Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: restless
  • Music: Great Big Sea, "Company of Fools."

Well, my bags are packed; I'm ready to go.

I am preparing for the grand summer road trip. Home to San Francisco; San Francisco to Manhattan; Manhattan to Milwaukee; Milwaukee to La Crosse; La Cross to Madison; Madison to Chicago; and then home again, home again, jiggety jig. I am very ready to be gone. I am absolutely not ready to be gone. Before I see my home and bed and cats again, I will visit both my publishers, attend my first BEA, visit a high school that's very excited to see me, and attend my first Wiscon. I will see and hug and adore my Merav and my Diana and my Cat—so many hugs. I will do great things and struggle to keep up with my word count, and whether I succeed or not, I will need a nap before I'm done.

I'm nervous. I admit that. And this is all part of the deal, this is part of the promise you make at the crossroads when you sell your fantasies for your dreams. This is part of what it takes to have what I have always said I wanted...and I was right, and I am not sorry. But sometimes I get tired, and I want to stay home with my cats and my books and my dolls.

I want to write full time. I want to live in a little house in Seattle full of cat trees and more books and too many toys, and I want to paint the walls orange without worrying about my housemates not wanting to live inside a pumpkin. And wanting these things means packing my bags and hitting the road again, because life feeds art feeds life.

But sometimes I get tired.

I hope I will see you if you're in New York, or Wisconsin, and if not, I hope I will see you some other time, when I come to wherever you are. I'm always glad to see people, and you can smell my dirt-based perfume and get shown pictures of my cats (conveniently stored in my phone). And this will be a wonderful adventure, because they always are.

I can't wait to get started. I can't wait to come home.

I love the crossroads prayer that is my life.
Tags: con prep, in the wild, schedule, travel, utterly exhausted, where's seanan
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  • 65 comments

digitaleopard

May 21 2011, 21:05:56 UTC 6 years ago

All that travel, and not getting up to Seattle? Bah.

I understand tired; I chose not to take up a more public career because I can't stand the idea of not being anonymous, of lacking the ability to blend in and disappear when I choose. I am an intensely private person much of the time, but I do like to travel. There are things that can help.

The best advice I can give you: Set aside time every day for yourself, and someone or something that revitalizes you. Half an hour, including a ten-minute call to your significant other, can be great. Just knowing that you have the time waiting for you later can help get you through the day.

Learn when to be selfish.

dornbeast

May 22 2011, 17:05:44 UTC 6 years ago

"All that travel, and not getting up to Seattle?"

When the crossroads grants somebody a prayer, part of the standard price is the illusion of control. Sometimes, the recipient can say, "I wish to go this way," and it will happen. Other times, the wind will blow from off the road, drag that person away from her plans, and send her to places she's never been, meeting people she will love forever and never see again.

No one who has ever spoken of a bargain with the crossroads has ever regretted this fact. Not one.

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 20:31:28 UTC 6 years ago

Absolutely.

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 20:51:12 UTC 6 years ago

I am trying.