Villains Part 1

 

For my blog, it's back to elements of writing certain kinds of books, often labeled suspense.

Before I go into mine, I have another aspect to share-- what amounts to real deal villains. In romances, there are two main types, maybe three. I mostly use one of them but sometimes I have a character evolve into a third. 

Villains can look like villains, but most do not. Someone who looks like a good guy (yes, most are males but not all) and doesn't show their true nature until they have someone vulnerable. This is the kind to especially watch out for in what we call real life. It is also what leads to good suspense writing.

A year or so ago, I got interested in real life crimes of the cold case sort, where the case is only solved years later.  I learned some about that by watching a YouTube called The Investigation Room, where the host is a retired California detective who now works for what I believe is called the Cold Case Foundation. When I first saw his show, I was looking into the killings of four Moscow Idaho students, which had led me to wonder what happened in such brutal killings. That's where I first heard of the kind of evidence they use to catch killers when there are no witnesses. He had on good guests who explored what sometime leads to such murderers.

Well, one thing led to another and I found other such cases on YouTube from A&E, Cold Case Files, where many of the cases were solved after many years with new techniques that were now available to the legal system. Some of the killers had done multiple killings and others just one. Either way, when the police rededicated themselves to a case, often by bringing in new minds, they could use tools not available in say the 90s or earlier.

When it comes to creating a villain for fiction, I have stayed away from serial killers. I think it's because I don't want to think about people like the recent Long Island killer. It's not only kind of yucky but not particularly interesting for exploring the mindset. 

Books do not need villains. Often the problem is between the characters, which can cause plenty of grief. But, if someone wants suspense in their books, a good villain can do it. I enjoy exploring complex minds-- next blog for more on that.

more divisions

 view out our bedroom window of Pusch Ridge and clouds typical of our monsoon season down here.

There are a LOT of things going on in our world today. Some are huge and others less important. We tend to see things so differently, which makes it all tougher when something comes up which some feel reflects not just one time racism but current bigotry.

 

When a music channel bans a song, is that big or little? Well, I don't currently listen to country music; so didn't know Jason Aldean or his music. But it showed up as a link on Facebook; and I listened to the song; saw nothing wrong with it, as to me it was about behavior and what we tolerate. I liked it. 

 

I got another link to it from a YouTuber, who is black and evaluates music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYXIzosITCQ  

 

What he said was he saw the clips all about people, of various races, doing things that were not good. They were interspersed while the singer sang. He also analyzed that it's about community standing together.

 

Here's a link to the song if you also have not heard it. Let me know how you see it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY 

 

One person criticized the lyrics, as they took it to mean it was a small Southern town and not just a small town anywhere. The YouTuber above said he thought it spoke to communities that know each other and gather together for support and control-- anywhere that happens.  

 

I guess the biggest complaint is because of the courthouse behind the singer was where a lynching happened in1927 of a mob killing a young black man, Henry Choate, accused of sexual assault of a white girl. I looked it up for the details. The stories vary a lot for what happened that night, but it was at or near the courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee where Aldean lives and many videos are shot. 

 

For anyone interested in news stories and research as to what happened, it's all out there-- ugly whichever one you read. Mob actions were wrong period, and it's happened to whites too. Was the music video shot there because of that past horror, did the ones putting together the video know about the heinous event, or to them did it represent a pretty backdrop as well as law and order? Did they know and hope it would excite interest, which it has done?

 

The last part of the Small Town music video spoke of farmers putting aside their own work to help another farmer. One man said we help each other. 

 

 

I should add a personal experience given I've lived in rural America most of my life. We had a barn burn in the middle of the night. The local volunteer fire department quickly arrived but it was too late to save the barn or the animals in it. Tragedy for me that I still feel pain from and try not to remember. Except there was another side to it when the community people offered to help us rebuild the barn. 

 

Of course, this kind of support can happen in big cities but lately we have seen a lot of times where it has not. People stand by out of fear or concern they'll be hurt or killed, which can happen (did to a white man in Portland Oregon, who tried to protect two Muslim girls being threatened and was killed for his kindness). 

 

If we want an orderly community, fear can't stop us. It takes us standing together against wrong actions for anything to be done-- can't just count on the police, who often are also attacked. In Oregon, where our farm is, the police are a long way off-- and with reduced budgets often can't come to all calls. That leaves it to us, of all colors, doesn't it?

Midsummer

With it being midsummer, so far no monsoons have shown up-- although we eagerly await and hope for the rain. One night we saw lightning flares, but no strikes and no rain where we are. It is hot but so far no blackouts here and AC keeps the house pleasant.

This is a lush time for some of the birds as they gobble up the saguaro fruit. People harvest them also, especially for jelly. We leave ours for the birds and when they fall, to whatever below likes fruit-- bunnies, rodents and javelina most likely. The native peoples of this region have a right to all the fruits, but on private land, we could claim ours. Natives use a long stick with a basket / can attached to get them... can't imagine that. Nature needs them. They are sticky and full of seeds when first open and the competition for them is rapid.

 

Characters interesting to write about

It might look as though I got rid of Twitter. With all the controversy and changes going around, it'd be easy to assume that. Well, I still have it with no interest in getting something new. I try to limit how much I have on Social Media. What I did do though is move the Blogger Twitter link  to way down the page. I used to have the ability to share my last Tweet here and I used that as an in-between way to share pictures.Whoever is running it now changed that where someone has to go to Twitter to see my Tweet. If this continues, I will dump the Twitter link here, as I have no interest in being an ad for them. I'm waiting to see if it's permanent...

 

My topic for today was supposed to be about choosing characters for books I write. In this case, since I write romances, it's male and female leads. I have no problem with those who write same sex romances. I just have no personal feel for it. I write what I know something about- well not all the gun fights, etc. But where it comes to relationships.

When I met Ranch Boss, we were in college. I won't go into details, but I felt I loved him that first day. I had a few caveats though-- like he needed to have a sense of humor. Turns out he did, and our sense of humor has gotten us through more than a few bad times. So, I do believe in love at first sight, but it takes something more to make it work through a lot relationship. I look for that in my book characters.

Then I tried to think-- which characters should I share here that anyone else might find of interest.....

Obviously, I have no idea but I will throw a few ideas out there for how I selected the personalities I did for my books. Since there are thirty of these, it's not that easy to narrow them down to a few.

This book is currently not out there, as it, along with the 8 Arizona historicals, is being rewritten and edited with a new title-- although close to the original one. In Echo from the Past, Holly showed up in the book ahead of this one, Rose's Gifts. She was a university friend of Grace's (who was first introduced in The Beckoning Flame). Holly got her degree in anthropology with her desire to be an archaeologist. She's beautiful, smart and dedicated to solving a mystery from her own dreams. She's a strong woman. Well, all of my female characters are strong women-- but none defined as feisty, a term I actually dislike. She has money and goals. None of which were to find a husband. 

The hero of that book is trying to run from his past as a part of an infamous outlaw family. He tried first to change his name (showed up in an earlier historical romance--first titled Arizona Sunset but will be Beyond the Broken Road, when it reappears sooner than later, we hope. He's found a new path to make a living in the wild desert world, still facing sometimes that outlaw family. Handsome, but of course, but also intelligent with a sense of ethics. I pretty much prefer heroes like that for my books. He's an alpha but not a bully.

Neither of those two are looking for a mate. Life is simpler without-- or is it!

I could go on with various characters but those two project a lot of my ideas. Strong people, who face whatever is required-- whether it's part of their goals or not. My heroines generally have career goals, especially the contemporary but even the historicals. I rarely write really young heroines or heroes as I like to delve into people with some life experience.

 

 

Choices

This subject began with a dream. I saw three men vying for a post at the Air Force Academy (remember it's a dream and hence does not have to be historically accurate for names or anything). The obnoxious one, with a terrible smile, won the opportunity to get his education there. These were high school age guys btw. 

I woke up thinking how Ranch Boss had done that and lost out to another guy, though he'd gotten close before that happened. I hadn't actually thought of this before; but his choice to try for that school would have meant we'd have never met as we did in our reality. If he had gone elsewhere, both of our lives would have been so different without the same children we later had after marriage. So much would have been different for him especially with likely a career in the Air Force.

I'd have married someone else, as there had been someone else before him, who was still around in an off and on sense. My life though would have not been the same. There'd have been a different family, and it'd be unlikely I'd be typing at this house in Arizona right now. 

Choices are what life is about. Many are tiny. Others big. We often have no idea where a choice will land us. Turn down one road and we get where we're going. Turn the other and some idiot runs as red light. 

Often, we have no idea how choices will impact our future. Marry wrong person and divorce or worse. Marry right person and celebrate over 50 years of marriage. Do we totally know when we make that choice. We try to make it on facts and experience. Sometimes though, it's emotions or even limitations based on our culture.

Writing romances is a lot like that, other than we might have more control over the outcome, but not if the characters dictate the results. I've mentioned how themes play into what we write, followed by a plot to get our story there. Characters are a huge part of that. With that theme, what kind of characters will work with the plot. Will they feel right to us or the later (hopefully) readers.

I do generally have a theme in mind but choosing the right characters, especially the primary protagonists, that's where real thought comes into play. There are several ways the need for a certain type of characters emerge especially in romances. One of the popular tropes is enemies to lovers. I don't use that, but it could work for me when it's two different cultures or tribes-- something outside the couple. When it's though supposed to be between the two of them as enemies to lovers, I don't buy it for what I will read. I think it's a big mistake to write a romance where one person 'fixes' the other. It doesn't encourage healthy ideas for life as it doesn't tend to work out there. People fix themselves, or it doesn't happen from what I've seen.

For my books, sometimes it's friends to lovers. As in, couples who grew up together and then realize-- wow, it's more than friendship (Round the Bend). I have some where the couples broke up and come back together-- or not (Bannister's Way) Mostly, when it's a case of meeting for the first time, physical attraction is a factor. Let's be honest, that begins a lot of so-called real life relationships. It might not be what someone  else regards as good looking (happened in my Desert Inferno) but it's attractive to the smitten one. 

What attracts us in the beginning is not what makes a relationship work. Physical attraction only carries the relationship so far in real life or books. There has to be something else that cause a couple to make it work for a happily ever after. Books need that to satisfy readers. I read a lot of negative reviews for books and that's a big one to irritate a reader.

Ranch Boss and I are very different for how we see things. He's the scientist ,and I'm the artist. When the kids asked once what makes fog. He went into a scientific explanation. I said it's clouds stuck on trees. 

If we didn't respect each other for our differences, that could have been a big problem in our choices, but we did. Something else became important. We want the same things out of our life together, the same kind of life. We just came at our choices different ways. We had another advantage in that we came from similar backgrounds. Different backgrounds can make for interesting stories but also can make for a lot of complexity in what we call real life.

With romances, I think there has to be some similarities and differences for the two primary characters to be believable and interesting. How, as writer, does someone pick those people and then make what they go through work for them. Romances usually have difficulties from outside which could be the black swans of life, a villain, but also those differences between them where compromise has to happen or it's all over-- in fiction or life.

Next blog, I'll discuss some of my characters and how I decided on them as well as how it would make sense they would get a happily ever after, which romances require. I should add-- on only one of my 30 books did my hero and heroine not get that guaranteed happily ever after as I just saw too many problems for them in the future. That book was Sky Daughter. It ended well but with the understanding it might not be permanent due to major lifestyle differences for where they could live or do their life work.