Dr. Wright's Breedfreak is a short book by a vet about the characteristics of various dog breeds. To say Dr. Wright has some strong opinions is like saying the ocean has some water.

Maybe that’s why I had brief dream about writing a HEE-larious article comparing my book characters to various dog breeds. Today I’m thinking, hey, it might not be as funny as the dream, but why not portray a few romantic heroes and heroines as dogs? It’s what Disney would do.

Heathcliff is obviously a pit-bull/Rottweiler mix, strong, loyal, and potentially dangerous and uninterested in socializing with strangers.  And, as JoAnn Ross pointed out on Twitter, definitely a stray.  My guess is he’d have some sort of terrier in his mix. So would Cathy. I have to say, I can’t think of what she’d be. Something neurotic and skittish but that barks bravely.

Scarlett O’Hara is a Yorkshire terrier, pampered, opinionated but at heart a working dog (they were ratters in the mills of Yorkshire). She’s someone who can make it through tough times.

[Who's next, who's next?!...]

You know yourself if you’ve really loved something it’s much harder to explain why than it is to explain why you hated it; as Paradise Lost scribe Milton put it,

“For evil news rides post, while good news baits.”

Which basically means it’s way more fun to talk about the negative, whether it’s a feeling about a book or film or the latest celebrity scandal. Just recently, for example, a poll found that the Daleks have lost out to the Weeping Angels as the most favorite monsters from Doctor Who.

So let’s have some fun, and talk villains! Which villain, out of romance fiction, is the evillest? The Omega, from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series? A villain—such as Nick Gentry from Lady Sophia’s Lover or Lothaire from Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series—who then becomes the hero? Jack Randall from the Outlander series?

Tell us your favorite baddie!

It’s strange to think there may be an upside to having an abusive stalker, but if you’re a heroine in a romance novel, you can count on it as fact. And two of the best bright-side-of-stalking stories are by two of my favorite authors: Linda Howard, and Susan Andersen.

In Mr. Perfect, Linda Howard introduces us to Jaine Bright and her three best friends. In a moment of frustration during after-work cocktails, and in the crowd-pleasing tradition of Weird Science, they create a list that defines the perfect man: Mr. Perfect.

• He’s faithful. Doesn’t cheat or lie
• Nice
• Dependable
• Steady job
• Sense of humor
• Money
• Good to look at
• Great in bed, with stamina, and “leftovers”

[Seems perfectly reasonable to me...]

Sometimes, instead of making the hero or heroine of a following series book a sibling, the hero or heroine was the villain in a previous book. For example, Mary Balogh, whose The Proposal is out today, took several of her villains and made them heroic in a significant number of her early traditional Regencies. Lisa Kleypas did it when Nick Gentry became the hero of Worth Any Price, and of course comic books always feature characters crossing over from evil to good to back again.

So the question is—is there any situation where a villain absolutely could not be redeemed in your eyes?

I love the romantic anti-hero, the hottie who starts out bad but is redeemed, or chastened, or blindsided or bludgeoned by love and winds up a hero almost in spite of himself. Villains don’t get redeemed, but the anti-hero makes you love him, or at least lust for him. Then you have to root for his redemption, because if he doesn’t turn to the Light Side, it means you’ve fallen for a villain, doesn’t it?

(Warning: this post contains spoilers for BBC’s Robin Hood as well as Lonesome Dove: The Series.)

[Bad shouldn’t look so good...]

Yeah, I love villains. Particularly angstful tortured ones who nonetheless find the werewithal somewhere to try and take over the world. And also still have room for Love. No matter how unconventional that love might be.

After all, there’s room for all kinds of love in romance. Right? So here’s my list of villains I wish were heroes:

The Brain
Okay, so he’s a mouse. A cartoon mouse. With a big head. But appearance shouldn’t be held against him. Brain’s got a great sense of sarcastic humor, and I love that in a guy. You can tell he does feel glimmers of compassion for his cellmate, Pinky, and he has lots of knowledge, so presumably he could eventually be a good lover. And his voice is totally sexy. Besides, if he ever succeeds in taking over the world, you’ll want to be on his good side.

[I can get behind that: he’s got ambition!...]

Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series reveals a convoluted world filled with fantastic supernatural creatures whose ongoing war often bleeds into the human realm. Filled with suspense, intrugue, angst and humor, Ms. Kenyon manages to create a fairly realistic world that often has me giving the eye to people I’m not entirely sure of.

There are approximately 20 books in the series (not counting related books or novellas) composed of three main groups: the Dark-Hunters, the Were-Hunters, and the Dream-Hunters. As with any series, there are good guys and bad guys (and for a refresher on the good guys, read Natasha Carty’s article about Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter Heroes and Heroines).

I often find myself  enamored with the villains of a series; even though any one of the characters in this series has a tendency towards violence, it’s the villains who often add that much-needed element to the storyline. In this world, the lines between the good and the bad are blurred. The villains are not all evil to the core, but rather evil in degrees. Most of them are merely doing what they need to do to survive amongst their brethren. The choices they make aren’t always right or acceptable, but—at times—they are understandable.

[Gotta love those shades of gray...]

For me, storytelling is all about character development. Character is the essential, crucial element that captures and holds my interest in whatever I am reading. In many story lines, the villain is an irreplaceable, integral component. The desire for power will always be the controlling factor in the existence of any society: Human, animal, or supernatural, there is always the quest for dominance.

Evil is insidious, but it is never simple, or just black and white. The more layers and shades of gray it obtains, the more horrific and invasive the evil becomes. Most humans have a touch of evil. It may be just a flicker, but it’s there.

True evil seeks out that tendency for evil in others and uses it for its own dark purposes. In fiction, good fiction, at least, even the supporting players, the not- so-nice people, and especially the villains should be well-drawn and multi-layered. Minor characters, sharply etched in a few well-chosen words, add such rich flavor to a story line. I like nice characters who have an unexpected naughty streak. I love naughty characters who are nice when they least expect it themselves! I like characters who are basically defined around the edges, but still flexible enough to be surprised and revised. A “complete change of character” is not really believable, and it's also not very interesting. It's the little flaws, “uh-ohs,” and “ahs” that make for a readable character.

[More on the characters you love to hate...]