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 for a while. After some years at the University of Gothenburg I have a 1-year Master in English and a Bachelor in Classical History, but since the Swedish degree system was overhauled recently, I am now working on a 2-year Master. I am also planning to apply to the post-graduate doctoral program when openings are next announced.

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.