Gillian Bronte Adams

YA Epic Fantasy Author

April Antagonists and the Academy of Ultimate Villainy

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Quick reminder: This month’s Characters in Costume Challenge: April Antagonists is due next Friday, April 19th!

We’re focusing on those vile (and perhaps not so vile) villains who populate the pages of your storyworld. So break out those black capes and curly mustaches and prepare your evil chuckles for next Friday.

To find out more about this dastardly challenge, read this post: April Characters in Costume Challenge.

Need some nefarious inspiration? Check out these audio dramas about the supervillain outbreak and a British reporter named Jeffrey Floyd over at Supervillain of the Day.

Speaking of villains, I just realized that it’s been a long time since we’ve received a report from our spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy. I do hope nothing terrible has nothing. Last time the spy promised to send us a recording of the single most important lesson taught at the Academy. I don’t know about you, but I’m quite interested to find out what that is . . .

Suppose I’ll have to get in touch with my contacts and see if we can’t figure out what’s become of our spy.

Stay tuned for more information. ;)

The Sea-Longing

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And  now Legolas feel silent, while the others talked, and he looked out against the sun, and as he gazed he saw white sea-birds beating up the River. “Look!” he cried. “Gulls! They are flying far inland. A wonder they are to me and a trouble to my heart. Never in all my life had I met them, until we came to Pelargir, and there I heard them crying in the air as we rode to the battle of the ships. Then I stood still, forgetting war in Middle-earth; for their wailing voices spoke to me of the Sea. The Sea! Alas! I have not yet beheld it. But deep in the hearts of all my kindred lies the sea-longing, which it is perilous to stir. Alas! for the gulls. No peace shall I have again under beech or under elm.

~ J.R.R Tolkien, The Return of the King  

The sea-longing.

I have felt it.

Have you? The indescribable feeling that stirs in your heart as you stand upon the sandy shore overlooking miles upon miles of rolling waves. Water stretching in all directions. Deep. Unfathomable. Seemingly endless.

And the cry of the gulls. Can you hear them?

And yet there are other things that inspire this same feeling.

A lightning storm. Flickering strands of light crawling across a midnight sky. The rhythmic drumming of hooves galloping across a green field. Soaring melodies that summon emotion and stir the soul. A book that resonates deep within. That creates this longing, this desire for something more.

According to Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories, this longing is the purpose of all true fairy-stories, for they are “not primarily concerned with possibility, but with desirability. If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded.”

C.S. Lewis also speaks of this desire in The Weight of Glory. 

In speaking of this desire for our own far-off
country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness . . . We
cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually
appeared in our experience . . . The book or the music in which we thought the
beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them
was longing . . .

Longing . . . but a longing for what? What is this desire that great beauty awakens?

The desire for something more. For a world beyond our own. For a purpose in our lives. For true love, true pleasure, true joy, true glory, true beauty.

The longing for our Creator.

These things–the beauty, the memory of our own past–are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the things itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers  For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory 
This deepest of longings cannot be satisfied by anything in this world. For this desire is for something deeper than anything in this world. All other things are but shadows and dust that will fade with the rising of the sun.

The book of Hebrews houses the “Hall of Faith” in chapter eleven. After mentioning Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others, it goes on to say:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own . . . Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

~ Hebrews 11:13-16 

We are longing for a better country. A heavenly one.

I believe the longing that fills our hearts when we see the ocean, or the glory of a sunrise, or explore the depths of a truly great book, is a longing for our true home.

A longing for the far country.

Villainy 101 – Minions and Expendable Crewmen

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Editor’s Note: Once again, I returned from lunch to find a tape from the Academy of Ultimate Villainy on my desk. I can’t imagine how the Spy gets it here, unless he delivers it by hand, for it obviously does not come through the mail. I’m half tempted to set watch next time and see if I can discover the identity of our mysterious “friend.”

Click on the video to hear Dr. Sylvia Sinestra discuss Minions and Expendable Crewmen, or scroll down to read the transcript.
Previous Villainy 101 Posts:

Transcript:
Spy: Howdy. Did y’all miss me? Come on, you know you did.
Sorry I’m a few days late, but things are really heating up here, and I wasn’t
able to send this message until now. Anyway, I snuck back into Dr. Sinestra’s
class (I’ve attended a few of the other classes here and there—nearly got blown
up in the Mad Science Lab—but overall, I’ve found Dr. Sinestra offers the most
useful information.)

So, grab your pencils and paper, and settle down like good
little students for the lecture.
Dr. Sinestra: We are in the middle of our series
on the sub-villain world, the underlings that we utilize as pawns in our great
chess game against our ancient adversaries–the heroes.
Last week, we discussed the proper method for hiring evil
henchmen. Today, we shall turn our attention from the brutes, to the brains and
bodies of our operations—minions and expendable crewmen.
Minions fall under the “brains” class. Obviously, we as Super-Villains
are the Master Minds, but it can be supremely helpful to have other lesser minds
around to accomplish the more menial mental tasks.
Minions provide us with information. And in a battle of
wits, such as we wage against the heroes, the opponent with the most
information wins.
There are many types of minions, including, but not limited
to: 

  • Spies and double agents—those who actively seek information
    about our enemies, and believe me, we have plenty of those.
  • Artificial intelligence—robotic minions who analyze,
    process, and store information.
  • Specialists who provide expert information upon a certain
    subject. This includes our weapons masters, scientists, doctors, etc.
Minions are our eyes and ears throughout the world.
The third and final sub-villain class is that of the expendable crewmen. These are the bodies of the
operation.
They’re the cheapest sort of underlings you can hire because
they have no skills to market. They are average, somewhat lacking in the brains
department, too greedy for their own good, and often, possessing the combat skills
of a patch of wet mud. You get my meaning, I’m sure—if a hero happens to run
into one, he might just slip and break his ankle, but the expendable crewman is
far more likely to be smeared across the kitchen floor.
So why hire them?
Because in every great undertaking, there are bound to be
casualties. It’s unavoidable. And rather than wasting expensive evil henchmen
or valuable minions, we hire expendable crewmen to fill this position, because
they are just that—expendable. And though they are expendable individually, as
a class they are indispensable to our operations.
In review, the three classes of underlings are evil
henchmen, minions, and expendable crewmen. 
Now at this point, a question usually arises: Which class is
the most useful to a Super-Villain who is just starting out with limited
resources?
This question is difficult to answer. Each class plays a
necessary and distinct role. It comes down to the sort of operation that you
are planning and the specific needs of the expedition.
For example, if a Super-Villain is planning a daring heist,
it’s more profitable to invest in hiring larger numbers of minions and evil
henchmen, and fewer expendable crewmen, since such an expedition requires more
knowledge and muscle than casualties.
Whereas if a Super-Villain is raising an army, he would
hire an overabundance of expendable crewmen and reserve a smaller portion of
evil henchmen and minions to act as personal aids, body guards, and officers.
So as you attempt to hire underlings, keep in mind the sorts
of operations you are planning and hire the proper sub-villains to enable you
to accomplish your dastardly mission.
Our next lesson, little villains, will be the most important
lesson you will attend at this Academy. It will provide you with the necessary tools to capture and defeat those pesky little heroes once and for all. Because of its
sensitive nature and the fact that the Spy remains uncaught, we shall move our
class to an as of yet undisclosed location. We’ll let you know where to go when the time comes.
Class dismissed.
Spy: Well, well, well . . . looks like we might be about to
hear something useful, folks. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we get into that class.
These villains are fools if they think I won’t find out where it is. So, tune
in next time to hear the most important villainous lesson of all! This is your
spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy, signing off.


*     *     *    *

Any ideas as to what this “most important lesson” might be? Or any thoughts upon evil henchmen, minions, and expendable crewmen in general, and how you might utilize this information in writing and combating the world of Super-Villainy?

Note: Sound effects found through Freesound.org. Many thanks to redjim, cmusounddesign, dobroide, J. Zazvurek, and RHumphries for the use of their sound effects.

February Characters in Costume Challenge – Reveal

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It’s here! I’m excited to be doing this monthly now, and can’t wait to see what costumes you’ve managed to come up with. Remember to place a link to your post in the comments so I can stop by. :) 
For this challenge, I decided to pick the main character from a series that I’ve just started writing. This character and her story have been growing in my mind for some time now, and I recently sat down and wrote up two or three chapters of her book.
Since then, I’ve had to set it aside and work on other projects, but her character is still developing in the back of my head, and her story is still growing and nagging at me, so I look forward to the day when I can drag By Sword out of obscurity and experience again the beauty, tragedy, and glory of . . . 
The Epic of Aedonia
A noble king’s death leaves his kingdom in chaos, with treachery and deceit simmering below the surface, enemies on the doorstep, nobles clamoring for surrender, and his daughter to take up his sword and save her people.

Ceridwen from Epic of Aedonia

Ceridwen, or Gwen as she is more commonly called, is the daughter of King Esmond of Aedonia. After her father is slain in battle, the country of Aedonia is ripe to fall. An army of invaders steadily pushes their way inland. The chiefs are divided, and whispers of treachery set them still further at odds.
When Gwen claims her father’s sword and throne, she expects that her greatest difficulty will be leading her men to victory in battle. She doesn’t anticipate the dangerous politics that threaten to tear her country apart from within.
Ceridwen from Epic of Aedonia
“I, Ceridwen, daughter of Esmond, here claim my father’s throne. By right, by blood, and by sword.” 

Ceridwen from Epic of Aedonia

I’m still figuring out exactly who Gwen is as a character. At first glance, she appears so strong and determined, but I know that most of that is an act. Still, the act is so good, I couldn’t pierce it for the longest time. I’m still working at it. Gwen doesn’t like to show weakness to anyone, even me, her author! ;) But leading a country at war is no easy task, and Gwen has her fears and faults the same as anyone else. Sometimes it takes writing your character into a terrible situation in order to figure out what those fears and faults are.
Ceridwen from Epic of Aedonia

“Aeon, help me.”

And yes, I realize that if she actually tried to fight in this dress, chainmail, and cape, she would be slain instantly. But I like the way it reflects the dual aspects of her personality – warrior and maid, captain and queen.

*     *     *     *
Next month’s challenge Character Accessories takes place on March 9th, and answers the following question: What is one object (not a weapon) that your character is likely to have around at all times? I’ll post more information about this challenge as it draws nearer.
Don’t forget to link to your post and share the Challenge with your friends! :)

Participant Links: (I’ll continue to update these throughout the day!) 
www.photos-by-em.blogspot.com
http://enterthewriterslair.blogspot.com

Villainy 101 – The Proper Procedure for Hiring Evil Henchmen

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5 Steps Every Villain Should Take When Hiring Evil Henchmen

Editor’s note: I walked in from my lunch break to find another audio recording from our “friend” on my desk. Sounds like our spy has been busy! Click on the following “video” to listen to Dr. Sylvia Sinestra lecture on “The Proper Procedure for Hiring Evil Henchmen,” or scroll down to read the transcript.

Previous Villainy 101 Posts:

Transcript:

Spy: Howdy folks. Well, good news—I’m still alive. Bad news—these villains have kept me running all week long! Now that they’re alerted to my presence, they’ve been tearing this place apart trying to find me. Not that I’m too worried—these guys obviously haven’t taken Tracking 101. It’s one of the advantages of being a Good Guy—we’re used to hunting down Villains, while the Villains aren’t quite so used to hunting us down.
 
I’m back in Dr. Sinestra’s class. Couldn’t manage to get a seat in the back today, and didn’t want to risk sitting up front, so let’s just say, I’m perched somewhere high and slightly precarious, but I’ve got a great birds-eye view of the auditorium, so it’s not too bad.
Oh—here comes Dr. Sinestra now.
Dr. Sinestra: I have received confirmed reports that there is a spy in our midst. One of you is betraying us. And I’m glad to hear it.
The last thing a Super-Villain has to fear is publicity. As we discussed in our last class, anonymity is the
worst fate that can befall a Super-Villain. So, let the world know what the Academy of Ultimate Villainy teaches, and let it tremble in fear of the next generation of Super-Villains!
We of the Academy of Ultimate Villainy would like to offer our thanks to the spy . . . and this warning: Whoever you are, you will be caught. And you will experience firsthand just how grateful the Academy can be.
Now, on to our discussion today. You see on your desks, the fifty question quiz from our last session. Turn it in by the end of class. I need not remind you of the penalty for wrong answers—I’m sure you all remember.
Today, we are discussing the Proper Procedure for Hiring Evil Henchmen.
Evil henchmen are a necessary cog in the machine of Super-Villainy. Without evil henchmen, many a notable Super-Villain would be unable to accomplish their dastardly schemes.
Why? Because as diabolically clever as we are, we simply cannot be in two places at once—the Mad Science Lab has been working on an Omnipresent Machine for years, and the science simply isn’t there yet. So, we are forced to rely upon underlings to be our hands, feet, eyes, and ears throughout the world.
There are three types of sub-villains who fall under the category of underlings—these are our minions, expendable crewmen, and evil henchmen. Today, we shall focus on evil henchmen and how to go about hiring them.
You as the Super Villain are the brains of the outfit. Your evil henchmen are the brawn—the brutes, the muscle to get the dirty work done.
Unfortunately, evil henchmen have become somewhat of a stereotype—I’m sure you’ve all seen it depicted in modern entertainment. The witless brute with massive arms, a face that looks like his mummy took a sledgehammer to it, more like a gorilla than a man. As long as he doesn’t speak, he appears fairly intimidating, but the second he opens his mouth, you realize that he’s probably just as slow in a fight as he is at thinking. And this, of course, only serves to give the hero an advantage.
Now why does this stereotype exist?
Because, unfortunately, more often than not, it is true. Evil henchmen are notoriously dull witted. And historically, they have been responsible for the downfall of many a Super-Villain.
But this stereotype can, and should, be avoided at all cost. When the time comes for you to hire your
evil henchmen, there are 5 steps you can take to ensure that your henchmen possess a little brains along with the brawn.
  1. Ask the evil henchmen their name. If it’s something like Gob, or Snort, or Bubba, or even
    worse, they respond “Uh . . . duh . . . um . . .” Don’t hire them!
  2. Engage them in a five minute conversation. If they use the word “duh” at all, send them packing. Or better yet, send them to the dragon and rid the sub-villain world of their stupidity.
  3. Perform an IQ test. We’re not expecting Moriarty-level genius here, but find henchmen who can
    at least pass the first question! Henchmen need to be able to do basic things like read and write. A novel idea, I know. Don’t get me started on the number of times heroes have pulled the whole fake entrance pass trick and so lied their way into the Super-Villains fortress simply because the gatekeeper couldn’t read!
  4. Get references. Ask for resumes. Understandably, when you’re first starting out as a
    Super-Villain, you cannot be too choosy when assembling your sub-villain team,
    but at the very least insist upon your henchmen providing references and resumes
    when they apply for the job. They ask the same when ordinary people apply to
    work the most basic jobs in the ordinary world. You as a Super-Villain can do
    no less.
  5. The Fight Test. Submit your applicants to a rigorous fight test and training program. One of
    the stereotypes of evil henchmen is that they often possess no more fighting
    skills than a wet noodle. What is the use of hiring muscle, if your evil
    henchmen don’t know how to use it in a fight? Train your evil henchmen in the
    arts of subtlety, deception, weaponry, and knockout punches, and you will be well
    on your way to assembling a Super-Army to rule the world.
Next time, we shall discuss the other members of the sub-villains class—minions and expendable crewmen. Your assignment for today, little villains, is to find that spy. Class dismissed.
Spy: Okay . . . so, that was interesting. Um . . . well, hope you find this lecture helpful as you combat the world of Super-Villainy, and you crazy authors do what you crazy authors do. I’m uh . . . going to sneak out of here now. And go do something especially villainous so I can keep my cover. So long for now. This is your spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy, signing off.
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to my brother-in-law, Bryan, for composing the theme music! It has a proper villainous sound, don’t you think? :) Sound effects found through Freesound.org. Many thanks to redjim, cmusounddesign, dobroide, J. Zazvurek, and RHumphries for the use of their sound effects.

Mining for Gold

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“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.“
~ Jack London

Sometimes the best stories don’t chase after you, begging to be written. You have to hunt them down like the ever elusive white stag.

You have to dig them out of the deep places of the earth, like precious gems.

You have to dive into the depths of the sea and retrieve them, like ancient treasure from the wreckage of a sunken ship.

Victory won through sweat and sacrifice is that much more dear. And a story penned through tears and toil, mined from the depths of the earth, hounded from the farthest reaches of the forest, often rings truer than the story that springs nigh fully formed into your head one morning.

I’m still hunting the plot for my newest story, By Sword, mining my characters out of the rocks, and following their pathless trail through the forest. And it’s hard work. Discouraging, sometimes. But every once in a while, a tiny sliver of gold breaks through that inspires me to keep going, to keep hunting, to keep typing.

To hunt inspiration with a club.

Where are you in your writing? Are you hunting inspiration or refining gold?

free short story: Of Shadow and Rust

New Release: Of Sea and Smoke

Stay in touch

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