Friday, June 22, 2012

What’s the nastiest character you’ve ever written?

YA Indie Carnival's "What's the Nastiest Character You've Ever Written?"

Introducing Gavin Steele, he's the #1 villain in my coming 2013 new series PURGATORY REIGN

He's the most evil, conniving, slightly deranged character I've ever created. And he scares me. I'm going to share just a taste of what happens when he comes on the scene.

Note: this isn't the final edited excerpt from Purgatory Reign

Gavin knew from experience he’d only have a short time to get his answer before the greedy one would consume the spirit in which it hid and demand the price. “The name of the one who can stop me, the one I should remove from the equation,” he demanded from the psychic.


She hissed, and her white pupils turned on him. “Peter. Peter Saints.”

Her body jerked from side to side in an attempt to fight her way free of an invisible force, but it was too late, the price would be paid. For one moment, shock and fear laced her expression before she slumped to the floor, permanently silenced. He slipped his hands into his pocket, pulling out rubber gloves and a knife that he calmly unfolded. For a brief moment he stared in space while in thought. 

“Peter. Peter Saints.” the sound of the name left a foul taste on his tongue.

Shrugging off his jacket, he grinned. Messes, he hated to leave messes. And tonight, like all the other nights, he’d clean it up.
Brief description of Purgatory Reign:

Seventeen-year-old Peter Saints’ life stinks. But things are about to get much worst. First, his parents are murdered in front of him. Then another victim dies in his arms.

Visions plague Peter with warnings that something wants him for a sinister cause. It desires the one thing that Peter refuses to give – his blood. Peter carries within him the one gift or curse that could unlock a secret to destroy the human race.

On the run with Angel, a girl disguised as a scruffy kid, Peter starts to unravel the mystery. It’s the one treasure the heavens sought to hide from the world. Unfortunately, when Peter finds the answer he hopes that will save them, he opens the door to a great evil that happens to be salivating to meet him.

WANT MORE? Well drop into the other bloggers in the YA Indie Carnival's "What's the Nastiest Character You've Ever Written?"

If you want to visit the rest of the participants drop by their blogs - and tell them I sent you :-D

Here's the Blog Posting Schedule for the Carnival at YA Author Club

19 comments:

Kelly Hashway said...

Ooh, I can tell you there are some truly evil characters in Touch of Death, but I can't tell you who they are yet. Sorry. I know that's a tease.

Loved your excerpt though, LM. :)

S.A. Larsenッ said...

I remember you chatting with me about this guy. I'd forgotten about him. I don't think I ever finished reading this for you. Ooh, I'd love to.

Catherine Stine said...

He might be evil but he's kind of cute. Without a doubt, the most villainous guy I've created is in my WIP. Wilson is a demon with a slightly humanized heart-probably the most dangerous kind.

Unknown said...

I stink at evil, but I could be convinced otherwise if my bad guys looked like this. :)

Majanka Verstraete said...

Your character seems seriously evil!

I've come up with some seriously evil characters, but I prefer the accidentally evil ones, the ones who can't help but do evil, because their goals are opposites of the MC's goals.

LM Preston said...

Oh thanks for telling me about yours Kelly and Sheri I know you have one in your upcoming release which I can't wait to read. And Catherine, I love weaving gorgeous into evil. Majanka Gavin is even worst the more I reveal about him. However, there are 3 distinctly evil characters in this book which really pushed my creativity.

cleemckenzie said...

Perfect picture to capture that nasty guy!

DMS said...

Great excerpt! He does seem evil. I think he might scare me even more because his IS cute!

~Jess

Tina Moss said...

Oh yes, Gavin is so creepy. Nice pick! I remember having chills when reading his parts in your MS.

Jessie Harrell said...

that's great, LM! I love a neat-freak super-villian. ;) can't wait to read the whole novel.

M Pax said...

Creepy! Interesting scene though.

Dianne K. Salerni said...

Great scene!
My two most favorite villains have something in common: They are both perfectly respectable on the outside. One is highly thought of in her community; the other one can be utterly charming when he wants to be.

But lack of a conscience means these two will do whatever it takes to get what they want, without batting an eye or a moment of indecision. They are both sociopaths in a time period when that word was unknown.

Elana Johnson said...

Wow, he's pure evil! I love the "messes" line.

Summer Ross said...

Awesome excerpt and your villain sounds really bad. LOL

My Villain is Aurora Craven, she is witty, intelligent, beautiful and a backstabbing extraordinaire.

Patti Larsen said...

Most creepy and terrible. Excellent. :)

DL Hammons said...

Chilling!! :)

Wayne Zurl said...

I've got a finished novel more than a year away from infiltrating the Sam Jenkins Smoky Mountain mystery series called A CAN OF WORMS with a dispicable character named Telford Bone. Here's an excerpt from that book:
Rather than return to my office, I chose to look at a man who walked into the lobby. He reminded me of a gory traffic accident—something you really shouldn’t look at, but a thing you’re drawn to anyway.
He stood in front of Bettye’s desk looking down at her. I put him at about six-one and in his late-forties. He wasn’t fat, but he was definitely pear-shaped, with narrow sloping shoulders and wide hips atop long legs. He wore a black double-breasted suit with pegged, baggy trousers. His gold silk shirt was buttoned up to the top, but he wore no tie. Below his pants cuffs, champagne-colored, lizard-skin cowboy boots showed conspicuously. I thought of his outfit as a 21st century, country-and-western zoot suit.
If his clothes didn’t cause a person to stare, his face surely would. He possessed the longest face I’d ever seen. A protracted, undefined chin seemed to blend into his soft neck. His small mouth looked almost lost. A forehead that spread upward for five or six inches above pale blond eyebrows stopped where his almost white hair began. The hair appeared fine and shiny and was pulled back tight against his head, terminating with a pony-tail longer than Bettye’s. The only facial hair showing was a small triangle of fur under his bottom lip.
I stood about ten feet from him and smelled the medicinal odor of old-fashioned Listerine.
He looked directly at Bettye, ignoring the two men who sat close-by. His smile would have made a Komodo dragon back off.
“Howdy, ma’am,” he said. "Name’s Telford Bone. I’m a private investigator from Huntsville, Alabama.”

Unknown said...

This sounds fabulous LM! I can sense real tension between the mc and the villain. The stakes seem really high, too. Good luck with it! :-)

Sarah Dalton said...

In The Blemished I have a teacher who really shouldn't be a teacher at all! She's bitter and twisted and jealous of anyone younger than her. She spitefully chops away at the main character's hair, humiliating her in front of her friends.

I like a bit of power play between characters and she really adds to that.

In the next book though I want to write a slightly mad doctor villain who is obsessed with creating a super-race!

Villains are fun!