Ten things you ought to know.: seanan

Ten things you ought to know.

Since there's been a massive influx of people over the past two days, due to the fact that Alice is adorable—welcome, massive influx of people; it's nice to meet you, although I realize half of you will leave again as you realize that this isn't the all-kitten-doing-weird-stuff, all-the-time channel, and that's fine—I thought it would be a good idea to do the abbreviated "here are ten things" version of the periodic welcome post. So here it is. Ta-da!

***

1. My name is Seanan McGuire; I'm an author, musician, poet and amiable nutcase, presently living in Northern California, planning to relocate to Washington at some point in the next few years. I am a very chatty person, whether you're talking literally "we're in the same place" chattiness, or more abstract "someone has left Seanan alone with a keyboard, run for the hills" chattiness. This does not, paradoxically, make me terribly good about keeping up with email or answering comments in anything that resembles a reasonable fashion. We all have our flaws.

2. My name is pronounced "SHAWN-in", although a great many people elect to pronounce it "SHAWN-anne" instead. Either is fine with me. I went to an event where we all got name tags once, and the person making the name tags was a "SHAWN-anne" person, who proceeded to label me as "Shawn Anne McGuire". I choose to believe that Shawn Anne is my alter-ego from a universe where, instead of becoming an author, I chose to become a country superstar. She wears a great many rhinestones, because they're sparkly, and she can get away with it. Just don't call me "See-an-an" and we'll be fine.

3. I believe that editing is a full-contact sport, complete with penalty boxes, illegal checking, and team pennants. My editing team is the Fighting Pumpkins. We're going all the way to the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS this year, bay-bee!

4. I find it useful to keep a record of the status of my various projects, both because it warms the little Type-A cockles of my heart, and because it helps people who need to know what's going on know, well, what's going on. So you'll see word counts and editing updates go rolling by if you stick around, as well as more generalized complaining about the behavior of fictional people. I am told this is entertaining. I am also told that this is possibly a sign of madness. I don't know.

5. I am a musician! More specifically, I'm a filk musician. If you know filk, this statement makes total sense. If you don't know filk, think "the folk music of the science fiction and fantasy community"—or you can check out the music FAQ on my website. I have three CDs available: Pretty Little Dead Girl, Stars Fall Home, and Red Roses and Dead Things. I write mostly original material, and don't spend much time in ParodyLand. It just doesn't work out for me.

6. Things I find absolutely enthralling: giant squid. Plush dinosaurs. Siamese and Maine Coon cats. Zombies. The plague. Pandemic flu. Horror movies of all quality levels. Horror television. Science Fictional Channel Original Movies. My window garden of carnivorous plants, and the spiders that have colonized them. Shopping for used books. Halloween. Marvel comics. Candy corn. Pumpkin cake. The Black Death.

7. Things I find absolutely horrifying: slugs. Big spiders dropping down from the ceiling and landing on me because ew. Bell peppers. Rice. Movies that consist largely of car chases and do not contain a satisfying amount of carnage. Animal cruelty. People who go hiking on mountain trails in Northern California and freak out over a little rattlesnake. Most sitcoms. A large percentage of modern advertising. Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr Pepper.

8. I am owned by two cats: a classic bluepoint Siamese named Lillian Kane Moskowitz Munster McGuire, and a blue classic tabby and white Maine Coon named Alice Price-Healy Little Liddel Abernathy McGuire. Yes, I call them that, usually when they've been naughty. The rest of the time, they're respectively "Lilly" or "Lil," and either "Alice" or "Ally."

9. I frequently claim to be either a Disney Halloweentown princess or Marilyn Munster. These claims are more accurate than most people realize. Although I wasn't animated in Pasadena.

10. I write: urban fantasy, horror, young adult, supernatural romance, and straight chick-lit romance. I occasionally threaten to write medical thrillers, but everyone knows that's just so I'd have an excuse to take more epidemiology courses. I love me a good plague.

***

Welcome!

vulpine137

April 15 2009, 17:06:18 UTC 8 years ago

New comment

You have a life outside of kittens ? Do the kittens know ? ;)

seanan_mcguire

April 15 2009, 17:23:56 UTC 8 years ago

They do, because I'm gone all day. It's a crime and a sin.

8 years ago

Deleted comment

April 15 2009, 17:24:20 UTC 8 years ago

They called me that in high school; hence my going by "Shannon" for several years, to avoid the teasing.

kyburg

April 15 2009, 17:20:27 UTC 8 years ago

*high fives you on the bell peppers* VILE. But I will save you from the slugs, spiders and rice of this world, no worries.

Shake and Bake Rattlesnake. Watch out for the bones. *burp*

April 15 2009, 17:24:37 UTC 8 years ago

Mmmmmmm, snakey.

ladyqkat

April 15 2009, 17:22:37 UTC 8 years ago

Note to new people on Point #5 - She has a really, really, really wonderful voice so do yourself a favor and try to find some of her music!

And, just for Seanan for being such a swell perosn:

April 15 2009, 17:25:06 UTC 8 years ago

CTHULHU AYA!

*glee*

Cthulhu papoose

Re: Cthulhu papoose

April 16 2009, 01:01:29 UTC 8 years ago

It's okay. :) And aww, sheep!

herefox

April 15 2009, 17:35:24 UTC 8 years ago

I suffered during elementary school with the mispronunciation Seen. Thankfully Sean Connery came onto the scene a bit after that and I got it far less often after that. One of my teachers used to call me 007 so she could remember my name.

all_ephemera

April 15 2009, 17:40:51 UTC 8 years ago

Really? They couldn't pronounce "Sean"?? Maybe I just grew up in a more Irish-named community.

Of course, I had the opposite problem where my full name is "Kate" and I didn't get a single teacher who believed me, and I was called Katharine, Katelyn, Cathleen, etc. all through school. THANKS MOM.

dormouse_in_tea

the_s_guy

nicachick007

April 15 2009, 17:43:58 UTC 8 years ago

I love these posts, because even though I know you, I now know more about you! Like...

1. ... how do you not like rice? Maybe it's because I'm Latina and consider rice a freaking staple for my diet, but seriously. How can you hate rice?!

2. I'm one of the few peoples who pronounces your name right! And Magpie too! *applauds self and the other Time Twin*

3. Candy corn = blech. >P

4 *wants your kittehs*

5. You = Disney Halloweentown Princess. Me = Disney Everything Queen

ALSO YOU WILL BE JUST AS STRUCK BY THE IRONY OF THIS AS I AM!

I'm sitting in my lecture hall waiting for my Film class to start and something on the teacher's desk catches my eye. Guess what it is. Just GUESS.

Okay, I was never very good at this game. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. I shit thee not. How TOTALLY appropriate and yes, ironic. 8D

dornbeast

April 15 2009, 19:00:08 UTC 8 years ago

how do you not like rice?

I don't know how Seanan does it, but one person I know doesn't like it because it wasn't just a staple, it was the only thing for months on end, more months sideways, and a few months upside-down.

No seasoning. No butter. No meat or vegetables. Just rice.

She survived, but she hates rice to this day.

linenoise

madfilkentist

April 15 2009, 18:04:48 UTC 8 years ago

Your cats are the only ones I know who have my Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach beaten for middle names.

April 16 2009, 01:04:54 UTC 8 years ago

I try.

naamah_darling

April 15 2009, 18:49:26 UTC 8 years ago

I am absurdly pleased that I've been pronouncing your name correctly in my head.

April 16 2009, 01:05:03 UTC 8 years ago

Woo-hoo!

aeriedraconia

April 15 2009, 18:54:23 UTC 8 years ago

"Things I find absolutely horrifying: slugs."

You do realize that the slug is our state bird up here in WA dontcha? ;-)

April 16 2009, 01:05:24 UTC 8 years ago

Anything large enough to have the feature role in a horror movie is no longer a slug, it's an event.

miintikwa

April 15 2009, 19:08:39 UTC 8 years ago

Yay, I've been saying your name right to my hubby! Of course, when I said that, he said "who?" "The girl that writes the Zombpocalypse stories and just got the Maine Coon kitty." "oh. Ok."

My online life is much more interesting than my real one. This is sad.

April 16 2009, 01:05:55 UTC 8 years ago

I think most of us have more interesting lives online. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go extract the cat from the toilet and the black widows from the baking cabinet.

catnip13

oreouk

April 15 2009, 19:19:44 UTC 8 years ago

I was disturbed today to see information on one of our internal advertising screens which informed me that my (accounting etc) firm was working with the Department of Health to make sure we were prepared for the next flu pandemic. It made me think of you....

April 16 2009, 01:06:05 UTC 8 years ago

I win the universe!

marsdejahthoris

April 15 2009, 21:41:09 UTC 8 years ago

For some reason, I keep wanting to pronounce it "SHANE-in." I don't know why.

April 16 2009, 01:06:19 UTC 8 years ago

Pure damned cussedness? I do not know.

snowcoma

tezmilleroz

April 16 2009, 00:08:58 UTC 8 years ago

I love medical thrillers, so I hope you actually get to write one someday :-)

April 16 2009, 01:06:35 UTC 8 years ago

I would destroy the world and giggle. Probably bad for the sanity of those around me.

palmer_kun

April 16 2009, 00:53:42 UTC 8 years ago

You're moving to Washington? Did I miss the memo?

What about the weather and lack of swamps?

April 16 2009, 01:06:54 UTC 8 years ago

The cost of living is way lower, and someday I'd like to write full time.

paul_carlson

April 16 2009, 03:02:19 UTC 8 years ago

Crowds in on the Massive Influx.

: : : waves to everyone : : :

I want a kitten!

April 17 2009, 13:48:41 UTC 8 years ago

Doesn't everybody?

Well, not Lilly. Lilly is currently at capacity, thanks.

bookofnights

April 16 2009, 04:33:40 UTC 8 years ago

Every day I dutifully go to Amazon and click on the "I'd like to read this book on the Kindle" link for your book. (As soon as I'm done posting this comment, I will go to Amazon for today's clicky.)

Do you know if your book will be on the Kindle? Is that something you have input with (via your agent and editor)? Or is it strictly a publisher decision?

(If you have any input, please, I beg you, have it available on the Kindle!)

April 17 2009, 13:49:43 UTC 8 years ago

I don't know if my book will be on the Kindle. I know that DAW has the right to release an electronic edition, and I'm hopeful that they will, because even though I don't read eBooks (I like paper), I know a lot of people do.

I promise to announce it, loudly, if an electronic edition is planned.

shyrofox

April 16 2009, 05:04:46 UTC 8 years ago

It's exciting to know after all these years that I have been pronouncing your name right! I was actually quite nervous that it might have been one of the other pronunciations listed which, honestly, would not have been as cool. :3