The Taxman Must Die is a wacky mix of an office comedy and a national security thriller. Two unlikely secret agents– an accountant and a mutant alligator– have to save the world. From themselves, mostly. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so easy for supervillains to break out of prison or why black heroes die so quickly, you will probably enjoy it.  Here’s the scene where the two main characters first meet!  (PS: If you like the pages, please sign up for the raffle for a chance to win a free, signed copy when it comes out).

Continue Reading »

If the heroes are defeated but the villain lets them walk away, the manuscript is probably dead on arrival.

If the characters can lose without anything bad happening to them, nothing’s at stake. Give your villain some chance of beating the hero once and for all, or there’s no point reading the story. If the closest your villain can come to victory is releasing the heroes with a stern warning, that’s just pathetic.

If you are absolutely sure that you want to release the heroes, please at least give the villain an adequate reason not to kill them or take them prisoner/hostage.  Here are some reasons that are NOT adequate.

• “Next time I won’t go so easy on you!”  Awful.  Don’t bother having a fight/confrontation unless something’s at stake.  Also, you and I both know that the heroes will beat the villain next time, so this is empty bluster. When the heroes lose, make sure that there are consequences. For example, in Star Wars, Luke lost a hand, Han got taken prisoner and Obi-Wan died after losing various fights.
• “You better join me next time, or else!”  Not too bright.  If the villain just defeated the heroes in combat, how useful could they possibly be to him?  Also, wouldn’t you rather have lieutenants that don’t have a history of trying to kill you?  Finally, if you really want to do this, please have the villain be more proactive than just letting the heroes walk away and think his offer over.  For example, have him poison a hero or take one hostage so that he can blackmail the others.
• The villain’s only goal was to show off or make a statement. “Now you know my true power!”  Ick.  Again, make sure there is actually something at stake.   If the loss has no consequences, readers won’t care.
• The villain is too nice and/or stupid to kill (or capture) the foes he has beaten in combat.   If so, he’s probably not much of an obstacle. Unless you’re writing a comedy of errors, please make your villain competent.  Beating a wuss isn’t very impressive!

Here are some reasons that might be sufficient.

• The villain advances a major goal by releasing the hero/heroes. For example, if the villain’s goal is to start an epidemic, infecting and releasing a hero makes sense. Or maybe the defeated hero is some other kind of Trojan horse.  A villain could bug a beaten sidekick with a tracking device in the hopes of hunting down the superhero.  For example, the antagonists in The Matrix bug Neo so that he will lead them to the other protagonists.
• The hero is saved by a plan he sets in motion. It’d probably be undramatic if the hero were saved by backup bursting through the wall at just the right moment.  (Guardian angels!)  But you could give the hero some role in saving himself.  For example, perhaps the hero knows he’s losing and has to survive until help can arrive.  Perhaps the act of calling for help is difficult and the hero has to figure out where he is before the cavalry can save him.  Don’t just make him (or her) a passive damsel in distress waiting around for a rescue.
• The villain has a compelling reason to take the character(s) prisoner/hostage instead of killing them. Even though imprisoning heroes (particularly superheroes) has rarely accomplished anything, it makes more sense than just letting them go.  At the very least, this gives the villain a bargaining chip to deal with any remaining heroes.

I was doing my sample pages on Photoshop today and they looked fairly sober. When uploaded, they look like Pokemon on LSD.  Emily was having similar problems.  Any ideas?

UPDATE: The problem was that we were saving the files as CYMK rather than RGB. CYMK is the default setting on Photoshop because it prints out more cleanly, but uploading CYMK photos can cause color distortion. If you’re suffering from similar problems, go to Image > Mode > RGB in Photoshop.