Today on the blog we welcome author Rachel Brimble, with her guest post ‘How I Create Villains In My Novels‘ as part of the blog tour for her new book ‘Christmas at Pennington’s’ which was released on 19th September 2019. This post contains affiliate links.

Rachel lives with her husband and their two daughters in a small town near Bath, England. Since 2007, she has had several novels published by small US presses, eight books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and four Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical.

In January 2018, she signed a four-book deal with Aria Fiction for a new Edwardian series set in Bath’s finest department store. The Mistress of Pennington’s released July 2018, A Rebel At Pennington’s February 2019 and Christmas At Pennington’s September 2019.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America and has thousands of social media followers all over the world. To sign up for her quarterly and new release newsletter head to her website – details below.

How I Create Villains In My Novels

Even though I am often consider an historical romance novel, more often than not, my books feature a villain of some form or another.

They might just be a villainous relation or sidekick to one of the main characters OR they might be a criminal, a murder or abductor whose evasion takes up a big strand of the overall story. As well as loving romantic novels, I also read a lot of crime and intertwining a ‘whodunit’ type of mystery into a book is one of my favourite things to do!

In Christmas At Pennington’s, I have written exactly that – our hero and heroine, Stephen and Cornelia are unwittingly pulled into the hunt for a killer who has escaped the police for four years. A man who murdered their employer’s first wife…

As the villain is not revealed until the end of this book, I have to be careful how much I tell you about this character. However, I can tell you that Christmas At Pennington’s has a definite sense of urgency running through it which starts with Stephen leaving Scotland Yard on the bad of an investigation that went wrong and Cornelia dreading an unavoidable divorce hearing when she could potentially lose custody of her beloved children.

So, how did I create a villain who would hold the reader’s attention as much as the protagonists? For me, creating a villain always starts with understanding why they are villainous – some people will argue there is a possibility that some people are born evil, but I don’t believe that. So, in order for me to be entirely invested in my wicked character, I have to first imagine their childhood and adolescence to ensure their motivations are believable.

With the villain in Christmas At Pennington’s, the character’s motivation for the killing is steeped in their childhood. Their entire mindset, actions, resentment and beliefs stem from the experiences and emotions they endured when they were young. Thoughts festered, revenge was plotted and, eventually, obsession developed.

Having a villain who believes they are just in their beliefs and actions makes for a scary individual who I hope the reader is a little afraid of, but also, entirely invested in catching. How can I resist including a character or thread to my stories knowing the reader will turning the pages ever more quickly? Is vying for the hero and heroine to escape or apprehend the tormentor?

So far, the reviews for Christmas At Pennington’s have been fantastic and I am absolutely thrilled how much readers have mentioned and enjoyed the suspense element – I hope your lovely visitors do, too!

Christmas sees Pennington’s at its most glorious, thronged with shoppers, its grand staircase and balcony adorned with holly, mistletoe, tinsel and lights. It should be the happiest time, but dramas are seething beneath the surface.

For Cornelia Culford, in charge of jewellery, a divorce hearing looms, where she could lose custody of her young sons to her overbearing and unfaithful husband.

For Stephen Gower, being head of security at Pennington’s is the perfect refuge from a tragic past at Scotland Yard. But soon the past will call him back, as Joseph Carter and Elizabeth Pennington beg him to help solve the murder of Joseph’s first wife, now that it seems as if the killer has struck again.

For Joseph and Elizabeth, their marriage depends on exorcising the past. But can it ever be laid to rest?

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Please share your thoughts on Rachel’s guest post ‘How I Create Villains In My Novels’ in the comment section below!