On the off-chance that someone is curious about who the people behind this site are, here are a pair of short and probably not-too-interesting bios.
I suspect I am unique in being a resident of Sweden who was an Army brat (even born on a military base, Ft. Benning in Georgia) and the child of Cuban immigrants -- how many more of those can you have out here? Born in 1978, I travelled a fair bit up through early high school, living in four different states (the longest stints being in California, Florida, and Georgia respectively) and one other country (Italy, where I went to a Catholic school). Graduating from Palm Bay High School in 1996, I went to the University of Miami, where I double-majored in English and History ... until I met Linda, and decided to take off for Sweden, putting my education at a hiatus. As of Fall 2005, I'm set to do my Master's thesis in English (I may well start blogging about that). Goals after the Master is done? Seriously considering applying to the post-graduate doctoral program.
Linda's list of favorite authors closely matches my own, although I read more science fiction than she does, and would add luminaries such as Jack Vance, Robert Silverberg, Arthur C. Clarke, and a number of others to my list. Beyond that, I enjoy historical fiction, particularly the works of Patrick O'Brien and George Macdonald Fraser. I still retain a strong interest in history, pre-modern primarily, and have been known to read Froissart and 13th century horse inventories for pleasure. Finally, I'm a fan of comic books/graphic novels/sequential art/what-have-you, prefering the more serious takes on the superhero to genre to most other things. Hopefully I'll start putting up reviews of some of my favorite works soon enough.
I'm a seemingly-perpetual student (as long as there remains interesting classes at Göteborgs universitet that I haven't taken, I'm in, at least part-time) who lives about 20 minutes north of Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden, together with my imported fiance, Elio. Although my 3 years of gymnasiet (High School, more or less) were spent studying a math-, science- and biology-focused program, my primary area of study at university has been Classical History. I have also studied Latin, Greek, Archaeology, Rhetorics, Translation, Literature and English. I am still hoping to get into the post-graduate program for Classical History at some point, ideally to continue researching horse-related matters, but with fewer than one student a year accepted, I think it might take a while. So, at the moment I am focusing on starting up a business, focused on translating and a couple of other things. With a bit of luck (a bit the size of a small mountain, granted, but still ...) I am hoping this will eventually lead to some work as a book translator.
When I am not spending too much time on-line -- which often includes working on various websites (this one, of course, and Westeros) and MU*ing -- I love to read (mainly fantasy, with my favourites including George R.R. Martin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Judith Tarr, Stephen R. Donaldson, Jacqueline Carey, Anne Bishop and Robin Hobb, among others) or, but I don't get to do this nearly often enough, go riding. Horses are, without a doubt, my main passion in life, and when I'm in a stable I am still essentially a horse-crazy girl of about 8 or 9. Apart from that, personality-wise I am such a perfect match for a Scorpio that I just have to believe in Astrology at least a little bit. In particular, I am temperamental and strong-willed (sounds better than stubborn, right?). I am also prone to more than a bit of "doom and gloom" at times, not to mention a habit of placing very high demands on myself. Stress and I are close friends. Very close. Still, I do like to think that I have some positive sides too, such as a wicked sense of humour and ... well, some more things, I am sure. Just give me some time to think about it.
