The Lure of the Bad Guy

I love bad guys.

Okay, not in real life. In real life I'm a big supporter of the Nice Guy. I like nice guys. Nice guys call when they say they will, show up on time when you have a date, and never stick you with the bill for dinner. Nice guys save puppies, help old ladies cross the street, like foreplay, and light up when you walk into the room because the world somehow just became a better place.

Even in my writing, I prefer heroes that walk the moral high ground, even if they sometimes have to crawl first to find it. Oh sure, I like to rough them up a bit first, damage them so their in need of repair. But, at the core, my heroes are always good and strong.

Still, I love to write the bad guys. I love the damage that goes so deep it turns evil and there's no coming back. There is such a freedom in it, this ability to vent all your darkness in this one character, to give your hero and heroine someone truly hard and uncompromising to go up against. Someone who won't take the moral high ground. Someone who will cut you off at the knees just as soon as look at you. Someone who kicks puppies, pushes old ladies into traffic, and thinks foreplay is something that happens to them. And they're far more likely to smirk when you enter the room because they're picturing you naked and not because you just made their world a brighter place to live in.

Yes, there's something fun in the bad guy. I wouldn't want to date him, wouldn't really want him anywhere within my sphere. But in my books? Oh yes. In my books I'll always have a place for him.