First, I'm a bad blogger. I promised to post something special yesterday, and never got the chance to do it. So here it is. If you'd like a free copy of my flash collection, Heart Knocks, use code FREEHEARTS at checkout in the BSB store. You'll be able to download one copy for free in your choice of PDF, MOBI or ePUB formats. My gift to you, good through midnight (Mountain Time).

Actually, it works better this way, since I'm not giving you a gift on a holiday, but after.

Now on to today's post...

Do you watch Once Upon a Time? For the uninitiated, it's ABC's revisionist version of the classic fairy tale world, wherein the evil queen has cursed the entire land to be stuck in a modern-day town that none of them can leave. Conveniently, most of them also have amnesia, so they don't remember who they really are - the gradual awakening is part of the plot. All the characters we grew up reading about are there - Snow White and Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretal...the list goes on. My favorite though is the enigmatic Rumpelstiltskin who goes by "Mr. Gold" in the non-fantasy world. 

Carol Ward did some research into the original fairy tale (or folklore, if you prefer) that you can find here. The show, of course, has taken liberties with his character that make him a far more fascinating individual than what he started out as, in my opinion.

I don't foresee any spoilers in this post - I'll mostly be talking about the character himself, rather than any specific show details, but if you're skittish, this would be the spot to stop reading and go watch. 

Mr. Gold is a person who uses "deals" to get what he wants (I'll fix this problem for you, if you agree to do/give this in return.). Manipulation is his specialty, and there's always a string attached when someone agrees to an exchange with him. It's a skill that goes along with the magic he's got...and fittingly, that "power" was passed on to him in a manipulative transaction as well. He wasn't always like that though, as the show's plot reveals...and he has very specific reasons for being the way he is, and also for being afraid of change.

You might think he's a villain, but is he, really? The way he's written leaves the final verdict up in the air as he uses everyone equally to his own ends, including the queen. It's obvious that he has more power than nearly every other character (the possible exception being Emma), but the way he wields it is so deliberate that I find myself often thinking that he's not bad or good, but rather just "himself".

And that is exactly why I love him - as a character, he's perfect (and I have to say, I think they chose the perfect actor as well). Ambiguity leads to curiosity, and the writers feed us just enough new tidbits each week about his character to keep the ambiguity from getting boring.

In any case, as I watched the show last week, which Rumpel was featured extensively in, it finally dawned on me that this is what I want to focus more on, both for my heroes and my villains. My characters are either "too good" or "too bad". They're well-defined...so much so that there's no room for any ambiguity. That's fine and normal for some genres...say, my romantic suspense (although even there, it would add something) and erotica readers seem to like the fantasy "too good to be true" guy, but that fascinating & constant war between dark and light would serve a very interesting purpose for the protagonist(s) in my thrillers, and it would add dimension to my villains as well.

I don't know why this hasn't hit me before, but I think it's because I've never really been fascinated enough by a character fashioned that way to pick one apart and figure out *why* he fascinated me so much (wow, that sounds bad, doesn't it?). Not that it takes a lot of effort with Mr. Gold...his internal struggles are evident in nearly everything he does, as much as he tries to hide them.

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