Katie Reus's Blog, page 42

Jill's Publishing Secrets

Thanks so much for having me, Katie! Since the theme is secrets, I thought I'd share a behind-the-scenes look at my publishing experiences. Here are three bite-sized tidbits for all of you busy little bees out there.

1. I've never written a book that kept its original title. My debut romantic suspense novel for Bantam Dell was once called Cutback, after a surfing maneuver. I know, it wasn't catchy. My editor suggested Crash Into Me, which is also the title of an awesome Dave Matthews Band song. She came up with my second title while watching a Gossip Girls episode that featured the song "Dark on Fire" by Turin Brakes. I love her titles.

2. Crash Into Me and Set the Dark on Fire were both chosen as "Red-Hot Reads" for Cosmopolitan magazine. It was very exciting! A sex scene was selected from each book and rewritten to include a bit of plot and story conflict. What appears in the pages of the magazine is called an adaptation, rather than an excerpt. Before the adaptation for Set the Dark on Fire went to print, I was given a copy of the rewritten scene to look over. I noticed the following phrase: his musty scent. Giggling, I sent an email recommending that "musty" be changed to "musky." The final copy read "smoky."

3. Another funny thing happened during the copyediting stage of Set the Dark on Fire. Copyeditors do sentence-level corrections and make minor suggestions. I had a male copy editor for that project, which was really interesting. Some of his comments cracked me up. There's a scene near the beginning of the book, for example, in which the hero and heroine are sprayed by a skunk while hiking. They jump in a creek to wash off and then stretch out to dry on a flat rock. The hero, Luke, is lusting after the heroine, even staring at her armpit, which looks sort of delicious to him. Then he feels embarrassed/perverted for wanting to kiss her there.

The copy editor made a comment about Luke's mental dialogue. He didn't seem to think there was anything strange about armpit kissing. Is this proof that men are just dirtier than women? I think it is, my friends.

So there you have it. Three musty, skunky secrets from the armpit of publishing. If you'd like to judge the underarm-sniffing scene for yourself (pervert!), leave a comment for a chance to win a print copy of Set the Dark on Fire. Open to everyone.

Free Book Wednesday from Carina!

Every Wednesday this month Carina Press is offering a FREE book!

For the link, click here.

Today I'm a guest at Caridad Pineiro's blog and sharing an excerpt from Dangerous Secrets, my recent Carina release. And on Friday I'll be blogging at Fresh Fiction.

While I won't be here Friday, new Harlequin Blaze author Meg Maguire will be guest blogging! If you've read her blog or follow her on twitter you'll know she's always entertaining.

And tomorrow Jill Sorenson will be here talking about Secrets and giving away a copy of Set the Dark on Fire. If you like romantic suspense but haven't tried her out, you definitely need to! Her stuff is very edgy and fast-paced and will leave you wanting more.

Secrets, Lies and Betrayal

Please welcome romance author KC Burn! Not only is K.C. a talented writer, she's also a friend of mine so it's a double pleasure having her here today :)

Ah, secrets. I, too have an upcoming release with Carina, and it's full of secrets and a modicum of danger, but definitely not in the same vein as our talented Katie. In my book, the secrets revolve primarily around mistaken identity where a brothel owner on a faraway planet is mistaken for one of his employees… by a man who's got secrets of his own, including an impending marriage.

Secrets are intriguing, no doubt, but one of the main reasons I write about them is that secrets by their very nature require lies to keep. Lies place a great deal of conflict on a romantic relationship, whether through guilt or emotional distance, fear of exposing yourself or hurting the one you love, and that's before the truth is revealed.

Writing about secrets… lies… and ultimately, the sense of betrayal when the truth comes out, means I'm bringing my own personal hang-ups to the table. Betrayal is a them in just about everything I've written, published or not, because for me, there's nothing worse than finding out the rock-solid foundation of your relationship is nothing more than the shifting sand of lies.

Another theme I often slip in is the fish out of water syndrome -- the sense that you really don't quite belong. These two themes work very well together, because once you start to believe in a relationship, romantic or otherwise, you start to feel like you belong. Which makes the betrayal that much sharper when the truth forces back out of the water, exposing you to the elements, suffocating you.

And therein lies the whole 'write what you know'. I don't know what it's like to love a vampire or pilot a space ship or be a prostitute. That's where escapism and imagination comes in and it's not how people connect with your characters. The emotional connection is built when you get across the gut-wrenching breathlessness of shock when learning the person you love is not who you thought. The terror of letting yourself trust that this time they're telling the truth. I'd bet that most everyone has experienced this in some degree at some point in their lives, making it universal, more or less.

Other authors choose other themes: little girl lost, isolation, abuse. These are ways the author can convey shared experiences, making that important connection between reader and character, even if the character is a secret agent or an alien negotiator. But the great thing about romances? The deeper the betrayal and hurt, the more satisfying when the relationship is resolved and faith is restored. Because I want everyone to have that happy ending, to believe it's possible.

And on that note, here's a blurb from my upcoming release, Spice 'n' Solace. It'll be out March 14.

The Galactic Alliance's most important negotiator, Jathan One-Moon, is responsible for ensuring the yearly negotiations with the Ankylos are successful. If he fails and the Ankylos go to war, the human race will likely be exterminated. As if that wasn't enough, he's under pressure to marry and produce an heir. When he mistakes the brothel owner, Kazha Deinos, for his escort prior to the negotiations, the resulting evening makes Jathan realize his life is missing a man who can be a true partner to him.

Kaz never met his most important client, and Jathan's misconception allows Kaz the freedom to give in to desires he's never let himself indulge in before. But Kaz has a business to run, one that a rival is trying to steal, which will force him to reveal his true identity to Jay. There's also the little issue of Jathan's impending marriage. Kaz is not interested in being a boy on the side of Jay's marriage, no matter how much he's come to care for Jathan. Will Jathan and Kaz find a way to be together, or will losing the man Jathan's grown to love be yet another price he must pay for saving the human race?

To learn more about KC, please visit her website or her blog!

30 Days of Danger & Secrets is still going strong! Later this week we have Jill Sorenson, Meg Maguire, Angela Henry, and Loribelle Hunt! Some of these authors are giving away sweet prizes and blogging about some really interesting stuff so I hope to see you back here! For more details on the grand prize (March 2) giveaway, visit the 30 Days of Danger & Secrets tab at the top of this page.

Dangerous Secrets is Out!

It's finally here! It hasn't been that long since I first got the call from Angela James that Carina Press wanted Dangerous Secrets but for the last month it's felt like forever.

But my release day is here at last!

So what is Dangerous Secrets about?

Isabelle Ballantine has been fighting for independence since she was old enough to walk. Now that she's finally out from under her father's shadow, she won't let anyone stand in her way. It's tough living on her own, working in a bar and keeping her true identity a secret, but things start to look up when a sexy new stranger walks into her life. After working side by side for weeks, Izzy can't figure out why he won't make a move.

To cinch the deal of a lifetime, Adam Marcellus agrees to help Izzy's eccentric father convince his daughter to move home. He'd assumed Izzy would be another spoiled rich princess, but he's surprised to discover his feelings for her are stronger than anything he's ever experienced. When a deranged stalker targets her, Adam finds himself fighting not only an unknown threat – but an unexpected attraction to the one woman he can't have.

Since it's release day I'm guest blogging at Desert Island Keepers and giving away a book from my back list! Be sure to stop over there if you get a chance. (I'll also be guest blogging at the Carina Press blog on 2/8, Caridad Pineiro's blog on 2/9, and Fresh Fiction on 2/11.)

For purchase info on Dangerous Secrets it's available directly from Carina, Amazon, Books on Board, and ARe. It will also be available from Audible but I don't have an exact date on the audio release yet. As soon as I do, I'll post details.

And don't forget, the rest of this week I've got a fantastic line up of authors blogging here as part of the continuing 30 Days of Danger & Secrets!

Danger and Secrets

I guess you can say that I cut my teeth on danger and secrets. My family had a pile of Ian Fleming's JAMES BOND books and we were always watching an assortment of action-adventure movies and television shows. When I went to sleep at night, my brain would spin similar stories as I drifted off to sleep, only in my dreams it was always the girl who saved the day and got the hero.

I guess it's no wonder that I love writing romantic suspense and paranormals since both are filled with an assortment of different dangers and secrets. Much like in those dreams that I spun as a kid, in a lot of my stories it's the heroine who helps save the day and lucky girl that she is, she gets a happily-ever-after with a handsome and very virile alpha male.

In my latest release, AZTEC GOLD, the heroine, Cynthia, has a traumatic past. Her parents were renowned anthropologists who were murdered before her eyes and because of that, Cynthia prefers to spend her time within the four walls of the museum where she works. Unfortunately, Cynthia is in love with Rafe, a man who thrives on adventure. When Rafe and his archaeological team disappear while in search of a previously unknown Mexican temple, Cynthia's one hope is that Rafe will eventually be found.

Nearly six months later, Cynthia is asked to authenticate journals and a map and to her surprise, the map is much like the one Rafe was using to find his secret temple. But the journals with the map warn of a demon that is protecting the temple and although Cynthia doesn't believe in demons, there is clearly danger connected with the temple. Despite the danger and despite her own fears because of what happened to her parents, Cynthia leaves the safety of the museum walls in the hopes of finding Rafe and his team.

Action and adventure. Danger and secrets. They drive the story in AZTEC GOLD and many of the stories I like to read. My personal favorite is the IN DEATH series by J.D. Robb. I absolutely love Eve Dallas, a total kick-ass heroine. And Roarke. OMG. Talk about virile alpha male! Of course he's the perfect partner for Eve because it's impossible to imagine any powerful male like that falling for a wimpy woman. That just wouldn't last for long.

What about you? What are some of your favorite stories filled with danger and secrets?

Danger Comes in Many Forms

We all know the signs. We learn as children to recognize them. Mr. Yuk stickers on bleach bottles, the skull and crossbones on a box of rat poison, the big red circle with a line through it. As we get older, we learn the rules of the road and to read the signs: SHARP CURVE AHEAD, CAUTION: FALLING ROCKS, LANE CLOSED.

There are no stickers or reflective signs in real life. We learn to trust our instincts. If someone makes the hair stand up on the back of our necks, we avoid them. Something just 'off' about a friend's new boyfriend, we don't let ourselves be alone with him. The daycare worker who strikes a niggling unease, we search for other childcare.

The human mind has in innate ability to sense when something or someone is dangerous. It's listening to those tiny voiceless whispers that can mean the difference between survival and not, between ruin and not, between heartbreak and not. That oh-so-hot-he-melts-my-panties guy that sets off triggers in your brain is someone to be avoided. Sure, you might miss out of some great sex, but you might also live to see your next birthday.

But what about when the signs are conflicted? What do you believe then? THAT is a judgment call and I can't make it for you. It is on a case by case, scenario by scenario basis. The risk is there but the pay-off? Who knows? It could be something you end up regretting or it could be the best thing that ever happened to you. In those cases, all you can do is cross your fingers, close your eyes and pray for the best.

That's exactly what Livvy does in SWEET AS SIN.

~~~~~EXCERPT~~~~

Her face swung to Andrea and she saw not her baby sister but a mature woman about to be married, a wife long before her older sister. "Someday, sure, but John Murphy isn't the type you bring home to Mama, you know? He's the guy you sneak out to meet after your nice date drops you off. The kind you give your virginity to under the bleachers. He scares me."

Andrea stiffened and went into a mother-lion protective stance. "Scares you? How?"

"Haven't you looked into his eyes, Andy? There's no laughter there. None. It's very dark and secretive and…dangerous. Not in a beat-you-behind-closed-doors way but in an I-have-baggage-like-Samsonite kind of way. Intense. That's the word. He's intense…and it's not that I'm frightened of him so much as what he makes me feel is scary, kind of out of control and reckless."

Livvy ran her hands over her face and stopped cold. Her hands smelled like John—rich, earthy, sexual. A coil of need wrapped tighter around her chest and she tried to dispel it by blowing through her mouth.

"I don't need this right now." Livvy tried to shove the longing away but it hummed through her blood with a tempting growl. "I've got enough on my plate dealing with the Shack's financial troubles. I do not need a man distracting me."

"Maybe that's exactly what you do need," Andrea offered. "The past couple months have been a real bitch for you. It'll do you good to think about something other than cash flow."

"I'm fine. The Shack is fine." Livvy plastered a deliberately calm expression on her face. She'd eat glass before she let Andrea know how tight things really were. She wouldn't let anything destroy her sister's joy. "Don't worry about me. I want you to have a wonderful wedding."

Andrea stared for a long breath then an impish grin appeared. "It looked hot. You were definitely wanting something else a few minutes ago."

"Oh, I want him." Livvy smirked. "Maybe I just need some hard, hot monkey sex. It's been a while."

Andrea tore the paper from her icepop and headed for the glass doors. "Listen, Liv, if you want it, go for it. Have a summer fling and enjoy. It'd take your mind off money. If it leads to more, great, if not, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is he lives next door. What if things end badly? Then what?"

"Then you put up a privacy fence and we egg his house. Just because you're in the market for a minivan doesn't mean you can't test drive a hotrod." Andrea stopped with her hand on the door handle. "And if the engine purrs the right way, take several trips around the block."

~~~~

She was made for Sin. Sin was something he knew intimately.

John Murphy is tormented by nightmares. A bestselling young-adult author, he writes the ultimate fantasy: stories where good always triumphs. He knows better. His past has shown him the worst in people—and in himself. When he moves next door to the sexy, vibrant Livvy—a woman completely unlike his usual one-night stands—he's driven to explore every curve of her delicious body.

Pastry chef Livvy knows that giving in to the temptation that is John Murphy won't lead to anything permanent, but she deserves a passionate summer fling. John discovers she's as sweet as the confections she bakes while Livvy slowly unravels his secrets. But what will happen when she uncovers them all?

Buy Sweet as Sin at Carina Press, AMZ, ARe, or BoB

Inez Kelley is a multi-published author of various romance genres. You can visit her at her website http://inezkelley.com/ Follow Inez on twitter at @Inez_Kelley or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/inez.kelley

QUESTION: What risk have you taken and did it pay off or bite you in the butt?

~~~~

Answer Inez's question and be entered to win a copy of her book Sweet as Sin! Winner will be announced here on the blog in the comments section and in the body of the blog so be sure to check back!

Happy Friday!

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by the still continuing blog party! Today I'm guest blogging at The Book Binge and chatting about Doughnuts and Expectations (and giving away a book!) so feel free to stop by (if it's too early the post won't be up yet but I promise it'll be up later).


Tomorrow the very talented Inez Kelley will be joining us and on Sunday the fabulous Caridad Pineiro will be too so make sure you check back! Then next week I also have other wonderful authors: Jill Sorenson, Angela Henry, & Loribelle Hunt!


Hope you have a wonderful weekend and before I go I'll leave you with an excerpt from my upcoming release (2/7/11), Dangerous Secrets.

Isabelle Ballantine sucked in a breath as the man she'd been lusting after for weeks walked into the bar. It was hard to think straight with Adam Marcellus anywhere in the vicinity. To keep her hands busy—and to keep from staring—she ran her rag over the mahogany bar one last time before tucking it into the back of her pants. It was Saturday night, but Mad Dog's Bar & Grille hadn't picked up yet. Seven was still too early, but in an hour, they'd be three deep at the bar and she'd be working her tail off.

And hopefully making enough to cover this month's rent and groceries. It was hard to think about bills though when Adam, with his impossibly broad shoulders, was headed her way. He definitely had that tall, dark and handsome thing going on. She wasn't positive, but she guessed he was six foot two at least. She was five eight and he stood a little taller than her even when she wore heels. Something she enjoyed immensely.

"Hey, Izzy." Adam ducked under the bar hatch.

"Hey yourself." She wiped sweaty palms on her black pants as he scooted behind her.

He opened and checked the lower beer coolers. It was impossible to ignore what his nearness did to her nerves. When he bent over to rearrange some of the bottles, she shifted to the side and leaned against the bar. From this angle she had a perfect view of his sculpted backside. She almost felt guilty staring at him, but it seemed a sin not to enjoy something so perfect.

He glanced up, and she could feel her cheeks heat up at the intense gaze from his startling green eyes. "Need me to stock anything for you, darlin'?" His deep accent sent shivers straight to her toes. She guessed it was Cajun, but wasn't quite sure. He rarely talked about himself.

She swallowed hard. "No, I've only had a couple sales. In an hour I'll be calling on you though."

"I don't doubt it." He chuckled before ducking back out.

Once he'd disappeared into the kitchen, her heart rate slowed back to normal. No man had ever had such a ridiculous effect on her before. Maybe it had something to do with his smooth accent, or the way his dark hair always seemed a bit too shaggy, but still looked sexy as sin. Or maybe it was the way he filled out a T-shirt. Or maybe it was all of the above. The man had tight, corded muscles to die for, but not the kind from a gym.

He'd started working with her less than a month ago. She wasn't sure how she'd define his position, but he was somewhere between a bar back and a bouncer. He was sort of a jack of all trades. She'd even seen him in the back helping put up shelves and doing other small construction jobs, but so far he hadn't said much about himself.

They'd hung out a few times, but only in a group. He always made it a point to sit next to her in staff meetings or when a bunch of them shared drinks after work. And she'd noticed she was the only one he called darlin', but the man hadn't so much as hinted that he wanted anything more. She'd love to go out on a date with him, but she certainly wasn't going to ask.

There were some things her southern heritage simply wouldn't allow.

She still didn't know what he was doing working at Mad Dog's. It wasn't something tangible, but somehow he didn't belong. Like he'd be happier doing something else. Of course, she was a multi-millionaire's daughter and she was tending bar so what the hell did she know anyway? According to her overbearing father, she didn't belong here either.

Secrets!

[image error] My favorite writerly hotbeds of secret awesomesauce

In honor of Katie's upcoming awesome release, Dangerous Secrets, I've popped over here (Hi everybody!) to ruminate a little on the subject of secrets, and places I have learned fun and secret things about secrets.

Soap operas

My youth misspent watching soap operas taught me so much about characters and secrets. Thank you, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. In a soap, when one character has a juicy secret, OMG they can make a month's worth of exciting shows out of that, just by teasing you and getting you excited for one other character to discover the truth, then next week, another character might find out, and another. You can't wait to see the look on people's faces. It's fun to look forward to things like that. I love books and shows where my anticipation builds and then gets rewarded. If there is nothing fun to look forward to in a book or movie, I dump it. Soaps are the master of using secrets and other devices to build anticipation, maybe because they have to keep you watching. My favorite soap secrets include: a person pretends they are wheelchair bound, but they're not, and they run around town doing horrible stuff. I also like when characters have other personalities and they don't realize it, and also, the evil twin.

Husband's acting class

On a whim, my husband took a beginning acting class. This was years ago, but I remember they did this one exercise where the students had to act out a regular sort of scene—an argument with a carpooling buddy on the way to work, or a traffic stop where you get[image error] a speeding ticket. And then they had to re-do the scene, but with a secret. For example, maybe my husband has a dead body in the trunk. Or, the person is his long lost brother. How would his character say those same lines now? What would his body language be? How would he hold his face? Would he overcompensate or deadpan it or what?

I have never taken an acting class like this, or any acting class, actually, because they would kick me out for sucking at acting, but I think about this whole drill all the time when I'm writing. Sometimes it can get kind of mindbendy, because different characters carry secrets in different ways. Sometimes I will stop writing a scene and go from one character to another and think about their private thoughts and feelings and think how that gets refracted through their ways of being. Even if they don't have important things to do in the scene, secrets and subtext are leaking out.

Sherloooooooock!

Secrets and subtext seep out all over the place—from characters, and also, of course, from the physical world—I got really excited about this when I was in my teens reading Sherlock Holmes, and the whole world spoke to him—a person's scuffed shoes, an umbrella in a strange corner, an absence of dust. Everything belonged to a larger story that he had this special ability to read. The idea of that is really cool, and I think it makes the world so rich. I'm writing this from a hotel room, and I feel sure that if I hunted all around, I might find something that tells me about the housekeeper who was in here, or the previous guest. Well, I hope the previous guest didn't leave anything, you know, that can be picked up with a special crime light. Yuck, now I've creeped myself out. Did I really touch the bedspread? You know, most hotels don't wash those things!

In Treatment

This is a show that's about this psychotherapist named Paul (played by Gabriel Byrne) and it takes place almost entirely in his sessions with people. Have you seen it? Paul is like the Sherlock Holmes of people. He'll talk to a person for 20 minutes, and at the end of the session, Paul will know all this secret stuff about them, and when he reveals it, it's like this magic trick. I'll be like, of course, duh! How did I not see that? But, I know why I didn't see it. The show sort of gets me reactive to the people - I'll dislike one patient, or feel fondly toward another, or feel like Paul should smack one of them off their high horse or whatever, but those reactions cloud my judgment and vision. Not so with Paul. He takes his ego entirely out of the equation and just soaks up the facts. Of course, he's also a trained psychotherapist. Still, it's been this really cool direct lesson on how emotional investment can obscure the detection of secrets. And you know what else I learned from it about secrets? The stories people tell over and over about their life can often be like secret codes to important things about them. This is actually a feature of this show, but I realized it was true about certain people around me and it kind of blew my mind.

Secrets…secrets

It's no secret that I love putting secrets in books. I love tortured masterminds with secret plans, too. Or when secrets make people dangerous, or vulnerable. In Miss Katie Reus's new book, Dangerous Secrets, a woman has a secret identity, and there is somebody new in her life who must keep his identity secret from her. Double secret action! Here's to a month of secrets! Yeah!

Carolyn Crane is the secret-loving author of Mind Games, Double Cross, and a forthcoming third book in the Disillusionists Trilogy. www.authorcarolyncrane.com

Images: Painting: Whisperings of Love (1889) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

File photo: Careful which drawers you open by Ariana Rose Taylor-Stanley

Thanks Carolyn for joining the blog party! Very cool woman that she is, Carolyn is offering a copy of Mind Games to one lucky commenter!


And a reminder to readers that the more you visit/comment, the more times you'll be entered into the month long contest I'm having (grand prize which is described in this previous post will be announced on March 2, US & Canadian residents only)

Haunted

Recently, I read Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner. *shudder* It had to be one of the freakiest books I've ever picked up—and devoured. Now anyone who has talked to me for at least ten minutes discovers that I hate spiders with a passion usually reserved for hot dreams starring Vin Diesel. When we were younger, my sister and I stapled the spider section in the Encyclopedia Britannica together so we wouldn't flip to it by mistake. When we moved into our house nine years ago, I spied this huge spider—yes, it was huge!—in the basement. And I haven't been down there in, let's see…one, two three…yeah, nine years. Yup, it's that deep.

I reveal all this seemingly random information for a purpose. It just so happens that Say Goodbye is about a serial killer who does women in with spiders. Even now, I don't know how I made it through that book with her detailed descriptions of Brown Recluses (did I spell that right? I don't know, but I'm not Google-ing it to find out!), Black Widows and every kind of tarantula possible! But what kept me reading like strawberry cake awaited me on the next page was the villain. Freaky. Creepy. Scary. Disturbed. Did I mention FREAKY??

I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, but he still haunts me. Now that is the earmark of a damn good villain! As writers, it's so easy to make our antagonists bad because…well, just because they're villains and they're supposed to be bad. *raising my hand and waving madly* I've so done that in my writing life time. But I've discovered that the most interesting, compelling and memorable villains are three dimensional. They have layers. Lisa Gardner's villain contained all that and then some!

An antagonist should have a history just like the hero and heroine. I need to know what makes him tick. What is his motivation? Even if it is completely irrational, I want to get into his head and be a visitor in his crazy mind. I mean, if he kills women who wear Betty Boop t-shirts because she was his wife in a former life and she left him for another man, I want to read how he rationalizes that! Also, he needs to be scary intelligent. I mean, really, if Barney Fife could nab him with that one bullet in his pocket…I ain't buying it! In order to be pitted against the hero and heroine he definitely cannot be too stupid to live!

And, oddly, I need to be invested in him as much as I am in the main characters. He should have a stake in the story, and I want to care about whether he reaches his goal or not. Lisa Gardner created a character that was so evil, so devoid of human empathy and emotion, it terrifies me that someone like him may actually exist out there. Yet his past, the pain and horrible abuse he endured caused me to actually feel for him—even though I wanted him to die. How conflicted is that? And I still think about him…I still ache for him, a fictional character, even as I feel just a bit safer that he's dead. Have I been drawn in to that story, or what?

That's what I desire as a writer. To create a villain so terrifying, so evil…so heartbreaking…that weeks later he or she will continue to haunt readers. Lofty goal, huh?

Naima Simone, a new author with Ellora's Cave Publishing and Breathless Press, is a member of RWA's Southern Magic chapter, mother of Thing 1 and Thing 2, a lover of everything Vin Diesel and the husband who tolerates this affair. Come visit Naima at http://naimasimone.com and http://naughtyauthorchicks.blogspot.com!

Thanks Naima for joining me today! A reminder to readers that the more you visit/comment, the more times you'll be entered into the month long contest I'm having (grand prize announced on March 2, US & Canadian residents only)

What Makes A Good Villain?

Hi, everyone! It's a pleasure to be visiting here with you all—and thanks so much to Katie for inviting me over! I can't wait to read her sexy new paranormal series, but to keep me busy, I will dive eagerly into Dangerous Secrets.


Today, I thought I'd talk about villains. The bad guys (or girls). Those wicked ones that can send shivers down your spine or have you shuddering in disgust. Oh, I do so love a good villain.

To me, a good villain isn't some card-board character with only one dimension (and that dimension is, of course, EVIL!). Instead, I like to learn more about the villain. I want to see his character develop. Because even the villain should develop over the course of the story.

Let me use a super famous villain example—Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal didn't stay the same during SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and HANNIBAL RISING. He changed. He evolved. That's what all characters are supposed to do.


Villains have pasts, they have futures—and I like to know about them. So when I wrote DEADLY HEAT, I deliberately started the book with a prologue that would show my villains past. My villain isn't some guy who just woke up one day and decided, "Hey, I'll start some fires." Instead, like Hannibal, he evolved, and the signs of the monster where in him even when he was a child.


But…just because a character is the villain, just because he's incredibly bad—well, that doesn't mean that a villain can't have good points, too. All characters should care about something—or someone, and I believe a villain can show his emotional attachments. Sure, sometimes that love is twisted and broken, like an obsession, but for the villain, that feeling may be all that he has.

So don't give me a one-dimensional guy. Give me someone I can fear. Someone who will make me double-check my locks at night. Give me a monster *and* a man.


Now it's your turn…what do you like to see in a good villain? I'll pick one commenter to win a copy of my latest release, DEADLY HEAT.

Thanks!

Cynthia Eden

www.cynthiaeden.com

DEADLY HEAT—Available now from Grand Central Publishing

DEADLY LIES—Available 3/1/11 from Grand Central Publishing