Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: grateful but sad
  • Music: Dar Williams, "I Am the One Who Will Remember Everything."

When will you rise?

Blackout is on store shelves today. After more than six years of work, and after three years of publication dates, the trilogy is over.

I may have seemed a little quiet lately. That's honestly because I'm sort of in shock. I just can't believe it's over. I've been living with these people for so long that knowing that their book is closed is just...it's stunning. It's difficult to wrap my head around.

It's finished.

When I finished Feed, it was the best thing I had ever written, and I truly believe that writing it is what enabled me to grow enough as an author to become publication-ready (the final revision of Rosemary and Rue happened after the first draft of Feed). Each subsequent book has stolen that title from its predecessor. I am proud of these books. I am amazed by them. And no, I am not ashamed to say that. It's my book-day. I get to be proud.

This trilogy has earned me two Hugo nominations (three, if you count "Countdown"), a place on the Publishers Weekly Best Books list, and so much more. It has brought me into contact with amazing people from around the world. It has allowed me to indulge my passion for viruses and pandemic preparedness without freaking people out (too much). It has changed my life forever, and I am so grateful, and I am so pleased that you have all been here with me.

I'll open the discussion thread for Blackout tomorrow or Thursday, after more people have had time to finish the book; please, no spoilers here. But...thank you.

Thank you all so much, forever.

Rise up while you can.
Tags: blackout, gratitude, mira grant, pandemic time, zombies
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  • 185 comments
...go 4 levels up... Expand

thatrainbow

May 23 2012, 04:38:12 UTC 5 years ago

Oh man, see, from the very start I've found myself identifying with Shaun more than Georgia, if in part because while in the world we live in it's not what I do, I can easily see myself being the crazy "let's go poke zombies with sticks on camera while my girlfriend/sister/wtf-ever tells me to stop being an idiot" dude. So Deadline was a really hard read for me.

But Feed also put me through the wringer. And Blackout, holy crap, I was all over the place today when I was reading it. (My wife and I made the smart choice of getting TWO copies of Blackout after the disaster that was both of us sharing a copy of Deadline last year. She got it first, so I re-read Feed while she was reading it, and then I dove straight into Deadline when she was finished, and that was SUCH a rough ride. I made the precaution of doing my Feed and Deadline re-reads a week or so ago, so Blackout wouldn't be quite SO raw.)

wendyzski

May 23 2012, 04:45:19 UTC 5 years ago

I'd be a Newsie, but one of the Under The Lens guys (the ones who pride themselves on never actually going out to interact with any actual news). That's pretty much what I do now on facebook- OpEd and aggregate. Because while I'm a decent shot, I'm also one of those people who looks at skydivers and wonders why the hell anyone would jump out of a perfectly good airplane...

thatrainbow

May 23 2012, 05:18:36 UTC 5 years ago

Heh, while I haven't done it (my body's kind of shit, tbh, I think i'd probably break something ELSE, with my luck), I think that skydiving would be a rush.

Which, really, is probably part of why I latched on to Shaun.

But yeah. I am emotionally EXHAUSTED after powering through Blackout today, and yet I can't stop myself from wanting to reread it again ASAP. Ah, the true joys of a great book.

dornbeast

May 23 2012, 08:01:13 UTC 5 years ago

...why the hell anyone would jump out of a perfectly good airplane...

I'm told that some of the airplanes used for skydiving are arguably not perfectly good airplanes.

("Isn't there supposed to be a door there? You know, something that can be closed when people aren't jumping out?")