The Scariest Monsters Look Like Us

 by Thomas Kies 

In honor of Halloween (and the Day of the Dead), I’d like to touch upon one of my favorite subjects.  Villains. Bad guys. Boogeymen. Ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. 

When I’m writing, I enjoy creating my protagonists because they’re fun to be with, even if it's only in my own mind.  But there’s real joy… and catharsis… in writing the villains.  

Don’t we all harbor that dark side? When your boss makes a humiliating comment, wouldn’t you like to do something horrible to him, even if only in your imagination? When a store clerk ignores you, wouldn’t you like to grab them by the collar and give them a good smack? Do you have an ex who has cheated on you?  Honestly, don’t you think about digging a shallow grave in the woods?

But enough about my twisted imagination.  Let’s talk about some truly great literary villains. And a lot of them look normal.  Just like us. 

You can’t talk about legendary bad guys without including Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire, Count Dracula.  Wealthy and sophisticated, he enjoys the nightlife. He’s suave, handsome, and a great seducer.  He’s undead and enjoys a hearty meal of blood. At first glance, he doesn’t look scary. 

Dracula has spawned an untold number of vampire novels, short stories, and movies.  These include Interview with the Vampire by Ann Rice (which has spawned its own literary, movie, and television industry) and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. 

Speaking of Stephen King, he’s given us a treasure trove of literary villains.  Pennywise, the shapeshifting stealer of children from It. That novel didn’t make me any less afraid of clowns. Emily and Rodney Harris, the retired college professors who also happen to be cannibals from the novel titled Holly. Jack Torrance, the teacher/writer going mad at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. In the sequel to The Shining, there’s Rose the Hat from Dr. Sleep.  She’s a vampire that hunts children with psychic abilities to torture and feed from them.  Randall Flagg, the pure embodiment of evil, from The Stand and The Dark Tower series.  

But if you’re a writer, the most memorable villain is Annie Wilkes from the novel Misery. A few years ago, I was doing a book signing and a woman came up to me and said, “I’m your biggest fan.” I about peed myself. For a moment I thought she was going to offer me cookies.  

Don’t think I didn’t check whether she was carrying an axe. 

But at first glance, Annie Wilkes didn’t look scary. 

On to other villains.  We have to include Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes's arch-nemesis and intellectual equal.  Moriarty would sit like a spider in the center of his own web of wickedness and do his evilness without ever getting his hands dirty. 

Another villain who has sparked his own industry is Hannibal Lecter from Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs. A brilliant psychiatrist, cultured, articulate, and impeccably mannered, Lecter is also a cannibalistic serial killer. He's proof that evil doesn't necessarily announce itself with a hideous face or a sinister laugh. Sometimes it wears a nice suit and speaks with perfect diction. At first glance, he doesn’t look scary. 

And what about the villain who works behind the scenes, manipulating, whispering, scheming?  The villain who understands human weakness and knows how to exploit it. Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello is that kind of character. You could liken those characteristics to advisors to current business leaders, politicians, or even presidents. At first glance, those advisors don’t look scary. 

Who are my favorite villains in my own stories?  Bogdan and Valentin Tolbonov from Darkness Lane and Graveyard Bay.  The Tolbonovs are half-brothers running their own faction of the Russian Mafia. Valentin is coldly charming and manipulative.  Bogdan is the muscle.  Both are devoid of any shred of conscience and aren’t afraid to show their streak of sadism. 

Those boys were fun to write.

Now, if you really want something to think about, many real-life serial killers look normal.  Ted Bundy- handsome, well-educated, charming.  John Wayne Gacy- ran a construction business, participated in community events, dressed up as Pogo the Clown for children’s parties (there’s that clown thing again). Dennis Rader- the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill) was unassuming in appearance, married, and had two children.  

None of them looked scary.  And there are dozens of other serial killers just like that. 

So, I hope you had a fun Halloween. Yes, it’s time to put away the costumes and masks.  Now, tonight, before you turn off the lights to go to bed, check on your loved ones and make certain they’re safe, then make damned sure those doors are locked tight. 

You never know what’s lurking outside.  And remember, if someone comes to the door, at first glance, they may not look scary. 

The Vampire Craze

An editor once told me one of things she worried about at every writing conference was underestimating the abilities of someone who really didn't look like their notion of a writer. Someone with a bad perm, wearing old sneakers, stained polyester pants and a saggy T-shirt. This happened to her once, and she never forgot it.

Because the lady turned out to be one of the most successful romance writers ever. By dissing her the editor lost a lot of credibility with her publishers. Sending editors to a writers conference isn't cheap. They are supposed to spot rising talent. 

The editor's comment has stayed with me because writer's conference are by nature--well, exhausting. They just are. I can just imagine an editor spending an entire afternoon listening to pitches and having someone show up announcing they have written a book about vampires. Does that sound promising? Probably not. I'll bet the editor's first reaction is that it's been done for goodness sake.

I'll bet more than one editor regrets not paying attention to that pitch. 

One of my favorite books was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Our own Type M'er, Mario Acevedo, has a vampire series. A student of mine at Fort Hays, Morgan Chalfant, wrote a vampire western, Youngbloods. Steven King's Salem's Lot  isn't at all like Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. The Teen series, The Vampire Diaries, was a huge success, in print and on the screen.

 So what is it about vampires that inspires writers to come up with books so different from one another? What is there in the human psyche that connects to such a bizarre creature. I'm not only speaking of writers, but the readers who devour them. No pun intended. I really am not enthusiastic about vampire books, nor am I inclined to believe a word. And yet, and yet. When I first read Salem's Lot I wore a crucifix around my neck for days. I wore it when I slept too.

The Historian is such a terrific book I began to doubt my disbelief.

I searched for vampire books in Amazon Some of the covers were a little too interesting. You want blood? There's blood aplenty. There were over 100 pages of Vampire titles. That has to be a category record.

My first mystery in the Lottie Albright series, Deadly Descent, was originally titled Bound by Blood. I intended to make it the Bound by series. Bound by Murder, Bound by Death, etc. My editor objected. She said that clerks don't have time to read all the books and would stock Bound by Blood in the Vampire section. Then the series would be placed there forever. 

If you are starting out in this business, don't ever let someone tell you that your book won't be published because another writer has already written a book on the same subject.

Boats Against The Current: More Bookstore Tales

With Amazon owning 22 percent of the bookselling industry and indie stores claiming a mere 6 percent of the market share, it comes as no surprise that bookstores as we know (or knew) them are going by the wayside.

You remember them. Some weren't fancy: preferably scuffed hardwood floors, tilted shelves, and (gasp) physical books to leaf through. But a recent loss — particularly in one region — has me reeling.

First things first: Admittedly, I have an Amazon account. And, admittedly, I use it. But recently, the declining number of physical bookstores hit me. Full force. In the face. The second book in my Peyton Cote series, Fallen Sparrow, hits shelves June 8 everywhere. But not exactly everywhere.

It won't hit any shelves in the region where the novel is set.

Yes, that's right. In the region — the entire county, in fact — where it's set. And this isn't just any county. It's the largest county east of the Mississippi. Aroostook County, Maine, has a land mass the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined but has fewer than 80,000 people. Therefore, its longtime bookstores — all three, including a chain store — have gone the way of the dinosaur.

Hard to believe? It is for me. I lived in the area for a decade, did many signings (and buyings) at the three area bookstores — two indies and a B. Dalton. Perhaps the scariest fact of all is that the area is dominated by an aged population. Therefore, I can't attribute the make-the-bookstore-disappear trick to a rising number of young people reading e-books rather than physical texts. What's that say about the role books play in people's lives?

Let's not think about that. That thought is scarier than Stephen King's fright-filled Salem's Lot.

So what's a writer to do? There are, of course, a few libraries. And I can certainly hit those, but the lack of stores in the region where the series takes place is a major blow. I'm relying on newspaper ads and (hopefully) reviews and features.

So, as F. Scott wrote so elegantly, we beat on, boats against the current. And self-promote like hell.