Tuesday 2 November 2010

Author Spotlight Week -Vijaya Schartz shares her passion for Science Fiction


I've been a sci-fi fan since childhood. I was reading it from the school library, hiding behind my bed, driving my mother crazy. Of course, I was also reading detective stories, and adventure stories. But I watched all the sci-fi movies and TV shows. It was like a drug. I couldn't wait until I could go on a spaceship myself and explore the universe. Turns out I was born a little too early for that. Do you know that if you fly high enough in a plane, you can see the curvature of the Earth? Well, I’ve seen it. But I’m also watching the progress of Virgin Space Flights (they have regular update documentaries on the Science Channel) and I hope it will be possible for anyone to travel in space in the next few decades. It’s definitely on my bucket list.

So, naturally, when it came to my own writing, it made sense that I would write sci-fi. At first, it was straight sci-fi and weird fantasy, then my stories took a more romantic turn. Why not have the best of both worlds. All women like romance (whether they admit it or not). So now I write sci-fi romance. it's still a fully developed science-fiction plot, with a love story throughout. But even without the romance element, the story would stand on its own. That's what makes what I write sci-fi romance, and not futuristic romance, where the future is only a backdrop for a sizzling love story, with not much of a realistic plot.

I like to sprinkle a lot of action and adventures in my books, and dangers, and difficult situations. I love to get my characters in jeopardy, then figure out a way of getting them out of there (or leaving them stuck together long enough, so they can learn to appreciate each other). And what better place for that than being prisoner on a spaceship? Of course, that’s what happens in Black Jaguar.

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