Please, oh please. Can I be the Bad Guy?

What is it about writing bad guys that is so much fun? Just the other day, I wrote a scene in which the bad guy held the hero at sword point, his lips curled in an evil sneer, the lust for blood making his face warm with glee. It was fun!

Reading the bad guy is a delight, too. Admit it. Don’t you love the shivers you get reading about a really nasty character late at night, the covers pulled to your chin, the shadows in the corners of the room making you jump?

So what is it? What makes these bad guys so interesting? Deep down, I think it’s because there is a part of me that wishes I could be really bad. It’s the flesh part, but still…I wonder what it might be like to act and think like one of my characters, without regard for feelings or consequences. Could I scheme like the murderer in my latest cozy mystery? Plot maniacal twists and turns like the villain in my historical? I think so. I might even be able to get away with it. After all, I’ve had to learn something from all that research I’ve done on police investigations.

Hmm…guess I’m not so far from that sin nature after all. Buuwhaaaaaa…..