Astrid Maxxim and her parents, Roger and Kate Maxxim, are characters in the book series Astrid Maxxim – Girl Inventor.  The series is written for adolescents, but I hope anyone can enjoy it.  Both Roger and Kate are named for good friends of mine– unrelated and unknown to each other, but whom both helped me with my writing.

Roger Maxxim is a brilliant scientist and inventor with a definite bit of the mad scientist in him.  Kate Maxxim is a hard-nosed CEO, who is nevertheless dedicated to running Maxxim Industries the way her father-in-law envisioned.

Astrid is the main character in the stories, and along with her friends, occupies most of the plot, but it was important for me that she have a loving family (as do all the kids in the story).  On the other hand, Astrid’s parents are a bit of a role reversal, as her father is the more nurturing of the two and her mother is more of the disciplinarian.

When I was planning out the Astrid Maxxim series, I knew I was going to set it in the American southwest.  I therefore needed and wanted one of the main characters to be hispanic.  Valerie Diaz therefore became one of Astrid’s two good friends.  Valerie is one of the two Valeries in the series, and therefore supplies one of the running gags– that everybody has to differentiate which Valerie they are talking to. Valerie is a shy, pretty girl who has strict parents. Her father Sergio is head of Maxxim Industries Security and her mother is one of the few women in the story who are housewives.  Valerie’s mother is one of the few people in the series who doesn’t think that Astrid is perfect.  I think a lot of young readers will identify with Valerie.  She’s the kid that doesn’t always get noticed.

Astrid is the big star of the series.  If the fact that she is the title character wasn’t enough to tell you that, there is the fact that her name literally means “big star”.  Astrid is a 14 year-old girl inventor, from a long line of inventors.  She is extremely intelligent, but she is also intuitive and empathetic. She is kind and friendly, but shy and unassuming. She loves science and technology and is easily frustrated by superstition and silliness. She is supremely confident about herself, but not so confident in her interactions with others. This along with a certain rigidness regarding change, I associate with her being an only child.

Astrid attends Rachel Carson High School, where she is a freshman (the school year ends at the end of book 2).  Astrid’s two great inventions are: Astricite, a superconductive material, and Astridium, a lightweight but extremely strong material.  They let her create all of her other inventions, like the hoverbike and her undersea dome.  That brings us to the hardest part of writing a book like this– imagining what inventions Astrid could create.  It’s a lot harder than I really imagined at first.  But Astrid is a fun character to write and hopefully I can think up enough for her to do for a few more books at least.