Villains,
I love ‘em. A juicy bad guy is so much fun to read, to watch, to write. They
get the best lines and they get to behave in the most atrocious manner without
apology. I read somewhere not long ago that the best bad guys believe they are
in fact the good guys but I don’t believe that. Nope. The best bad guys know
that they are bad and they revel in their debauchery. I personally do not enjoy
a bad guy that is conflicted by his/her demons. I don’t want to feel empathy
for the villain. I want an antagonist I can really sink my teeth into.
It’s
like asking Anne Rice fans which character they preferred: Louis or Lestat,
which I’ve done, and Lestat almost always wins. Let’s face it--Louis was a
world-class whiner.
Well-written
heroes, and heroines alike, have to have a little darkness to round out the
light or you get a boring Pollyanna; an unrealistic goody-goody that no one
will be able to relate to because people are not that two-dimensional. But the
opposite does not hold true when crafting the bad guy. Oh no, the villain, ah,
the villain can be simply motivated by the darkest of desires. He doesn’t have
to be complex because the reader doesn’t have to connect. The reader doesn’t
want to connect. As an author, you don’t want them to; you want them to fear
the villain, to loathe him, but most importantly you need him to make your protagonist heroic.
Villains
are a necessary evil. And damn if they’re not a good time, too.
Enjoy this excerpt from Goddess
of the Hunt:
Reece
stood and paced. Matthew sat quiet, watchful, and Reece considered him out of
his peripheral vision. He loved Matthew like a brother, the only family he had,
and he’d kill Matthew in a heartbeat. He thought Matthew knew it, too. What
kind of monster did that make him? He didn’t care. He stopped when the guttural
sex noises down the hall ceased.
“I
don’t like it. Keep an eye on her. And on Eoin.”
“Do you really think he’d turn on us after
all this time?” Matthew added whiskey to two tumblers.
“We
killed his brother, mate. I’ll never trust him fully. Not like I trust you.
But, no, I don’t think he would betray us for a pretty piece of ass. That
doesn’t mean I don’t want you to watch him just the same.” Reece picked up his
drink and took a healthy sip. “Matter of fact, Matthew? Reach out to our little
friend across the pond and see what he can dig up on the delightfully loud Ms.
Fleming.”
Matthew
picked up his own glass but didn’t drink from it.
“Reece?
Is this genuine caution or are you just searching for a reason to take the
woman for yourself?”
“Does
it matter?”
About the Author:
A city girl, born and bred, I
place my stories in and around southeast Pennsylvania, or at least have a
character or two from the area. Home is where the heart is and I make mine with
my very own knight in slightly tarnished armor. When I’m not busy living my own
happily ever after, I’m writing about someone else’s.
Contact Details:
beckyfladeauthor@gmail.com
http://beckyfladeauthor.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BeckyFlade
https://twitter.com/beckyflade
https://www.goodreads.com/Becky_Flade
Making my own dreams come true,
one happily ever after at a time!
#beckyflade, #decadentpub, #goddessromance, #goddess, #paranormalromance
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