Years ago I ran across “The Top 100 Things I’d Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord.” Â It’s a fairly complete list of the mistakes that get made in various media by villains and super-villains all the time, and it’s hilarious. Â That spawned an idea for some short stories (that I never bothered to publish, or even finish at times) based around that list – what if the Evil Overlord really played upon the things that show up in TV, comic books, and movies as the mistakes all villains made? Â The hero assumes all those mistakes could be counted upon, but the villain intentionally miss-directs the hero (often at the expense of the hero’s life.)
The concept was fun for a little bit, but I really don’t like writing completely two-dimensional characters. Â They just aren’t that much fun. Â Plus, short stories really aren’t my thing – I like big, expansive tales that say something. Â Or at least in my mind they say something – writing is an observed phenomena, where the meaning is entirely up to each reader.
But the concept of an intelligent bad guy stuck around – I used to be a game master for many years, and while I could never play an evil character as a player, somehow the process of being a story teller allows me to do, well, flat out evil things. Â Even then the idea of just following a bad guy around didn’t really appeal to me. Â If he was truly evil I’d want to see him defeated.
What if the lines became more ambiguous? Â Who’s good and who’s bad? Â Sounds like a great idea at first, but it’s been done before. Â How could I twist it even further?
I figured out how to start twisting it all up in interesting ways about a year ago, and I even started writing bits and pieces down. Â When I decided I wanted start doing my writing more publicly rather than toiling in obscurity with a long time between releases I realized “Autobiography of a Super-Villain” was a perfect choice to be serialized online! Â It had it all – a cool concept, a good plot line, and superheroes have a mainstream appeal (thought it might be interesting to see if super-villains have the same level of mass appeal.)
The expected ending for the story is written already – it’s the ride to the end that should keep people guessing. Â I sincerely hope you enjoy reading Autobiography of a Super-Villain as much as I enjoy writing it! Â In fact… I hope you enjoy reading it so much you decide to help support it’s continued serialization, along with the other two books that are being serialized: Â “IZ” and “Muse”. Â Hit the Support This Now button any page for more information on what you can do and what you get for it. Â For example – access to more of the story than what’s currently posted (the first book of the “Muse” series is already completed, and books 2 & 3 are under development), signed & numbered copies of the books, and more!