The Letter, differs from my other contemporary romance novels. I didn’t kill any of the characters. Not one. It was a first for me. Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m not a sociopathic serial killer. At least not in the real world. However, as a novel writer, I have to create conflict and drama to keep the stories interesting, and when it comes to creating drama, death is as good as it gets.
Most of the time, the dearly departed is a notorious villain with whom karma has finally caught up with. Big time. They had it coming. And then some. The one exception was The Journey, where I killed off a supporting character who I truly liked. So much so that I tried writing alternate scenes in which she survived. Unfortunately, they just didn’t work as well. Killing her off really heightened the drama and made the story more intense. That said, having to write her out made me feel genuinely sad, and I guess that was the point.
There was an antagonist in The Letter I thought of killing off. Her name is Martha. Like many of my female villains, she’s a real schemer, although she isn’t as evil as the others. Her motivation is loneliness, not jealousy. She also had a young child, and I simply couldn’t bring myself to create an orphan. So, this time around, instead of an untimely and perhaps painful death, she’ll have a terrifying near death experience. Surely you didn’t think I’d let a villain get away scot-free, did you?
Marina Martindale
The Letter is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.