Villains Creep Me Out!!! - Blast from the Past by M.L. Buchman

(First Published in 2020)

UNDERSTANDING THE VILLAIN

What can I say, they totally do! I've never understood the villain. The Hitlers of the world make no sense to me. 

Every writing teacher, and therefore most writers, say that the villain makes perfect sense from the villain's own point of view. No one is inherently evil.

This helps some but, for me, it is also a fallacy. I don't enjoy reading (or watching movies) that have true villains, not even gratuitous ones (especially not?). 

It took me years to write a true villain. I've actually only ever written one. It was for a writing class. The challenge? "Write something you never have before." Until then, I didn't write first person, I also had never written a true villain. So, I wrote one. I wrote him from so close first person that we never once rose far enough out of his head to reach the word "I".

I learned two things from that exercise:

1) the power of deep first person when used in the right places. It was an amazing lesson in character voice.

2) to never, ever, under any circumstances write a true villain again.

He spent a decade trying to get his horror novel. He stills creeps out of his hole on occasion (now almost two decades later) just so that I can shove him back under.

Did I mention that I never understand the villain? That's not quite right. I wish I didn't.

THE NON-VILLAINOUS VILLAIN

Now we're talking. There are many counterpoints to the hero's journey (and, no, I'm no Joseph Campbell, drawing some sharp distinction there, most of my heroes happen to be women). The conflict of circumstances, environment, situations (including war and danger), politics, any number of things. None of these require the villainous villain (VV).

In fact, for this writer/reader, I find much more impact when I discover the non-VV who we only thought was a VV. 

An example: In the reboot: Star Trek Into Darkness, Khan is the great VV...UNTIL we discover that he is doing it all to save his people. In Titanic (the Cameron movie), Cal is only trying to keep what's his. 

I think the real test for me on making a villain credible rather than repulsive is: Could I write the same story from the villain's point of view and make him the hero? Miranda Priestly's story in The Devil Wears Prada would be so easy to write. And not some mere tripe about how tough a woman has to be to survive in a man's world, or not only that, but doing everything it takes to make a difference: even trying to humble all of the wannabes with the trial by fire she runs Andy through--simply the best method of winnowing the chaff to discover the exceptional. And the cost to her personal life that she's willing to make to do that.

If I can do that in my head, then I know I have a credible anti-hero, rather than a merely mad or vile villain.

LOVING THE VILLAIN

That is when I know I've really found something fun, when I'm rooting for the villain. When I want them to win. Not necessarily triumph over the hero, but to win. 

Here are a few of my favorite villains, that I wanted to win:

• John Travolta as Gabriel in Swordfish. (Which he does in the final cut, but I actually prefer one of the alternate endings where he almost does...but not quite.)
• Jason Bourne (who is absolutely a villain, just faced with a worse one). He almost wins, except his past gets every woman he's ever loved disenfranchised then killed.
• the appropriately named Dominika from Red Sparrow (who wins, but sacrifices almost everything she is to do so)
• Leon in The Professional absolutely deserved to win...and in a way he does. He is the hero's sidekick, but he is also a professional assassin for the mafia.
• Who's heart doesn't ache for The Phantom of the Opera, or the unlucky-in-love contestants in Chess?
• George Clooney in Up In the Air is definitely the bad guy...and you want him so much to have a salvation, but it all gets ripped away.

My definition of villain may seem a little odd. Bad deeds that aren't necessarily from being a bad person. Rather one just as thoroughly formed by choices and circumstances as the rest of us.

I actually just wrote my first "insane" villain, perhaps since that long-ago exercise. And yet, unlike that buried character, he is also empathetic and we feel his pain (hopefully). (Shadow Force: Psi #4, coming in September, At the Clearest Sensation.) 

To me, that is the what makes a villain likable, when we find ourselves routing for them.

USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 60+ contemporary and military romance novels, and action-adventure thrillers. Also 100 short stories and lotsa audiobooks. Booklist says: 3x “Top 10 Romance of the Year” and among “The 20 Best Romantic Suspense Novels: Modern Masterpieces.” NPR and B&N say: “Best 5 Romance of the Year.” PW declares: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.

Grace Burrowes and M.L. Buchman: Favorite Authors

Judith is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

One of my favorite authors is Grace Burrowes. I’ve lost myself for many hours in her historical romance novels. Imagine my surprise when Genre-ista M.L. Buchman talked about a joint project he’d done with Ms. Burrowes!

Big Sky Ever After is a Montana Romance duet. Matt’s book is Nathan’s Big Sky. I loved the story of a New York City chef ending up at a ranch in Montana. Culture shock and much more. As a reader my warning is “Don’t read Nathan’s Big Sky” on an empty stomach!

Ms. Burrowes’ Tartan Two Step has a culture shock of another kind. Magnus Cromarty travels from Scotland to Montana to check out a Phenom in the world of whisky brewing. Little does he know that the young woman he picks up at the bar is who he’s looking for.

One of the reasons I wanted to read these two stories is because I’ve enjoyed both authors’ earlier books. However, I especially wanted to read more of Ms. Burrowes contemporary romances. While I learned more than I ever knew I wanted to know about whisky distilling, in Ms. Burrowes SweetestKisses series, set in Maryland her background as a family law attorney is put to good use.

Because of my own background in child protective services I was particularly aware of how she portrayed the system that is in place to protect young people. In the child’s best interest was a concept that gained momentum during my years working in the CPS system. And Judge Jean Lewis, one of our circuit court judges, was known nationally for her work in using the “in the child’s best interest” standard in juvenile/dependency court.

I’ve completed the first three Sweetest Kisses books and am looking forward to reading the next and even more of Ms. Burrowes' contemporary romance. Not that I won't be spending time with her historical romance novels. I can see my keeper shelf holding more and more of Ms. Burrowes stories!

My caveat is this: there are child protective services workers who are conscientious, compassionate and genuinely care about the children in their caseloads. They do look at what the child wants and what is in that child’s best interest. However, I truly do understand and appreciate that if that CPS worker showed up in Ms. Burrowes’ stories, conflict and drama would be lost.

The reality is there are CPS workers as portrayed by Ms. Burrowes and there are also attorneys who do the easiest not necessarily the best for their young clients. For some attorneys working in family law or juvenile court is beneath them, drudgery, a thankless duty. I’m grateful Ms. Burrowes portrays lawyering in a child’s best interest as a higher calling. Making a positive difference in a child’s life only makes our society and our country stronger.

I'm always interested in your thoughts. Please let me know how important authenticity is to you as a reader?

Sign up for Connections, my newsletter, and download a free e-copy of Lily.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Follow Judith on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB!

Reinventing Romancing The Genres

Judith is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

Reinventing Ourselves is the chosen topic for our Sixth Blog-O-Versary here at Romancing The Genres. What started out as an idea Sarah and Judith talked about over tea at the Border’s Café just over 6 years ago has now developed into a world-wide blog focused on diversity of genre, geography and gender. Genre-istas come from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. They span across the United States and we write in most of the sub-genres of romance.

If you’ve followed us at all, you know our new look is Very Different from our initial one. There are similarities – books, a cup, and our name. We’ve changed our ‘tag line’ and after weeks of trying to figure out visuals to show visitors how diverse we are, Diana McCollum came up with the idea of language and Sarah Raplee did the research.

What did I contribute to this reinvention of RTG? Some initial brain storming and on-going feedback when asked on the new banner and format.

While Sarah and Diana worked on the new look, I tracked down alumni and invited them to guest with us. It has been a fun journey—catching up with former Genre-istas.

Here’s our May Line-Up.

05/06 — Donna Hatch

05/13 — Terri Molina

05/20 — Deanne Wilsted

05/27 — Susan Horsnell

05/29 — Nadine Mutas

05/30 — Margaret Tanner

05/31 — Christy Carlyle

At one point in the past six years these authors have been an integral part of Romancing The Genres and added to our success.

Take the time and click on their names to check out their websites and be sure to stop back by each Saturday for an up-close and personal chat with them.

Another Reinvention organized by Genre-ista Marcia King-Gamble is our Tuesday evening FB Events. Check in on our Facebook Page between 9 – 10 EDT (6 – 7 PDT) and learn what these award winning, bestselling authors have done and are doing to reinvent themselves. If you missed Carla Neggers on May 2^nd, don’t miss out on these other heavy hitters.

05/09 — Michelle Monkou

05/16 — Dianna Moggy

05/23 — Alyssa Maxwell

05/30 — M.L. Buchman

For me on a personal level, I’m reinventing myself every day as I find the balance between writing and my real life. I’m figuring out what I want to do myself, what I’m willing to do and what I’m l hiring out.

Check out my Monday Judith Ashley blog. This month I’m writing about

05/08 — Unconditional Acceptance

05/15 — Unconditional Support

05/22 — Unconditional Love

05/29 — Sacred Space

Sign up for Connections, my newsletter, and download a free e-copy of Lily.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on Judith's website.

Follow Judith on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB!

Walking into Strange Lands

It's something that I always seem to be doing, walking into strange lands. I often wonder where I picked up the habit. Perhaps it was the summer I was twelve. We had just moved from a small cow town in upstate New York (seriously small, 1,200 people and 10,000 head of dairy) to across the road from the original IBM headquarters in Poughkeepsie, New York. (Serious culture shock!) I believe that it may be the most boring (and terrifying) summer of my life. I spent three months not knowing anyone and in absolute terror of starting 7th grade without a single friend.

It was the boring part that kicked me in the behind, I swore I would never be that bored again. And, well, most people think I'm either hyperactive or been crazy ever since. Not really, I just learned the value of intentionally walking into strange lands. In high school, still awkward, I joined and eventually ran the theater. In college, the planetarium and, due to an odd vacancy among professors, the astronomy department for almost two years. Then, tossing a coin (almost literally), I put my life in my car and drove 3,000 miles to Seattle. Later all my college friends kept saying how brave it was. I hadn't thought of it that way, I'd just done it.

Over the years this has served me well. I've walked into projects way over my head, and been the guy who led them to successful completion. I bicycled solo around the world when my career collapsed due to outside forces in my mid-30s. And I discovered writing fiction while bicycling across the Australian Outback. My first novel was written there, across the outer islands of Indonesia, and through southern India.

It never struck me that to simply "start writing" was all that unusual, though my friends did look at me strangely. For the last couple decades I've relentlessly pursued fiction, mostly because it was so much fun, but that's not the point I'm after today.

One more strange land to mention of the many I have discovered, military romantic suspense (MRS). Yes, I'm a guy writing contemporary romance and science fiction and thrillers, but I've also found a passion for MRS. I never served, I don't fly helicopters, but I became fascinated by the people who chose as a life's career to fly choppers with SOAR(a), the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (airborne). Fascinated enough to walk into their strange land through my stories. And what better story to tell than that of falling in love?

I am constantly amazed at what I've learned by walking into strange lands and seeing where the flight would take me. All of the best things I have ever found in my life have come from that including my wife and the coolest kid on the planet (not that I'm biased). It is by walking my writing into these interesting places that inspires my stories. Pursuing that passion of discovery has always served me well, I hope it serves you too.

Agile Thinking

By Matt Buchman

Agile is all the craze in the software world. “Agile” jobs have gone up 2,000,000% in the last three years. (No, that’s not a typo.) And while I’m not a software geek, I find myself a bit surprised at the aptness of this phrase to publishing in today’s market.

The Kindle’s 5th birthday passed on November 19th. (Did anyone send a cake?) When it was released, e-books were only in the land of the crazed geeks and other early adopters. (Anyone recall the Rocket ereader? It weighed only twice as much as the Kindle and held forty books for 20+ hours of reading per charge –and that was in 1998!) As of August 2012, eBooks represent 21% of the adult market, have blown into the children’s market (mostly this year) to 13% share, and will see huge growth this Christmas (Kindle sales have already broken records).

I published my third SF “Monk’s Maze” in 2010 as my first e-book. I’ve followed it with five others across three genres. That was right after PubIt and CreateSpace entered the fray. Now I’m direct to Kobo as well and through Smashwords to others. In that time I’ve learned a lot, so, I’ve redone all of the covers once and the marketing twice. I’m trying to be agile and responsive to my own learning.

At the same time, I marketed to traditional presses and sold my “Night Stalker” romance series to Sourcebooks. With these releases, and the very kind reviews that readers and critics have been nice enough to bestow, my one other romance title started taking off.

Or rather, it should have been, but it wasn’t. After a bit more “agile thinking” I changed the cover to make my own line up better with the beautiful ones designed by Sourcebooks. The day I changed the covers, the book started selling. I didn’t change the marketing, I just let go of a cover that I’d ever so carefully designed and branded to match my other books. Same love story, far more sales. (Night Stalkers #3 “Wait Until Dark” out 2/2012 & Angelo’s Hearth #2 “Where Dreams Reside” out 4/2012).

Then I wanted to write a short novel (1/2 length) in the “Night Stalker” world. After it was finished and proofread and fixed, I published it in under 12 hours. My first dozen sales happened on one site before I was done getting it on the other sites I load to. It’s not just being agile to keep up with the market’s technology changes. It’s also thinking about your customer (a key part of agile software design). What do they want? Another story in a successful series about a side character they liked. 

Did I need to take the traditional 1-1/2 to 2 years to get to market as I did with my traditional sales? No, I took 12 hours (including the print layout and full front-and-back cover design). Does it have the huge reach of traditional press? Not yet. I’m leveraging my self-pub sales off the traditional sales, but they’re both going to grow. It doesn’t happen overnight, some of my self-pubbed books still don’t sell but occasionally.

So, what I’m constantly asking myself today? How can I be even more agile tomorrow!





Matt Buchman

ML “Matt” Buchman has worked in theater, law, computers, opera, publishing, and manufacturing, roughly in that order.

Somewhere in there he designed and built two houses and rode a bicycle solo around the world (that last wasn’t really on purpose, but it happened anyway). He started his first novel while on that trip.

A half dozen novels exist in SF/F, a foodie thriller, and romance. His Night Stalker series was just named Top 10 Romance of 2012 by Booklist and earns rave reviews. Somewhere along the way he picked up an amazing kid and the best wife a writer could ever dream up. He lives and writes in the Pacific NW.

For more information about Matt and his books check out his website