I’ve written a couple guest posts for my friend and colleague, Stacy Green, over at Get Twisted on the topic of psychopaths. In those posts, I talked about how they develop and how they are different from narcissists.

Another question people often ask is how treatable psychopaths are. Can they be cured?

The short answer is ‘No.’  But have you all ever known me to settle for a short answer.

Read the rest HERE!

Five Differences Between Narcissists and Psychopaths

Thanks so much, Stacy, for inviting me to Thriller Thursday.

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is Criminal Minds, but every now and then they tick me off. The other night, my husband and I were watching an episode (from Season Five) and the BAU team kept referring to the serial killer as a narcissist. Never once did they point out that he was also a psychopath.

What’s the big difference, you might be wondering. There are some pretty significant differences. In this particular Criminal Minds case, narcissism was the motive, but being a psychopath was what allowed the killer to ruthlessly murder random women to fulfill his narcissistic needs.

And no, this isn’t a semantic hair split.

First let’s clarify what narcissists and psychopaths have in common. They both have personality disorders (narcissistic and antisocial). This means that their unhealthy behaviors and attitudes are very deeply ingrained. They are part of their basic personalities.

Second they are both egocentric. They are very focused on themselves–their feelings, their needs, their desires. It’s all about them. Now to how they are different.

1.  Empathy: Psychopaths have none. They are incapable of experiencing and don’t care about other people’s emotions. Their own feelings, on the other hand, are all important. They view other people’s feelings as something to be manipulated.

Narcissists are so totally focused on their own feelings that they almost always miss the cues regarding others’ emotions, even when the other person tells them what they’re feeling.

“Honey, when you do such-and-such, that really hurts my feelings.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, but…”

Narcissists can be masters at “yeah, butting” their way through a discussion of feelings. However, if you can get them to realize how their behavior is affecting someone else, they are capable of empathy. But you may need to smack them upside the head with a two-by-four a few times to get their attention.

2.  Remorse: Narcissists have a conscience; they feel guilt and remorse. Psychopaths do not.

Are narcissists capable of violence? Most definitely! A fair number of wife-batterers are narcissists. Are they capable of murder? Oh, yeah, especially in a fit of rage. They may even commit cold-blooded murder but they would have to be able to justify it to themselves, because they would feel remorse. They might tell themselves that the person didn’t deserve to live. Or they wouldn’t have gotten hurt if they’d just done what they were told to do, say in an armed robbery situation gone bad.

The psychopathic killer doesn’t have to rationalize to appease their guilt, because they don’t feel any. They may even get off on the power that violence gives them over others.

3.  Can they change?  Narcissists, maybe. Psychopaths, extremely unlikely. Because narcissists are capable of empathy and remorse, once you get their attention, they may be motivated to change. But personality disorders, by definition, are very hard to ‘cure’ because they are so deeply ingrained in the person’s basic make-up.

I have ‘cured’ a couple personality disorders in my career as a psychotherapist, one of them a narcissist. And I know firsthand of another case of narcissism where there was considerable change. This latter case was the husband of one of my clients. (Note: I have changed several details in this story to protect confidentiality.) Over the first couple years of their marriage, his behavior became increasingly emotionally abusive. His new wife told him repeatedly that this was not okay. Finally she’d had enough. While he was at work one day, she moved out. He came home to a completely empty apartment–no wife, no furniture, no dog. That was the two-by-four upside his head!

He begged her to come back to him but she stuck to her guns. (I was very proud of her.) He agreed to go into therapy but she still wouldn’t move back. They remained separated for almost a year while he worked with a therapist and they saw a couples counselor together. After she moved back in, he continued in therapy until he had healed from the childhood experiences that had warped his personality development in the first place. Last I heard from them, this couple was still happily married.

I have never heard of an actual case of antisocial personality disorder (i.e, a psychopath) being cured. The best a therapist may accomplish–and this is a long shot–is to get the person to change some of their behavior by convincing them that behavior is not in their own best interests. In other words, it’s still all about them.

4.  The underlying emotions and motivations: Both narcissists and psychopaths come from bad childhood situations, often with some kind of abuse. The outcomes of these experiences are different however. Narcissists are riddled with self-doubt. They are trying to build themselves up to compensate for this. They are needy little kids in adult bodies who put on a false and often arrogant front.

Psychopaths genetically start out with different wiring (see my previous guest post, The Making of a Psychopath). They have more difficulty feeling remorse and empathy than other children do. Add to that a bad home environment and what little bit of these feelings they were capable of is drummed out of them.

They certainly aren’t confident people but they aren’t blatantly concerned about their self-image either. They usually lack introspection. They really don’t think about it.

5.  Seeking attention/adoration vs. seeking thrills: Narcissists care what others think of them. They may cover this up with false bravado but they really want praise and adulation. They are often braggarts, exaggerating their own accomplishments while envying others’ success.

A psychopath may also be full of themselves and they aren’t going to tolerate anything that strikes them as a putdown, but for the most part they don’t give a flying you-know-what about what others think of them. Their showing off or bragging is more about power. They are getting off on feeling superior to others, and especially if other people are afraid of them.

Another problem with the psychopath’s initial wiring is that his/her (more often his) nervous system is under-responsive to stimulation. It takes a lot to get them excited. Normal everyday life, that makes most of us feel fairly happy, is totally boring and leaves them feeling dead inside.  They’re constantly seeking high levels of stimulation–the adrenaline rush, the thrill that will make them feel alive for a little while.

I’ve had narcissists vs. psychopaths on the mind lately because a key character in my latest novel is a recovered narcissist. He is a former client of psychotherapist Kate Huntington and when she first started working with him years ago she thought he might be a psychopath. (The line between the two is fuzzy sometimes.) After a lot of hard work in therapy, he transformed himself into the person he wanted to be and built the good life he’d always wanted.

And then his past comes back to haunt him. He meets a man at a party whom he used to know years ago, by a different name and under very different circumstances.

I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to check out the book. And then feel free to ask any questions you may have about narcissists vs. psychopaths.

COLLATERAL CASUALTIES:

When a former client reaches out to psychotherapist Kate Huntington and reveals a foreign diplomat’s dark secret, then dies of ‘natural causes’ just days later, Kate isn’t sure what to think. Was the man delusional or is she now privy to dangerous information?

Soon she discovers her client was totally sane… and he was murdered. Someone is now trying to eliminate her, and anyone and everyone she might have told. Forced into hiding, she and her husband, Skip, along with the operatives of his private investigating agency, struggle to stay one step ahead of a ruthless killer. Skip and his P.I. partner are good investigators, but this time they may be in over their heads… and they could all end up drowning in a sea of international intrigue.

(This book is part of a series but is designed to work quite well as a stand-alone.)

BUY LINKS:

AMAZON USA

AMAZON UK

Barnes and Noble

Thanks so much for holding down the fort, Kass. Take it away!

While Stacy’s off gallivanting around the blogosphere talking to folks about her new book coming out on November 30th, she let me squat here asked me to come visit here at Turn the Page and talk about a topic near and dear to both of us at the moment–psychopaths!

Okay, you may be thinking that’s a little sick.

Let me explain. Stacy and I are so fond of psychopaths because they all too often play a very pivotal role in the novels we write. They are our bad guys.

I’m frequently asked, by students and fellow mystery/thriller authors, whether psychopaths are born or made. The answer is “Yes, all of the above.”

Lots of research has been done on this and that research tells us there’s a strong genetic predisposition to antisocial behavior, i.e., behavior that goes against society, that defies the rules, breaks the law.

This predisposition doesn’t usually come to fruition, however, unless that child is placed in a very unhealthy environment. Full-blown psychopaths always come from abusive backgrounds, with harsh and often inconsistent parenting.

Scientists are still trying to tease out some of the inherited components in antisocial personality disorder (the official diagnostic term for psychopaths) and how they interact with the environment. But here’s what we know so far:

• There seems to be something inherently wrong with the wiring of psychopaths’ brains, because they never develop much in the way of a conscience. Most children, by age five, are starting to feel guilty when they break the rules they’ve internalized from their environment. But not budding psychopaths. They intellectually understand what the rules are, but they have no qualms about breaking them. They don’t feel remorse or guilt.
• Another area where the wiring may be lacking to begin with is empathy, our natural ability to feel what others are feeling. Psychopaths lack empathy for others.The smarter ones may become quite skilled at reading other people’s emotions for the purpose of manipulating them, but they feel little or no concern or sympathy for others.This is one of the areas where environment interacts a good bit with genetics. On the mild to moderate end of the genetic predisposition continuum, the child often is capable of feeling empathy. With the guidance of a patient, loving parent, this empathy can be nurtured. I’ve seen a couple real-life examples of this! But in a highly dysfunctional abusive environment, that glimmer of empathy gets snuffed out early on.

• While scientists aren’t sure exactly what goes wrong biologically in the conscience or empathy development arenas, they do know that there are other inherited factors. One is a high tendency to be impulsive. This personality trait is about 60% inherited and 40% influenced by environment. A child who inherits a high tendency for impulsivity is going to be a challenge for the best of parents. If that child grows up in a very dysfunctional, abusive environment where little effort is made to teach self-control, he or she is going to be extremely impulsive!

• Also, the vast majority of people with antisocial personality disorder have learning disabilities, especially attention deficit problems. Seventy-five percent have full-blown ADHD (which we’re pretty darn sure is genetically transmitted). The ADHD child does not make the connection between behavior and consequences nearly as readily as children normally do (Please take my word for this so I can spare you the long, boring brain-malfunction explanation). Children with ADHD often don’t get it that what they just did is the cause of the punishment the parent or teacher is inflicting on them. From their perspective, the adult is just being mean, for some inexplicable reason.

Again, put a child with these learning deficits in an environment where discipline is very inconsistent and often way too harsh, and where out-of-control anger is often exhibited, and you end up with a very confused and pissed-off kid.

• A third genetic piece, and this is the biggie for those of us who write and read mysteries and thrillers, is that people with antisocial personality disorder (i.e., psychopaths) inherit a nervous system that is not easily stimulated. It takes a huge amount of stimulation for them to feel excitement, or any other feeling. Everyday life, that most of us find quite satisfying, bores them and makes them feel “dead inside.”

So psychopaths are constantly looking for a thrill that will make them feel alive! They may find it in a variety of activities–dangerous sports, reckless driving, drinking and drugging, gaining power over others in their family or in the workplace, stealing, pulling off a con or getting away with other criminal behavior, physical violence, sexual aggression… You get the picture.

One myth about psychopaths is that they are often brilliant. Nope, that’s a Hollywood-generated misconception. They run the gamut from stupid to brilliant, just like the rest of us. The dumb ones engage in high risk behaviors and criminal activities early on. They either get killed or get caught and spend a lot of time in jail (although not all criminals are psychopaths).

The smarter ones become politicians, business executives, lawyers, cops, con artists, etc. They may be very successful in their chosen professions because they are quite ruthless; it doesn’t bother them a bit to climb over others to get to the top. (Again, not all politicians and business executives are psychopaths, and definitely this is not most lawyers or police officers!)

Another myth about psychopaths is that they are obvious monsters or highly dysfunctional loners. Most are neither. Most look like everybody else on the surface. They get married, hold down jobs, may even be civic or church leaders! They figure out how to fit in, but behind closed doors they are seeking those thrills.

The BTK killer, Dennis Rader, killed ten victims in and around Wichita, Kansas. He sent sixteen written communications to the news media over a thirty-year period, taunting the police and the public. He was married with two children, was a Boy Scout leader, served honorably in the U.S. Air Force, was employed as a local government official, and was president of his church. –July, 2008, FBI symposium report on Serial Murder.

The degree of antisocial tendencies also exists on a continuum. On the milder end, we have the guys (antisocial personality disorder is twice as common in men as women) who get their thrills through sports, drinking and using recreational drugs on the weekends, and controlling their families. In the moderate range, we have more heavy-duty drug abuse, more violent behavior in the wife battering-barroom brawls category, and more of a tendency to engage in criminal behavior.

Many rapists and a fair number of those more ruthless politicians and business executives are in this group. This is where the bad guy in my latest novel falls (and then my protagonist, Kate, and her private investigator husband discover they have a second psychopath in their midst!)

On the severe end of the continuum, you have the very violent criminals, the totally ruthless business executives and politicians, those who are brutally abusive to their own families, and the serial killers. These are the bad guys that Stacy loves to conjure up in her thrillers.

Unfortunately people with antisocial personality disorder are 3% of males and almost 2% of females in this country. (Yes, you probably know several!) Fortunately, only a very small percentage of people with ASPD become serial killers. What would motivate your average run-of-the-mill psychopath to become a serial killer?

One of the most thrilling things for psychopaths is having power over others. And there is no greater thrill than having power over the life and death of another person.

Most often the serial killer starts out killing for financial gain–robbing people and then killing them to eliminate witnesses, for example–or they kill as part of a gang or drug culture they are immersed in. Then they discover that killing gives them a rush of excitement, and they start to kill for that reason. These are the hardest killers to identify and capture because their victims often have little or nothing in common.

Another major element is rage. Abused children grow up harboring a lot of rage about that abuse. The vast majority of them turn that anger inward and it becomes poor self-esteem and depression. A small percentage deal with that rage by becoming abusive themselves. An even smaller percentage, the full-blown psychopaths (i.e., those who have a strong genetic predisposition to ASPD), discover that killing is a great outlet for that rage. These are the serial killers who have a specific victim type. Their victims usually, in some way, shape or form, symbolize the abuser, or sometimes the passive parent who let them be abused, or the lover who jilted them and set off their rage.

A very small percentage of serial killers are not only psychopaths but they also have other mental disorders. They may lose their grip on reality completely and act out truly bizarre fantasies with their victims. These fantasies are usually based in some triggering event in their histories that tipped them over the edge into psychosis. (Note: psychopath and psychotic are two very different things, but they do sometimes coexist in the same person.)

You’re probably checking the locks on your doors and windows about now. Keep in mind that psychopaths are a relatively small percentage of the population and serial killers are a small percentage of that group. And totally psychotic serial killers are a very small percentage of that small percentage.

But… (You didn’t really think I was going to leave you on a cheery note, did you?)

Psychopaths feel little or no fear. That’s part of their high arousal threshold. The situation’s got to be pretty damn terrifying before they feel even a flicker of fear.

So they don’t fear going to jail, or even dying. Indeed, some view dying as the ultimate thrill! And they can pass lie-detector tests with flying colors, while lying through their teeth. Because those tests are based on the premise that people are anxious when they lie. Not psychopaths! They’re not afraid of getting caught in a lie, because they’re not afraid of much of anything.

Which brings me to the last Hollywood myth I’ll debunk before leaving you. Serial killers are not hoping someone will stop them; they are not trying to get caught. They would have to feel remorse in order to want to be stopped. And they are incapable of remorse.

But they will sometimes escalate to contacting the police or newspapers with taunts or even hints as to where they might strike next, or they may intentionally leave clues behind at crime scenes.

They do this to enhance the thrill! Killing is starting to lose its buzz so they have to up the ante.

If you’d like to read more about psychopaths and serial killers, check out this 2008 report by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (the real one, not the one portrayed on Criminal Minds, which is, by the way, one of my favorite TV shows).

If you have any questions, I promised Stacy I’d hang around until she stops gallivanting gets back later, so ask away!

Celebrity Status, A Kate Huntington Mystery (Book 4)

KINDLE

NOOK

PAPERBACK

A BLURB FROM CELEBRITY STATUS:

Kate Huntington’s new husband has built up a thriving private investigating agency and he’s attracted his first celebrity client, a pop singer whose anonymous stalker has a twisted concept of love. Before Skip Canfield realizes just how twisted, he involves first his psychotherapist wife and then their lawyer friend, Rob Franklin, in the case. Soon they are being hounded by paparazzi and someone is planting evidence to convince Skip that Kate and Rob are lovers. Struggling to deal with this onslaught of unwanted attention and a stalker who will stop at nothing to remove the obstacles in his path, Kate and Skip must face the reality that you can’t always keep those you love from harm.

What’s Thriller Extravaganza? I want to help my writing friends and connect thriller and suspense readers to new, exciting authors, so I decided to go to the experts–the thriller writers who’ve been there, done that, and have hard-earned experience to back up their advice. R.J. Ellory, Margie Lawson, Kathy Bennett, Allison Brennan, and Vicki Hinze will all be visiting in August. Check out the original post for the line-up and awesome contest details.

But there are some amazingly talented authors climbing the thriller ranks, and I chose five great writers to contribute today–all in their own words. Enough of my babbling. Here are my Emerging Thriller Writers!

Diane Capri

Diane’s new Jess Kimball series kicked off with Fatal Distraction, opening as the #3 Bestselling Legal Thriller, behind John Grisham. Diane’s new Hunt for Jack Reacher series began with Don’t Know Jack, which garnered #1 Bestseller spots on Mystery, Hard-boiled Mystery, Police Procedural, Women Sleuths, and Legal Thriller lists, both in the U.S. and U.K. Don’t Know Jack was followed by two bestselling short stories in the Hunt for Jack Reacher series, Jack in a Box and Jack and Kill. Diane’s Judge Wilhelmina Carson mysteries were praised by Romantic Times and garnered the coveted “Top Pick.” Diane’s savvy, spunky character, attorney Jennifer Lane, stars in her own romantic suspense series, which kicks off with Annabelle’s Attack.

#1 Amazon Bestselling Author Diane Capri’s work is what the #1 worldwide publishing phenomenon Lee Child calls “full of thrills and tension, but smart and human, too.” Margaret Maron, Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award-winning MWA Past President, says: “Expertise shines on every page.” And Library Journal raves: “….offers tense legal drama with courtroom overtones, twisty plot, and loads of Florida atmosphere. Recommended.”

Diane writes mystery and suspense for the same reason she reads: to find out what happens, why people do what they do, and how to bring justice to an unjust world. Her books are translated in twenty territories. Diane loves to hear from readers. Contact her at http://dianecapri.com/contact/ to receive notice of new releases, subscribe to Diane’s blog, or simply connect with her.

Fatal Distraction

Jess Kimball’s Impossible Mission: Protect Crime Victims.

Relentless victims’ rights advocate Jess Kimball and Jack Reacher both deliver justice when the legal system fails. Reacher waits until trouble finds him and then he does whatever it takes. But Jess pursues legal justice and draws lines she will not cross. How can she win against killers who refuse to follow the rules?

Three years ago, beloved Florida Governor Helen Sullivan’s world shattered when her only son died in a senseless car crash, killing his best friend, too. Helen quickly discovered Eric’s crash was no accident and lured the killer to her son’s funeral to be caught. When the shooting ceased in the small country church, Helen believed her nightmare was over. Instead, she’d unwittingly escalated her duel with a cunning and patient assassin.

Now, investigative journalist Jess Kimball is driven to find the horrifying truth. Is the Central Florida Child Killer guilty? Or is the real killer still out there?

Helen and Jess together face the determined killer in a pitched battle of wit and nerve. Who will survive?

Buy it here now!

Cyrus Keith

Hi, all, and thanks for having me. Cyrus Keith here. Wow, what a ride. But I can say that my thriller series The NADIA Project is now complete. Almost. All three novels are on the market or established, and the final installment, a novella, is on the way.

I’m really a science fiction freak, but for some reason I can’t quite explain, I have more thriller projects on the burners than sci-fi. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I love to get my blood pumping with a good action scene. There’s just something about bullets flying, bodies dropping, and people running around in flames that excites the senses. Okay, let’s qualify that before the police show up on my doorstep: ON PAPER (or on my eReader display). When I started my series, I was originally intending more of a futuristic feel, but it just didn’t fit. Next thing I know, I’m swept up in this awesome adventure story about a nightmare of self-discovery, and I’m hooked. I might write something more hard-sci-fi in the future (fortuitous pun there), but for now, I’m along for an exciting ride with original thrillers. I have two more in the works, to be started after I finish one last task for Nadia’s story, a novella called Lies and Paine.

Becoming Nadia, my publishing debut, won Best Thriller honors at EPICon 2012 as well as a Top Ten Finisher in the Preditors and Editor’s Readers’ Poll (#6 Thriller). Book Two, Unalive, is available now, and this coming February, the series finale hits the digital shelves with Critical Mass:

Jenna Paine is a super spy, genetically enhanced to be more than human. Nadia Velasquez is a living weapon of mass destruction. When the secret organization who built them both decides they are no longer useful, two enemies are thrown together for the only purposes they could have in common: survival and revenge.

There’s only one way out of The Pinnacle, and that’s on a coroner’s slab. Jenna lives through a treacherous attack vowing to exact her vengeance on the people who trained her to be the most deadly agent on the planet. Wounded and on the run, she turns to the man who’s sworn to making her face charges for her involvement in the Pinnacle’s nefarious schemes.

After years spent hiding from the Pinnacle, Nadia runs into the one thing she never counted on: Shelf life. As her body breaks down, she realizes it’s only a matter of the short time she has left to redeem her existence and give her daughter a chance to live free.

In the final showdown, the two transhumans join forces against a common enemy, and the Pinnacle come to know the deadly significance of…Critical Mass

Rochelle Weber says, “His writing is as gripping, as complex, and reads as true as the masters of science fiction and Clancy’s early work.”

Zellakate Solomon adds, “…a fast-paced plot, great complex characters, and deep themes about identity…immensely readable.”

Rachel DiMaggio says, ” Nadia may be missing her memory, but this is one story you will never forget!”

Buy Cyrus’s books here, and don’t forget to check him out on Facebook.

Jenny Hilborne

Jenny Hilborne is a mystery/thriller writer and a native Brit in love with San Francisco, which is the setting for her first two thrillers: Madness and Murder and No Alibi. Her background in real estate and finance provides much of the inspiration for her stories, as does her love of travel and ex-pat status.

Jenny has practiced martial arts in the form of Shotokan Karate and holds six belts. She currently lives in Southern California, with frequent travel to England.

Her third thriller, Hide and Seek, also set in San Francisco, released in June.

Jenny is currently working on her fourth thriller, which is a break from tradition and set in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Hide and Seek

Welcome, Kassandra!

Thanks, Stacy, for having me, although I have to admit, I’m a little afraid of the dark. Something tells me you’re going to help me overcome that!

You write the Kate Huntington mystery series, centered around a psychotherapist. Tell us about Kate. Where did she come from? How much of her is based on your background as a psychotherapist?

Kate is third-generation Irish-American; her parents, who occasionally make appearances in the books, still have a bit of a brogue. She’s got the “Black Irish” combination of dark curly hair, fair skin and blue eyes. I made her Irish-American because that’s my husband’s heritage. Then I married her off to a WASP, thus the Huntington last name.

Personality-wise, Kate started out as me, or rather my ideal self. She is much more consistently caring and compassionate than I am, and she loses her temper less often and calms down a lot faster. Her role as a therapist is definitely patterned after my own experiences.

But as the series has evolved, Kate has become her own person. She’s had different experiences than mine, and they have shaped her. It never ceases to amaze me, as an author, how characters truly take on a life of their own.

Kate’s character wasn’t the actual inspiration for the series, however. That came from a disappointing platonic friendship with the real-life counterpart to my character, Rob Franklin, who is Kate’s closest friend. Writing about a healthy platonic friendship started out as a healing exercise, and the next thing I knew I was writing a novel.

Your degree is in psychology. What specific areas do you specialize in, and how do those play into your writing?

I’m retired now, but I was a trauma recovery specialist, working with adults who were dealing with emotional scar tissue from their childhoods–parental death, alcoholism in the household, physical or sexual abuse, etc.

Kate also is a trauma recovery specialist, but unlike me, she leads a much more interesting life. She has a propensity for getting into scary, sometimes downright terrifying, situations.

My stories about her are good old-fashioned whodunnits, but also with a lot of emphasis on the characters’ relationships with each other. I throw in a bit of humor as well, to lighten the mood occasionally.

My goal is to entertain first and foremost, but also to educate a bit along the way. As a reader, I love that kind of novel myself–a book that provides good entertainment and escapism, but I also know some things when I put it down that I didn’t know before, whether it’s about a certain occupation or a time in history or whatever.

In my books, I try to give short glimpses into the world of psychotherapy… what it’s like to be the client but also what’s going through the therapist’s head, something most people wouldn’t normally be privy to.

I also highlight different psychological disorders and phenomena in each book. Domestic violence and multiple personalities, which is actually called dissociative identity disorder now, in Book 1. Thus the title, Multiple Motives. And this new book deals with recovery from child sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.

We love bad guys here at Turning The Page – tell us about yours. What’s your process of creating his character?

Hmm, that’s tough to answer without giving too much away. My villains usually operate behind the scenes, for the most part. Bad things are happening and Kate and her friends are trying to figure out who’s making them happen. They usually have an array of suspects so I’m developing the characters of a whole bunch of potential bad guys and gals.

But to get back to the question, how do I create the actual bad guy or gal’s character? When I get an idea for a book, I usually have at least a vague sense of who the villain’s going to be. I start by writing the beginning of the book, to establish the theme of the story, what it’s about.

Then I write the ending, where the true culprit is revealed. Once I know what point A and point B are, I write an outline of how I’m going to get from A to B, so that by the ending, the bad guy or gal’s motivations make sense to the reader.

Then I start writing the book. I often end up with a different opening than the original, but the ending rarely changes all that much.

You’ll have to invite me back, Stacy, when my seventh book comes out, and ask me that question again.  *slightly evil smile*  The bad guy in that one is going to be a true, make-the-hair-stand-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck villain, as in a serial killer.

You’re getting ready to launch the third book in the Kate Huntington series, Family Fallacies. It delves into some pretty intense stuff: trauma recovery, suppressed memories, and the false memory controversy. Can you tell us more about the book? How do you handle writing something with such intense issues?

I gotta admit that Family Fallacies is my favorite in the series so far, even though as you say, it covers some intense stuff. But writing about it is not all that hard, compared to 20 years of working with people who were dealing with the real thing.

Surprisingly, none of my advanced readers found it to be difficult to handle. I think that’s because there are two storylines. Weaving back and forth between them lessens the intensity considerably. I also don’t get graphic in my descriptions of the memories; that isn’t necessary for the story to make sense. And then there’s that occasional dash of humor.

One storyline is Kate’s story. She is falling in love while still struggling with grief for her late husband. She’s holding her new guy at arm’s length and he’s trying to be patient, but she’s worried he’s going to give up on her before she’s able to move forward in the relationship.

Then she starts getting anonymous notes, that go from weird and disturbing to threatening to “destroy” her family. That is Kate’s Achilles’ heel. She’s brave and strong when it comes to herself, but threats against those she loves terrify her.

Meanwhile Kate’s client, Audrey, is starting to have memories of sexual abuse bubble up into conscious awareness. She thinks the abuser is her father, but the face in the memories is not clear. Kate keeps telling her to go slow, not to try to force it, but Audrey is not a very patient person. Eventually there is a confrontation between her and her father that results in Audrey cutting off contact with her parents.

The two stories start to come together when Audrey’s parents sue Kate for supposedly planting false memories in their daughter’s head. Then one of the parties in the lawsuit gets themselves killed and now Kate is a murder suspect.

You started down your publishing journey later than some of us – what lit the spark?

Publishing, yes; writing no. I’ve been a writer, well, since I learned to write. You should see some of the poems I wrote in high school.  *laughs*  Then again, maybe you shouldn’t. They were pretty awful.

I started Multiple Motives in 1995. I had published several professional articles by then, but it was the first piece of fiction that I actually thought was worth publishing. I got about one third of the way into it and lost my momentum, partly because I had a day job and a teenager to finish raising. But mainly because I knew that I did not have the patience to deal with the publishing industry. It’s not that I can’t handle rejection; it’s that I have no tolerance for unnecessary obstacles, created by the very people who are supposed to be on your side.

All three Kate Huntington books are self-published. Why’d you decide to go that route? Did you query at all?

I did query some, last spring and early summer, when Multiple Motives was finished. I decided that, maybe I couldn’t handle the flawed nature of the publishing world in my early 40’s, but at almost 60, it was time to put on my big girl pants and deal with it. Meanwhile, I was cranking out the first drafts of three more books.

I hated every minute spent on the querying process, mainly because it is so much effort and so much agony for so little return. When you finally land an agent, you are still a long way away from a published book.

Then I went to a writers’ conference in late August and two little miracles happened. One of the presentations was on e-publishing. The presenter was a well-established author, with a publisher, who, for a variety of reasons, had more recently gone the self- publishing route. My eyes went wide, my mouth dropped open and I thought, “This is for me!”

The second little miracle was that I had a glass of wine with Shannon Esposito at the cocktail party at the end of the conference. We had chatted earlier in the weekend about something inane–hairdressers, I believe it was–but as we sat down to relax over a glass of chardonnay, something clicked. By the time her delightful husband came to pick her up, we were both a little looped and we had decided two things: we were going to stay in touch and we were going to check into this self-publishing thing. Her husband, Dan, very graciously invited me to join them for dinner and even managed to look interested while we talked books for the rest of the evening.

Now Shannon and I are partners in a small indie press, misterio press. And we have another mystery writer who has joined us, JoAnn Bassett. misterio press basically operates as a cooperative for indie mystery writers and our goal is to establish a reputation for top-quality self-published mysteries.

And as I’m saying all this, I’m thinking, “Wow, how far we have come in less than a year!” Shannon has two books out and they are doing very well and I’m releasing book three.

Both of us would still be sending out queries in the traditional publishing world.

What’s the best part of the self-publishing experience? The worst?

One of the best things is what I just mentioned. In traditional publishing, even if, by some miracle, we had both landed agents and publishing contracts quickly, our first books would still not be out yet. The average turn-around from contract signing to book hits the shelves is at least a year.

With self-publishing, you forego the whole seeking an agent and publisher part. You hire your own professional editor to polish your work; you get a good cover artist and e-book formatting company lined up, if you don’t have the talent to do those things yourself, and you can have your baby out there within months. And it’s not prohibitively expensive. My average cost per e-book is $1,000. And it’s going to be less than that in the future, because a lot of those services I paid for in the past will be available for me through the misterio press cooperative.

The other big deal for me is that you have complete creative control. I am a control freak, so I love that! You pick the title and you have the final say in editorial changes and cover art. I’ve heard horror stories about authors who were forced to change things they really didn’t want to change, and I was very much afraid that would happen with Multiple Motives. If a publisher’s editor had insisted that I create sexual energy between Kate and Rob, that would have been a deal breaker. Then the book would have become just another tawdry example of how unhealthy humans can be. I wanted it to provide an example how platonic friendships can be healthy.

What’s the worst thing? The promotional stuff is very time-consuming, but these days traditionally-published authors are expected to participate in social media, so I’m really not doing all that much more than I would be doing anyway. And it’s fun to connect with people all over the world. I’ve gotten some terrific support from other authors, like you, Stacy, through social media. So I’m not complaining too loud about the time spent on Twitter and Facebook and such.

Are you planning anything exciting for Family Fallacies?

Actually yes, misterio press in having a contest, to celebrate the book’s release. Anyone who comments here will have their name put in the hat to win a free three-book set of the series to date. Then if they go to our blog at  www.misteriopress.com and read about how ghosts might just be capable of getting jealous, we’ll put their names in the hat again. And if they stop by any of the rest of my blog stops this week and comment there, yet another entry goes into the hat, up to six maximum.

The winner will be chosen at midnight Friday and announced at each of the blogs, including ours, on Saturday.

Last but not least, what do you do when you’re not writing? Favorite book? Movie? Vacation?

*laughs*  Mostly I sleep, and often not enough of that. Writing has taken over my life the last couple years. My husband looks at me funny when I show up at the dinner table–he’s the cook in the family–as if to say, “ Do I know you?”

But I do try to carve out time for reading. It is my favorite form of relaxation. I try to read a lot of indie writers now, both to support them and to see what exciting things they are doing.

And my husband and I love to travel. We just got back from a trip to Alaska. What a breathtakingly beautiful state! I hope to have my pictures up on Facebook soon. Just hasn’t made it to the top of the to-do list yet.

Thanks so much for talking with me today, Kassandra!

I’ve really enjoyed it. You are a gem, Stacy, for having me! I hope you’ll come visit me and Shannon soon.

And thanks to all your followers and friends for stopping by. Good luck in the contest!

Oops, almost forgot. Here are the rest of the blog stops this week:

Tuesday, 6/12 – Why Do We Hurt The Ones We Love? – Rhonda Hopkins lets me get serious about some, well, serious stuff, at http://rhondahopkins.com

Wednesday, 6/13 – “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful” – Lightening things up a bit as I talk about body image and self-esteem as the guest of Alica McKenna Johnson at http://alicamckennajohnson.com

Thursday, 6/14 – A Check-Up From the Neck Up – Hanging out with Ginger Calem, of world-renowned Writer’s Butt Wednesdays fame, and sharing some tips for maintaining your mental health, at  http://gingercalem.wordpress.com

Friday, 6/15 – Chatting with Jennifer L. Oliver about writing, eating and puppy dogs (no puppy dogs will be harmed in the process) at http://www.small-escapes.com

Kassandra Lamb’s Bio

Psychology and writing, or writing and psychology, if you will, have always vied for number one on Kassandra Lamb’s Greatest Passions list. In her youth, she had to make a decision between writing and paying the bills. Partial to heat, electricity and food, she studied psychology.

Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist and college professor, she spends most of her time in an alternate universe in which her protagonist, Kate Huntington, is always the kind, generous and insightful person that she wishes she were.

When not at her computer, transported in mind and spirit into Kate’s world, she lives in Florida and Maryland, with her husband and her Alaskan Husky, Amelia. She also hangs out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, so feel free to track her down there @KassandraLamb and http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/kassandra.lamb.