Antagonists – every story needs them.  Whether it’s somebody as in-your-face as Lord Voldemort or as invisible as the cold that will kill the explorer if he doesn’t succeed at lighting a fire, they provide the conflict at the heart of any tale.

Real life in the last few months has brought about a thought experiment that got me pondering where villains come from.  You’ve probably heard the mantra about how each character is the hero in his or her personal story.  It’s easy to think of bad guys as power-hungry sadists, but sometimes people antagonize others because they mean well, but they’re misguided….

That’s kind of where you run across the other mantra that truth is stranger than fiction.

What antagonist do you find the juiciest?  The evil villain that wants to rule the world, or the self-proclaimed do-gooder who actually causes more harm?

That’s a hard choice to make.  I might need to read some more stories to help me decide … and that leads to A BRIEF ANNOUNCEMENT.

Smashwords is having their annual Summer/Winter Sale (depends on your hemisphere).  Membership is free, and until the end of July many e-books are available at a discount (including mine, of course).

Just click here to get started.  I hope alerting you to the sale was helpful and that I haven’t inadvertently caused any harm….