An Interview with Veronica Scott about Star Cruise Songbird
The Adventures of The Everyday Fangirl welcomes back author Veronica Scott to talk about one of her older sci-fi romances, Star Cruise Songbird.
Welcome again Veronica to The Adventures of the Everyday Fangirl and thanks so much for taking the time out your busy schedule to help us get to know about Star Cruise Songbird.
What does the title of this novel, series or set of stories signify?
So far I’ve written seven stories in the STAR CRUISE series, most of which occur on the interstellar luxury liner Nebula Zephyr. (One is a prequel before the characters go to work on the ship.) It’s along the lines of the love boat of the stars as a new couple takes front and center each time but the crew is always there. STAR CRUISE SONGBIRD, which is a novella, was the fourth book in the series and was originally written for the second Pets in Space® anthology.
Grant Barton, the hero of this book is a former Special Forces soldier and has an alien warbird from his home planet, which also served with him in the military. This character combination represented a nod from me to Andre Norton’s famous Beastmaster (the novel not the movie), who was always one of my favorites among her heroes, and his eagle.
Karissa Dawnstar, the heroine, is an interstellar rock star, worn out with touring and being compelled by her manager and an airtight contract to perform other promo activities. The manager controls every aspect of her life. She’s fed up and wants to walk away from it all. She’s traveling aboard the Nebula Zephyr to return to her home planet and perform at a huge concert but along the way she has to do a performance on the ship and film a music ‘trideo’. Grant is assigned as her bodyguard and of course…the inevitable happens and they fall in love but there are many obstacles to the Happy Ever After.
What prompted you to write in this genre and who or what inspired you to?
Speaking to the rockstar romance element of this story, I love the genre with a wild passion, in books and in movies and I always thought I’d like to write one, but I primarily write scifi romance. So I decided to write my rockstarstory and place it into my own futuristic world. I had so much fun doing the research, watching a number of documentaries and concert films, and reading accounts of life on the road. Karissa has her own story of course but she’s going through many of the classic rockstar tropes. Success isn’t always what a person expects it to be. And it’s very challenging for Grant to step out of his world into hers.
As far as scifi romance itself, I grew up devouring science fiction of all types and wanting to tell my own stories with a lot more romance involved. Andre Norton was a particular favorite of mine as a Young Adult reader (but of course there was no romance in her books). I’m drawn to the infinite possibilities inherent in scifi and the fact that as an author I’m not at all constrained by the realities of life on Earth. But there must be romance or I’m not interested in writing it.
A recent fun development is that I’ve joined the social media platform Tiktok and I’ve been making video book trailers to showcase my backlist (fifty books and counting!) to a new world of avid readers. The trailer I did for STAR CRUISE SONGBIRD really garnered a lot of attention, lucky for me. Here’s the link if your readers would like to view it for themselves (you don’t have to be a member of Tiktok to watch it): https://www.tiktok.com/@veronicascottauthor/video/6990679582340861190
Of course recently scifi romance has received a great deal of public attention as a result of readers on Tiktok discovering and championing Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarian series, which has been amazing fun to watch. The whole phenomenon certainly encouraged me to give Tiktok a try and I’m enjoying it immensely.
What is the best way for readers to interact with you? I’m pretty active on social media, especially twitter and Tiktok, but also Facebook. I also maintain a blog and there is a ‘contact me’ e mail there. Thanks for having me as your guest and giving me the chance to talk about one of my favorite books!
Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
Seven time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job, not her romances!
She read the part of Star Trek Crew Member in the official audiobook production of Harlan Ellison’s “The City On the Edge of Forever.”
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Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/Veronica-Scott/e/B006CUCJ92
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/veronica-scott
EverydayFangirl.com 
Thank you very much for having me as a guest today! It was fun to talk about one of my favorite backlist books and share Tiktok news and etc.