More on a Work in Progress

Not too long ago I wrote a blog on a villain in one of my novels and on some of the dynamics surrounding villains and how they use lies to create a false narrative. If you didn't catch it, you can read it here.

Roughly twenty-one years prior to the opening of my novel, working title "Draxis," there was a legendary infamous clash that became known as the Battle for Draxis (the working title of  my WIP novella). It was the first time in their over 13,000 year history that this planet had experienced a war between two factions, where citizens died as a result of the conflict, and it shook the civilization to its foundation. 

This terrible clash arose from a lie. Or more accurately, a series of related lies and half-truths. One leader repeatedly accused his challenger of being a would-be usurper and a pariah who would lead the planet to ruin and enslave the populace (when in fact, the one making the claims was actually the one plotting to do all of those things). 

A manipulator can always find clever ways to twist the truth and turn the tables on his enemy, even when the truth should be quite obvious to any reasonably intelligent human being (...or reasonably intelligent alien, in this case). Sometimes people will buy into lies simply because they want to believe them, and because they prefer the status quo over change. Even if it promises to be for the better, many see change as disruptive and unsettling. "Don't upset the apple cart!"

My mission in writing this story is to present the unfolding drama in such a way that the reader can't be sure who is truly the Good Guy and who is the Bad Guy. Only the two opponents' actions and decisions in the course of the events will reveal their true characters.

This story is told from the perspective of Giadius [GEE ah Dee us], who is an important figure in the saga not only for who he is, but for how he later influences two central characters in the following novel. But at this point in time, he's definitely standing firmly in the grey area of doubt. He, like the reader, will have to make his own determination who to align with as events unfold.

I anticipate this story will be novella length, and if all goes according to plan, I'll release it as a companion to the full-length novel. 

Here's a quick peek at the opening, which I'm just beginning to hammer out. It's still very much a work in progress. All comments or questions welcome.

________________________________________

The Great Palace 

The City of Tahr

Draxis

From the high balcony, Giadius watched a star fall from the infinite blackness of the heavens. A burning star, its light flooding the dark plazas below in an expanding circle of illumination. Sound followed the light, a low rumble that crescendoed into a terrifying roar. Next came the blasts of searing heat. Giadius raised a hand to shield his face from the burn.

In the city below him, those awakened by the calamity rushed into the streets, screaming in terror. He felt no panic. The knowledge and memories of such an event had faded from the conscience of Draxis a generation ago. But he understood. Ultas hadn't prepared his people, so what could this mean to them but the end of their world?

Members of the royal staff flooded onto the balcony beside him, freezing in place to cry and curse and stare. Giadius exploited the confusion to slip through their ranks and back inside the palace before any came to their collective senses. He sidestepped the squad of guards charging up the steps to the second level and made way down to the now unguarded entry to the royal chambers below. Pitting his full weight against the massive door, he pushed it open just enough to angle through. Outside, he found the halls of the palace deserted. 

This was his epiphany--his sign. A chance to slip his invisible bonds and disappear in the chaos. He knew what this meant. He knew who was coming. 

He would be the first to meet the invaders. 

 

You have to have a powerful villain

 In any story where there's a hero and a villain, the two have to be at least evenly matched. It's even better if the villain is stronger than the hero. The stakes are raised and the hero has to work that bit harder to succeed. Take Harry Potter; we meet him as an eleven-year-old proto-wizard. Just as well Lord Voldemort is also in proto-villain mode, gathering his strength over time. It's only in book four, The Goblet of Fire, when he's back in shape, as it were. Then there's Batman and the Joker, Batman and Penguin, Superman and kryptonite in the hands of Lex Luther.

When I eventually got around to writing a sequel to Morgan's Choice, I had to come up with a villain to match, or surpass, Morgan Selwood. I suppose, in a way, Morgan is a super hero. She's a cyborg who can interface with just about any computer. She sort of has an AI in her head which can learn as it goes. But what's better than a supertech? I'd already done the ancient AI, Artemis, in Morgan's Choice. Where to from here?

I'd already decided that Morgan would be going home, back to where she came from when her spaceship malfunctioned and threw her into unknown space. She would be going back to find the origins of the Manesai society where she'd ended up, and she would be confronting some of her own past, as well. But what's stronger than a supertech?

Eventually it came to me. Another supertech. One that had gone rogue but had been smart enough to avoid being found out and eliminated. One that was jealous of Morgan.

Here's a snippet from the book.

***

Through the ships' sensors Morgan watched the station's locking arms retract into themselves like some sort of huge insect folding its limbs. She couldn't wait to get out of the place. Iniciara had been crossed off the one-hundred-places-you-must-visit-before-you-die list. What a stinking, messy, dump. She hadn't even liked eating the food there. Who knew where it came from? What it was? She bet the half of it was synthetic, made in a factory somewhere.

Curlew shuddered and began to move backwards. The station had applied enough thrust to push the ship out of the bay and into clear space, with the ship's systems controlling her drift so Curlew stayed equidistant between the docking bay walls. Beyond the bay, the station's slowly-receding bulk rose before them, a metal pincushion of ships, arranged in slowly-turning tiers.

Aft and forward side thrusters fired. Curlew pivoted, then followed a traffic lane to the designated jump area for Torreno. For Morgan, that really would be almost like coming home. She'd spent many a year on the Coalition's capital planet, some good, some not so good. Judging by the lack of traffic, Torreno wasn't a favored destination from Iniciara. Or maybe all the traffic for that destination had already left. Whatever. Space was a very empty place out here.

"Crew prepare for shift transfer in ten," Jirra announced.

One last check of the sensors… Morgan's heart thudded. "Missile, coming fast, from starboard." She'd raised the shields before she'd finished the words. "Prepare for impact." They wouldn't be able to avoid the strike whatever she did.

The shields fairly blazed, crackling with power as the warhead exploded. Morgan hung on to her seat, grateful for the harness, as Curlew was flung across space. Warning lights flashed. Shields were down seventy percent. If she hadn't seen the missile coming at the last moment, they would have been history. Idiot. Fool. How could you be so complacent? And another tiny voice whispered, how could you miss it? How could you not have seen it?

Morgan, Ravindra and the rest of the crew go through  a series of adventures that will test all of them, including Morgan's relationship with Ravindra. He can get a tad jealous :)

 

When you delve into ancient history you never know what strange forces you might unleash.

When Morgan Selwood and Admiral Ashkar Ravindra travel to Morgan’s Human Coalition to learn more about the origin of Ravindra’s people, their relationship is soon sorely tested. Morgan is amongst her own people and Ravindra is overprotective and insecure, afraid of losing her. But not everyone is keen to welcome Morgan home, not when they’d gone to all that trouble to get rid of her in the first place. Soon Morgan and Ravindra have a rogue Supertech on their trail with only one goal – kill Selwood.

Together, Morgan and Ravindra follow a tenuous trail back into humanity’s past, to the time historians call the Conflagration. But what begins as an innocent archaeological investigation escalates into a deadly peril for both humans and Manesai when Morgan and Ravindra are thrust into the middle of an unexpected conflict. And that rogue Supertech’s still out there, itching for revenge.

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Space Opera/ Science Fiction Romance. There are some non-specific sex scenes. There’s action adventure and politics – and a little bit of swearing. That’s how Morgan is.

Cheers,

Greta

 

 

Writers, Bullies and Heroes

I’m a trained martial artist with almost 30 years of experience and I’m proud to say I’ve never been called upon to defend myself or others with my skills. Something about the confidence my training gives me allows me to follow the first rule of self-defense, which is to avoid the situation. If I find myself in danger, I’ve learned to talk my way out of it, or walk my way out of it, before I start throwing punches.

Or slaps, as the case may be. In case you’ve been on some far-off planet in another galaxy, actor Will Smith (of INDEPENDENCE DAY and MEN IN BLACK fame, among others) caused a sensation last Sunday night by defending his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith in a manner more appropriate to the movies than to real life. He smacked Chris Rock in the face onstage at the Dolby Theater in front of an audience of his Hollywood peers and a worldwide audience of millions. He then followed it up with a shouted warning to “keep my wife’s name out your @#$% mouth!” Twice.

What could have occasioned such a display of street justice? Again, in case you missed it, Chris saw fit to mock Jada’s shaved head in a tasteless joke about a remake of Demi Moore’s G.I. JANE movie. Since Jada has been very open about her struggle with the scalp condition alopecia, which is the cause for her very short hair, Chris was mocking a disability, one which affects millions of primarily Black women. Which was clearly wrong. Will’s attempt to shield his wife from Chris’s bullying led to a violent response, which was also wrong and has had innumerable consequences for him and his career, no doubt. I’m sure he’s wishing he had one of those memory-blanking pens from MEN IN BLACK right about now.

His unthinking action took away from Questlove’s triumphant moment as the winner of the Best Documentary Film Oscar for SUMMER OF SOUL, which Chris Rock was supposed to be onstage to introduce. (Chris marred that moment with another tasteless joke about the only people who watched documentaries being “stoned on the couch.” Nice. There’s a reason Chris is no longer invited to host the Oscars.)

Worse, the whole kerfuffle took away from Will’s own well-deserved moment in the spotlight for winning the Best Actor Oscar in the role of Richard Williams in KING RICHARD. It’s too bad that win will always bear an asterisk created by his violent response to Chris Rock’s bullying big mouth.

Hollywood's solution: Ralphie deals with a bully.

It’s supremely ironic that this incident took place at an event honoring Hollywood and a culture that glorifies violence. A man leaping up to defend his disabled wife with his, uh, palms is the stuff of Hollywood legend, after all. It’s pretty rare when the movies celebrate the quiet types, the ones who can walk or talk their way out of a situation. Take THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962), for example, a classic of the Western film genre. Jimmy Stewart talks a great line throughout the film about how violence isn’t the answer to Lee Marvin’s bullying. He restrains John Wayne from taking the villain out several times. But in the end, Jimmy is the one who shoots the bully! Audiences cheer!

Then there is one of my favorite Christmas movies, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983). Our hero, Ralphie, can only take so much from the school bully before he cracks, attacking him in a blind rage and taking him down, to the relief (and cheers!) of all the other kids who have been the victims of this kid. (I won’t even go into the violence that another kid perpetuates on two adults in HOME ALONE. I thought it was funny the first time around, but on repeated viewings, I’ve found it completely over the top.)

My point here is that the movies (and television shows) we watch don’t encourage us to “use our words” to solve disputes. Far from it. Where’s the drama in that? Even Star Trek’s cerebral Jean-Luc Picard needs a Commander Riker to handle the action. With plenty of punches and phasers and so on.

We, as writers, are complicit in this culture, creating stories full of alpha males more than ready to protect mates and partners (even if they don’t ask for it), giving bullies and villains their just desserts in violent endings. We love our swashbuckling heroes and hissable villains. The possible legal, moral and ethical consequences of satisfying physical action are just complications that don’t fit a good story.

No matter what you might otherwise think of Will Smith’s action on Sunday night, it was quick and effective, as far as the story went. Perhaps if I was writing it, I might have had Will climb up on stage, put an arm around Chris’s shoulders and tell him, “Hey, man, that’s my wife right there. I love her and I’m going to ask you to treat her with respect, along with the millions of other women who share her disability. Be a man. Or I might have to come back and kick your ass.”

He would have left the stage to thunderous applause. And a happy-ever-after ending.

But, alas, Sunday night was real life, not one of my romance novels. So, Will and the rest of us will just have to live with the consequences of his action.

Cheers, Donna

*For a complete rundown on the Oscars ceremony, including more on the slap heard around the world, listen to my podcast on SoundCloud or on my podcast website mymoviehousemyrules.com

LOOKING AT A MASS KILLER AND WONDERING WHY

I’m not a fan of the daily news as interpreted by the television networks—any of them. I don’t watch cable or broadcast news on a regular basis; I don’t follow any pundits; I don’t even tune in to the local news except to hear the weather. I get my news at a week’s remove, from a magazine that distills the stories from a variety of sources to produce a more balanced viewpoint. This keeps me relatively sane.

But occasionally something happens—a hurricane, a mass shooting in Las Vegas—to break through the barriers I’ve erected, and I’m forced to participate in the tragic moment with the rest of the nation. And, in the case of yet another mass shooting by a crazy individual with a bunch of guns, I pause to pray for all the victims’ families. And wonder why.

This is not a post about gun control, although I certainly think as a nation we should ask ourselves some hard questions about that issue. It’s not even a post about mental illness and the community response to people in trouble, though that’s a legitimate issue, too. This is a post about the motivations of villains, and whether, as writers, we can simply say our bad guys are “evil” without any underlying reason.

As most of you know, I’m a huge Stephen King fan, and I’ve been avidly watching the television adaptation of his novel Mr. Mercedes on the Audience Network (created by David E. Kelley). The story follows retired detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) as he revives the cold case of a mass killer driving a stolen Mercedes who deliberately ran over 23 people lined up for a jobs fair. As the killer becomes aware Hodges is on his trail, he first cyber-stalks the detective, then tries to kill him, instead blowing up Hodges’ lady friend with a car bomb.

In this week’s episode, Hodges is asked why “Mr. Mercedes” does these things. He answers that some people just have a “great black hole” inside them, they were born that way, and eventually the black hole just swallows them up. He says this—and believes it—even though he suspects a lot about the man’s true background.

King the author takes pains to show us everything about his villain, Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadway). We know his father died when Brady was a child, electrocuted at his linesman’s job; his younger brother choked on a piece of apple, was revived, but survived brain-damaged, and Brady, still just a child, pushed the toddler down the basement stairs to his death. Brady’s mother, as a result of these tragedies, drinks to excess and abuses Brady sexually. And Brady works at a crummy job at an electronics store, berated by the boss and the customers alike.

So, which is it? Does Brady just have a “black hole inside?” Or have the circumstances of his life made him the way he is?

King is quite capable of depicting “pure evil” in his novels. The antagonist in It is a good example. The clown figure is simply a personification of a greater, deeper evil that haunts the town. That evil must be cleansed for the town (and its pre-teen defenders) to survive. (The latest film adaptation of this classic novel is faithful to the concept in every way. The film is a must-see for King fans.)

Though it is “horrible,” the Mr. Mercedes tale (actually spread across three novels—Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers and End of Watch) is meant to be a crime story, not a horror story per se. Brady Hartsfield, aka Mr. Mercedes, is not meant to be pure evil in the It sense. He’s meant to be human. But if you know anything about Stephen King, you know people can be every bit as horrifying in their humanity as any supernatural monster he can come up with. 

Like the kind of human who could kill indiscriminately with a stolen Mercedes—or by shooting a specially modified weapon at an outdoor concert crowd in Las Vegas.

Sadly, Donna

When the plot hits a wall, ask your villain

It happens to most writers from time to time. The well runs dry, and you chew the end of your virtual pencil (or a real one if that's how you roll) and wonder what the hell happens next?

I came to just such a point a few days ago. Here we were, this had happened, that had happened. But what did it all MEAN? Why was it important?

So I sat myself down and summoned my villain. We'll call the villain Robin - just for fun. Why was this stuff important, I asked? What would happen if somebody else found it? Why are you doing all these horrid things?

And the answers came. I knew Robin's history. How Robin had turned up at that place at that time. What was missing. I jotted down the answers, and now I knew the rest of the plot. Mind you, I had to go back and tweak a few things as a consequence. But that's part of the joy of pantsing

Robin doesn't get a huge part in the new book. Sometimes villains don't. For instance Sauron is never actually seen in LOTR. He's just there, a looming archetype. I've been known to give the villain's point of view in some of my books, but there are dangers to that. Some readers can't seem to get their heads around the fact that you're telling THEM what the villain is doing. But the hero doesn't know that. This is when you get reviews which say things like, "Aaaargh - why would she do that? He's the baddie! She knows he's a baddy!!" But she doesn't. She doesn't like him much, but has little reason to suspect foul play. He has carefully hidden his intentions.

Sure it's up the writer to make these things clear. But if ten people 'get' it and one doesn't... I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Anyway - there we go. Progress is progressing. Next week I hope to be able to show you a cover.

In the meantime, do you like your villains up close and personal, or do you prefer a hidden force? Don't forget to share your favorite villain if you have one.