For a period of eleven years, I worked in a large downtown church, and part of my job was giving pastoral care to members of my congregation. It was my great privilege to share in their joys and sorrows, their victories and defeats. I've seen the best in people, and I've seen the worst. I've watched helplessly as people I cared about went to pieces under the crushing weight of their burdens, and I've stood in awe as others have picked up the shattered pieces of their lives and become stronger because of what they've endured. I've seen good people go off the rails, and people that society has written off make a miraculous recovery. I've known rapists and murderers, swindlers and suicides. I've prayed with them and worshiped with them. But most of all, I've learned from them. I've learned not to be judgmental. I've learned that the line separating good from evil is very fragile. Ordinary people, nice people like you and me, have the capacity to live like angels, but we also have the capacity to do the opposite.
This is what I try to bring to the characters in my books. Of course, the hero and heroine are destined to overcome all the flaws in their characters and the obstacles in their path. Lucky them. But my poor villains, well, my poor villains are destined to become villains.
They're not mad. Somewhere in their past, they took a wrong turn, or they made a choice that led to the disintegration of their characters. It could so easily have gone the other way.
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