Interview: Seanan McGuire

NRR: Can you share with us how you got started into writing?

"I wish I could, I really do, but to be honest, I don't remember.  We have short stories and essays I wrote when I was six, and while they may not be the best things ever, they're mine.  I can share how I got started writing professionally, if that would work?  I'd been writing books for a while, but none of them were quite ready to sell.  They were almost there, but they were never there.  And then one day, on the walk home, I literally went 'snap,' realized what was wrong, went home, and ripped Rosemary and Rue to pieces before hot-gluing it back together again, better than before.  I got my agent pretty quickly after that."

NRR:  Can you tell us some of the authors who inspired your writing?

"Stephen King, definitely.  I love the way that he uses language.  Pamela Dean, through Tam Lin, was hugely inspirational for me.  Cheesy as it may sound, Shakespeare.  Finding out that Shakespeare used real history and folklore and still got to be, you know, Shakespeare...oh, that made a huge difference.  The Bordertown series, edited by Terri Windling, is a lot of what convinced me to write urban fantasy.  It changed the whole way I thought about fantasy.  It still does, every time I read it."

NRR: How were you inspired to write the October Daye series?

"I went to the Japanese Tea Gardens, in Golden Gate Park, and got myself stuck on the moon bridge.  Like, stuck-stuck.  You know how Toby almost never has to actually go back down that thing?  Because it's steep.  Anyway, I was looking down at the water, contemplating jumping down and letting the pond break my fall, when I thought 'Spending fourteen years as a koi in Golden Gate Park does very little for one's outlook on life.'  Everything else came together pretty quickly from there.  I originally thought it was just a short story, but, well.  Things rarely remain short when I'm involved."

NRR: Do you prefer books or ereader?

"Books.  Absolutely books, for a lot of reasons.  Even though it means I'm rapidly running out of house."

NRR: What is your guilty pleasure?

"I try never to be guilty about my pleasures.  Things I do which other people have assumed must be guilty pleasures, until I blinked at them and admitted freely to my guilt-free passion: I watch iCarly and Phineas and Ferb.  Also Tower Prep and, currently, some lovingly videotaped old episodes of Black Hole High.  I collect Monster High dolls, and 1980s My Little Ponies--right now, I would probably bite somebody to get my hands on a Dawn of the Dance Ghoulia Yelps.  I love the Saturday night bad movies on Syfy.  They have their own folder on my DVR.  Oh, and yes, I talk to my cats."

NRR: Can you share with us a little about Late Eclipses (of course no spoilers)?

"Rosemary and Rue introduced you to the world, and taught you the basic rules.  A Local Habitation field-tested those rules, where you could watch, so you'd know they worked.  An Artificial Night gave you the more advanced rules.  With Late Eclipses, all the pieces are in place, and I can finally open the throttle and see how fast this baby can go.  Late Eclipses wraps up a lot of things from Toby's past, including some questions that have gone unanswered since Rosemary and Rue.  You finally get to see more of Amandine, and maybe get a few clues as to why people much such a big deal about Toby being her daughter.  And yes, Tybalt wears very tight pants at least once.

NRR: What can fans expect to see from you next?

"Hopefully, me taking a nap.  Beyond that...my second book as Mira Grant, Deadline, comes out in May, while the fifth Toby Daye book, One Salt Sea, comes out in September.  Next March, I'm launching my second urban fantasy series, InCryptid, which is about cryptozoologists trying to protect the cryptid world from humanity, and vice-versa, while also protecting themselves from the monster hunting organization that views them as traitors.  It's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.  I'm super-excited.  The first book is called Discount Armageddon, and it's coming from DAW.  I'm writing the sixth Toby book right now."