will stop at nothing to keep her the way she is.


The greatest battle of light vs dark threatens every living creature, a battle that could destroy all. And the demon in love will only have one chance to save everyone.



~ Book Links ~ 
~ Goodreads ~ Amazon (US)  ~ Amazon (UK) ~ Etsy ~ 



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