The Good, the Bad, and the Somewhere Inbetween...

Voirey Linger is author of Risking Eternity, coming May 26th from Ellora's Cave. In 2009, she spearheaded the Summer Reading Trail, a collection of free reads by various authors which this year is being run cooperatively with A. J. O'Donovan.

Risking Eternity--

For two hundred years, Dominicus has lived in isolation, sentenced to take human souls to hell. But this night’s victim is unlike all the others. She tempts him. One kiss and she comes apart in his arms. One taste, and he can’t walk away.

But Maggie isn’t the only temptation he faces. Dominicus fights an attraction to Renatus, his best friend through the eons and a male with whom sex is forbidden. With her he risks Hell, with him, losing the only piece of Heaven he has left.

~~~~~~~

Good creatures and bad creatures used to be easy to tell apart. If they had with anything freaky going on with their canines it was generally bad. Night creatures were bad, and so were creatures using spells. Somewhere along the way, that changed. Magic not involving sparkly dust became a plus, going furry was getting your sexy on, and fangs were the ultimate sign of hotness.

Call me old-fashioned, but part of me wants to know if a critter is pure or evil on sight. It's the same part of me that has a hidden stash of bodice-ripper and secret baby books hidden in the back of the keeper shelf, but we won't get into those.

When I was plotting Risking Eternity, one thing I wanted to be very clear on this whole nice guys vs. nasty guys thing. Angels, Heaven, Most High, all good. Demons, Hell and Lucifer, not so much. All very clear and simple, right?

Not so much, as it happens.

While my creatures were either good or bad by nature, they were still fallible. My angel didn't need a demon trying to lead him astray because he was his own worst enemy. He trips up, makes mistakes and needs to figure out where that line between right and wrong really is.

So if the good creatures can't find that line, what about the evil ones? Are demons really the dirty little minions of Satan? Okay, they are in my world building, but does that make them bad?

The more I learn about my demoness, the less I'm convinced she's wicked. Maybe that's because as a fallen angel, she's wasn't created to do evil. Sure, she made the decision to leave the heavens and work for the other team, but the core of who she is remained. The core of good.

So despite my best efforts to keep the lines clear, to make sure there is no confusion between the bad and the good, I'm left with a fuzzy picture of what makes a creature pure or evil. Maybe it's better that way. Maybe it's more fun to leave things to be discovered. I guess a little mystery makes people more interesting... even the ones who aren't human.

~~Voirey