Interview with Seanan McGuire and Giveaway - March 1, 2011

The Qwillery is delighted to welcome Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye series.

TQ:  What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Seanan:  I set word count goals for myself (per project, thankfully, not "write 20,000 words today OR DIE IN FIRE), and I literally can't go to sleep until I meet them. I try to keep my daily goals reasonable as a result, since otherwise, I might never sleep again.

TQ:  Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

Seanan:  Stephen King; Terry Pratchett; Tanya Huff; Kelley Armstrong. I believe that Stephen King, Dorothy Parker, and Tanya Huff have had a huge, huge influence on my writing. So has everything else I've ever read. I am a magpie, especially where literature is concerned.

TQ:  Are you a plotter or a panster?

Seanan:  Yes. I know, that's not the most immediately helpful answer, but it's true. Sometimes I plot along from A to B to C. And sometimes, I ride by the seat of my pants, and wind up sitting at D with no idea how I got there. I'll often be both over the course of a single book.

TQ:  What inspired you to write the October Daye series?

Seanan: Stuff. I was a Folklore major at UC Berkeley; I've been breathing fairy tales for as long as I can remember. I think something like Toby was inevitable. This is just the form it decided to take.

TQ:  What sort of research did you do for the series?

Seanan:  I was a Folklore major at UC Berkeley. :)

TQ:  How did you come up with October's name?

Seanan:  I actually went to school with a girl named October, who went by "Toby," under penalty of physical violence if you slipped and called her anything else. She was awesome.

TQ:  Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) from the October Daye books?

Seanan:  I like the thing with the thing during the thing. You know the one that I mean? Seriously, though, I have a lot of favorite scenes. It changes with every book, because there's always something I like more than liked my previous favorite. Right now, my favorite scene involves a meadow, a sundress, and a conversation.

TQ:  How many books are planned for the series? Will there be any short stories or novellas set in October's world?

Seanan:  DAW has purchased through book seven, and I'm hoping to go further than that. Ideally, I'd want at least ten volumes. There's already one novella on the way, "Through This House," which will be published in Home Improvement: Undead Edition this coming fall. It's set between Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea.

TQ:  What's next?

Seanan:  A nap. Followed by the May 31st release of my second book as Mira Grant, Deadline.

TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Seanan:  Thank you for having me!


Seanan's Books:

Rosemary and Rue
October Daye 1
(Septemer 1, 2009)

October “Toby” Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a “normal” life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas…

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening’s dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening’s killer.




A Local Habitation
October Daye 2
(March 2, 2010)

Toby Daye-a half-human, half-fae changeling-has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world had other ideas...

Now her liege, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills, has asked Toby to go to the County of Tamed Lightning to make sure all is well with his niece, Countess January O'Leary. It seems like a simple enough assignment-until Toby discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, and that if the killer isn't stopped, January may be the next victim.


 
 
 
 
An Artificial Night
October Daye 3
(September 7, 2010)
October "Toby" Daye is a changeling-half human and half fae-and the only one who has earned knighthood. Now she must take on a nightmarish new challenge. Someone is stealing the children of the fae as well as mortal children, and all signs point to Blind Michael. Toby has no choice but to track the villain down-even when there are only three magical roads by which to reach Blind Michael's realm, home of the Wild Hunt-and no road may be taken more than once. If Toby cannot escape with the children, she will fall prey to the Wild Hunt and Blind Michael's inescapable power.





 

 

Late Eclipses
October Daye 4
(March 1, 2011)

October "Toby" Daye is half-human, half-fae-the only changeling who's earned knighthood. But when someone begins targeting her nearest and dearest, it becomes clear that Toby is being set up to take the fall for everything that's happening.


















About Seanan

Seanan McGuire was born in Martinez, California, and raised in a wide variety of locations, most of which boasted some sort of dangerous native wildlife. Despite her almost magnetic attraction to anything venomous, she somehow managed to survive long enough to acquire a typewriter, a reasonable grasp of the English language, and the desire to combine the two. The fact that she wasn't killed for using her typewriter at three o'clock in the morning is probably more impressive than her lack of death by spider-bite. Her upbringing left her with a love of rattlesnakes and a deep fear of weather, which explains a lot.

Often described as a vortex of the surreal, many of Seanan's personal anecdotes end with things like "and then we got the anti-venom" or "but it's okay, because it turned out the water wasn't all that deep." She has yet to be defeated in a game of "Who here was bitten by the strangest thing?," and can be amused for hours by just about anything. "Just about anything" includes swamps, long walks, long walks in swamps, things that live in swamps, horror movies, strange noises, musical theater, reality television, comic books, finding pennies on the street, and venomous reptiles. Seanan may be the only person on the planet who admits to using Kenneth Muir's Horror Films of the 1980s as a checklist.

Seanan is the author of the October Daye series of urban fantasies, the first seven of which have been purchased by DAW Books; the InCryptid series of urban fantasies, the first two of which have been purchased by DAW Books; and the Newsflesh trilogy, published by Orbit under the pseudonym "Mira Grant." She's working on several other books, just to make sure she never runs out of things to edit. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies, and she was a 2010 Universe Author for The Edge of Propinquity.

In her spare time, Seanan writes and records original music. She has three CDs currently available (see the Albums page for additional details). She is also a cartoonist, and draws an irregularly posted autobiographical web comic, "With Friends Like These...", as well as generating a truly ridiculous number of art cards. Surprisingly enough, she finds time to take multi-hour walks, blog regularly, watch a sickening amount of television, maintain her website, and go to pretty much any movie that has the words "blood," "night," "terror," or "attack" in the title. Most people believe that she doesn't sleep.

Seanan lives in a creaky old farmhouse in Northern California, which she shares with her three cats, Lilly, Alice, and Thomas, a vast collection of plush things and horror movies, and sufficient books to officially qualify her as a fire hazard. She has strongly-held and oft-expressed beliefs about the origins of the Black Death, the X-Men, and the need for chainsaws in daily life.

Years of writing blurbs for convention program books have firmly fixed Seanan in the habit of writing all her bios in the third person, so as to sound marginally less dorky. Stress is on the "marginally." It probably doesn't help that she has so many hobbies.

Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Feed was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010.

Seanan's Links
Website
Twitter
Blog - Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

The Giveaway

THE RULES

What:  One commenter will win a copy of Late Eclipses (October Daye 4).

How:  Leave a comment telling The Qwillery either your favorite quote from Shakespeare or your favorite play by Shakespeare? Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When:  The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Void where prohibited by law.

*Giveaway rules are subject to change.*

Head over to FICTIONALL for a chance to win Feed (Seanan writing as Mira Grant) and the 1st 4 October Daye books by Seanan. Please follow FICTIONALL's rules for its giveaway.

FICTIONALL and The Qwillery are not affililated.