IWSG Blog Post - Happy New Year!

The awesome co-hosts for the January 3 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Olga Godim, Diedre Knight, and Natalie Aguirre!

January 3 question: Do you follow back your readers on BookBub or do you only follow back other authors?

I don’t usually follow on BookBub or Goodreads. There are many things I should do but don’t have the capacity for. I prioritize writing, self promoting, and doing monthly blog posts.

And on New Year’s Eve, I prioritize blockbuster movies. That’s right, no partying for me. I prefer to start the year couch-potato-ing. This year I watched disaster movies, and it got me thinking about characters.  Specifically, the character of Yuri in 2012 and why he, of all people, was my favorite.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for 2012)

The earth is doomed, and only the rich will survive. When we meet Yuri, he’s an obscenely wealthy man who purchases three survival tickets for himself and his twin sons at a cost of 1 billion euros each. He does not purchase a ticket for his girlfriend.

​A former boxer, Yuri is huge and speaks in a deep voice with a heavy Russian accent. He is not someone you want to mess with. Over the film, he leaves people to die, even those he seemed to care about, like the young boxer he is coaching just before disaster strikes. We are told he pressured his girlfriend to get breast implants against her wishes. His sons are spoiled brats who gloat to the chauffeur that they will live and he will die. There are many reasons we should hate Yuri. However, he has funny lines and moments of character development that make him something more important than likable. He is interesting. In a quiet moment, we see him staring at a photo of his ex-wife. After his pilot dies, he reveals that the pilot and his girlfriend were having an affair. So that’s why he didn’t buy her a ticket. Oh well, he’s still a jerk. Then comes the pivotal moment.

Yuri and his two sons are about to miss the last ship. The ramp is going up. One son climbs aboard. The second can’t reach. A chasm gapes before them.
Yuri
does
not
hesitate.
He hoists son #2 and hurls him aboard with such force that Yuri plummets to his death. It’s not about redemption. Yuri’s a horrible person. But my gosh, that scene lives rent free in my head. The lesson I take from 2012 is the importance of making minor characters interesting. Not everyone has to be good, but they do have to be complex!