Who Are The Scariest Villains?

By Linda Lovely

October conjures up thoughts of Halloween ghosts, goblins, and all things scary. And that has me thinking about the villains that scare me the most. They are villains who have the ability to charm and distort, and they are relentless is pursuing their visions no matter the cost. Here’s what the villains in my published novels and work-in-progress tend to have in common:

Gender—I seem to believe in equal opportunity when it comes to villains. Females are the primary villains in half of my books/manuscripts. Gender may influence how the villains go about achieving their goals, but the evil women and men share many of the same personality traits.

Appearance—Most of my “major” villains tend to be attractive if not downright handsome/beautiful. Their good looks provide a mask for their frightening personalities and evil intentions. I have had some fun with their villainous sidekicks/henchmen, making their outward appearances a tip off to their frightening predilections.

Personality Traits—Whether male or female, my villains share certain personality traits. They are arrogant, greedy, self-centered, determined, smart, and ruthless.

Motives/Goals—I’ve worked hard to ensure my villains all consider themselves heroes/heroines of their own stories. They have reasons for doing what they do. Of course those reasons may not be rationale or socially acceptable but they’re valid in their minds. Their motives include power, money, promoting an idea/ideology, revenge, lust, and love. That last one “love” may prompt them to do unspeakable things to anyone they perceive as harming or posing a threat to their loved ones.   

Chilling Villains from Novels/Movies—

Here are some of the chilling villains who haunted me long after I read the book or saw the movie.

Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs

Annie Wilkes, Misery

Dr. Christian Szell, Marathon Man

Eleanor Iselin, The Manchurian Candidate

Noah Cross, Chinatown

Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Norman Bates, Psycho

Practically the entire cast of Gone Girl (That doesn't mean I enjoyed that book. I only finished it because it was a book club pick. I want to have someone to root for.) 

Which villains give

you the biggest chills?

South Carolina Settings—Novel Atmospheres

While I’m not a native Southerner, I’ve called South Carolina home for decades, living in the Lowcountry for 13 years and the Upstate for 15 years. It’s no surprise that I’ve capitalized on these atmosphere-rich regions as settings for two of my published novels. Two of my works in progress also feature these appealing locales. With Neighbors Like These, a third Marley Clark mystery, returns to Dear Island, while my new humorous mystery series is set on a cheese-goat farm near Clemson.

But don’t bother consulting a map to pinpoint where my heroines and heroes hang their hats. There is no Dear Island—the private barrier island terrorized by a pun-loving murderer in Dear Killer. Nor is there a town of Shelby, home to fictional Blue Ridge University, the troubled campus threatened by home-grown terrorists in Dead Hunt. The private island and the college town are inventions. Here’s why.

I write mysteries, suspense and thrillers. Ergo bad things happen. People die. Killers elude authorities. Developers are sometimes greedy. Public officials may lie or cheat. Deputies are occasionally crooked. University administrators may be clueless. Suffice it to say that unsavory, if not downright despicable, antagonists flourish in my novels.

I need a cast of smart, unscrupulous characters to weave my mysteries and challenge my heroines and heroes. What I don’t need is a lawsuit. Also I don’t want to irk residents of a real community. I’m loath to suggest there might be bad apples among the law enforcement officers in an actual county. And I’m not about to poke fun at administrators serving an accredited university. That’s why I’ve given make-believe names to the institutions, companies, towns and counties populated with such characters.

Yet I still try to faithfully capture each region’s beauty and majesty as well as what can become frightening elements if my protagonists are alone, lost, or being pursued by ruthless villains. I hope this balance works.

Using fictional locations with the local region’s flavor also gives me handy latitude. Since my fictional Dear Island is a composite of several barrier islands, I could play with the geographic puzzle pieces—golf courses, canals, marinas, marshland, and beaches—and anchor them anywhere I wished within the island’s confines. That means they’re ideally situated to serve my plot. I did take care, however, to offer readers a variety of touchstones—references to neighboring Beaufort, Hilton Head and Parris Island—to ground them within the Lowcountry.  

In Dead Hunt my imaginary university’s students reside in Leeds County, another invention. Yet I made certain the campus was a comfortable drive from Greenville, Clemson University, and the Jocassee Gorges mountain wilderness, which serves as an enchanting and scary backdrop for my heroine and hero when terrorists are gunning for them in the dead of night.

I love to set my books in places where I can close my eyes and recall exact moments in time. Paddling a kayak in the calm of an ocean inlet and hearing the cries of seagulls and smelling the acrid aroma of the marsh. Hiking a mountain trail and listening to the gurgle of a rushing stream and inhaling the scent of crushed pine needles in the shadowy twilight of the dense forest.

While my place names may be make believe, my South Carolina settings are as real as my most vivid memories allow. 

Maligned Comfort Food & Fond Memories

By Linda Lovely

I consider almost all foods a comfort. I LOVE food—including items from every section of the food pyramid. Broccoli and Brussel sprouts. Turkey and gravy.  Potatoes au gratin. Chocolate chip cookies. Any flavor of ice cream.

But topping my list of comfort foods are two oft-maligned entrees that grace American (well, at least, Midwest) dinner tables—tuna noodle casserole and meatloaf. Both made frequent appearances on our plates when I was growing up.  These foods are tops because they bring back fond memories . (Okay, I liked how they tasted, too. I don’t have a sophisticated palate.)

Let’s begin with tuna noodle casserole. Cost, simplicity, and the ability to reheat leftovers made this a go-to favorite for my working mother. The fond memories come from all the different recipes and ingredients we tried to add variety. As I recall the starter version had canned tuna, egg noodles, frozen peas, mushroom soup, and breadcrumbs. Later iterations featured potato chips, corn flakes, fried onions, green peppers, corn, carrots, onions, pimentos, and cheese.   The winner? A casserole we baked in a bread pan so it resembled a meatloaf (more on that later) and could slice when cold. Cold was my favorite!

I can’t share an actual recipe as I’m not sure we ever wrote one down. But, if I were to make it today (and I might, despite my husband’s avowed aversion to any form of tuna-noodle casserole), I’d cook and drain a package of elbow macaroni, chop and sauté a an onion and a (sweet) red pepper, drain a couple cans of tuna, and stir all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Then I’d make a thick cheese sauce with milk, flour and a combo of Velveeta and shredded cheddar. Mix and pour into a couple of bread pans, top with buttered bread crumbs and bake.  Yum.

Now it’s time to put meatloaf in the spotlight. When I think of meatloaf, I always recall our annual family vacations. Each summer Mom drove us from Keokuk, Iowa, to Spirit Lake, Iowa, where we visited her brother (my uncle) and his family. Mom liked to start out at five a.m. to avoid some of the heat of the day. She always packed meatloaf sandwiches for our “lunch.” I’m not sure if we ever made it past the Keokuk city limits before my sister and I started asking for meatloaf sandwiches—slathered with ketchup, of course.

Mom was convinced that tomato juice and eggs made meatloaf “tough.” So her version was held together with milk and cracker crumbs, kneaded together by hand. She also used a combo of ground beef, pork and veal (it wasn’t that expensive then). I still make meatloaf three or four times a year, though these days the meat tends to be ground turkey, and I use breadcrumbs and tomato juice/sauce, an egg, chopped green peppers, celery, mushrooms & onions, basil and oregano. No recipe. My cooking is like my plotting. Seat of the pants. I also have experimented with meatless vegan versions and when I decide on a winner. I'll publish it when my new humorous mystery is published. It features a vegan chef and her smart-mouthed aunt, a confirmed carnivore, who often trade barbs about their dietary preferences, 

What comfort foods bring back good memories for you? Do you still cook/eat them?

Time to quit writing, I’m suddenly hungry.