The Smallest Denominator

The Smallest Denominator

By Julie Rowe

Villains come in all sizes and use many methods to reach their goals. Human nature is, most of the time, predictable. We all have basic needs: Food, shelter, safety, happiness. We have many more wants: Wealth, knowledge, control, health.

We understand that there are people who will do anything to achieve these wants and needs. But, not all villains are as banal, predicable, or even visible.

My favorite villains are microscopic. Invisible. Capricious.

Pathogenic bacteria and viruses are the most prolific serial killers on our planet. They are responsible for millions of deaths around the world ever year, right up to and including 2017.

They’ve been killing us for a very long time.

·       In 430 B.C., smallpox killed more than 30,000 people in Athens, Greece, reducing the city’s population by at least 20%.

·       The Black Death killed 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 % of Europe’s entire population.

·       In the 1500 and 1600’s smallpox killed millions of native peoples in Mexico and North America.

·       In 1793 Yellow Fever killed 45,000 people in Philadelphia.

·       The great flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 is estimated to have killed at least 30 to 50 million people worldwide. 

·       In 2009, the global H1N1 flu pandemic may have killed as many as 575,000 people, though only 18,500 deaths were confirmed.

·       In 2010 an epidemic of cholera killed at least 10,000 people in Haiti following a deadly earthquake. 

·       In 2012, approximately 122,000 people worldwide died from the measles. Typhoid fever killed around 216,000 people that year. Tuberculosis also killed an estimated 1.3 million in 2012. 

·       The 2014 epidemic of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa killed more than 11,300 people.

New strains of bacteria and viruses continue to appear around the world. Some are more virulent forms of organisms that have plagued us on and off for hundreds or even thousands of years. Others, like Zika, seem to come out of nowhere.

The anti-vaccine movement has brought all these serial killers back into our midst, allowing outbreaks of highly contagious viruses (measles scares the crap out of me) to occur in first world countries for the first time in decades.

During 2015 and 2016, the CDC conducted more than 750 field investigations in 49 states, 5 U.S. territories, and in at least 35 different countries.

With the population of the world now over 7 billion people, infectious disease specialists predict that we’re due for another catastrophic disease to sweep across the world.

A villain we can’t see, predict, or prevent with any guarantee of success.

Learn more about current outbreaks at the CDC’s website: CDC Current Outbreak List

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Full-time author, freelance writer and workshop facilitator, Julie Rowe’s debut novel, Icebound, was released by Carina Press on Nov 14, 2011. Ten novels and eight anthologies have followed. Her most recent titles are the MEN OF ACTION boxed set and VIRAL JUSTICE book #3 of the Biological Response Team series. Julie’s articles and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines, such as Romantic Times Magazine, Today's Parent magazine and Canadian Living. Julie facilitates business writing and communication workshops at Keyano College in her home city, and has presented writing workshops at conferences in the United States and Canada. She’s also a strong supporter of life long learning and moderates a free announcement loop for the promotion of online classes, workshops and webinars. You can find her at www.julieroweauthor.com , on Twitter @julieroweauthor or at her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/JulieRoweAuthor.

Villains—A Battle of the Sexes

As writers and readers of romantic suspense, thrillers and mysteries we’re all familiar with villains. They come in varied shapes and sizes, from different backgrounds, and can be male or female.

When a writer builds a villain they:

1. Give them motivation for their actions (even if the character’s thinking is skewed).

2. Give them a few good points to go with all the bad stuff because this makes the character more rounded and maybe a bit likeable.

3. Give them a great name because every character deserves a great name.

4. Give them a similar conflict to the hero or heroine, but a different way to solve their problems.

5. Steer clear of clichés!

But when it comes to sex, that’s when a writer can change things up. After all, men are from Mars and women come from Venus. J

A female villain:

1. She can use her sex appeal, her feminine wiles to get exactly what she wants. Seduction and sex as a weapon.

2. She can exert force and use guns, knives and other weapons to meet her goal, but she’s more likely to use subtlety.

3. She can act ruthlessly and without remorse.

4. She can be cute and sweet and have an inner core of steel. Think of some of those Southern Belles!

5. She does manipulation with flare.

6. She’s excellent at multi-tasking and is extremely intelligent.

Examples of Female Villains:

1. Annie Wilkies in Misery (movie and book)

2. Cruella de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians

3. Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction – that poor bunny!

4. The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

5. Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wars Prada

A male villain:

1. He’s more likely to be upfront rather than sneaky. In most circumstances he won’t beat around the bush or aim for subtlety.

2. He’s more likely to carry out the tasks himself rather than delegate because he likes to control the situation.

3. He’s good at planning and strategy, especially if he has a military/police background.

4. He’s usually experienced with different types of weapons.

5. He’s intelligent and doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

6. He’s more likely to use brute force.

Examples of Male Villains:

1. Jack Randall in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.

2. Darth Vador in Star Wars.

3. Lash in JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood.

4. James Ardmore in The Pirate Next Door by Jennifer Ashley.

5. Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space.

6. Gollum in Lord of the Rings

Male or female, I’m sure we agree that the character needs to be multi-faceted, motivated and interesting. He or she shouldn’t become a laughable cardboard cutout. Here’s a link to an article on Creating a Credible Villain that gives some great tips and another link about questions to ask your villain character.

Do you prefer reading/writing male or female villains? Do you have any fictional favorites? Is there anything that makes you cringe when it comes to villains?

Note – This post was inspired by a guest post at my blog written by Carol Van Atta, The Female Villain: She’s Alive, Well and Ready to bite.

Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand with her husband and a rambunctious puppy. To learn more about Shelley and her books visit her website at www.shelleymunro.com 

Chilling Villains

Now that my book, Only Fear, is out there, available to the whole wide world, I received some unexpected feedback. I was scaring people. My killer isn’t a nice guy—he’s actually pretty gruesome—but I thought I had toned down most of his scenes. I certainly didn’t expect people to say how shockingly scary I was, or that they had to read with the lights on. (That one makes me laugh… of course you’d read with the lights on!)

But moi, scaring people? Am I more unbalanced than I thought? Apparently, editing the story a zillion times took the edge off of the fright factor for me. Or maybe I’ve got a talent for connecting psychologically with the villain’s point of view (let’s not dig too deeply there, shall we?).

So, what makes a truly chilling villain?

I think the answer lies partly in their psychological makeup. When I read about or see a villain on the big screen, I want to understand how they became that way, and why they’re doing what they’re doing. If there’s no good reason, I lose interest.

I also like the villains to be a true challenge for the hero/heroine. They need to be just as smart and strong as the protagonists to give them a real run for their money.

Finally, for me, the most chilling villains are the ones you don’t see coming. The ones you thought were the sweet next door neighbor or the caring coworker. But everyone has a dark side. Apparently, mine was darker than I thought!

Who are some of your “favorite” villains? What qualities chill you the most?

I heart Villains!

Psst, I'm going to tell you a secret. I'm not so much a sucker for a hero that makes my heart pitter-patter as I am for a villain who can make my heart race.

When people ask me how I managed to write a character as evil and twisted as The Babydoll Strangler in my romantic suspense novel The First Victim, I tell them it was easy.

The rules that govern polite society don't apply to villains. They are scheming, ruthless, narcissistic, soulless predators who think they're above the law. These cruel, malevolent sociopaths enjoy frightening and hurting their prey. They're fun to write. They're even more fun to read!

I'm a huge fan of authors who can create the kind of bad guys (or gals!) that have me checking to make sure I've locked the doors. My favorite villains and their creators include:

Arthur Conan Doyle's Moriarty

Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley


Ed McBain's The Deaf Man

Daphne Du Maurier's Mrs. Danvers

Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter



James Patterson's Cassanova

Stephen King's Pennywise

JK Rowling's Voldemort



All of these villains wield fear as their weapon of choice. Some with charm. Some with violence. All with surgical precision.

The authors who created them have branded these characters in my imagination with the kind of skill that leaves me both jealous and amazed.

How do you feel about villains? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Or love to hate them? Which ones are the ones you can't forget (even if you wanted to)?

Real Life Villains

As a romantic suspense author, I charge myself with creating chilling villains that become real to me and hopefully to my readers. The smarter the villain, the more difficult he or she is to outwit.

But in real life, villains are rarely members of the intelligentsia! I get some great insights into bad guys from my husband, who knows many of them well. He's worked for our county jail (one of the largest in the US) for the past twenty plus years. He's had conversations with some of the worst.

A particularly unsettling thought is all the mentally off-balance people in our midst. Someone we know personally can be a sadistic antisocial, someone who sees himself as above everyone else and takes pleasure in hurting other people. Dependent personalities feel that they need something or someone so much that they will cross any boundaries—including committing murder—to get it.

Many murderers are mentally ill in one way or another but some of the most frightening killers are perfectly sane. They don't grab a lot of headlines. They don't have a group of misguided fans who hope to marry them before they are executed. The most chilling villains are those we don't hear a lot about. They are the thugs who don't think twice about killing a mother and her young children. They are the gang members who challenge their new recruits to knock off a passerby as part of their initiation. And most scary of all, they can be the man or woman next door.

In my upcoming Carina book, Protective Custody, the villain has a Narcissistic Personality. He thinks he's above everyone else and has a total lack of empathy. When the heroine gets in his way, he decides she is disposable. But he enjoys toying with her, so he doesn't want to just kill her quickly and be done with it. I think he's pretty darn frightening.

Who are some of your favorite villains? Do you prefer mentally off balance bad guys or perfectly, chillingly sane ones?

BUT OF COURSE HE DID IT....?

Hubby and I have just sat through another episode of one of our classic UK TV detective series. Hugely popular, well written, always attracting top stars as guest actors. But half an hour into the episode, we turned to each other – on opposing sofas – and smiled knowingly.

“It was the mother who did it,” I said.

“Of course,” Hubby replied, nodding in complete agreement. “Another classic example of the Joss Ackland theory.”

I suppose I’d better explain this family joke :).

We watched a BBC spy/murder drama some years ago. It was an excellent play, but there were only a couple of “known” names in it. One was Joss Ackland, the famous British actor. I don’t know if he’s as well known across the world, though he had a starring role in one of the Lethal Weapon films.

Which fits in with my topic rather well!

He was the villain in the play we watched, as well. There were red herrings, there was a complex and challenging plot – but we suspected him all along! After all, we reasoned, why would a famous, well-respected, stage and film actor join the cast for a small cameo role with a few throwaway lines? Why would the BBC spend their budget (and my licence money) on such a grand aristocrat of the acting world, just to fill in the background during the detective’s machinations?

And of course, we were right. In the years since, we’ve watched plenty of dramas and our theory holds well across most of them *haha*. I may well be getting better at spotting the murderer, and this theory may have no more scientific basis than always choosing the jockey with the red cap on race day (which a betting friend of mine actually does), but it’s fun for us to follow!

Now, in a book, we may play a “reverse” red herring more successfully. Our characters aren’t already known to the reader, carrying expectation of a major role, associated with fame and familiarity. We can create a distant cousin who suddenly turns out to be the long-lost sister who’s named prominently in the will, or a small, quiet, nerdy person who turns out to be the maniacal slash murderer (if we so wished *cough*). Or that person who's acting suspiciously, but then we're led to believe he's innocent, but then oh look, he’s acting suspiciously again and we’ve been fooled, he *is* the murderer after all, but then …

Well, hopefully you get my point. We’re not held back by the Joss Ackland theory. And thank goodness!

Do you have your own family “theories” when you’re watching / reading mystery? Who’s *your* Star to Suspect?