AJ Lape tells us what’s so funny about murder

Author A J Lape

Today one more author weighs in on humor and murder. A J lape is the author of several mysteries. DareIi say they are downright hilarious?

Here’s what she has to say about humor, mystery and murder:

Thank you, Lesley Diehl, for inviting me to your blog!!! I’m so honored! Lesley and I are in a humorous anthology of murder mysteries with six other authors called “What’s So Funny About Murder?” sold exclusively at Amazon…pssst, it’s only ninety-nine cents!

To tell you a little about me, I’m the type of person that can’t stand it when I don’t understand something…or can’t control it. I worry, I pace, I bargain with the Big Man Upstairs, so untangling something like a mystery came easy for me. When I write my murder mysteries, first off my goal is to be real…to be so real that you might need a sedative or a stiff drink during the process. The endgame, however, is always for a fan to close up their book and say, “I laughed my keister off.” That’s the biggest piece of who I am as a person. Let’s face it, life sometimes throws things at you that are so unfair you wish a referee threw a penalty flag and called a personal foul. The only choice you’re sometimes left when the whole things shakes out is to laugh or cry. For me, laughing has always been a better option, even if the stakes are dire.

So why did I choose to write stories where bad guys knock off good guys? In a nutshell? I like for bad people to pay…yeah, I’ve got a self-righteous, kung-fu fighting avenging angel in me. As a kid, that was one thing I had such trouble reconciling…why bad was allowed to happen and proverbially walk the face of the Earth, unchecked. As a writer, I can write the stories that someone else may not care about or they cared about but hit brick wall after brick wall. And biggest thrill of all, I can make the dark horse the hero (BTW, my favorite cartoon was and still is Underdog.).

When I create all of my characters, I like to dwell in that land of gray. That place where you find yourself feeling sorry for people you shouldn’t feel sorry for and where you find yourself rooting for the unlikeliest of heroes because you discover they have the purest of hearts. I do this because I believe the majority of us are a blend of good and bad. We all have reasons why we do the things we do. Are the bad guys sometimes one hundred percent bad? In some instances, I think so. I mean, stereotypes exist for a reason. I believe you can go so far past center that you forget where the starting place of Tabula rasa began—that fancy schmancy Latin term for a “blank slate” we were supposedly born with.

Circumstances definitely shape us, and sometimes a person chooses to rise above those circumstances, and sometimes a person falls willingly into that villain category and crushes the competition. My protagonist, Darcy Walker, is an unlikely heroine and one of the most flawed individuals you will ever meet. She’s irreverent, a notorious rule breaker, and would rather do anything than study despite a ginormous IQ. What she has going for her, however, is she’s a verb in a world full of nouns. Something that comes in handy since she has an unusual tendency to be a dead-body magnet. For Darcy, she tries to right wrongs that she feels happened to her in her past—a past that continues to have her soul in an iron vice.

I hope you enjoy Grade A Stupid, book one, which is included in the anthology. It was an absolute thrill and hilarious ride to write. DEFCON Darcy, book four, will be released within the next few months. If you’d like to keep up with me and all things Darcyville, you can subscribe to my newsletter at www.ajlape.com or stalk me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorajlape.

Lesley says:

Now you can see this is one gal you don’t want to cross. But you will want to read her.