Putting Deadly Potential together was an interesting process for me. I've spoken in a previous blog post about how I began with two ideas: a serial killer who could make his victims forget that he was in the room and a twisted version of Cinderella where the stepsisters team up to defeat the bad guy.
But there was something else I wanted to do with this novel, too. I am a huge fan of suspense, thrillers, and police procedurals. Criminal Minds, the Law and Order collective, and pretty much every other series that involves people solving mysteries and putting criminals behind bars is guaranteed to have my viewing attention. I adore reading true crime books, watching documentaries, and have forced my family to play far too many rounds of Clue and Scotland Yard.
Despite all of this, there is a common element of the suspense genre that bothers me: the threat of sexual violence used as a tension booster.
I go back and forth on this issue. On the one hand, sexual violence is a real danger and a depressingly common one. Most women have experienced being the subject of unwelcome touching, often with the implied or explicit threat of violence. It is something that we are constantly aware of and evaluating the risk of. Most women take regular precautions against assault and the fear of it dictates many of of our choices. That reality deserves to be respected and should not be dismissed or silenced.
On the other hand, I'm not entirely comfortable with rape or other sexualized violence being the go-to threat for a female character. (And for a male character, it's often the threat of rape against a female loved one.) I recognize that it can be very upsetting for anyone who has experienced assault (and as I stated previously, that is a large proportion of the general population) and even for those who haven't, it can reinforce the sense of a lack of safety in the world.
So for Deadly Potential, I made the decision that my villain would be a serial killer, but not be a sexual sadist. It has been cited over and over that rape is not about sex, it is an exercise of power over another person. My fictional serial killer, The Director, only cares about having power and control over his targets. They are living dolls to him, which he can use to create his "artistic vision" and remake them into what he wants them to be.
He is dangerous and sadistic, with no empathy or compassion. It wasn't necessary to add a threat of rape. Instead, I concentrated on The Director's psychic ability to cause people to overlook his presence (based on our real world tendency to fill in much of what we think we're "seeing' from memory) and his ability to make people forget him even if they have noticed him (based on how our brains create memories: if something interrupts the transfer of short term memory to long term memory, that moment will be forgotten completely).
With those two elements in place, my villain came to life. I decided that he wouldn't be able to control his abilities, which meant he was forgotten and abandoned early on in his life. The complete isolation would make him more likely to be sociopathic and violent. The only way others would be able to remember him would be through an intermediary, such as a phone or computer. From there, it seemed natural that he would become obsessed with the idea of legacy and being remembered.
That obsession would drive his modus operandi. He chooses his targets based on their "failures" and then kidnaps them. Once they are in his power, he kills them and then arranges their bodies in elaborate tableaus, creating "successes" that he takes credit for. Sadly, to me this seems like only a small extension of how women are often seen as interchangeable ornaments and their personal integrity is often seen as optional.
In this case, The Director targets my heroine, Katie Ballard. He sees her as unsuccessful because she has not used her talents at songwriting and performing to become a star in her own right. He ignores the fact that she is happier outside of the spotlight and perfectly willing to support her stepsister's career as the Princess of Pop. He assumes that his opinion of what she should do with her life is more valid than her own.
Of course, my hero, Ben Morgan, isn't about to let The Director get another notch in his belt, particularly not when he realizes what an amazing, brilliant, and competent woman that Katie is. And Katie is not about to let some random stranger use fear to force her into doing what he wants her to do.I think that this story is still super-exciting and suspenseful and I hope the readers agree. I love stories of adventure and romance, with lots of danger and thrills, especially if they have a twist of weirdness (which is why I write paranormal romantic suspense).
Thanks for giving me and my weird brain a try!
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