Ten things you ought to know.: seanan

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!

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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.

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Welcome!

herefox

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

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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

April 15 2009, 18:39:33 UTC 8 years ago

I went to middle school with a legal "Jenny" (I'm a Jennifer)

By the end of the year we were both fully willing to collaborate to kill our English teacher, and we didn't even like each other much.

Stupid woman insisted on calling her Jennifer and me Jenny all year long. I hate that nickname.

seanan_mcguire

April 16 2009, 01:03:22 UTC 8 years ago

I went to elementary school with identical twins named Jennifer and Jessica. In the 80s.

I wonder how much therapy they wound up needing.

the_s_guy

April 16 2009, 12:06:17 UTC 8 years ago

I once had a boss called Danny. It was only years later I found out that no, he wasn't a Daniel, his legal name was actually Danny.

April 16 2009, 01:02:51 UTC 8 years ago

See, this is why I think it's cruel to name children nicknames. Not that Kate is a bad name—one of my favorite people on the planet is a Kate—but it leads to those sorts of school experience.

April 16 2009, 01:53:06 UTC 8 years ago

My mom's theory was to name what she planned on calling me, I guess. I can't complain - initially she was dead-set on naming me Galadriel.

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