Fraterfamilias by Peter Ferrer

We want to hear about the bad guys, bad gals and villains in your book. Even if you don't have a murderer, thief or other "bad guy" there should be some negative force.

Who causes friction is the story?
The most dangerous character in the story is a Homicide cop named Charlie Rains. He's in a bad place in life, which makes him vulnerable to manipulation by someone very, very scary who wants him to gather information about one of the book's main protagonists, Alan Kedward. But Charlie also finds himself sympathizing with Alan. It puts him in a tug of loyalties between his blackmailer and Alan that endangers everyone.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?
Bad gals, definitely. I want to read about tough gals who are willing to do bad things to get what they want, just like men. Do the bad things outright rather than manipulate men into doing them or dither over whether or not to do something bad that needs to be done.

How do you use your bad guys?
I have never believed in "villains", per se. In real life, everyone is the hero of their own story and the villain of their story is whoever tries to stop them from doing or getting what they want in life. Alan Kedward, for example, is trying to cover up for his brother, Paul Farrell, who murdered four people in Paris. So, depending on whether the POV belongs to Alan or the investigators pursuing his brother, he's either a good guy or a bad guy. Sure, he's in a lot of the book and a lot of the book is from his point of view. But that was true of the villains of Eye of the Needle and Day of the Jackal, too.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?
No, it's a fun challenge. You just keep in mind that no matter how scuzzy this person is, that person is the hero of his or her own story. It's the effect of his or her actions on others in the story that determines whether or not he or she is a villain. You should never write a character with whom you can't sympathize. It backfires and makes the reader dislike you for betting on the character. There's nothing more annoying than an insufferable protagonist.
And anyway, most of my protagonists are pretty bad, depending on how you look at them.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?
I think that people who are backed into a corner don't act "nice", and that a lot of times, people can do horrible things to others under the cover of being nice and polite. I find that the underdogs who have to do "bad" things to survive are far more fascinating than clean-cut heroes who don't have to question the rigid moral codes by which they judge themselves and everyone around them.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books?
I'd have to say Charlie Rains. He's wonderfully conflicted. He's only a bad guy in this story. Doesn't mean he'll stay a bad guy. He's no Renfield in Dracula. The guy isn't weak, just in a bad place. He's capable of redemption.

Which bad guy and which book are they in?
Fraterfamilias.

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?
Brian de Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe and Lucifer in Paradise Lost. Weren't they gloriously bad?

Is there anything else about your bad guys that we need to know? Feel free to share.
Keep an eye on them. They don't always stay bad. The good guys don't always stay good, either. It keeps things interesting.

Please provide your website link.
http://www.geocities.com/rpcv.geo/other.html

What is the link to buy your book?
http://www.virtualtales.com/StoryProducts~tn~Fraterfamilias.html

Thank you for telling us about your bad guys. We love to meet the "evil ones".
You're welcome!

Judi Moreo and Kim Baccelia - Virtual Tour Stops

Promotional Interview with Judi Moreo

This is the first author promotional interview that I've posted on my Self Promotion blog on the Inspired Author site. This is the first interview in a series that I'm doing with Kathleen Gage. She is posting some on her blog and I'll be posting all of the interviews on my site. To read about Judi Moreo's promotion - visit

http://inspiredauthor.com/v3/promotional-interview-judi-moreo-0

~ and ~

Kim Baccellia - Young Adult Author - Earrings of Ixtumea

Join Nikki Leigh and Muze as they interview young adult author Kim Baccelia about her book - Earrings of Ixtumea. This is the opening question of the interview - Nikki & Muze – I was reading the synopsis for your book and was intrigued by the inner struggle that your character faces. It’s also interesting that she is confronted by the same cultural problems in the fantasy world. Can you give us some information about how you came up with this idea and what sort of problems she deals with in the story?

Kim –As a bilingual teacher in the later ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, I saw a lot with my second language students. I taught in a LA county school district, close to East LA. I also was researching my own family history at this time. I was bothered how each year my students would draw themselves blond, blue-eyed, and fair skinned.

Click here to learn more about Kim and Earrings of
Iztumeahttp://muzesmusings.blogspot.com/

Nikki Leigh – Fiction Author – www.nikkileigh.com
Book Promo 101 – www.nikkileigh.com/book_promo_101.htm
“Coastal Suspense with a Touch of Romance”

Round Table Magician by Ann Tracy Marr

Who causes friction in Round Table Magician?

Someone stole Mr. Jackson's papers. Whoa - lets change that to someone stole military papers from Mr. Jackson's library. Confidential, secret military plans. It is a case of espionage, pure and simple, but Lady Martha doesn't know that. Round Table Magician Lord Brinston has all the background facts, but being a typical male, he doesn't share the facts. No wonder the poor man tears his hair out, trying to keep Martha from looking for the spy.

The baddie?

You have to read Round Table Magician. Help Martha pick the spy out of a cast of suspects. Try to deduce the motive for the theft. Then you can cheer Brinston on as he catches the villain.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?

Both are interesting. What I enjoy revealing is villainy done in the name of a good cause.

How do you use your bad guys?

My villains haven't done murder, though they may come close. They just decide they want something and do what they can to grab it. Nothing wrong with having goals -- except they go about it the wrong way -- and they go too far.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

Villains are easy. They are people just like you and me, but with something twisted inside them. Where they should step back -- where anyone else would realize they were going too far -- the villains have blinders on. Like an elephant stampeding the circus to snuffle the peanuts scattered by a silly kid in the parking lot.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way.

Not being a huge fan of the mystery genre or monsters, I don't go all out and create a mystery, complete with clues, red herrings, and detectives or a horror novel with psychos running rampant. What I love is creating a character with a quirk that makes life difficult for everyone else.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

Mothers can't favor one child over another. Besides, I only have two books and two baddies so far.

Round Table Magician and the thief is available on http://www.amazon.com/ as a trade paperback. Check out www.freewebs.com/marr794 to see what's up.

Scion of the Dark Moon by Kingsley Montgomery

We want to hear about the bad guys, bad gals and villains in your book. Even if you don't have a murderer, thief or other "bad guy" there should be some negative force.

Who causes friction is the story?

A goblin skin-shaper named Urchul is the primary antagonist in Scion of the Dark Moon, though there are many others, ranging from scheming politicians to demons of the void. Goblins in the world of Terralis are a race of powerful beings that pose a constant threat to the other major race – humans. Goblin society is built around necromancy and demons, who they worship as gods.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals? Both have their place.

How do you use your bad guys?

The ‘bad guys’ in Scion of the Dark Moon work at opposing purposes from the protagonists, who are predominantly human. Though many of the antagonists are clearly ‘evil’ people (and creatures), some are not so clearly defined.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

I find it easier to write about the bad guys. Bad guys are typically more dynamic, and definitely have fewer limitations. It’s a good reason to make ‘good guys’ somewhat ‘bad’!

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?

Bad guys are fun to write because they have fewer acceptable limits – they typically do what they want, when they want, and they are more often unpredictable. These features lead to more possibilities for interesting writing. I feel less constraint when writing about the bad guys. In fantasy, this is particularly true because you can create all manner of diabolical plot lines for your antagonists, whereas your protagonists usually have to walk the ‘straight and narrow’.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

My favorite bad guy is Urchul in Scion of the Dark Moon. He’s a goblin skin-shaper, an assassin who can take the appearance of those he kills by magically adhering their skin to his own. Though he would be considered repulsive and decidedly ‘evil’ to most of us, he was bred to do what he does, and feels he is serving his race in a justifiable way. His single-minded adherence to duty is actually a very respectable trait.

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?

One of my favorite fictional bad guys is the robot Erasmus in Brian Herbert’s Dune prequels (The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, and The Battle of Corrin). Erasmus is a sentient robot and one of the rulers of the Synchronized Empire that has enslaved most of humanity. Ironically, he is constantly torturing people in his eternal quest to ‘understand’ humans and be more like them. Ironically again, he ends up adopting a human ‘son’ who he grows to love, in his own way, which is his undoing in the end. This dichotomy, and the author’s brilliant portrayal, make Erasmus one of the best bad guys I’ve read in a long time.

Is there anything else about your bad guys that we need to know? Feel free to share.

The bad guys in Scion of the Dark Moon take many forms. The human bad guys are often nobles grabbing for power, backstabbing, and intriguing their way to the top. Then there are the goblins, a race inimical to mankind that have been manipulating human affairs as they seek to dominate Terralis as they once did, before the ascendance of Man. They are schemers as well as necromancers and demonologists, both of which are central to their religion and culture.

Please provide your website link.

Books by Kingsley Montgomery can be found at http://www.kvmbooks.com/.

What is the link to buy your book?

Scion of the Dark Moon can be purchased from my Web site at http://www.kvmbooks.com/, via Amazon.

Kingsley Montgomery
Fantasy or sci-fi reader? Visit my author site at http://www.kvmbooks.com/

Kelly Heckart - Of Water and Dragons

We want to hear about the bad guys, bad gals and villains in your book. Even if you don't have a murderer, thief or other "bad guy" there should be some negative force.Who causes friction is the story?

There is more than one negative force in Of Water and Dragons. The Roman legions play a roll as a negative force trying to bend the Celts to their will, but one character, a female warrior named Rhonwyn, causes friction in the story, but she isn't an evil person. She acts on love and ends up causing trouble for herself and everyone else.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?

I like both bad boys and bad gals. It depends on the plot of the story. How do you use your bad guys? So far, the bad boys or girls I have written are not totally evil. Something usually happens to change their thinking or they have a redeeming quality about them.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

I enjoy writing troubled characters. I think that makes them more real because we all struggle with our inner demons.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?

I think everyone has a dark side and only some decide to act on it at some point in their life. I find it interesting as to what exactly causes that breaking point within a person. As a writer, it is also fun to get inside a villain's head and get to act out my dark side that way.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

I think I would have to say Morgaine from White Rose of Avalon, which is going to be released November 16, 2007. She isn't an evil being, but in her desperation to save Avalon, she nearly destroys everyone she cares about. Because of that, some people might view her as evil.

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?

I am going with a t.v. character because he really defined a redemptive bad boy in my eyes. Spike, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, once a totally evil vampire without a conscience, goes through a change and gives own life to save Sunnydale in the last episode. The drastic change he went through was believable.

Thank you for telling us about your bad guys. We love to meet the "evil ones".

Kelley Heckart

Author of Of Water and Dragons,

"an appealing amalgam of magic, erotica, military history, and romance that will leave readers breathless in its wake." Ellen Tanner Marsh, NYT best-selling author
http://http://www.kelleyheckart.com/

The Daemonhold Curse

We want to hear about the bad guys, bad gals and villains in your book. Even if you don't have a murderer, thief or other "bad guy" there should be some negative force. The book is The Daemonhold Curse from Epress-Online… (www.epress-online.com)

Who causes friction is the story?
Abstinence Daemon, half brother of the heroine Fidelity, is the source of considerable friction: he doesn’t believe in the curse that threatens her nor does he have any confidence in Erique Shoutte, who she has asked to help her.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?
I prefer heroes, absolutely; though having played almost nothing but bad guys in films for thirty years, I came to realize that villains never think they are villains

How do you use your bad guys?
To counterpoint the heroes. After all, the hero must have a strong villain to overcome or his journey means little

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?
I find it hard as they are people I would not want to spend time with in real life, and you have to spend a lot of time in their heads.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?
It’s the same reason I don’t like a lot of popular culture—why would you spend so much time with people you have no admiration for—unless you are sick. You should not be so interested in people like Hannibal Lecter, with the exception of how to exterminate or avoid him…

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?
I would have to say the White Tiger- the villain, in a very arch way, of my 1930’s series The Adventures of the Granite Man (from virtualtales.com). He is of the Fu Manchu School of yellow menace, though hopefully not so stereotyped or racist….
The White Tiger, attired in silk robes, would have dwarfed even the huge Hindu standing. He had dead white skin and a baldhead that seemed out of proportion to his body. The left side of his body was horribly scarred by some disaster in his turbulent past, and the scarring had been horribly accentuated by primitive tattooing that had organized the scar tissue into the semblance of a tiger’s black stripes. His right eye was a cold black diamond fixed in a mask of skin folds, seeming to defy racial type. His left eye had been replaced by a carved jade and crystal cat’s eye. And his mouth: it seemed to hold endless perfect teeth that were somehow ghastly and inhuman in their perfection. The White Tiger displayed them frequently when he tightened the sallow skin of his face into a rictus smile that threatened to rip his visage asunder. It was at those times that The White Tiger’s look reminded Papal of a grinning skull.
It was not the physical appearance of the White Tiger that filled Papal with fear, however. It was the fact that The White Tiger was the supreme head of the Triad, the criminal underworld of Hong Kong and the hundreds of thousands of expatriate Chinese throughout the world. As such he held the absolute power of life and death over a fifth of humanity.

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?
Frankenstein’s Monster.. He was so misunderstood in the book, and tried so hard to do the right thing, yet was thwarted at every turn…

Thank you for telling us about your bad guys. We love to meet the "evil ones".

The Coming Evil, Book One: The Strange Man by Greg Mitchell

The Coming Evil
Book One: The Strange Man
by Greg Mitchell

Who causes friction in the story? A demon known only as “The Strange Man”.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?

Bad gals. Don’t ask me why, but I think they’re more interesting. Maybe that’s just me being a chauvinist, or whatever, but when I see a girl-gone-bad, I wonder about the wounded little girl inside and how I might help her. Awww…

How do you use your bad guys?

As they say, your hero is only as good as your villain. In the case of The Coming Evil, the villain is sort of a blessing in disguise. Those who should be heroes have, basically, fallen asleep on the job. And it’s only when they’re faced with the Strange Man that they realize that. I don’t really see bad guys as opposition but as an awakening. We don’t know what we’re made of until we’re tried and tested.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

I really like writing the Strange Man because he’s just so nasty. He’s really that dark side of me—if I had no compassion, no mercy, no love, no Christ—I think I would be a lot like the Strange Man. He’s much more a mystery in this first book, but as the series progresses, we’ll learn more about what makes him tick. I’m looking forward to that. I think his reasoning might surprise you.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way.

Again, he’s the dark side of me. He’s my fears, my insecurities, even my anger. So writing him—and more importantly writing about those who overcome him—is a way for me to battle my own demons. It’s really cathartic.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

Well, the Strange Man is the only bad guy in the books…so far. I’ve got other favorites that appear later on in the trilogy, but to tell you would spoil it. So, I’ll just say the Strange Man for now. Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books? I know I should pick some famous character from literature—like Moriarty or something—but I’m going to have to say Freddy Krueger. That guy terrified me as a kid (still does, come to think of it) because he was just so happy about being evil. He got such a thrill out of seeing others suffer and, to me, there’s nothing scarier than that. It’s not the cold, methodic, sophisticated mastermind. It’s the deranged lunatic that gets a giggle from visiting terror on others. Frightening.

The Coming Evil, Book One: The Strange Man
"Evil comes for us all...and for some of us, it's already here."
http://www.thecomingevil.com/
http://www.thecomingevil.blogspot.com/