This is taken verbatum from my blog, with one tiny change, but it does say what I wish:

The series I am currently working on is similar to the Dresden Files and also Simon R. Green’s Nightside series. All right, it is an overt usage of a previously used plot device…flattery and all that, but honestly, the opening was sitting right there!
A good tool for a writer is the ability to use a cliché and then punch it in the nose. Examples of that can be found in my fantasy series, The Milward Chronicles and also in the Tony Mandolin Mysteries. Vampires, for an example, usually drink blood; not in my books, dragons are typically reptiles, but not in the fantasy series I wrote, and so on, and so on, and so on. Changing a tradition makes its new life entirely yours, as long as you do it well. Change also makes the old joke fresh and the shiver of horror brand new. If it didn't Steven King wouldn't have a market.

So, as for this thread, I heartily encourage comments, the more the merrier. As often as I can I will be posting book samples and ideas as they come to me. Every decent writer knows…you have to listen to the voices.

That being said, I prefer a touch of humor in the books I read for pleasure. Terry Pratchett, Alan Foster, Glen Cook and DeChancie all know how to tickle the funnybone...and, I believe I do as well. The question is, does it work for you? Jim Butcher's sense of humor is very, very dry. Pratchett's is about as damp as it can be, both have shot to the top as authors because they are able to paint an engaging mind movie with words.