Character Spotlight ~ Camy Tang's Venus Chau

Today the spotlight shines on..............................................Venus Chau


Brief physical description

Taller than typical Asians, she uses her height to advantage over male coworkers and also utilizes stilettos to give her more inches. She used to be overweight, but dramatic weight loss in her twenties signaled a new era for her--whereas she used to slouch, now her back is ramrod straight, she exercises religiously, and eats very uninspiringly. However, when she's upset, she will resort to comfort food like greasy black bean sauce beef chow fun (beef and noodles pan fried--I mean, anything fried is good, right?) and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Rel here:~ you like your chocolate way too sweet for Aussie tastes! Check out Violet Crumble - yum!

She's not beautiful, but she carries herself confidently and most people sort of assume she's beautiful when she's actually a bit plain. She's always neat and professional in dress--never flamboyant. Or maybe I should say, rarely flamboyant.

I always pictured Venus to look a bit like Michelle Yeoh, but a few years younger. She has that ruthless competence that Michelle has when she's in a kung fu movie that makes you cringe a bit because you know she's going to kick somebody's butt in another second.

Rel:~Nice!



Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Aggressive personality, extreme organizational skills, professional, intelligent, successful in her chosen field.

Weaknesses: Anal retentive, a bit OCD about germs, anal retentive, competitive, and did I mention anal retentive?

Quirk (if any)

She has a few vices that usually surprise people--like her addiction to tabloids (she usually has Star and People magazines on her coffee table) and her secret stash of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Your inspiration for the character.

Venus's career was inspired by my friend Stephanie Quilao, who runs the popular Back in Skinny Jeans blog. Steph used to work in the video game industry and gave me some insight into the kind of competition there for women. While Steph is a very strong personality, I went a step further and created a woman who wouldn't just work in video game development, but who would be aggressive enough to rise to the top of the field. I also gave Venus an intense distrust of men because of her early experiences with them after her weight loss, the feelings of betrayal when they treated her differently, when she realized they'd never really respected her.

Thanks for having me here, Rel!

Camy

Rel:~ A pleasure as always, Camy

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now, giving away ten boxes of books and 30 copies of her latest release, SINGLE SASHIMI.

Stay tuned in the weeks to come for spotlights on Camy's other women in her Sushi series ~ Lex and Trish. Next Monday I'll be spotlighting the lovely Sharon Hinck's latest character, Penny Sullivan from her novel, Stepping Into Sunlight.

If you can, please take a moment to comment. Camy and I would love to hear from you :)

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Single Sashimi

Interview with Camy

Visit Camy's website and blog

Buy Single Sashimi at Amazon or Koorong