Written by Satima Flavell | 01 January 2009

Over the past year, The Specusphere has built up an exciting team of enthusiastic reviewers. Some have been with us longer than a year, of course, but the newcomers have taken up the slack and we are now able to review many more of the dozens of books publishers send us every month. For me, as Reviews Editor, this has been stimulating and rewarding, so I’d like to give some of the team members an opportunity to take a well-earned bow.

Strange — one or two of them are so shy they have chosen to submit avatars rather than photos of themselves! Wow, all this talent — and modesty too!

Maurie Breust lives in Adelaide, the capital of the driest state in the Antipodes, South Australia. His favourite authors in the speculative genres are Ray Bradbury, Lucius Shepard, Tony Ballantyne, Greg Egan, Elizabeth Moon and Kim Stanley Robinson. However, he reads widely, taking in everything from the classical philosophers to mystery and horror stories.

He modestly claims that his education as a speculative fiction reader and reviewer is far from complete, so for now, at least, he has no aspirations to write. He is content, he says, to work on becoming an interesting and competent reviewer. However, he is nonetheless consulted from time-to-time by friends who have published works of fiction.

In his day job, Maurie's consultations take a different tack: he is a mental health clinician. In these stressful times, he likes to work with people on improving their mental health and wellbeing.

Brendan Carson: Like Maurie Breust (above), Brendan Carson appears by day to be a mild-mannered doctor. He works in a small, regional clinic in South Australia with a special interest in addiction medicine. But by night (except when he's on call, bulding chook houses or looking after cats) Brendan writes. He's been known to write poetry, science fiction, fantasy, horror, mainstream – he's had a go at pretty much everything. He's had a few stories published (Years Best Australian SF and F, a few in Altair, one pending in Aurealis, a few others), and this January he hopes to go to Clarion South. When he's not otherwise engaged (HA!) he does martial arts and reads, mainly non-fiction.

Brendan currently writes two columns for The Specusphere. Each issue, he reviews something in the comic line, ranging from Superman and Green Lantern to the Moomintrolls. “I try to pick stuff that is entry-level friendly and interesting, and has some kind of intrinsic merit” he says. “Most of the comics I get to review I get from Adelaide Comics Centre, purveyors of fine literature for the discerning spandexophile, and all they ask in return is that I mention the fact.” (There's a clause in there about the soul of his firstborn child, too, but they told him not to worry about reading that bit…)

Also in each issue you’ll find an article from Brendan about something medicalish - they've usually got the words "Medical bag" in the title. This is medicine as it relates to spec fic - cyborgs, Neanderthal DNA, mediaeval diseases, genetic engineering for religiosity. “Anything that interests me and, with a bit of luck, you,” says Brendan. “Oh, and I have a blog that I post to sometimes - http://brendandcarson.blog.com”.

Felicity Dowker was born in Hobart, Tasmania, but she says to hold the Tassie jokes; she's pretty much heard them all. She lives in Melbourne now with her partner, their two young children, and, she says, a nagging sense of self doubt. Her oldest and deepest passion has always been reading, writing, watching and daydreaming about all things dark and fantastic, so at twenty-eight years of age, she pulled her finger out and started taking her writing seriously.

For writers, self-doubt goes with the territory, but when we look at Felicity's recent accomplishments it's hard to see why she has any doubts at all. In 2008, her first year of “real” writing, Felicity had twelve short stories accepted and two reviews published; received two Aurealis Award nominations; joined the Australian Horror Writers Association, The Specusphere and the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine publishing co-op; collaborated on three top secret but devastatingly exciting soon-to-be-revealed projects; started her first novel; and moved closer to what she says is her ultimate goal of complete world domination.

Felicity's website can be found at http://www.holeinthepage.blogspot.com and you can email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Her AHWA member page is updated regularly.

Sonia Helbig writes for adults and children. Her short fiction and articles have appeared in publications such as Writers of the Future XXIV, Island Magazine, The School Magazine and The West Australian newspaper. She is currently creating two children's novels as part of a Masters in Research scholarship through Edith Cowan University. One novel is a fantasy for children set in the Jarrah woodlands of Western Australia; the other is a cricket novel for boys. Sonia lives in Perth with her brilliant daughters, plus one mad golden retriever who's taken up midnight cat-hunting in his old age.

 Photo by Al Bogdan

Joan Malpass came to live in Western Australia in 1975 after fifteen years travelling the world following her husband's Army career. After University, she worked in the public service for 25 years. Since leaving the paid work force in 2004she has embarked on a new career as a writer, steadily building a published profile of short stories, articles and book reviews. She has also worked as a consultant/project manager on two West Australian anthologies: The Silver Collection (2007) the 25th Anniversary collection published by The Society of Women Writers and Lines in the Sand (2008) edited by Glen Phillips and Julienne van Loon and published by the FAWWA to commemorate their 70th Anniversary.

Joan's special interests are speculative fiction, particularly science fiction; stories with a twist - and weird stuff.

Ross Murray lives in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. He is very glad and relieved at having recently submitted his PhD in Creative Writing. His favourite authors and artists, a number of whom who seem to be dead or dying and which is a real bummer to him, include J.G Ballard, David Foster Wallace, Kathy Acker, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Frank Quitely, and James Gleeson.

He has had stories appear in Borderlands (Issue 11, forthcoming), Antipodean SF, Wyred, and contributed twenty-one stories to the web-based performance/art/writing project 1001 Nights Cast (www.1001.net.au ).

He is also a NSW Cricket Association accredited umpire but has yet to ruin anyone's career. His is alter ego, Otto von Stuttgart, is apparently mad, but that's not Ross's problem.

Katherine Petersen has turned to books for enjoyment for as long as she can remember. She developed eclectic tastes, from Nancy Drew mysteries through Judy Blume to the more adult books she reads now - although even today she throws in young adult novels from time to time.

Katherine lives about a half hour south of San Francisco in northern California with her two pooches. (They’re actually her retired and current guide dogs.) The black one, Midnight, is sixteen years old, and Oreo, (Katherine hastily adds “I didn't name her!”), is three. “I just think of her as the inside of the cookie,” says Katherine.

Originally, Katherine intended to study biology and attend veterinary school, but she had to resort to Plan B when she found the second year of vet school consisted of analyzing slides. “I can usually find a way to do almost anything even though I’m blind,” she says “but microscopes and cameras have me stymied. Plan B included a bachelors in French literature and a masters in journalism. Pardon the cynicism, but it hasn't helped much in finding employment in this dreadful U.S. economy. On the bright side, it gives me more time to read and hopefully I’ll find some gems to review in 2009.”

Simon Petrie is a New-Zealand-born, Canada-trained researcher at an Australian university, where he struggles with such fundamental questions as "just how do plants make oxygen from water?", "what really happens when a meteor hits the atmosphere?", and "why doesn't the printer print anything I send it?". He has a longstanding interest in SF, including what he hopes is not a misguided notion that he can perhaps write the stuff, and the not-so-misguided notion that he can review other peoples' SF offerings. In 2008 he acted as one of the Aurealis Award judges in the SF novel category, a process that saw him read far too many books in too short a time. He's a member of the Andromeda Spaceways publishing co-operative, will soon have edited his second issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM) and has contributed book reviews to ASIM and Australian Specfic in focus! (ASif!) as well as to The Specusphere. Now he's threatening to write a novel. In his spare time, he sometimes masquerades as a tuatara.

Bobbi Sinha-Morey lives in the peaceful city of Colusa, California in the U.S. She is married to Joe Morey, publisher of Dark Regions Press. She's a poet, her work having appeared in places such as Poetry Cemetery, Poet's Espresso, WestWard Quarterly, Smile, Autumn Leaves, Falling Star Magazine, and ken*again, among others. Her latest collections, The Quiet Scent of Jasmine and Stillness In the Garden of Light, are available at ebooksonthe.net .

Besides writing poetry and reviewing Paranormal Romance, Bobbi loves cooking, reading, knitting, aerobics, and challenging jigsaw puzzles. Several of her reviews can be found in this issue.

Helen Venn trained as a secondary school English teacher. She began writing literary short stories and an occasional poem before trying – and enjoying – a variety of other genres, and has now developed a particular interest in speculative fiction.

In 2007, Helen was selected to attend the Clarion South Writers Workshop in Queensland. This six-week workshop, with its focus on short story writing followed by rigorous critiquing, is often referred to as boot camp for speculative fiction writers.

Based in Perth, Western Australia, Helen will be Emerging Writer in Residence at Tom Collins House Writers’ Centre in May 2009. She is currently working on her second novel.