As a kid being moved around australia following dad’s career in commercial helicopters, I found that books were the only friends that moved with me. And we moved a lot. This started my book hoarding problem ( currently approx 2000 items). After a major car crash at 13 my tastes changed to avoid anything that even remotely resembled modern life.Ii didn’t want to read about kids with medical issues or family issues or drug and alcohol problems or any of that; I wanted to escape my life. I found the best escape in fantasy. Give me a man on a horse with a sword and maybe some magic and I’m a happy girl.

When I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up the only thing I had a passion big enough to commit the rest of my life to was books. I trained to be a library technician. Because your local library is always 5 times cooler than you think. Library techs are different to librarians in that we specialise more in the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff known in the biz as end processing. In less glamorous terms it means we specialise in the record management surrounding the items in the library. But I’ve had a lot of trouble finding work. Not because its not there, but because I don’t live in a library centric area and non library businesses take one look at ‘Library and Information Management’ in my education and see someone who’ll leave when a role in my field comes up; not the best filer, organiser and efficiency expert they could possibly employ.

As I’ve gotten older and technology has gotten smarter my tastes have continued evolve. Sci fi is a different form of escaping modern life, in a way that asks relevant ethical questions. Artificial intelligence, cybernetic bodies, galactic conquest, artificial reality, nanotech, etc. I love to read about characters saving the world rather than themselves, preferably in a way where I have to have a suspension of disbelief. I still love to escape the present but I now like to do it with paranormal, adventure and, of course, romance. But I like anything with strong heroines and well resolved stories. Take a look at the genre authority list to see the full list of stuff I like.