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Senior Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviewer |
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MEET THE RT BOOKREVIEWS REVIEWER NATALIE A. LUHRS
(Article published in Romantic Times BOOKreviews Issue #294, August 2008)
Head science fiction/fantasy reviewer Natalie A. Luhrs was a virgin when
the RT staff met her in person this year -- an RT Convention virgin, that
is.
"I honestly didn't know what I expected," Luhrs says. "My only frame of
reference was Elizabeth Peters' DIE FOR LOVE , which I figured wasn't
exactly going to be accurate."
Luhrs was impressed by the time and effort conventioneers put into their
costumes, she says. "I love watching people who totally get into costumes,
even though I am not a costume-wearing person myself."
She also enjoyed meeting authors Kim Harrison ("she's doing really
interesting things with her Hollows series") and Jeri Smith-Ready, but "of
all the things I went to, the Mr. Romance pageant was probably the one I
found most entertaining." Her only regret was not getting a chance to meet
Fabio. "My life is the poorer for it," she laments.
Shy as a child, the longtime Michigan resident turned to reading. "Books are much
easier to deal with than people!" she notes.
"We went to the library weekly and I always got out the maximum number of
books allowed," Luhrs says, adding that she favored girl genre fiction as a
youngster ("I own an almost complete set of Cherry Ames") and nonfiction
and science fiction in high school.
Luhrs got her B.A. in English with a creative writing emphasis, so her
college years were filled with literature classes and writing workshops.
Though she admits to a talent for poetry and writes a helluva good review,
Luhrs has "absolutely no interest in writing fiction" at this point in her
life.
She does, however, love to read it. When she's not delving into her
favorite genre, she dips into Regency-set romances, particularly those by
Stephanie Laurens and Julia Quinn. "I also enjoy Jennifer Crusie and J.D.
Robb."
But Luhrs is most in love with the genre she reviews for RT BOOKreviews.
"In a lot of ways, science fiction and fantasy are the most fluid of the
genres," she says. "It's not all spaceships and elves -- although sometimes
it is. Sometimes it's a comedy of manners that happens to be set on another
planet -- Lois McMaster Bujold's A CIVIL CAMPAIGN -- or it's a country
house mystery with an alternate timeline like Jo Walton's FARTHING.
"I think it's wonderful that I can read a space opera about an obsolete
generation ship one day and the next, read a secret history of Elizabethan
England, and they're both by the same author," she continues, referring to
Elizabeth Bear's DUST and the Stratford Man duology. "There's so much
happening within science fiction and fantasy that I really believe that
everyone can find something that they like."
We asked Natalie a few questions:
Where do you live? New Castle, Del.
Married/single/kids? I'm married. My husband's name is Paul. No kids. No
plans for kids.
Pets: Two cats, Peaby and Pixel
Age: 33
Astrological sign: Scorpio
Day job: Data analyst at a Fortune 500 company
Dream job: Something to do with writing and fiber/textile arts. Possibly
combined with a degree in information science.
How did you come to RT BOOKreviews? My friend, Jen Talley Exum, recruited
me back in the summer of 2004. I started doing small press and e-books,
then helped Jen out with the Science Fiction/Fantasy section when she took
time off to adopt her oldest daughter. When she decided to stop reviewing,
I inherited the SF/F section from her.
Four or five all-time favorite authors: Lois McMaster Bujold, Dorothy L.
Sayers, Charles de Lint, Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, Madeleine
L'Engle
Favorite fictional hero: Lord Peter Wimsey from Dorothy L. Sayers' mystery
novels
Favorite real-life hero: Thomas Jefferson, because he was able to
articulate the idea that all human beings have an inalienable right to
freedom -- even though he was unable to live up to those ideals himself.
Favorite fictional heroine: Dowager Royina Ista from Bujold's PALADIN OF SOULS.
Favorite real-life heroine: Vera Brittain. She was one of the first women
admitted to Oxford and was a nurse during World War I. Every young man that
she grew up with was killed, including her fiancé, poet Roland Leighton (we
lost so many talented poets in WWI). She wrote a number of books after the
war, most notably TESTAMENT OF YOUTH , which is her account of her life just
before, during and after the war. The portrait she paints of the terrible
cost of war is vivid -- Brittain was a pacifist and anti-war activist for
the rest of her life as a result of her experiences between 1914 and 1918.
Favorite TV shows: Doctor Who, Torchwood, House, Babylon 5, Star Trek: The
Next Generation
Hobbies: Fiber and textile arts -- knitting and spinning primarily. I'm
interested in learning to weave as well, but don't currently have room for
a loom.
Lifelong ambition: To have a happy and fulfilled life.
Where's the farthest you've traveled? Excluding travels made as an infant
and toddler (I was born in Hawaii but was living on the East Coast by my
third birthday), I haven't really traveled that far. When I was in college,
I took a Greyhound bus from Michigan to Wyoming to visit friends, and then
five years ago I relocated from Nebraska to Delaware.
Your best feature or talent: My brain is the best thing about me.
Catchphrase or motto? "The worst sin -- perhaps the only sin -- passion can
commit, is to be joyless." -- Dorothy L. Sayers, GAUDY NIGHT
Webspace: http://bellwether.eilatan.net
-- Compiled by Liz French |
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