Friday Factoid is a weekly blog feature where I’ll be sharing a little bit of background behind something from one of my books: ideas, characters, environments, pieces of research, you name it, it’s all fair game for the Friday Factoids! If you have a specific question, feel free to ask away in the comments! What will be featured this week? Read on to find out…
About the character Kitt Ten!
If you didn’t know already, for the last few months I’ve been co-writing a funny space opera series by the name of Starship Ass. It’s called Starship Ass for two reasons: 1) because images of the backend of a spaceship (aka starship “ass”) is apparently very appealing to scifi readers (especially military scifi readers) and we happen to have starship ass on our book covers… and 2) because the main character is an ass.
As in… a donkey. And he’s in space, on a starship. Thus, he becomes a starship ass. Haha. Get it?
Anyway, the series has been great fun to write, and the prequel to the series, Escape from Aresh Five, recently hit Amazon. Initial reader reactions have been very positive, which just thrills me to no end. It’s great to know other people are finding that zany cast of characters just as entertaining as Ethan (my co-writer) and I do!
And speaking of that zany cast, I wanted to spend today talking about the inspiration for one of the characters.
Today, we’re gonna talk about the character Kitt Ten. Why? Because she’s basically a walking, talking cat. And I love cats. So naturally, I love Kitt. Turns out there are a lot of other readers who love her, too. Yay!
But why a cat alien?
Well, aside from the aforementioned fact that I love cats, “cat aliens” in scifi are pretty frequent. They used to be very common back in the day (so I heard, though they never really featured in the older scifi I’ve read), and I think these days, with the rise of scifi romance, they have become very popular again. (Ever notice how so many of those alien space dudes kinda look like tigers? It’s true. Go look!) So the general advice was to NOT write cat aliens into your story, because they were overdone.
So for this funny space opera series, naturally, we wanted to do everything we were told NOT to do.
Thus, a cat alien.
What was Kitt’s inspiration?
Once upon a time, whilst Ethan and I were on a video call, brainstorming these characters and their backgrounds, we came to the cat alien character. And I glanced over at the actual cat who is ALWAYS beside me if I ever plant myself anywhere long enough for her to snuggle up next to me.
My fluffy white cat, Ping Pong.
Ping Pong has been with me for 13 years. I rescued her as a motherless kitten from under my father-in-law’s house when she about 8 weeks old. She was terrified of people at the time, but had warmed up to us within two weeks, and now she just can’t live without me.
She needs constant love. And if you aren’t giving her love, then she’s following you around the house meowing incessantly, demanding it in no uncertain terms.
And so… I showed Ping Pong to Ethan, and suggested the cat alien character be modeled after her. He agreed.
Long white fur. Golden eyes. Really sharp claws and long fangs.
… and that’s pretty much where the similarities end. Ping Pong is a scaredy-cat pretty much, but Kitt Ten is a fierce killing machine. Well, okay, Kitt Ten likes a good scratch behind the ears now and then from her favorite pirate, sure, but she’s not big on being petted in general.
So watch it! Or you might end up getting your throat ripped out…
And don’t call her Kitten!
Wait, isn’t that her name?
Technically, her name is actually Kitt Ten. So be sure to call her that. Not kitten. Or cat. Definitely do not accuse her of being a cat. That makes her very cranky.
Yes, she does bathe herself with her tongue.
And yes, she does like to chase little red glowing dots.
Also she has very particular taste in food.
And she sometimes has trouble deciding if she wants to go inside or outside…
But she is not a cat!!!! She is a homo lyncis sapius! So get it right!
She’s also a brilliant engineer.
What do readers say about Kitt Ten?
Luckily, it seems readers so far enjoy Kitt’s antics just as much as we enjoyed writing about them! A few snippets from some of the reviews for Escape from Aresh Five specifically mention the cat-like humanoid:
“…the double act of Redbeard and Kitt 10 is so… Well, you’ll find out for yourself.”
— Kay Smillie, 5 star Amazon review
“I especially liked the character Kitt with her catlike attributes.”
— Sandy K, 5 star Amazon review
“Bonus for cat lovers! Highly recommend!”
— Kindle Customer, 5 star Amazon review
Want to know more about Kitt?
Feel free to ask any other burning questions in the comments, or you can catch up on all her recent adventures in the prequel story Escape from Aresh Five or book 1 of the series, Of Donkeys, Gods and Space Pirates!
We hope you come to love her as much as we do!
Leave a Reply