Let’s Talk About Villains 

by Sarah Richmond

You know, those nasty characters we love to hate. The writer can pluck the worst and best emotions from a reader by creating believable villains. We keep turning the pages to find out if these dastardly ne’er do wells get what he or she so justly deserves.

I’ve created a list of my Top Ten Villains. I’m sure you have some hum-dingers of your own. Please share them!

10.)  King Edward Longshanks: In Braveheart, how very villainous of the King to invoke Primae Noctis—the right of the a lord to take a newly married Scottish woman to his bed. The injustice is enough to make him despicable.

9.) Snidely Whiplash: Snidely holds the mortgage to Nell’s home and threatens to evict her if the mortgage isn’t paid. I could never figure out why he tied her to the train tracks, but we children booed anyhow. Also, Snidely has a villainous sneer and is sneaky. More booing.

8.) The Sheriff of Nottingham: The nemesis of Robin Hood, the Sheriff upholds the law not because it’s the right thing to do but because he wants to curry favor with the King. We’ve all known people like him. My favorite Sheriff was played by Alan Rickman in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. (1991) Boo. Hiss.

7.) Gordon Gecko: in Wall Street.  First of all, lovely name. Second, greed isn’t good and if you shuddered when he gave his famous iconic speech, we are of the same generation. The oily hair helped make him a repulsive character.

6.) Fagen, from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. He did take in those street kids and teach them a trade.  However, anyone who hurts children is a surefire villain. Unfortunately, we read about people like him in modern times.

5.) Boyd Crowder: The smooth-talking bad boy in Justified. (On the FX channel.) This character is taken from a book by Elmore Leonard called Fire in the Hole. Boyd is complicated because he is likeable and has good traits, (and is a hunk with great hair) but the bad things he does are really bad, leaving a fan dazed and confused about whether Boyd should be punished for his crimes.

4.) Grinch: We laugh at his antics but the message is clear.

3.) Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz: Again a villain who wants to harm children. Her laugh gives me the chills Bad dreams are made of this.

2.) Inspector Javert: In Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, no amount of sympathetic backstory makes up for this dude’s obsession with Jean Valjean, the man who stole a loaf of bread to feed his nephew and served out his prison sentence.

Number One. None other than the devil himself.  The master Villain. Ironically, just the thought of him interfering in our lives forces us to be good.

INSIDE THE MIND OF A NOVELIST 

A Casting Couch Book Interview by Sheila Claydon:

 A Most Ineligible Suitor by Sarah Richmond 

What prompted the idea for this book? While on a visit to Lucca, Italy, we visited Puccini’s home. I wanted to write about a heroine who lived in the same era. Puccini wrote in the ‘verisimo’ or realism style. His plays show brutality and violence, poverty and want. My heroine has been sheltered. She knows nothing of the world outside her small circle of wealth and privilege. Her trip to Italy is an eye-opener for her. Another inspiration came from a painting by John Singer Sargent called ‘Group with Parasols’. The light he used reminded me of Italy. The ladies in the scene are dressed in white linen and are enjoying an outdoor picnic, something my heroine would love to do.

Did you work through the plot first and then cast the characters, or was it characters first?  I decide on the story I want to tell and then pick the characters who best help show the elements of the story.

In A Most Ineligible Suitor, the heroine is on holiday with a distant cousin. She is very much a free spirit who has escaped to a country with fewer social restrictions and a decorum different from English society. She is having the time of her life.

The hero is an Englishman. He is in disguise and his purpose for being in Italy—to catch an international jewel thief--is complicated by her antics. He is not comfortable being dishonest with her, and yet he has a duty to his profession to pretend to be someone he isn’t.

What she teaches him about life and love is the theme of the story.

Which characters were the hardest for you to develop and why?  The male POV is more difficult for me. The challenge is to make the hero strong without being brutal, decisive without being unkind. The reader must understand his motivation, even sympathize with his flaws, but he can never be pitiful or weak.

How did you decide how your characters should look? There are many wonderful websites that show pictures of the ladies in the late Victorian era. I especially took note of the couture dresses and bridal dresses of the times, which are a delight. www.Victoriana.com is one of my favorite websites to visit.

How did you develop your characters’ traits? I rely on Heroes and Heroine by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders. When I have a heroine in mind, I look through H and H and find the worst possible traits in a hero for her to fall in love with which leads to all kinds of delicious conflict.

I also use people I have met on my travels. Some characters are a combination of traits of the people I have known.

Marjorie is a misfit in some ways and doesn’t realize why until she comes to Italy. Edward, having been raised in a strict household with no mother, doesn’t know how to express love. He may not even know, in the beginning, what love is.

All characters have goals. Can you sum your characters’ goals in a word or two, or are they multi-layered? There are the short term external goals: he is trying to catch a thief, she is on vacation and wants to see the sites. There are the long term internal goals: To love and find love.

Do you like the characters in your book? Are they people you would want to spend time with and if so, which one is your favorite, and which one would you most like to meet and why?  Marjorie introduces herself this way: “My name is Marjorie Mayweather and people tell me I have a sunny disposition. Who wouldn’t with a name such as Mayweather?”

I like a heroine who can be at ease with people, probably because I have always been rather shy. She’s smart. She knows in her circle she must act totally defenseless so that the suitor will feel manly. This does not bother her until she meets the hero. He understands her better than she understands herself.

Meeting the right man makes all the difference!

As for who I’d like to meet, the villain of the story is my favorite character of all. The villain is so much fun to read about, trying to figure out a motivation, or what possible reason there must be for such bad behavior. I could have such a good conversation with my villain, I think.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about A Most Ineligible Suitor. I had so much fun writing the book.

Best wishes to all.

Sarah Richmond

One Author's Journey

 I recently asked for my rights back to my first book, Lady in Waiting. The book had received four stars from Romantic Times reviewer Gerry Benninger, was a finalist for an EPPIE, and had been voted ‘Favorite Historical Romance’ at sim-gen.com.

What could I do with it?

C.J. Lyons who writes medical romances and Bella Andre who writes contemporary, recently spoke at my Romance Writers of America-San Diego chapter about self-publishing. Both of these authors are successful in self-publishing and encouraged authors to take this path.

Dare I take the plunge?

First of all, you have to put some money into the enterprise. There are fees for a beta-read, proofreading, cover design, cover art and formatting. Armed with a little capital and the belief that I had a good story, I decided to give self-publishing a try.

Happily, there are several free guide books ready to download on your Kindle or I-pad. I read all three.

Smashwords Style Guide

Smashwords Marketing Guide

Publish on Amazon Kindle

These books are filled with techno-speak and not for the timid, but they do give the reader a feel for what’s involved. Spoiler alert: Writing is creative and surprising and often difficult, requiring the writer to go out of her comfort zone.

So I polished the book and sent it to former teacher and no-nonsense beta reader Karen Lawson at: theproofisinthereading.wordpress.com.  Karen gave me her honest impression of the story, pointed out some inconsistencies (the book is a time travel) and kept reminding me when the book strayed from the path of fulfilling the promise to the reader to tell a believable time travel with a satisfying and happy ending.

I addressed Karen’s concerns with a light rewrite and because the book had changed, I named the new, improved book Past Forgetting. Next I found Dreamstime.com and bought artwork for the cover.  When my heroine leaves her stately home, she steps out into Edwardian England. I wanted to show that transition on the cover. Once I bought some artwork, I sent it to my web designer Shelley at Web Crafters. Bella Andre makes her own covers but I didn’t have the confidence to go out on that limb alone.

Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, has a list of recommended cover artists and format designers.  Here’s the address to request the list: https:www.smashwords.com/list

Formatting the manuscript for publication can be done by the author using the Style Guide. I sent Past Imperfect to one of the names on Mark’s List, John Low at E-Book Launch to format the book which saved me time.

Once you have a formatted manuscript, a cover you love and a blurb, it’s time to fill out the form at Smashwords. They will assign you an ISBN number for booksellers to find the work or you can buy an ISBN number from Bowker.com.  Convert your file to HTML and send to Amazon.com.

Pricing is up to the author and changing the pricing is easy using the author’s dashboard. Both Smashwords and Amazon have promotions which they will email you about so you can change your book price if you want.

Where am I now?

Still trekking. There’s plenty of marketing to do. Self-publishing was totally out of my wheelhouse, but quite frankly, I enjoyed creating something new out of something old!

Sarah Richmond

www.Sarahrichmond.com