The wonderful part about writing fiction is that you enter this crazy world where your characters can do anything. The issue is that the best characters take off running and all you can do is follow along. For that reason, I never tended to give much thought to whether or not my characters act morally or responsibly, simply because I'm not them. It's not my job to harness them in but rather, tell their story.
Lately, it has occurred to me whether or not my characters are evil. I suspect some people avoid my books because they assume they are and simply want nothing to do with them. And, you know, fair enough. You'll never find the Hernandez series in the Christian section of your bookstore. Is it my duty to represent morals and values in my books? And does anyone else?
To answer that question, you have to go back to why I started writing in the first place. Back in the early days, when I was a teenager attempting to pull a novel together, I never did so with the idea of inspiring anyone. In fact, my whole goal (even back then) was to make people think. I wanted to hold a mirror up to the world and tell you what I saw. I've been doing that ever since.
What I'm trying to say is, that my characters are complex. My strongest character is Jorge Hernandez and although he certainly could be called evil, you also see his compassionate side in many situations. In some cases, he can even act as an anti-hero, retaliating on those who are evil themselves. Overall though, I feel my books and characters are a reflection of the world. And unfortunately, if you look under the hood, that's not a pleasant sight these days.
