Building a Better Villain, One Psychopathology at a Time

According to the medical journal Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, the ‘big six’ group of personality disorders found in the psychopathology archetype of "evil dictators" include sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal. Psychologists have actually tested such real-life dictators as Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and the newly-deceased Kim Jong Il, using first-hand accounts of their actions, to see how they rate.

And if you were wondering, it seems that Kim Jong Il was more like Saddam than he was like Adolf.

You want a truly evil villain for your fantasy story? Check out what makes these guys tick and build yourself a truly psycho villain. Here's a list of fourteen personality disorders shared by all three dictators (this is the order for Saddam, from most evident to least):


1. Sadistic -- deriving pleasure or sexual gratification from inflicting pain on another. (Also Jong Il's #1)
2. Paranoid -- suffering from a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others. (Adolf's #1)
3. Antisocial -- of or pertaining to a pattern of behavior in which social norms and the rights of others are persistently violated. 
4. Narcissistic -- tending to derive erotic gratification from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes. (#3 for the other two--just can't pull off that divine right of kings without it!)
5. Schizoid -- of or pertaining to a personality disorder marked by dissociation, passivity, withdrawal, inability to form warm social relationships, and indifference to praise or criticism. 
6. Schizotypal -- pertaining to actual or potential borderline schizophrenia, a condition characterized by cold aloof feelings, eccentric behavior,hallucinations, illusions, and delusions. 
7. Obsessive-compulsive -- of or pertaining to a neurosis characterized by persistent intrusion of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or the performance of actions, as repeated hand-washing, that one is unable to stop (compulsions). 
8. Dependent  -- having a pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of that leads to a submissive and clinging behavior as well as fears of separation.
9. Depressive -- characterized by mental depression. 
10. Self-defeating  -- serving to frustrate, thwart, etc., one's own intention or interests.
11. Borderline  -- a personality disorder characterized by instability in many areas, as mood, identity, self-image, and behavior, and often manifested by impulsive actions, suicide attempts,inappropriate anger, or depression.
12. Passive-aggressive -- a personality that harbours aggressive emotions while behaving in a calm or detached manner.
13. Histrionic -- deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behavior or speech.
14. Avoidant -- demonstrating a tendency to avoid intimacy or interaction with others.


Happy villaining! If you like, check out the other two dictators' ratings here, and read more on the nuts and bolts of the study.

A Wicked Giveaway

In honor of my Facebook author page reaching yet another 100-like mark, I'm hosting a giveaway of my first novel, The Wicked Heroine.

To sign up for a free signed copy, comment on this post with your email address -- you can write your e-mail like this: [awesomereader (at) gmail (dot) com] to avoid spam bots. The givaway ends December 20th, 2011, when I'll randomly select a winner and email you for your mailing address. If you're quick and in the mix, you can get your copy before Christmas! Just one more treat from Santa under your tree!

My Christmas Wish: Duotrope for Review Sites

As I was falling asleep last night (my usual good idea time), I realized what sort of service could rock the worlds of book reviewers and independent/small press authors alike: a Duotrope for review sites.

If you've ever used Duotrope, you know the awesomeness of its color-coordinated search function, the glory of its detailed information and statistics. What if such a site existed to help books get reviews? Think of the myriad ways you could streamline your search for review sites.

Let's see, I'll look for:

• genre: romance
• subgenre: paranormal
• length: novel
• theme: YA
• price: free
• wait time: 4 months or less
• type: pre-publication (hoping to bump that first week of sales, right?)
• and definitely simultaneous submission! I can't see any reviewer objecting to that, anyway.

Then I click "Search", and ideally dozens of reviewers for paranormal YA romance pop onto my screen. I begin perusing, reading the details of each reviewer's guidelines for submission, and choose which to submit to. Some request a first chapter to see whether they like my style. Others want a query first. Others don't care and will accept my entire novel file as an attachment.  Following everyone's guidelines precisely, I send off half a dozen simultaneous requests for review. Three reviewers bounce back a generic "no thank you", and three accept, putting my book into their review queue. Half an hour of work, and I've netted three reviews! I am over the moon!

Registered users would have a monthly per-book request limit to prevent spamming; abuse of the feature would get you banned. Review markets would have their responses catalogued by authors when (or if) the reviews were posted, and review times would be compared with posted wait times for authors' perusal (satisfaction with the review is so subjective that it's not necessary to record--the reviewer isn't talking to the author, anyway, but to readers). The stats lists for fastest responses, least likely to post a review, number of markets for any given genre, most likely to accept a book, etc., would be very useful, and would encourage reviewers to do their best in order to draw more traffic and better books to their sites.

 Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? If you've ever had to search, and search, and search, for active review sites, you know the pain of realizing that the one site that sounds perfectly matched to your novel's style has been inactive for three months. That's one of the reasons I chose the Duotrope model: Duotrope actively checks with its 3600+ listed markets at least once per month to make sure they are still active. They add new sites and retire old ones regularly, keeping the listing as current as possible for the thousands of people who use the resource they provide. A function like this would do the same for the always-fluctuating review-site markets as well, giving assurance to review-seekers that the listed markets will actually respond to their requests.

If you were an author, how much would this service be worth to you, saving you all that time searching? Currently, Duotrope is free, running on donations for maintaining its publishing-market listings. If they or someone else expanded into the review market, I would hope that authors would donate gratefully. I know I would.

Dear Santa, if I wish really hard and be a very good girl, can I get this for Christmas? I'll leave you all the cookies you want.