Friday, September 6, 2013

The Grey Hero


This week, I’m hoping we share an enthusiasm. I love a grey hero – one of those wonderful characters caught somewhere between good intentions and bad deeds. It’s one of my favorite facets of the Game of Thrones books: no one is 100% right.

Eagle Eye is the titular grey hero of my latest 99-cent story. He’s a sniper, and therefore a killer, but there’s little doubt the people he kills deserve it. (At least, at the beginning.) He wrestles with a troubling question: can we kill our way to safety? And if we can, who should be in charge of determining which people have to die? Who do we trust with that kind of power? (Should we trust any person or group with that kind of power?)

Eagle Eye trusts the system in the beginning. After all, he and his partner J.J. personally collect the intelligence they need. As he says, they observe a target for weeks before a trigger gets pulled. Eagle Eye trusts what he sees in his binoculars and down his scope.

When he comes home, P.T.S.D. affects his judgment. The system he fought to defend refuses to treat him. A new question comes to him: Do domestic war profiteers deserve to die just as much as foreign terrorists?

As we ponder yet another war, I hope the story both entertains you and makes you think of these questions, and others. Is every bad guy in the world an American problem? Will this be yet another war that serves bomb and bullet makers and media moguls? Will this be yet another excuse to not pay working people and not fund public schools and other public institutions? Is it possible to build an economy on creation, rather than destruction?

There are no easy answers in a grey world.
 
Here's the link to purchase "Eagle Eye":