Cold Hearted Killers by Jannine Gallant

Or are they? I've written quite a few suspense books that include killers and stalkers. They prey on innocent women. What's not to hate? Right? There's the dilemma. Somewhere deep down, I want readers to relate just a little to these villains. I generally include scenes from the killer's POV, and I try to give them a motive for their unconscionable behavior. Because in their minds, everything makes perfect sense. They have a reason for killing, one so compelling they can't NOT follow through even when regret rears up to confuse them. In the end, they have to stick to the plan.

Here's a sample of a killer's reasoning from A Deadly Love.

Brooke was gone. Gone. He pulled at his hair as the pressure built inside him. Tonight was the night he was supposed to take her. He stared up at the full moon and resisted the urge to howl and shriek and pound his head against a tree. She was ruining it for him. Brooke held the final piece of his heart. After he was finished with her, he would be free.

He dashed tears off his face and took a steadying breath. He couldn’t have Brooke tonight, but the game was over for Marnie. The bitch would die, and good riddance. It was hard to believe he’d ever loved that one. There would be no regrets this time, no niggling feeling of remorse after it was over. He would give her one final chance to escape before reclaiming that particular piece of his heart.

He's a serial killer intent on making his heart whole again. How? By taking back the pieces he gave to women he loved over the years. Undeniably crazy, but to him it's the only way.

In Every Move She Makes, a stalker is bent on winning the woman of his dreams. And no one will stand in his way.

They’d left him no choice. If he wanted a chance with Jordan, he had to get Lafferty out of the way. He’d waited patiently through all the years of her marriage to Bryce Carpenter, and once she was finally free of the philandering asshole, he’d given Jordan a chance to make a new life for herself. He wasn’t interested in a rebound relationship. He wanted forever.

Even a patient man like him had his limits. Right now, he was damned tired of waiting, sick of always losing out to someone else. Never again would he be second best. Once they were together, Jordan would discover Kane wasn’t half the man he was.

Heart pounding, he carefully set the gun on the seat next to him then drove into the approaching darkness.

The stalker feels he's been patient and reasonable. In his mind, any action he's forced to take is completely justified. For me, a villain who's evil with no redeeming qualities doesn't cut it. He needs a reason for his madness. Who are some of your favorite literary killers?

If you want to read more about my villains and the heroines they terrorize, A Deadly Love is available most everywhere ebooks are sold. Every Move She Makes is in it's second incarnation, re-titled and currently being shopped by my agent as the first book in a series. Hopefully I'll have good news to report soon. Find links and blurbs for all my books on my WEBSITE.

Glenys O'Connell says: Enough of Hallowe'en Horror - Let's Have Some Romance!

While I love a well crafted horror story, aka, Stephen King, I can't write the stuff. But I do a good line in murders – that's why I have Romance Can be Murder as my tag line. For example, the heroine of Judgement By Fire is a reclusive wildlife artist, Lauren, who is being stalked by an increasingly threatening unknown lover. She has two powerful men in her life – but how can she trust either of them when one could be her stalker?

In Resort to Murder, police detective Ellie Fitzpatrick risked her life to confront and arrest a serial killer. But Ellie has also got on the wrong side of a gang of thugs who discredit her so she's suspended from duty, her stellar career crashing and burning. When a biography of her serial killer, The Sunshine Slasher, claims the convicted man is innocent and more murders occur, she has to decide if there's a copycat killer or if she has been instrumental in a colossal miscarriage of justice by arresting an innocent man. Her return to duty brings her into conflict with Liam Reilly, the lover she believed had abandoned her when she was disgraced. When it's obvious she's the next on the killer's target list, can she rely on Reilly to help her stay alive – or will he turn his back on her again?

So, enough of the horror of romance! Because this is, after all, a blog about romance and love, I want to tell you a couple of true stories that came my way recently.

The first is about a lonely young church minister. His parish was in a rural Ontario village and as there was no manse, his lodgings were in the village tavern. Recognizing the young man's loneliness, the sage tavern owner told him: "A man isn't meant to live alone!"

Transferred to a new parish, he picked up a copy of the newspaper to fill in some empty time on a Saturday afternoon. There, on the entertainment page, was the picture of a beautiful young vaudeville actress – yes, this happened over 50 years ago! – and the young minister was smitten. He immediately wrote to her, but received no reply. It seems the young lady was used to getting lots of letters from smitten young men.

But undaunted, he wrote again, and again. He told her of his life, and how her picture had lifted his gloom. And eventually he told her he loved her.

Finally, intrigued, she took pity on him and replied.

After an exchange of letters, they met – and the rest is history. The minister and his wife just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

The next story is about a young boy who had a crush on a little girl in the same grade at public school. Despite the teasing of his classmates, he finally worked up the courage to ask if he could walk her home. But he had blackboard cleaning duty that day, and so she told him: "No, because my Mom says I must go straight home." She saw how disappointed he was, and added: "But I'll walk real slow."

She did as promised, and he hurried through his chores and managed to catch up with her, walking slow.

Romance blossomed,  and they married after graduation.

Fast forward through 64 years of marriage and the little girl, now an old woman, is on her deathbed. The little boy, now a very old man, leans forward and kisses her, tears in his eyes. With her last strength, she reaches forward and puts her arms around his neck to draw him near.

"I'm going straight home to God," she says with a wink. "But I'll walk slow."

Despite her somewhat murderous taste in literature, Glenys O'Connell is a sucker for a sweet romantic story. You can read excerpts of her work at http://www.glenysoconnell.com/ or email her at RomanceCanBeMurder@hotmail.ca