Guest Post: The Importance of Being Ridiculous by Jody Klaire and giveaway |

Happy Friday!

Bedazzled Ink Publishing author Jody Klaire is here.

She’s giving away one of her books to three lucky winners. Each winner will be able to select one of Jody’s books. More details are below.

Please welcome Jody Klaire.

The Importance of Being Ridiculous

Laughter is said to be medicine.

I’m sure a few of you may agree. There’s plenty of scientific evidence that hormones fill our brains with buzz chemicals but I’m going to argue that it is deeper. It connects us at our core.

In spite of this, laughter isn’t always cool. Have you ever noticed that the social elite seem to be forbidden to crack a smile? That you must be completely serious to be seen as important?

You don’t see romcoms winning Nobel Prizes right?

Well… maybe they should. How many of us turn to a good book, film or play with splash of comedy and lashings of romance when things get tough?

Finances, jobs, health, relationships, family, friendships—even realising you can’t fit into your favourite trousers anymore—they can really bum you out. Like little sacks of coal stacked on top of our shoulders until they tighten and make our heads ache. Yet Laughter releases the juice needed to relax those fraught muscles. Yeah, having a laugh might not make the sacks drop off completely but it makes them feel different: manageable, smaller, or even just helps you switch off from your worries for a while.

Then there’s the magic of watching someone laugh. Technically, it’s supposed to be a simple shock to the brain so then why does seeing sheer delight in someone’s eyes, even if you don’t know them, bring the light out in you both? This greyed-out stranger is no longer hostile or unlikeable, colour floods in and they come to life as a human being.

Genuine laughter smashes through barriers; Look at Ellen DeGeneres. Laughter has always been there for her, relaunched her career and sent her soaring. Making people laugh gave her the platform to connect to people who may not have listened, opened up the chance to show people love is wonderful regardless of label, and has seen her secure hearts ever since. Could she have done the same being serious…?

The way we laugh reveals oodles about us and what we laugh at quickly becomes common ground, especially when we’re laughing at ourselves: How many of you have tapped out an email feeling professional, intelligent and sent it off… only to forget the attachment?

How about taking a picture of your nose as you try wrestling with your phone to take a selfie?

Then there’s the whole phone in pocket/bag moment. You answer to hear the familiar rustle. Do you shout and hope they hear you? Yes, you. Are you the one yelling “you called me, hello?” all without realising you are either yelling at someone’s lipstick, purse, assortment of tissues, wet wipes and age old chewing gum… or their hip. Yes, you, the one who continues to yell, all while declaring to the nearest person, “called me by mistake,” and shaking your head. Why, only when you’ve screeched for a few minutes, do you have a listen (are they taking about anything juicy?) then decide rustling pocket or bag is not going to share hidden depths, and then, and only then, do you hang up… you know who you are.

Forget where your passport/keys/wallet/brain is in a frantic rush? How about walking into a room and stopping? The old “what did I come in here for?” moment. You walk out and back in, several times, to see if that helps. Nope. “Ah well, it’ll come back to me.” Only to remember an hour later and get up to go in the room… “Nope, gone again.”

Social situations not a forte? Are you that cool, sassy woman who can’t remember why you opened your mouth in the middle of a conversation? Or lose your trail of thought? Do you keep talking, hoping it’ll come back to you?

Ever walked smack into a door, wall, inanimate object in the middle of making that cool exit, angry stomp away, or seductive Salut?

Me too.

Yes, we’re all ridiculous underneath. That’s what connects us.

In my view, love—in whatever form—also does that. It reaches to the core of who we are and reminds us what we can be. I try to fill my work with that light and laughter. I even find space for it in the middle of my thriller series. There’s nothing like a touch of a chuckle to bring characters together.

Nobel prize winning, probably not, but laughter should be celebrated. It should be cool. Laughter and love give us happy juice and connect us at soul level. Love and laughter don’t need to move mountains, they help us soar above them.

That’s why I love sprinkling those special ingredients into all my work and why I adore writing romcoms because they celebrate the importance of being ridiculous.

NOBLE HEART

Some things are worth more than they appear. Aeron Lorelei finds herself thrust back undercover once more. This time it’s to secure the freedom and safety of three generations of one family. Frei, Renee, and Aeron have to pull off their most difficult challenge yet.

Infiltrating Frei’s hostile past means maintaining a cover, protecting the POIs, and revealing the truth before it’s concealed for good. Only then do they have a shot at ensuring the POI’s freedom. All Aeron has to do is help save a family, stay true to her cover identity, wrestle the feelings of everyone around her, and wipe a family history from file . . . In other words, business as usual. True gold lies within noble hearts.

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Amazon AUS

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jody has been everything from a serving police officer to working in kitchens before finding her home in writing. She can often be found chuckling to herself at her own jokes; being pounced by her golden retriever Fergus; eating cake or chocolate or preferably both, and sometimes, when Fergus hasn’t run off with her keyboard, she writes stuff.

CONNECT WITH JODY KLAIRE

Facebook / Twitter / Website

GIVEAWAY