Undersea Spotlight: Leslie at Working for the Mandroid

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on February 12, 2013 | 0 Comments


USSpotlight
I started this feature here at ASR in order to know your fellow bloggers a little better! If you are interested in being featured please fill out the form
 
 
USSfeature

Meet Leslie! 

My name is Leslie and I’m in my late 20s, living in a suburb of Austin, TX. I am silly, a little too sarcastic and enjoy spending my time living in worlds significantly different than my own. I have an irrational obsession with robots, both cute and creepy. I spend my days doing marketing for the top real estate team in my area. This consists of spending a lot of time on social media pretending to be someone else or at least not being obviously me. It’s fun and I get to write a lot, which is what I’ve always enjoyed doing. I live with Fernando, my webmaster and occasional guest blogger, and we watch too much television and eat too many baked goods.
 

 

How long have you been blogging? What made you want to start a book blog?

I had a false start blogging for about three months in 2010, but really started up in June 2011 so that makes my blog a year and a half old. I started blogging because I was unhappy with my job and needed some sort of creative outlet. I already read a lot of books, so it seemed easy to channel my energies towards book reviewing and sharing interesting pop culture things I found online and off.
 

What do you do when you’re not blogging or reading?

I watch a lot of television and movies, see live music, hang out with my book club friends or do silly things with my nephew. I also bake a lot and enjoy testing out new restaurants. If I love anything as much as books, it would be food.
 

What is your favorite part about blogging? Least favorite?

I love the book blogging community. I wish I had more time to contribute to it even more and build relationships with other bloggers. Everyone is really friendly and it’s always nice to read others opinions about books I’ve also reviewed. My least favorite are those weeks when I’ve worked 50+ hours and haven’t had a chance to read much and I find myself panicking for something to post. Those are the moments when I forget that I don’t get paid for this and I shouldn’t take it quite so seriously.
 

How did you come up with the name for your blog?

Fernando and I went back and forth on a name for the blog for months before settling on Working for the Mandroid. We wanted something that wasn’t specifically about books because we figured I’d focus a bit on television, movies and geeky things, so the title should be geeky too. I’m a big fan of Supernatural and quote it fairly often. One time when I randomly said, “We’re not working for the mandroid!”, we both looked at each other and things clicked. About ten minutes later I had an entire story about who Mandroid was and how we ended up working for him. Thankfully nobody already had a blog with the same name.
 

Do you have any specific book bloggers that inspire you?

There are a lot of bloggers who astound me with how much content they put together, the contests and month long series. I wish I could have the time and/or organizational skills to pull together things like that. Kathy at I Am a Reader, Not a Writer was one of my first inspirations. What she puts together is insane.
 

What do you look for in a blog when following? What are your pet peeves?

I need more than just a few sentences as a review. I need more substance and more personality. I can’t really stick around when reviews are just raves about how hot a guy in the book is or just a random love letter without saying why the book is so awesome. My biggest pet peeve though are people who post spoilers without warning. I am a huge spoilerphobe. I try to avoid them as much as possible and when I can’t avoid it within a review, I make sure to give plenty of warning to readers. For those who don’t, I have to avoid their blogs completely.
 

What’s your favorite book(s)?

Depends on the day, the person asking and my current mood. My default answer is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card because those books single-handedly shaped my love of science fiction and fantasy as a young teenager. Lately – as long as the asker is someone who already is aware of my YA love – my answer would be Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel or Cinder by Marissa Meyer, both books that made me squeal like a silly 12-year-old when I read them.
 

Favorite author?

Neil Gaiman – he’s so versatile, somehow being awesome no matter what format he tries. I love his comics, his YA, his adult novels, his picture books, his movie scripts and his episode of Doctor Who.
 

What is the biggest turn off for you when you’re reading a book?

Insta-love. It just seems like a cheap way out of building characters and chemistry.
 

What first draws you to a book to make you want to read it?

I have “buttons” that immediately bump books into my TBR list, things like steampunk, robots, spaceships, zombies, alternate take on faerie tales or classic stories, superpowers, alternate worlds/timelines, things like that.
 

Describe yourself in 3 words.

Sarcastic, silly, introvert.
 

Name a random fact about yourself.

I own three different pairs of sneakers with superheroes on them and I fear my collection will continue to grow. It’s kind of a problem.
 

Do you have a job? If so, what do you do?

I’m the marketing manager for a real estate team. I create advertising campaigns, design ads, postcards and billboards, develop content for websites and blogs, run several social media pages and do market research for appointments. It’s fun if you like numbers, statistics and writing as much as I do.
 

What did you want to be when you were little? Has that changed?

My mom claims I wanted to be a dancing chef on roller skates. Somewhere along the lines that turned into a music journalist, but now I just want to work in publishing.
 

Randomness

Cats or dogs?

Dogs with floppy ears.
 
White, dark, or milk chocolate?
Dark and lots of it!

Coke or Pepsi?
Neither, I can’t have caffinated drinks, which makes life difficult on a near daily basis.

Favorite TV show?
Toss up between Supernatural and Doctor Who.

Favorite movie?
Shaun of the Dead, Moulin Rouge or The Avengers.

Color?
Red.
 

Thanks for being here today, Leslie! It was fantastic getting to know you!

Find Leslie:

 

 

Jessi (Geo)

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