From The Backlist: “Inspired by Evil” by Amanda Arista

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It’s backlist time – and what better feature, since Helen Lowe’s post theme for 2024 is the Year of the Villain, than the great Amanda Arista’s “Inspired by Evil”, in which she lists some of her favorite villains!

Amanda Arista

Not all are drawn from the ranks of Fantasy, but they’re all suitably evile and/or villainous – so rock on up, folks, and read on!

Inspired by Evil

by Amanda Arista

...I have to admit. I’m pro-villain. My favorite characters in literature seem to the antagonists, because they usually get the best lines. Good villains are strong, driven, have their own moral codes and usually more motivated than the heroes at the beginning of the stories. They are on their own journeys and, frankly, sometimes I’m routing for them because the heroes just can’t seem to get their acts together faster enough.

So some of my favorites are:

1. Maleficent. Probably the first villain to really institute the adage “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Powerful woman and sexy as hell. She is the reigning queen of villains in my book, because she almost got exactly what she wanted. In the end, remember, she was just out-manned, not out smarted (those three meddling fairies). Really looking forward to Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of her next summer.

2. Hannibal Lector- I don’t know if you guys have been watching NBC’s Hannibal, but there is something both eerie and alluring about Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of the psychiatrist. You know that he’s eating people, but somehow, you’re a little okay with that because you just want to know what he’s going to say next.  

3. The Nothing from The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. Though the Nothing is really a phenomenon that is happening to Fantastica, is still was a powerful source of fear for the main characters, Atreyu and Bastian. And it was creepy, because there was no getting away from it and it drove creatures insane by just looking into it. And, it had the best emissary in the world!

4. Tyler Durden from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Now, technically I don’t know if you can count Tyler Durden as a villain, but I was routing for Project Mayhem the entire time. And I tote a lot of Tyler-isms in my life. There was a surprising amount of truth spoken by that character and yet, he is still the antagonistic force for the narrator.

5. The Joker, all his incarnations ever. Probably the best villain and hero relationship that has ever hit the page or the screen. The perfect juxtaposition of Joker’s love of chaos and Batman’s need for logic defines how heroes and villains are supposed to work together, their harmony are what make the stories good and tension-filled and keep us watching and turning the page.

There are so many more..."

~*~

To read the full post and the comments, click here.

And to discover more about Amanda and her writing, visit her on: AmandaArista

The Art of Inspiration

René Magritte’s painting, The Empire of Lights) was the inspiration for William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) movie including the famous scene in the film where Father Merrin first appears outside of possessed Regan MacNeil's home.

As an author, I'm often asked, where do you get your ideas? It's a common interview question and I think the most honest answer, for me, is EVERYWHERE.

Ideas are in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the colors we see, the sounds we hear, the textures we feel whether they warm or chill. Everything contains a kernel of inspiration, a spark that can contribute to a scene, a character, a twist in the plot.

One of the most visual inspirations is through art. In a painting, there is a story, and translating that story into words is pure magic. In this sense, art is the inspiration.

The Siren by John Waterhouse

A new series I'm writing under AK Wilder, for example, came to life at the behest of John Waterhouse's The Siren. It has also given rise to a paranormal romance novella, Blood and Water and an urban fantasy novel, The Blood in the Beginning.

Can you feel the inspiration coming from these paintings?

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Di Vinci 

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is powerfully plot driven, the main character being the Mona Lisa. Film or book - which brought the art to life the most for you?

The Blue Scarf by Tamara de Lempicka

The Last Nude by Ellis Avery found inspiration in Tamara de Lempicka's life and art. It's a story of a struggling American, Rafaela Fano, who avoiding the path to prostitution by agreeing to model for an artist... the results are as sultry as Lempicka’s Jazz Age paintings.

John Singer Sargent’s Madame X

The novel, I am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto. brings to life the image by John Singer Sargent in a way the painting, in its time, could not. Unveiled in Paris in 1884, it met with shock and ridicule for being too provocative, too risque. The book, in 2003, met with no such objection.

Vermeer's View of Delft

Finally, in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu, the elderly writer, Bergotte, visits a Dutch art exhibit and, while gazing at a detail of Vermeer's View of Delft, drops dead.

Many critics search for what it is in the painting that killed Bergotte and triggered his final thoughts in the book.

I love how these pieces of art morph into a character in the story, answering questions as well as asking new ones.

If you have a favourite book born of a work of art, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

* * * 

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out in 2019 - The Bone Throwers. 

Also, check her urban fantasy out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. 

You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

A Clearing in the Woods

Hi everyone,

This month we're talking about what it takes to write at our best, the touchstones that awaken the muse and make magic happen. Already there are fabulous rituals listed, everything from longhand to visual imagery, music to stimulating prose. What all these things have in common, is they are way and means in which we call upon the muse.

For me, the must have ingredient for daily creativity, the way I call my muse, is to make room. I clear a space in the woods, and invite my muse to play.

For thousands of years, before the time of Hesiod, writers and artists have honored their muses above all else. These entity embody the wellspring from which our creative inspiration rises. There is an intimate connection between the writer and this 'other worldly force,' one that can be difficult to describe. But I know one thing. If we want to experience the muse, we have to make room for her.

It's like the law of attraction technique of 'making room' for any new thing we want. If it's a new sweetie, for example, before one even shows up, we empty a drawer in the dresser, have extra hangers in the closet, get another nightstand, set another place at the table. Make room, as if they were already here. Same goes for more clients, or work, or dollars in the bank. We fill in the day book, before there are any actual booking, take out a savings account, before there's more than a dollar to put into it, write ya letter of acceptance, before even applying for the new position. The idea is, if we create space for an experience, it's ours.

In my writing, I intentionally clear a space in the woods, every morning, more often than not, before dawn. My first hours of every day are devoted to the writing, before my energy is diluted with phone calls, conversations, daily demands, email, twitter, facebook . . . especially facebook! The phone is off the hook, the cats are fed, the internet is off, the coffee hot. I go to the forest in the depths of my mind, clear a space, and write.

I learned something about 'space clearing' from Stephen King. He said, Some writers in the throws of writer's block think their muses have died, but I don't think that happens often; I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it (2006).

The antidote is to listen to creative inspiration. Give her soul a body to get around in. And most of all, clear a space, allowing for her presence, eliminating anything that might be seen as a block or hindrance to her joyful participation in the writing process. Three cheers for the muse!

Happy reading and writing! xxxKim

PS If any of you have writing tips or hints to share, or maybe an inspirational book to read, feel free to post in the comments. 

Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels. She also co-directs Good Vibe Astrology.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.   

Hands-on Research

I'm not one of those writers who loves research. I regard it as a necessary evil, a sometime pleasure, but above all something that should not intrude on the page. And when you write paranormal-historical-speculative-whatever as I do, you have to weave in historical details with the world you've imagined, and get a smooth balance between the two.

A couple of days ago I visited Chawton, in Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived for the last nine years of her life. She and her mother and sisters settled there after her brother Edward became heir to the Knight fortune and provided them a permanent home in a cottage on his estate. Chawton Museum is now visited by people from all over the world. It's carefully restored but I tried to imagine what it would be like for Jane Austen to look out of the window and see ... a vampire?
Yes, a vampire. Because Edward's property, Chawton House, the beautiful Elizabethan-Jacobean house a few minutes away, was leased to vampires whose presence lent a sinister attitude to the peaceful green countryside and I'll be writing about them and Jane Austen in my next book.

I hope you enjoy these pics I took on my visit to England and which suggested to me the possibility of mystery and immortality.

This yew tree is over 900 years and stands outside Steventon church, where Jane Austen's father was minister and which she attended. Her brother James took over the parish when her father retired. Many members of the Austen family are buried there.


Gravestones and a cut back growth of ivy in St. Elphege's Church, Greenwich. The RNA Conference (the UK equivalent of RWA) was held in Greenwich, a world heritage site in London which includes the Royal Maritime Museum and the Royal Naval College where the conference was held. I'm blogging about that today at the Risky Regencies.


Gargoyles at Salisbury Cathedral, one of the most amazingly beautiful places in the world.


The mysterious, ancient cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral (and most mysterious and amazing, not another tourist in sight...)


What places have you visited where the atmosphere has got your imagination working?

A Damned Good Contest is still running on my site. Check it out!