In this guest blog, Helen Hollick asks what makes a good hero, a good heroine or even a good (bad?) villain? Cliché? Stereotype? Or something original?   Is the clichéd, stereotypical hero, heroine or villain expected by readers? Do they want the familiar, the predictable? Do readers want novels to be like run-of-the-mill TV dramas where there is more action and dialogue, rather then delving into the intricacies of characterisation? We rather expect the TV cop to have some sort of ongoing personal or family problem or trauma; we expect the hero of an exciting drama to be the good guy; and the baddie of that Regency Costume saga to be the nasty one who takes all the money and leaves the nice family destitute. We expect one of the TV soap couples, supposedly happily married for years, to have an affair. We know the young girl bunking school will become pregnant...etc.  But are these clichés or merely tried and tested (albeit trotted-out) plots? Possibly, but a good author o...

Alison Morton, author of the stunning alternative history Roma Nova series, and Helen Hollick, whose historical fiction ranges across the centuries from King Arthur to pirates of the Caribbean, have both taken exciting steps into new genres. I recently eavesdropped on them in conversation during their current Blog Tour, talking about the challenges and rewards of moving in new directions...   Thank you, Lucienne, for hosting a stop on our joint tour for our new released mystery/thriller novels Double Identity by Alison Morton and A Mirror Murder by Helen Hollick. Helen: It was quite coincidental that we both decided to branch out from our usual genres into mystery/thrillers at more or less the same time, wasn’t it Alison? My A Mirror Murder is a novella ‘cosy mystery’, while your, Double Identity is a fast-paced thriller. What they have in common is the theme of investigating a murder. Alison: I wanted to write a character with strong roots in France, which is where I live...