Guessing who the villain is is the fun part
of reading mysteries...in all genres. Dare I say, I like a mystery with my romance or fantasy or any other type of fiction. And, villains are the key ingredient in a mystery. Good villain almost always equals good story.
We all know a villain signals. Basically, they are
unattractive with small eyes and large noses or other unsavory characteristics.
Just came across a couple of them, aka hulking bullies, last night in the
trilogy I'm rereading.
But what if a writer wants to conceal the
identity of their perp? I'd guess they go for cute.
Maybe "cute" is stretching it a bit.
Maybe attractive is a better word? After all, Ted Bundy, a infamous serial
killer, had large eyes and a small nose and smiled a lot. I suspect many of his
victims didn't grow suspicious of him...until the end.
Science has proven that our brains are wired
to like cute. Some scientists say cute led to us becoming human by learn to
cooperate. But writers use attractive traits to fool their readers. No, serial killers don't need
to look like Hello Kitty, the ultimate cute fad product. But they aren't
necessarily on the rat end of the feature spectrum either. Even Mickey Mouse
has evolved over the years to look more and more like a baby.
It's the writer's job to keep their readers
in suspense, but readers have their own tools to solve the
"mysteries". The exceptions often prove the rule.
My Daily Rut
My rut has changed. I no longer live in my
house but an apartment. The move is mostly done, and it's basically
comfortable...given all the things I don't have to think about anymore,
especially climbing stairs.
Now I'm writing again...sort of. Editing is
the better word. While moving, I discovered the content edits for a Half-Elven sequel. I pulled an old manuscript of Troublesome
Neighbors out of my computer to combine the two novellas into a novel. At the moment, I'm slowly rewriting it, like
adding mostly back story, a couple new chapter from the villain's point of view, and more sharply defined motivations. I've got about 50,000 words in the file now, from about 44,000.
My Reading Pile
I've been mostly rereading...though I've been
visiting a couple bookstores in town. Am almost finished reading the Carson
Springs trilogy of Eileen Gouge The books are set in Neverland, but the characterizations are deep and three dimensional. All except one major relationship among the main people are
heart-warming. I reread the series every couple of years just to remind myself
that there's possible warmth still left in the world. Of course, the books were written
in the early 2000's.
The books are worth digging up, though.Gouge's description of the southern California
landscape, before the forest fires, is lush, and for me, nostalgic...like before the orange grooves were replaced by urbanization.
