Killer Villains: Name Your Favorite By Jodi Rath

WICKED WEDNESDAY

Jodi Rath is treating us to Wicked Wednesday with her take on villains. Clowns? Gulp! It doesn's stop there.

Big red-nose, three times too big painted on a red smile that turns sinister like dark clouds invading a sunny day. The evil clown is my least favorite villain. Why? Clowns freak me out. They seem caustic by nature. My favorite villain is the everyday, normal citizen that no one would ever guess. The one that looks too good to be evil. They wear the same mask as the clown does paint, but they hide it so well that we readers struggle to figure out who the killer is.

Other heinous archetypes are the femme fatale, the dark god, the power-mad scientist, and the slighted sibling.  Written well, these characters can difficult for us readers to decipher too. One way to write them well is to write to them like that every day, wholesome individual. When we see the man twirling the long, wiry mustache that becomes a dead give-away who the culprit is. Yet, write that same guy with as autistic gentleman who twirls his mustache as a tic, and we second guess that he’s an evil villain.

These examples and more are things writers have to consider when developing their best villain for their novel. How can I trick you, the reader, into never guessing this sweet, innocent old spinster holds grudges against women in their young twenty’s due to the time she was mugged by a group of sorority sister’s that needed to do this as part of their pledge?

So, what are your favorite and least favorite villains in the stories you read, and why?

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Watch for the next two books of Jodi's popular series in 2020:

Blueberry Cobbler Blackmail, book 3

Releasing 2/28/2020 

Welcome to Leaven—oh wait—Santo Domingo, where DEATH takes a DELICIOUS turn!

Family bombshells, sibling rivalries, blackmail, and a trip that could be deadly...and the new year has only just begun! After a disastrous Thanksgiving, Jolie Tucker is beside herself and feeling the walls closing in around her. She feels like she needs to escape Leavensport before she loses her mind. She unexpectedly gets her wish when her best friend and co-owner of Cast Iron Creations, Ava Martinez, gets a terrifying email revealing that her papa, Thiago, is in danger in Santo Domingo. The girls are off on a dangerous adventure in new territory. Will they be able to save the day before danger finds them?

Cast Iron Stake Through the Heart, book 4

Releasing 5/29/2020

On again, off again, ON AGAIN–Jolie Tucker and Mick Meiser are giving their relationship another try. Things seem to be working out for them so far, and love is on the menu all over Leavensport! An unexpected pregnancy with a surprising partner, a therapist pairs off with the chief of police, and the mayor of Leavensport falls for Jolie’s Aunt Fern!

Although Leavensport is serving up affairs of the heart, there are a lot of mysterious activities lurking in the air. The townspeople awake to find freshly dug empty holes throughout the fields that were recently up for sale under suspicious circumstances. Jolie and Ava believe they are taking a break from solving murders when they start teaching an online cooking course–until they witness one of their students take a stake through the heart!

ABOUT JODI RATH

Moving into her second decade working in education, Jodi Rath has decided to begin a life of crime in her The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series. Her passion for both mysteries and education led her to combine the two to create her business MYS ED, where she splits her time between working as an adjunct for Ohio teachers, educational writing, marketing consultant work with authors, and creating mischief in her fictional writing. She currently resides in a small, cozy village in Ohio with her husband and her eight cats.