Saturday's Villain

Hello All!
Today is the first Saturday's Villain day! This is where I host a villain guest-post and interview the villain on his day off. (Yes, even villains have days off! Who likes working on a Saturday?)

First, I will introduce the author and her book. The interview will be below.

Author bio:

Rachel Roy is a dental assistant, middle of ten kids, writer, and suffers from AD--ooh, have you read Anne of Green Gables?

  She's been a writer since twelve. She wrote The Castle Bard at 16, and intends to rewrite it someday.

Story Synopsis:

Princess Brianna has never had trouble rejecting suitors. Not, that is, until she meets Arliss, self-proclaimed fearless hero. He's handsome, dashing, and clearly thinks she's gorgeous. What more could a girl want? Not even her best friend the Bard can spoil the romance. After all, he's just jealous.

Until the Bard unmasks Arliss as a liar looking for a lazy life as a prince. And a coward. And not even that handsome, all things considered.

To deal with her heartbreak, she takes up swordplay...and Arliss takes up revenge. It's clearly the Bard's fault that he is no longer the prospective heir-by-marriage, so Arliss and his shady friends come after the Bard.

But they haven't reckoned on Brianna. She's smarting from her embarrassment and itching to try out her new sword skills. Besides, the Bard is her best friend...and maybe something more.

 Villain's Bio:

Arliss was the companion to Prince Eugene and a suitor for the princess's hand...until he ran afoul of the Bard. Since the events of the story, which were certainly not his fault, he has been languishing in the king's prison. Or doing hard labor outside. He prefers languishing. 

And now, the interview with Arliss!

Hey, Arliss! Thanks for doing this with me! So, how did you come around to being hired by Prince Eugene?

I wished to travel, and being paid to travel seemed ideal. Besides, hanging around a fat man can only make me look handsomer!

Oh. That sounds nice.

I learned you had to fight a dragon...because you of a girl you flirted with? Did you really?

 But of course! Allow a member of the fairest sex to suffer danger or injury? That would be despicable!

Eugene may claim there were a few other men with me, but he's making that up.

 After you lost your job with Prince Eugene, how did you meet Tmimons, Mitchell, and McElroy?

They were old friends, actually, from before I worked for Eugene. They were delighted to help me get back on my feet...until that filthy Bard fellow's friends interfered.

I wasn't going to mention a certain someone, but since you already did...

     did you REALLY think your plan to kidnap (and maybe kill??) the Bard would work for very long?

 Of course it would. He was clearly in love with the princess, and the poor misguided girl was equally in love with him. Why else would she give me up? If it hadn't been for those stupid dwarves....!

 I see. So, were you hoping to win back the princess or you just wanted revenge? Do tell.

Both! By getting rid of that pompous idiot, I'd be revenged on him, and she would see me for the infinitely superior man that I am!

 Oh you are superior...but what if the princess got mad after the disposal of her lover? (I mean, he was there first, after all.)

Please. A day in my company, and she would certainly get over that fool.

 
What about when y'all were together? I thought she was over you after that...

 ....Of course not. Temporarily deluded, nothing more.

 Right. Well, that's all the questions I can think of! Thank you so much for doing this with me. :) It's been fun!

Oh, but of course. I am always happy to speak with my fans.

--
Next post is Wednesday Wonder! I was asked to interview someone's character (of course I said YES) so I'll be posting in a week or so.

-The Writer


If you would like your villain to be interviewed, or if your villain asks to be interviewed, you can email me at thewriterofponderings@gmail.com. Don't forget to mention which villain from which story!

What about the Villain?

It had been a blissful Wednesday on the boat that day. We had played on the beach and swam a little, then were herded back onto the boat because of the clouds.
     The clouds looked dark and foreboding. I watched them as we boated back home, thinking, Now those are storm clouds!
     Then I had a thought. I lifted up my sunglasses and the clouds were a pearly white. Yes, it was dark right behind the white, a sure sign of a storm, but...

     Would you guess villains are like this? On the first impression, they are dark and foreboding. But wait, you take a closer look at their life and see that they aren't so bad on the inside after all. Something made them bad, it wasn't just them.
     
             Develop your villain.

The story may be interesting--villain kidnaps damsel, hero saves the day. (or heroine saves guy)
     But what about the villain?
     Normally, we learn of what happened in the damsel's life, how she gets kidnapped. We learn of the hero's story, how he met said damsel, and how he's going to rescue his love.
     But in lots of instances (such as a few of my dreadful stories), all we know of the villain/antagonist is that he's a badguy and he kidnapped the damsel.
     That's not always going to satisfy the readers. This is also something I need to work on; I normally get to know my heroine/hero well enough to know their backstory, what led up to meeting their love, blah blah blah.
     But what if I'm the one reading it? What would I like to see?
     I want to know what the villain's past life has been, what caused the storm in his life to come and make him the badguy. Maybe he was raised in a badguy territory, and that's all he's known. Maybe something happened such as his family died and he remained angry for the rest of the life. Maybe he's an Anakin Skywalker and he turned to the Dark Side, but for different reasons.
      I want to know more than just a kidnapping, I want to know why he did the kidnapping.

     Of course, there are instances when the story's perspective comes from the villain themselves. A few stories I've read comes from the villain's perspective and it's really quite neat, but see...they have a story. The author had to develop the story.
     This is something new I've yet to try, but I'm going to take the villain from my book and start a separate story--even a short story will do--all about the villain. His family, his raising, the people in his life--and then I'm going to take this and work it into the story. Not necessarily the entire short story, but enough that the reader gets why he's so evil. The story is to help you understand your own villain so you can help the reader understand.
     
     Gillian Adams is an author who writes funny and helpful posts about writing, too. I recommend reading her Villainy 101 to help you (and it's hilarious, so why not?)


-Le fael, Hannah/Eruanna! I thought the names were funny. I'm going to keep searching for a bit longer before I give a definite decision, though, and I was thinking something with 'Writer' in it somewhere. 'Whimsical Writer'?
Galu!-

-The Writer