IF I WERE EVIL…

by Karen Rose

The question I get asked the most often is: Where do you get your ideas?  Sometimes they come from every day, ordinary events or experiences.

And sometimes I have to give the ordinary a twist, to see it through a villain’s eyes.  You know how you can add “in bed” to a fortune cookie fortune?  I add, “If I were evil…” and see what happens next.  Bwahaha.  (I should confess that the thought of my being so comfortable with evil villains makes my poor mother upset.)

The villain in SILENT SCREAM is a blackmailer, who’s not afraid to shed blood.  He was born in a coffee shop!  Several summers ago the kids were out of school and driving me crazy, so I’d escaped the house for the easy-to-focus-environment of my local coffee shop.  I have friends who write in coffee shops, who can sip a latte and pound out pages, oblivious to all that’s going on around them.  I cannot do this.

It’s not my fault.  People talk loudly in coffee shops.  Maybe it’s the caffeine.  Maybe it’s that they think because they’re deep in their own conversation and not paying attention to me, that I’m also not paying attention to them.  Not so.

So, I was surrounded that summer by loudly talking people who didn’t pay me no never mind.  People used the coffee shop for their office, conducting interviews and business meetings.  They came to gossip and start political arguments.  But the most interesting was that the local coffee shop was also the “safe place” for couples to meet in person after having met on the Internet.

This was the part I found impossible to ignore, no matter how hard I tried.  The woman was typically older and wore her Sunday dress.  I felt sorry for her, because I could feel how awkward and nervous and uncomfortable she was.  I imagined she’d been out of the dating pool for some time, having been left by a snake of a husband for a younger chickie.  The man usually wore a suit, sometimes a tie, but usually his shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest.  He looked suave, and on the move.  And sometimes the men were nice, but more often it was clear their main goal was getting the woman to go home with them.

I’d sit with my fingers on the keyboard, trying to write my own story, but sending mental vibes to the woman instead.  DON’T GO HOME WITH HIM.  HE IS A SLEAZE.

And then I thought, I bet at least some of these guys are married.

If I were evil, I could blackmail them and make a lot of money.

And my villain was born.

So be open to all experiences!  And if you’re writing suspense, think about what a villain would do.  You may find it leads you to your next great book idea!

Where do you like to read?  If you’re a writer, where do you write?  Do you have a favorite neighborhood coffee-shop?

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Karen Rose is an internationally bestselling author, her books appearing on the New York Times, London Sunday Times, and Germany’s Der Spiegel bestseller lists.  Her novel I’M WATCHING YOU received the Romance Writer’s of America’s RITA ® award for Best Romantic Suspense for 2005.  Five of Karen’s other titles have been RITA finalists. Her eleventh novel, SILENT SCREAM, was released in May, 2010.  Her books have been translated into eighteen languages.  A former chemical engineer and high school teacher, Karen lives in Florida with her family, a dog, and two cats.

Website link:  www.karenrosebooks.com and blog:  www.thegoddessblogs.com

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