Welcome Wednesdays – Turning to the Dark Side

Welcome Wednesdays – Turning to the Dark Side

Welcome to this week’s edition of Welcome Wednesdays.  Today’s topic is all about the bad guy (or girl).  Every story has an antagonist, someone (or something) that opposes the hero(ine), frustrates their desires, screws up their plans – just generally makes their life miserable.

So the question this morning is: tell us about the villain(s) of one of your books/series.  Who are they?  What do they want?  Why are they opposing your protagonist?  And how did you come up with them?

Be sure to tell us a little about the book, too, and leave a link so we can learn more about it!

I’ll begin!  In the Dream Series, we don’t really see a proper, “on-screen” villain until the fifth book, WAKING DREAM.  Obviously there are antagonists in the first four books, and they do some truly horrible things.  But it’s not until WALKING DREAM that there’s someone who shares the spotlight with Sara all throughout the book.  She’s Lydia Saunders, the “woman in red” who shares Sara’s ability to visit dreams.  But Lydia’s not using that gift to help people, as Sara does.  Instead, she’s using it to further her husband’s career, and she doesn’t care who she hurts (or kills) in the process.

She’s such a contrast to Sara – selfish, with a nasty, sarcastic sense of humor and no regard for the lives of others.  But she’s also a mirror image – the same age, the same ability, and she’s even in the medical field just as Sara is.  I knew from the second book onwards that Sara would have to sooner or later face an “evil twin” in some form, and Lydia’s character flowed very naturally from that idea.  And as evil as she is, she was also a lot of fun to write.

 

And now it’s your turn!

 

(when you’re done here, please stop by Exquisite Quills, where there are daily memes just like this one and plenty of fantastic authors you can discover!)

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8 Replies to “Welcome Wednesdays – Turning to the Dark Side”

  1. In Troianne you are introduced to Tardik the evil demon from the third realm of Hell. He wants the blood of the infant Diana. Diana is the most powerful sorceress born to a time traveler and jumper family. Diana is kidnapped by one of Tardiks, Hired Mercenaries to bring Diana to hell. Troianne, Duncan and Becker travel across England and France trying to track the horrible man down.

    In Diana’s Magic, it is up to a teenage Diana to save a kingdom of little people from the evil Tardik. Will she succeed? You will only know if you read the books.

    In Rheanon’s Heart the villain is Jordan brother to her beloved Jared. Jordan is a rogue werewolf gone mad. He wants to kill Rheanon because she is a witch.

    I think having a villain in a book makes it more intriguing, gives an element of good vs. evil and helps support the characters from behind the scenes.

    Come check out my time travel society series books 1,2 &3.
    http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Miles-Gauthier/e/B00MEFQN6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1425413180&sr=1-2-ent

  2. In “Immortal Relations” ex-Spetsnas (Soviet Special Forces) Lt. Semenov, now a vampire has replaced the previous leader of the evil vampire gang. Semenov, a psychotic killer while human, is seeks to steal weapons of mass destruction with which to destroy the guardian vampires and hold human societies ransom to force their governments to allow his vampires to feed at will.

    Reserve Major Zikoff, Semenov’s former commander, briefs General Kolukov head of Russian Forces about Semenov: “…the man was a stone-cold killer, delighting in murdering women and children. Semenov bragged that he had more blood on his hands than the rest of the Spetsnas Group combined. Semenov would actually hold up his hands to show how he had torn up the bodies of his victims. The only reason he wasn’t court martialed for his heinous crimes was that Soviet leaders were desperate the world press not learn of atrocities routinely done in Afghanistan and Semenov did get results. When the intelligence troops heard of a village cooperating with the rebels, Semenov would attack it with MI-24s then land and butcher everyone. Men, women, children, sheep, goats, dogs, he killed everything…then he would burn anything left standing, leaving his “calling card” to serve as a warning!”

    General Kolukov, who had gotten in Zikoff’s face, looked a little ill, then quietly asked, “What was Semenov’s calling card?”

    Zikoff was sweating profusely now, “Semenov cut off their…”

    General Kolukov said “STOP! I want to hear nothing further…I want this bastard destroyed and if it takes nuclear weapons to do it I will get permission to use them!

    Check out my Paranormal series: http://amzn.com/B006ZCBT6G http://amzn.com/B00A4IEHL6 & http://amzn.com/B00G5BQS18

  3. When best friends are driven apart, can love bring them back together?
    Miranda and Jason were inseparable – two homeless teens against the world.
    But those days are long gone.
    No longer willing to fight the ghosts of her past, Miranda abandoned her life with Jason, determined to carve an identity where her childhood no longer haunts her.
    Miranda’s world is rocked when she learns that her beloved sister Cassie is fighting to survive after a near fatal accident.
    And Jason is the man by her sister’s side.
    Jason swears his friendship with Miranda is ruined. That when she left, she made her final choice. But Cassie needs them both as she recovers, forcing scars open that were never healed.
    Can they learn to trust one another again and restore a love once wrecked?-

    My name is CeeCee James. Wife, mother, writer, friend. Survivor. The story about overcoming strife is one that resonates with me. I lived it myself.

  4. The antagonist in my latest book starts out as an ambitious knight with a streak of cruelty, but grief and thwarted ambition push him to the point where he has to choose whether or not to be loyal to the king. Once he makes his choice, then he no longer even pretends to have honor. I learned a lot about negative character arc writing this story…and I learned I will never enjoy writing from the villain’s POV….too much like drinking a dead fish smoothie. O.o

  5. In FANTASY MAN (Samhain Publishing 2/16) I created a mob guy, Vinnie “The Nose” Pellegrino who’s doing his level best to sniff out the heroine’s hiding place and keep her from testifying in a murder trial. He’s also hoping to impress the mob bosses with his detective skills. I gave Vinnie a couple of ferrets as pets (because no villain should be all bad). He named them Snitch and Snatch. He doesn’t like people too much so they are good entertainment and require minimal care. The ferrets are unwittingly kidnapped by the hero and heroine (the hero’s allergic to them) and accompany them on a cross-country chase. A bad guy with ferrets added a whole new dimension (and quite a bit of humor) to the story. Plus they play a big part in the ending.

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