Kelley asked Clare O'Beara:

I enjoy reading sci-fi and fantasy books that feature female Other characters (aliens, etc.) depicted sympathetically. Could you tell me a little bit about the nonhuman heroine of "Dining Out Around the Solar System" and "Dining Out With the Ice Giants"?

Clare O'Beara Hi Kelley,
Thanks for a great question and for your interest in my work.
Each of my SF books has featured a variety of women and men. The two main characters are male journalists, and one, Donal, falls in love with a young woman from Mercury while they are both students at Cambridge University. Mrrpt is a daughter of an Ambassador and in her turn she becomes an Ambassador and a parliamentarian. This occurs in Dining Out Around The Solar System.
I don't wish to spoil the story, but this is a star-crossed love affair. However Donal's continued love for Mrrpt resonates through his life.

This first book also contains the first marriage between an Earth human and an off-worlder, and the off-worlder is a young woman from Venus who has come to London to work and study.

In Dining Out With The Ice Giants, Donal is trying a dating service for redheads, which links him with an unusual tall red-haired woman, Tania. She has come to London from Uranus and is an entrepreneur. Donal realises that there is not going to be a romance, but another friend of his is interested in seeing Tania and a relationship develops.

I hope this has whetted your interest and I can recommend also the character Cytolene in Eileen Gormley's book Don't Feed The Fairies.

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