Villains

Today let’s talk about villains. Since NovelTea is a romantic suspense series, I of course had to create a villain. In A Night of NovelTea, we are brought into the world of secret agents aka: spies through the eyes of the naïve bookshop owner, Juliet. She doesn’t know what’s going on but she has no choice but to go along with it. In the second book, NovelTea Next Door, I had to bring this world to life even more. That included creating a villain. I found this exercise completely freeing and exciting—getting into the head of a psychopath. And by the end of the story, I had to decide what to do with my villain. Does he die or does he live to see another day? That is the question.

I think when you come to that point in your book of whether to save or kill off a character, it comes down to—has this character played out their whole story or is there more to tell. This was a question I had to answer as I wrote the penultimate chapter in NovelTea Next Door. What did I decide? Well, you will just have to read it and find out.

Here is the Prologue to NovelTea Next Door from the first person perspective of the villain. Imagine it is midnight and shadowy. The voice speaking is rich, smooth and well articulated.

The darkness of midnight embraced me like an ever expectant lover. Standing alone in my solitary state peering out at the shadowed city streets, I was captivated. The black sheet of the night skyline twinkled with a diminutive number of stars. Leaning over the balcony railing, I slowly inhaled a gulp of the crisp air. This was the time of day when I felt alive—when my true spirit was released and I could feel it breathing inside of me.

It had all been just too easy. His arrogance and their conceit have played right into my hand. Before they put the pieces together, all evidence of my existence will be gone and they’ll once more be rubbing their heads wondering what went wrong.

I’ll be sad to end this charade. It has served me well. Perhaps too well. I was becoming overly comfortable in this guise—making contact with too many people…like her. She would have loved the real me if only I could have shown her. In another time or another place, I might have had that chance. Maybe I still will. I’m beginning to grow tired of this game. At any rate, time has a way of catching up with you in the end.