Thursday, April 1, 2010

[Cardinal Changes] Contributors Announced

I think I have been talking about some changes here and there on Temple Library Reviews and I am starting announcements with the biggest and most obvious. Temple Library Review has run its course as a solo blog. I have called upon the Universe for contributors and it has answered. In a dazzling flash of light, these three stepped out from the shadows.

Megan O'Sullivan [resident YA, Distopian & Sci-Fi reader] from Po(sey) Sessions & The Last Blog In The Universe.

"I am a part time single mom to two beautiful girls. When they are with their dad I happily read my weekends away. The past few years I have been focusing on young adult and juvenile books, partly because I love them and partly to prepare for reading in the future with my kids. Over the past year I have been drawn more and more to science fiction and tend to be reading at least one science fiction book at all times."

Ove Jansson [resident hardcore Sci-Fi expert] from Cynermage.se

Hello everyone, My name is Ove Jansson and I will be guest blogging here during April. I have been a vivid reader of Science Fiction since I first picked up Have Space Suit Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein at the school library back in 1973. I was amazed and started to read everything SF and Fantasy I could lay my hands on, and I soon switched to English for new books. I am not sure I have refined my appetite much since then, I still like coming of age stories, any story where the characters grow and learn really. Being amazed or hitting that wow moment is important in my reading and that’s why I love science fiction. It provides wow moments with regularity. What’s not to love with a genre that provides clever ideas, space travel, intriguing aliens and fantastic gizmos? I like strong female protagonists like Ofelia in Remnant Population(Elizabeth Moon), who faces first contact all alone on an abandoned colony. I also like Space Opera and Military science fiction maybe because I used to be an officer and hopefully gentleman in the Swedish Army before switching to a career in IT. Since a little more than a year now I also run my own blog cybermage.se where I write about anything SF, please visit me there if you want to know more. It’s an honor to be here and I hope I can live up to your expectations. Thank you Harry for the opportunity to write here.

Cara Murphy [@murf61] from Murf - more than meets the Eye! & Speculative Book Reviews [basically a cuter version of me (possibly Scooby Doo's Velma) with lost of stats she is willing to share, enjoy]

Wishlist: Amazon UK

Age: Difficult to determine…

Birthplace: Newry, Northern Ireland

Current location: London, UK

Occupation: Web Developer

Interests:

~ Travelling - outside of Europe I have been to New Zealand, Australia, India, Thailand, Singapore, New York so far. Wishlist includes Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Borneo and the Himalayas
~ Activities - walking/hiking, swimming, snorkelling, nature photography, yoga, meditation
~ Music - rock, grunge, punk, indie, from 60’s to now
~ Films - sci-fi, thrillers, action, US blockbusters
~ Pets - I have 2: Scarlett, a Mexican Red-Knee tarantula and Feisty, a Chilean Rose tarantula

Weaknesses: Shoes/boots, chocolate, silver jewellery – can’t resist them!

Obsession: BOOKS!

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love books and had a reading age of 15 at age 7. My tendency to lose myself in a good story started young and has never left me.

My default setting is Speculative Fiction; C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles started me on a path that never fails to disappoint and inspire. Read my post Books and Me! for more detail.

Sub-genres: Celtic mythology, magic, post-apocalyptic, some urban fantasy, alternate history, classic fantasy (Tolkienesque), space travel/colonisation, anything that sparks my imagination

Favourite authors: Kim Stanley Robinson, Jacqueline Carey, Anne Bishop, Stephen Baxter, Mark Chadbourn, Jean M. Auel, Mark Charan Newton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King (early days), Anne Rice, Jaine Fenn, Chris Wooding

Other fiction: some crime, thrillers (especially those with myth/religious/atlantis themes), historical, some horror

Non-fiction: popular science, ecopolitics, history, natural history, Buddhism, rock biographies

---

I am me [most of the time]. I know myself and my interests and my reading capabilities as well as the time deficiency, which is growing by the minute. This is why all these guys will contribute two reviews each month to keep you guys occupied, while I snap my fingers and save the world with a magic umbrella.

Truth, apart from the magic umbrella, is that I am soon starting a job, alongside my studies at the University. Not yet, but soon enough for me to find me some contributors and learn to work with them and they with me. If you remember, lat year I had a a few twenty or so posts scattered over the course of five months, while I worked and studied, so not an ideal solution this time. Combine with that the ambition to complete that novel by the end of may and I have a bit of a juggling act.

I will be around. Delivering news, interviews and the likes, but the reviews will trickle down a lot. So enjoy my awesome contributors. Cara has already posted her review and as you can see I did a fine job picking these people.

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