**** SPOILER ALERT ****

One of the characters in Astrid Maxxim is a robot.  She’s Robot Valerie, imprinted with the memories of Astrid’s friend Valerie Diaz.

Robot Valerie has two purposes.  The first is just that I wanted a robot character.  Orignially she was going to be a robot version of Astrid’s other friend Denise.  I had Denise and Robot Denise for a long time in the draft, but Denise already has a complicated family life, so it just seemed natural to change the robot to Robot Valerie.

The second reason for Robot Valerie was as a plot device.  The bad guys are after Robot Valerie, naturally, because she’s a cool robot.  It’s just one more thing for Astrid to worry about.

For some reason, people just like robot characters.  People generally love Patience in His Robot Wife, and of the comments I’ve gotten so far about Astrid Maxxim, probably 75% talk about Robot Valerie.