In some advice she gave to aspiring novel writers, McCaffrey offered the piece of advice she wished she had received when she wrote her first novel.

She said she had to: "Stop trying to make myself the heroine of a highly unrealistic and, I'm sure, ridiculous gothic fantasy."

However, often there is some aspect of a character in a novel, particularly when that novel is centered on one character, that is somewhat autobiographical—a name, a talent, an attitude. And, as Killashandra Ree is one of the earliest of McCaffrey's female characters, she has more than her share of these traces of McCaffrey's personal attitudes, tastes and contradictions. Consider, then, how Killashandra is created: how much of her is romantic heroine, space jock, feminist exemplar, prima donna? And, as McCaffrey notes, how much is "not that interesting anyway" and what makes her a unique character...