Writing interesting antagonists + Forbidden Fire giveaway

Welcome to Forbidden February! We got the rights back to The Forbidden Trilogy and we are partying all month long with giveaways and behind the scenes looks at the writing of this series. This week we’re all about Forbidden Fire, and today, we’re talking about what made Forbidden Fire so fun to write. So read on, and don’t forget to enter our giveaway at the end!

During the writing of Forbidden Fire (book 2 in The Forbidden Trilogy), I pushed myself to create more complex villains than existed in Forbidden Mind. In Forbidden Mind, you hate the guy who is ruining Sam’s life and hurting so many others. In Forbidden Fire, things aren’t so black and white.

One of my favorite characters in the whole series is The Seeker, the primary villain in Forbidden Fire. I love him because as I grew to know and understand why he is the way he is, I felt compassion for him and his struggle. He’s not inherently evil. He’s misunderstood, and he makes many bad choices, but underneath all that, there is a man who is struggling to find himself in a confusing world. A man who is trying to please a father who is never really pleased by anyone but himself.

And his relationship to Sam is intriguing to me. It’s hard to write about him, and them, without spoiling too much of the book, and I want you to read and discover all the twists this book has to offer on your own, but The Seeker is really worth getting to know.

What’s interesting to me is I didn’t have any chapters from his point of view. You only ever see him through the eyes of Sam, Lucy and Mr. Black, our other villain. But still, I feel that by the end, you know The Seeker deeply. At least I did.

Mr. Black also has motivations that, when understood, gives him a softer edge. I don’t think you’ll ever come to love him—I certainly never did, but perhaps you’ll come to empathize with why he does what he does.

This is the first book where I tackled writing from the antagonist’s point of view and it really helped me to flesh them out in ways I hadn’t in Forbidden Mind. By giving them their own voices, and their own stories to tell, I made them real. And once someone is real, they are impossible to discard as entirely evil. There are shades of grey in everyone, and good within the bad, if you know their story.

In Forbidden Fire, you learn their stories, you see their struggles, and you see the price they pay for their choices. In this way, Forbidden Fire does something special, I think.

And it was The Seeker’s storyline that touched my heart the most in this series. He’s stayed with me the longest, and I’ve often thought of going back and writing the story that led him to where he is and who he is when Forbidden Fire begins.

Someday I might just do that. He has more to say, I think. More to teach, and more to learn.

Favorite Seeker quotes:

[box style=”quote”]I loved someone once, deeply. She too wanted a normal life in the world. There are groups whose sole purpose is to destroy us. They killed her, but only after torturing and raping her. People are afraid of us. They use our services, yes, but deep down they loathe us for our power. They will never allow us to be their equals, ever. If we hide in the shadows like nightmares, it is only until we can claim our rightful place in the world.[/box]

[box style=”quote”]I blocked you so that you would listen to me as a human being. I wanted you to look into my eyes as we talked, and assess at a basic human level if you could trust me. We are still people, you and I, and we deserve the courtesy of simple human interactions. You can feel what is right and wrong without your powers. We tend to rely too much on our extraordinary gifts, and not enough on our most remarkably ordinary talents.[/box]

Get Forbidden Fire on Amazon or B&N Nook!