Back Off, Man – I’m a Scientist!

By Jeffe Kennedy

This is release week for Rogue’s Paradise, the third book in my Covenant of Thorns trilogy. The first book, Rogue’s Pawn, came out just over two years ago, in July of 2012. It was the first novel I wrote and first published – which took a long time, as the genre of Fantasy Romance wasn’t as well known when I first started shopping it. So, this feels like the end of a long adventure for me.

Or, maybe more accurate, a lovely stopping-off point to catch my breath and enjoy the view.

As the last two years have passed, the series has slowly gained readers, largely by word of mouth, which has been interesting to observe. One thing that struck me over time was the consistent misinterpretation people made.

I’d describe the book – or series – as being about “a scientist is trapped in Faerie.” If their eyes didn’t glaze over or roll, I’d go on to explain about the magic, the struggle to gain power and control, the bargain to bear a firstborn child for Rogue, a fae lord. At this point, far more people than I imagined would furrow their brows and say “firstborn child? How can he have a baby?”

See, they heard “scientist” and thought “male.”

It was funny to me, because it had never once occurred to me that people would have that problem. To me, the books were obviously heroine-centric – written in 1st person POV – so when I described the plot in terms of what happened to my scientist, I figured people would know that was my heroine. I might have made the implicit assumption, too, that of course people would recognize that my scientist was a woman because I, myself, am a female scientist.

Alas, no.

Still, it’s been instructive. And a great adventure.

If you’re interested in checking out the trilogy, you can enter to win any of the books over at one of my other group blogs, Here Be Magic.