A Mean Character

Comment:

We would like to know why you chose to put a mean character like Judd Travers in your story?

Phyllis replied:

If he wasn’t in it, what was the story?  All books need conflict.  That was the conflict I chose to show how difficult it is sometimes to decide between right and wrong.  If he was a different character–a man who just unthinkingly didn’t treat his dogs right, and Marty said, “You know your dog really gets cold in winter, you should bring him in; and sometimes you forget to feed him,” and the man said, “Hey, you’re right.  I’ll do better from now on,”  would you have felt so emotional, so involved, in the story?   The meaner the man, the more the reader wants that dog to be rescued….