キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか? しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか? 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな?』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう?もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Finding a Villain by Liz Johnson
I heard someone say recently that it’s easier to write a villain than it is to write a hero. I think I’d have to agree. Villains have a consistent motive—their actions are always reflective of their goal. What is it that they want? What are they after? And to what lengths are they willing to go to achieve that? Once those things are nailed down, a villain can begin to take shape.
Heroes and heroines aren’t always quite so black and white, their motives not always as clear, their actions ruled sometimes by more than just what they want. At least that’s been my experience.
So when I sat down to write my newest book for Love Inspired Suspense, A Promise to Protect, I figured identifying the villain of the story would be the easiest part of writing it. Boy was I wrong.
So join me on a behind-the-scenes look at how I came up with the real villain of this book.
My hero, Matt Waterstone, a United States Navy SEAL, was always part of this story. As was Ashley Sawyer, director of a battered women’s shelter and little sister of Matt’s best friend. I knew from the get-go that Ashley was being threatened because she’d helped an abused woman disappear. In fact in the original opening scene of the book, a woman and her son appear on Ashley’s doorstep, and she agrees to help them vanish.
But who was after them? What would make a woman pull her child out of their home and need to disappear? I asked those questions over and over, hoping to find the right answer. But all I really found were more questions. If the woman was being abused by her husband, why not get a restraining order against the abuser?
That would work . . . unless the husband was above the law. Hmmmm . . . I thought on that for a long time. Could he be the only judge in a small town? Maybe he thought he was the law. Sure, that makes sense. I felt pretty good about that direction, and let it fester. Sitting with an idea for a little while is a good thing for a writer. Letting an idea fester, on the other hand, generally means there’s something wrong with it.
And there sure was with this idea.
As I mentioned before, a villain’s motive is always clear. Maybe not always to the reader. Definitely not to the other characters at first. But he knows why he’s doing what he’s doing. And that motive distinguishes the lengths to which a villain will go to get the thing he wants.
So here I had a judge, who’d lost his wife and son and wanted them back. That was pretty much it.
Which left our heroine, Ashley, in a good spot. So she got a few angry phone calls. Maybe the judge would yell at her if they ran into each other in the produce aisle. Sure, that's not fun. But it’s nothing that would make Ashley’s brother send his best friend running to protect her. She’s tougher than that. The stakes were too wimpy. That meant my story was lacking a reason for the hero to even show up, which makes for a really terrible romance.
So I scratched that idea and tried again. Same abused woman and little boy. Same Ashley whisking them away. And this time the husband was running for public office, a state senator running for the U.S. Senate seat. He needed his wife for campaign appearances. We all saw in the recent election how important wives are on the campaign trail. Now he had something at stake, a reason to come after Ashley and try to get his wife back.
But again, there was something missing. What would raise the stakes and add to the pressure? What would make the candidate move from merely threatening Ashley to actually trying to harm her? A suspense novel where no one’s in any real danger isn’t really a suspense at all.
I was stumped. I loved Ashley and Matt, but I couldn’t find them a worthy villain. Someone who would both bring them together and put their lives at stake at the same time.
And that’s when I realized that I needed someone much worse. I needed someone with not only motive but also means. Someone who was getting pressure from outside. Someone with something on the line if he couldn’t get what he needed from Ashley.
When I freed myself from the idea that my villain had to be an abusive husband, the ideas flowed and within days I had a worthy adversary for Matt and Ashley. I had been so sure who the villain would be, but by following his motives, I discovered an even better one. And a much better story than I would have had otherwise.
Sorry. I’m not going to tell you who the villain of the story is here. That’s a spoiler I won’t spill. But Camy has been so kind to host me and let me share with you a little bit extra about the book, that I’d love to share a copy of A Promise to Protect with one lucky commenter (US and Canada only).
To enter leave a comment on this blog with the answer to this question: Who is your favorite literary or film villain and why?
About the author: Liz Johnson graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a degree in public relations and works as an editorial and marketing manager at a Christian publisher. She is a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist, and A Promise to Protect is her fourth novel with Love Inspired Suspense. Liz makes her home in Nashville, TN, where she enjoys theater, exploring the local music scene, and making frequent trips to Arizona to dote on her two nephews and three nieces. She loves stories of true love with happy endings. Keep up with Liz's adventures in writing at www.lizjohnsonbooks.com, Twitter @LizJohnsonBooks, or Facebook.com/LizJohnsonBooks.
I heard someone say recently that it’s easier to write a villain than it is to write a hero. I think I’d have to agree. Villains have a consistent motive—their actions are always reflective of their goal. What is it that they want? What are they after? And to what lengths are they willing to go to achieve that? Once those things are nailed down, a villain can begin to take shape.
Heroes and heroines aren’t always quite so black and white, their motives not always as clear, their actions ruled sometimes by more than just what they want. At least that’s been my experience.
So when I sat down to write my newest book for Love Inspired Suspense, A Promise to Protect, I figured identifying the villain of the story would be the easiest part of writing it. Boy was I wrong.
So join me on a behind-the-scenes look at how I came up with the real villain of this book.
My hero, Matt Waterstone, a United States Navy SEAL, was always part of this story. As was Ashley Sawyer, director of a battered women’s shelter and little sister of Matt’s best friend. I knew from the get-go that Ashley was being threatened because she’d helped an abused woman disappear. In fact in the original opening scene of the book, a woman and her son appear on Ashley’s doorstep, and she agrees to help them vanish.
But who was after them? What would make a woman pull her child out of their home and need to disappear? I asked those questions over and over, hoping to find the right answer. But all I really found were more questions. If the woman was being abused by her husband, why not get a restraining order against the abuser?
That would work . . . unless the husband was above the law. Hmmmm . . . I thought on that for a long time. Could he be the only judge in a small town? Maybe he thought he was the law. Sure, that makes sense. I felt pretty good about that direction, and let it fester. Sitting with an idea for a little while is a good thing for a writer. Letting an idea fester, on the other hand, generally means there’s something wrong with it.
And there sure was with this idea.
As I mentioned before, a villain’s motive is always clear. Maybe not always to the reader. Definitely not to the other characters at first. But he knows why he’s doing what he’s doing. And that motive distinguishes the lengths to which a villain will go to get the thing he wants.
So here I had a judge, who’d lost his wife and son and wanted them back. That was pretty much it.
Which left our heroine, Ashley, in a good spot. So she got a few angry phone calls. Maybe the judge would yell at her if they ran into each other in the produce aisle. Sure, that's not fun. But it’s nothing that would make Ashley’s brother send his best friend running to protect her. She’s tougher than that. The stakes were too wimpy. That meant my story was lacking a reason for the hero to even show up, which makes for a really terrible romance.
So I scratched that idea and tried again. Same abused woman and little boy. Same Ashley whisking them away. And this time the husband was running for public office, a state senator running for the U.S. Senate seat. He needed his wife for campaign appearances. We all saw in the recent election how important wives are on the campaign trail. Now he had something at stake, a reason to come after Ashley and try to get his wife back.
But again, there was something missing. What would raise the stakes and add to the pressure? What would make the candidate move from merely threatening Ashley to actually trying to harm her? A suspense novel where no one’s in any real danger isn’t really a suspense at all.
I was stumped. I loved Ashley and Matt, but I couldn’t find them a worthy villain. Someone who would both bring them together and put their lives at stake at the same time.
And that’s when I realized that I needed someone much worse. I needed someone with not only motive but also means. Someone who was getting pressure from outside. Someone with something on the line if he couldn’t get what he needed from Ashley.
When I freed myself from the idea that my villain had to be an abusive husband, the ideas flowed and within days I had a worthy adversary for Matt and Ashley. I had been so sure who the villain would be, but by following his motives, I discovered an even better one. And a much better story than I would have had otherwise.
Sorry. I’m not going to tell you who the villain of the story is here. That’s a spoiler I won’t spill. But Camy has been so kind to host me and let me share with you a little bit extra about the book, that I’d love to share a copy of A Promise to Protect with one lucky commenter (US and Canada only).
To enter leave a comment on this blog with the answer to this question: Who is your favorite literary or film villain and why?
About the author: Liz Johnson graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a degree in public relations and works as an editorial and marketing manager at a Christian publisher. She is a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist, and A Promise to Protect is her fourth novel with Love Inspired Suspense. Liz makes her home in Nashville, TN, where she enjoys theater, exploring the local music scene, and making frequent trips to Arizona to dote on her two nephews and three nieces. She loves stories of true love with happy endings. Keep up with Liz's adventures in writing at www.lizjohnsonbooks.com, Twitter @LizJohnsonBooks, or Facebook.com/LizJohnsonBooks.
Comments
Merry Christmas
Karen Pietruinski
Then there's Flynn from Tangled, but he turned out to be the good guy.
Liz
I think Disney does great villains. Scar from the Lion King is a fantastic example.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Liz
Liz
Tangled is my favorite too!