When Love Kills: Passion

Though February is a month for love, we’re crime writers so we’re going to have a different discussion.

Passion can play out in many ways in our novels. Passion can be a motive. Passion can also be shown for a hobby, a vocation, an item, or an idea. Wickeds, what role does passion play in your books? We all share a passion for writing–let’s talk about that a bit as well.

Edith/Maddie: My several protagonists have in common a passionate loyalty to their loved ones. That passion extends to protecting family and close friends and to defending them when falsely accused. I didn’t include that passion by design, but each new series seems to end up including a focus on family. My passion for writing might be obvious, since that’s all I seem to do, and I keep signing on for more book commitments. But making up stories and crafting them into books truly makes me happy, and while I I’m able, why not?

Sherry: I think almost all amateur sleuths in series have to have a passion to help people and fix things. It’s innate to their characters or they wouldn’t keep doing it. I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a pencil and making them up since before that. Whether it was writing spy stories when I was in grade school, writing yearbook copy, writing stories for my daughter when she was growing up (or making new one’s up at night to tell her at bedtime), ads when I was in marketing, or novels — I’ve always loved writing. Even writing college papers about other people’s books were fun.

Liz: My protags all seem to have a passion for helping animals…I wonder where they got that! Also, coffee. As for me, I’m with Sherry – I’ve been making up stories since I was a kid. Poetry, short stories, all kinds of things. I even wrote a set-up for a soap opera once. And I was definitely the nerd who loved to write papers!

Barb: I think the protagonists in all my books have a passion to know— what happened, how it happened, and most important, why it happened. I think this is a human trait, a trait I share with my sleuths, and perhaps a particular one of mystery readers. So much in nature and human behavior is unknowable. It is great to have answers, even to fictional situations.

Jessie: I love this question! And Liz, I want to hear more about that soap opera! I love to write about characters who are passionate about their interests, I suppose because I am too! My sleuth Beryl’s defining characteristic is her passion, for travel, for adventures, for love affairs, and for piloting all manner of machinery at high rates of speed. My far quieter sleuth Edwina is equally, if less flamboyantly, passionate about her gardens, her dog, her knitting projects, her novel, and her beloved village. I think passionate people are by far the most interesting which is likely why they show up so often in fiction!

Julie: I love discovering the passions of my characters as series progress. I knew starting out that Lilly would have a passion for gardening. What I didn’t know is that she also had a passion for fixing things. Ernie’s passion for baking and theater, Warwick’s passion for teaching, Tamara’s passion for her job and how it manifests itself–all of those passions add a lot of depth to the characters, and they give me a lot to work with. I’ve been thinking about my passion for writing, and why I love it so much. A huge part of it the fact that all of these random bits and pieces come together to create a world where things happen, and that it all exists in my imagination. How cool is that?

Readers, what passions do you enjoy? What are some of your favorite passions characters have?