It is human nature to enjoy happiness, and although humour in books is not the enduring kind of happiness, it can bring us snippets of it. Only the most serious of books would not benefit from a little humour woven into the text. My novel, “Julia’s Violinist” is a fairly serious story of a postwar love triangle. I’d like to share with you an excerpt from this novel to show that everything need not be dour at all times, even in a setting like that of Julia’s story, where love still thrives among the ruins of war.
Excerpt from Julia’s Violinist:
He stood in the doorway holding a bouquet of flowers in each hand. “For the lady of the house,” he said. A wave of his blondish hair fell forward as he inclined his head in a quick bow to Brigitte. Julia took a deep breath as Brigitte motioned for her to come closer.
“This is my sister, Julia Feldmann. Our new friend, Karl Werner.” Karl gave the second bouquet to Julia and shook her hand.
“So happy to meet you, Julia. I hope you like flowers too.”
“I love flowers. Very nice to meet you, Karl.” He was charming. No doubt about that.
“Mutti, Mutti!” Steffie ran into the house, gasping for breath. “I saw a man picking the neighbours’ flowers.”
“Psh-sh-t! Steffie!” Julia said.
“That’s him!” She pointed, mouth agape, and hid behind her mother.
“They were being wasted over there and I knew there were two lovely ladies in this house who needed them. Now, Steffie—is that your name? What a pretty name. You won’t tell on me, will you?”
“No.” Steffie peeked at Karl from behind Julia’s dress.
Julia watched the smile playing around Karl’s lips as he wooed Steffie into becoming an accomplice in his crime.
“Let’s get these lovely flowers into water so they haven’t been picked in vain,” Brigitte said. “Why don’t we sit in the living room? Steffie you can go on back out and play.”
“Don’t forget to keep our secret,” Karl called after her.
“I won’t,” she said, skipping out the door. “Sofie! Guess what!” they heard her call.
Julia’s Violinist is available for only 99 cents from now to the end of July through amazon.com and smashwords.com.
Anneli's Place 
So much to love in Julia’s Violinist!
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Thank you, Darlene!
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This is a lovely excerpt… and certainly brings a smile to one’s face … the plotting between two to keep a secret…
Struggling on with my book… reading slowly and making sure that people who don’t know me understand what I’m talking about… also following Dianne Grey’s advice of reading a chapter backwards… sounds ridiculous but one does spot the odd small mistake… will have it back to you soon I hope, struggling a bit at the mo though…
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No rush, as you keep saying. It takes a long time to write (and rewrite and rewrite) a book. Most people who’ve never tried it have no idea how much rewriting and proofing and editing goes on in the writing of a book. Glad you liked the excerpt. Thanks, Rob.
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Lovely excerpt! I could imagine the setting and the characters as if I was watching them from somewhere within the room, see the colours of the flowers. The twist-flowers picked from a neighbour’s garden- perfect! Brilliant, purposeful dialogue.
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Thank you so much for the nice comment, Lynne. I wanted to show that times were not all bad during times of war or postwar. People tried to go on with their daily lives and there were still small things to smile about.
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Hahaha, beautiful and then pop, funny at the end!
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Glad you enjoyed that, Luanne. I had fun writing it too.
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I don’t know. Was it funny? It is kind of Victorian funny?
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Humour isn’t all about belly laughs and jokes. It can be mild and subtle too. No, I would not say that it’s funny, but I think it lightens the mood in the book.
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