Candice Hughes

Bookmarked: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and Exit Music by Ian Rankin

Over the past few weeks I’ve conducting a self-guided tutorial on villains. The first villain that came immediately to mind to be included in my tutorial was Hannibal Lecter. The first response I got when I asked people what they thought of Dr. Lecter was that he was “fascinating.” Even though he is a serial killer who has committed numerous heinous crimes, he is still likeable because of his intelligence and dry wit. Both of these are characteristics thought of as making any character likable. I believe people also enjoy reading about him because he is unpredictable, which makes him interesting. Also, he has his own (albeit twisted) code of honor or if not honor at least a highly developed sense of politeness- a characteristic one wouldn’t expect in a killer.

The other villain in the novel, Buffalo Bill, is kind to animals. This is also a characteristic that according to literary experts makes a character likable. There’s not a lot else likable about him, which probably explains why the ending of the book (won’t spoil it) is satisfactory.

It’s interesting to compare Silence of the Lambs to Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. In ‘Salem’s Lot, the main villain, Kurt Barlow, is in only a few scenes in the book. We learn what he is, but don’t learn a lot about him. He is not a sympathetic character. He has none of the sympathetic character traits (no little dogs, no jokes, no limp, etc). So, why is this novel so successful? My theory is that King developed so many other characters so well, with some being “good” people and others being, well let’s be generous and say not so good, that it doesn’t matter that the villian is not sympathetic. There are plenty of other characters to cheer for or boo.

Back to my study of villians….

All readers of this blog know that it is absolutetly the best writing blog out there (ahem, wink, wink).  But I thought in these tough times, we all need as much help as we can get so why not share blogs (even if PR gurus consider redirecting readers to be akin to seppuku).

One blog I enjoy reading is the BookEnds literary agency blog http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/. This blog covers all sorts of topics for writers at all stages of their careers, especially newer writers. Recent posts covered writer’s block (a concept I struggle with) and writer’s rules (wouldn’t it be nice to find a secret formula just like the elixir of life?)

Another blog that this blog has linked to for some time is PubRants http://pubrants.blogspot.com/. Agent Kristen Nelson has fantastic advice for writers and good publishing industry information. A recent post was about a Florida Attorney General suing a guy scamming writers by posing as a literary agent. Just the sort of information writers need to know.

A third blog that has an edgy feel is Evil Editor (http://evileditor.blogspot.com/). If you post on this blog, be sure to have a healthy ego with lots of self confidence. Don’t expect ohs and ahs over your wonderful prose. I must admit, sometimes the posts have me scratching my head and saying, huh? Or simply a drawn out, OKAY….. But, there’s plenty of amusement to be had in reading it, as well as  plenty of solid writing advice.

Hope you enjoy getting to know these awesome blogs! Bernacke has now declared the Great Recession of the 21st century to be over so it’s time to start smiling again (and buy books, lots of books)!

Bookmarked: The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin

Warning- This post has absolutely nothing to do with Michael Jackson (despite his having recorded an album called Thriller).

I was sitting here typing my thriller when I suddenly wondered, just how popular are thrillers? I decided to conduct a completely unscientific review of thriller popularity. Logging into Amazon, I found some interesting information about thriller popularity.

Here it is:

The number 1 most popular book tonight in both the literature/fiction and the mystery/thriller categories is (unsurprisingly) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. The number 6 position in literature/fiction is taken by Alex Cross’s Trial by James Patterson and Richard Diallo. This book is number 3 in mystery/thriller. Next at number 11 in literature/fiction and number 4 in mystery/thriller categories is The Shack by William Paul Young. After that comes the number 13 book in literature/fiction and number 5 in mystery/thriller categories is Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. (The number 2 thriller didn’t place in the overall bestseller list.)

These numbers suggest that mystery/thriller novel popularity compares well to that of other types of books. The overall best seller list has a good number of mystery/thrillers in it with the current number 1 book being a mystery/thriller. (Granted, it’s not every day that a new Dan Brown book comes out but he’s got plenty of colleagues on the overall bestseller list).

What beat out thrillers in the bestseller list? Several political nonfiction books (one a memoir of Ted Kennedy), a book on french cooking, and the manual of the American Psychological Association. Suggesting that if you want to write a book that really tops the charts you should write a thriller with a hero who is a liberal Senator and a heroine who is an insane french chef, both of whom should go on a religious quest.

Now that I’ve told everyone the best selling plot of the year, I’d better call it a night.