This week I feature science fiction author, Greta van der Rol, for the kick ass heroine post. Her lastest novel is Starheart.
“From the author of the popular Iron Admiral series and Morgan’s Choice comes another rousing SciFi adventure to get your pulse pounding and your blood boiling (with that little dollop of romance)”
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My books always feature kick-ass ladies. Not for me the swooning beauties waiting for the hero to come to the rescue. Women are quite capable of being smart, resourceful leaders. Just look at Elizabeth Moon’s books, or consider Lessa, pint-sized heroine of Anne McCaffrey’s dragon books.
But then again, I didn’t want a comic book stereotype, either. When I started writing my latest book, Starheart, I wanted to create a heroine, Jess Sondijk, who is flexible, tough, independent, but very much a woman other women could relate to.
Jess is no special soldier, no super heroine, and has no special traits. She’s a widow with a fourteen-year-old daughter. She and her husband Troy operated a freighter smuggling goods from one planet to another and getting away with it — until Troy was killed in a botched boarding. Since then, Jess bought her own ship (the Saintly Maid, pun intended) and carried on her covert operation, supporting herself and her daughter, who attends a posh boarding school.
Blondes are always seen as the classic stereotype, aren’t they? The dizzy blonde who, when asked, “Did you see the dead bird?” looks up and asks, “Where?”
For that very reason Jess is a beautiful blonde, quite capable of using her wiles to get one up on males trying to make her life difficult. And by the way, she also knows how to handle weapons and where to get snooping and anti-snooping tech.
I had a lot of fun writing Jess. She locks horns with the smart, handsome and rather full-of-himself Admiral Hudson, who finds he’s bitten off a little more than even he can chew.
Hudson asks questions about Troy’s death that Jess can’t answer so she decides to investigate, with the help of her best friend Santh Dekstra. That involves Jess in break-and-entering activities and eventually sends Santh into unimagined danger.
Through it all, Jess is a mother, with a mother’s devotion to her only daughter. And that characteristic lands Jess into a whole load of trouble.
Starheart is a murder mystery, an action adventure and a romance all bundled up into a space opera. The illustration by the talented Kevin Radthorne (http://radthorne.deviantart.com/gallery/) epitomizes what Jess is about – sexy, resourceful, and very smart.
You’ll find Starheart at Amazon US and Amazon UK.
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Greta van der Rol loves writing science fiction with a large dollop of good old, healthy romance. She lives not far from the coast in Queensland, Australia and enjoys photography and cooking when she isn’t bent over the computer. She has a degree in history and a background in building information systems, both of which go a long way toward helping her in her writing endeavours. More at:
Check out her site: http://gretavanderrol.net/
Connect with her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GretavdR
Connect with her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
