Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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"San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats" open thread!

To celebrate the release of "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats," here. Have an open thread to discuss the novella. It's been out for a week, I figure you've had time.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.)

You can also start a discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and you can't stop the signal.
Tags: fandom, geekiness, mira grant, short fiction, zombies
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  • 67 comments
Ahem, squeeee and also OUCH.
Agreed.

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

I mark your work on my calendar so I can pounce; I picked this one up just after midnight. There was sniffling, and cheering, and tiny crying for a few particularly heroic things. (She locked the door!)

I'm so glad you did this. It makes a wonderful companion piece to Countdown, too.
I'm so pleased. :)

Lorelei is very cross with me for killing EVERYONE SHE LOVES. Including, in context, myself; I was probably inside the blast radius in that universe.

wendyzski

4 years ago

jenfullmoon

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

faecat

4 years ago

Ok, so I am a goofball. I loved this novella! You have such a way with creating real, living characters that it is terrifying and gut wrenching when they meet the hordes.
And that ending? The singing? Yes. Perfect.

Except...see, I've never been to Comiccon, and I've wanted to go, and now I see the recent pictures of everyone in costume, the con floor, etc., and ALL I CAN THINK OF IS THIS BOOK. Ahem. It's like looking at a body count. And I get chills.

Ok, it will pass, I am sure. :) I know I am an emotional goofball at times over stories--but, damn, ya got me here.

THANK YOU!

You too! Every time I saw a tweet all I could think of was this story

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

I FAIL. I totally forgot it was out last week. *goes to buy*
Yay!
Have to admit to yelling at you several times during my read. Fabulous story, Seanan. It made me cry.
I thought that FEED was heart-wrenching until I read COUNTDOWN.
I thought that COUNTDOWN was heart-wrenching until I read this.

I'm going to end up with a collection of books that I can't bring myself to read again, aren't I?

dornbeast

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

I have just done the click buy thing as I didn't see this was out :)
Woo!
I read this last weekend, while reading live-blogging of the con and perusing photo galleries, and adored the writing even while I cried. And then I thought that writing Unis's death must have hurt you as much or more as writing the Browncoats' deaths. Well-done. *salutes Seanan with a very soggy tissue*
I posted on my Facebook "OMG another dog POV - I can't stand it!!"
I start to cry even THINKING about the dog POV scene in 'Countdown' and when we met Unis I was like OH NO NOT AGAIN WAAAAAAH!!! GOOD DOG WAAAAHHH!!

*wipes eyes*

ashabardon

4 years ago

wendyzski

4 years ago

ashabardon

4 years ago

ashabardon

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

ashabardon

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

I liked the character of Elle a lot.



She was my favorite character.

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Haaaa, oh god. I loved it so very much.
Was already jealous about not getting to go to Comic-Con, so it was pretty awesome having this come out in the UK to read.
Loved all of the new characters, and the way their stories intertwined. Great to be able to develop such a big group of characters so well in such a short space of time, especially when it's a foregone conclusion what's going to happen to them all. The between-chapters segments with Mahir and Lorelai were really effective, adding a whole other layer of tragedy on top, and then you throw in another bloody dog POV chapter and I'm a mess. Really sweet but heartbreaking little book.

I also loved all of the stuff about geek culture. I loved the references, I loved the look at the fandoms and how enthusiastic they are, especially the main Browncoats group. I loved the heroism of the main characters, and the way that fandoms had brought them together and meant so much to them. But I also loved that the novella had some bits about the negative parts of geek culture - the section about Elle, the female sci-fi star, and the way the fandom had affected her life, the way she was treated as a female sci-fi star, as well as how it affected her relationship, really added something interesting to the story, and made it that much more of a great look at geek fandoms. Felt like a proper love letter to geek culture, as well as a kickass-zombie-tragedy-thing.
I'm so glad you were able to take all that away. It's what I was hoping for.
I have no idea how I managed not to cry while reading this. It was emotionally intense enough that I wanted to cry, especially for Lorelei.

I like that Mahir was able to give her some small amount of comfort in response to her "what if?" questions.

Unis especially made me want to sob.

Brb while I stop sniffling.
Aw.

*hugs*
Loved Unis. Dog POV will get me every time.

Great work in general - bought and read in the same evening.

PJW
Thanks!
Sobbed my eyes out. I don't know how you do it, Seanan. Stuart getting dizzy... And Matthew saying he'd come back to keep Elle company... T____T Destroyed.
I'm glad he made it back to someone.

I'm also glad I didn't write Patty dying.
Really, really enjoyed this. I devoured it in a couple of hours after it showed up on my iPad.

Mahir's POV was nice, and a great way to unify things.

(Also, in "real life?" I'm staying a hotel for a work trip that's also hosting a big immunology conference. I keep thinking that you'd probably be checking nametags and quietly squeeing all over the place.)
*swoon*

I am SO JEALOUS of you right now, ZOMG.

bzarcher

4 years ago

Deleted comment

I don't know. There's not a dead-tree contract right now, but we reserved the right to sell to Subterranean, if they wanted it. So I suppose the sales of When Will You Rise? will play a part.

trektone

4 years ago

paradisacorbasi

July 19 2012, 19:29:30 UTC 4 years ago Edited:  July 19 2012, 19:41:55 UTC

Wow.

So I start reading. Oh, look, it's Mahir. Hi, Mahir, nice to see you again. Cheers.

And then the description of Lorelei Tutt -- who has Been Through Some Shit, Y'all. And then we discover she's the sole survivor. The ereader facepunched me. Sole survivor. Ow.

And then we get introduced to Matty and Patty (that's how my brain put them together), and he's British and he wears a bowtie and oh, how cute. And they're on their HONEYMOON?! Cruel! (and how many other couples were on theirs, or somebody was planning to propose, or were celebrating anniversaries...)

Poor blind Lesley -- whose fate gave me the most chills because -- only faint vision?! And then Unis. Another Good Dog. Oh, man.

And Kelly, little badass in a skirt, and Stuart who has a weapons booth but no clue about weaponry. And who tries hard to be so affable.

And Marty -- black man described as brown skinned but NOT described as a food item, yay, bless you, bless you, a thousand times bless you! And Eric! And clever Pris with the tablet!

And the rest of the Tutt family and Rebecca, Vanessa and Robert.

And oh, Elle!

A giant building full of Genre Savvy individuals, and it made no difference. Genre Savvy can't stand against the unbeatable combo of stupidity and mobbing.

I'm a little disappointed that we did not get a scene of Elle's moronic butthead handler getting torn limb from limb by the zombies, but otherwise, I got what I expected. A bunch of characters I would come to care about despite having already been told that none of them make it out.

I managed to hold off the tears until the Browncoats started singing "You Can't Take The Sky From Me".

I don't blame Lorelei from jumping from tea to rum. (And wow, why did her family give her Jezebelle as a middle name? -- that was the one thing that caused me to fall out the narrative if only for two seconds).

Oh, also? What kind of dog was Unis?

Deleted comment

paradisacorbasi

4 years ago

jammiesest

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Will it be released on audio?
There is currently no audio contract. I do not know if this will change.
So I was all set to wait until it came out in audio. I had high hopes, sinceCountdown was released that way. And then my husband upgraded his iPad, which meant I had an iPad. Apparently now I read books in something other than dead tree and audio formats...

All of this is the prelude to saying that this one punched me in the gut pretty hard. I always hoped that some of the fans had gotten out. You'd think the zombie fans knew how to deal, right?
A lot of people probably survived by being outside when things got bad. But inside?

Not so much.
Ouch, this broke my heart in a wonderful, painful way, much like Feed did.
(And like others are saying, I managed to hold it together until they started singing! Then it was just too, too late.)

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Oh teary-eyed bliss, loved it!!! The scene with Unis barking at the door - Good Dog Puck must've noted my distress, because he came and sat with me. Very good dog, Puck! My heart just sank when Shawn et al. turned and headed back to their ship to wait for the end. I'm one of those dolts who every time we see Romeo and Juliet think, "Well, maybe I remembered it wrong, maybe they'll live this time ..." This was another (see, there, Seanan, a comparison of your work to Shakespeare's - woot!). Caught myself holding out hope that maybe just one would walk out but then they turned and walked back and then Matthew opened the door to go sit with Elle and Stuart, and oooooh man, then they were singing. Oh man, it was really great. But so sad. Lucky Manvir was there with Lorelei, but I cried with them too. Thanks for the ride - it was great!
Good dog, Puck. Good dog.

Deleted comment

You're very welcome. :)
I made the mistake of reading this at work (while getting paid for working OT, mind you). I cried for the mutual friends, as well as the other people (and Unis) both real and imaginary, who are happily still quite alive. (Not that the imaginary ones ever were alive in the literal sense, but hopefully you know what I mean.) I loved your portrayal of a celebrity's view of the convention and other things about Elle. I love so many little details that I can't name them all. I also love that I won't be able to look at SDCC, or any other convention for that matter, the same way for awhile. Thank you for a fabulous novella!
...oops.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!