Don’t miss the chance to ask Seanan McGuire your very own questions in the ongoing Authors Roundtable discussion.
*******
We had the chance to talk with science fiction and fantasy author Seanan McGuire, who also writes under the pen name of Mira Grant, about her bestselling series:
SFFWorld: In much of your fantasy work, such as the October Daye series, you are making use of your knowledge and interest in folklore and fairy tales. In your SF stories as Mira Grant, you have a great deal of medical and biological science research. In your InCryptid series, (as well as some of your other works,) you sort of combine them a bit with characters involved in cryptozoology. Is that a fun mix for you and does it change how you approach doing those stories or not really?
McGuire: I love folklore, biology, and any combination of the two, so all three series are a lot of fun for me. They’re all written in exactly the same way: one word at a time.
SFFWorld: You have written the October Daye series with an end goal in sight that is built into the books, but have you found that the main character has changed in any ways during the course of writing the series that surprised you? Or other main characters who changed or came into the story unexpectedly? Or is it all very tightly outlined, like Tim Powers for instance writes his books?
McGuire: I’m a lot better at this “writing books” stuff than I was when I started, which means that all my characters, Toby included, have gotten smarter; I don’t need them to walk blindly into danger the way I did when I wasn’t as adept at moving them around. The smarter they get, the more they surprise me. The shape of the plot is very tightly plotted, but the way the characters behave while they’re inside it is extremely flexible, and they do manage to do things I’m not expecting on a fairly regular basis.
SFFWorld: In the new October Daye book, A Red-Rose Chain, Toby has to be a diplomat. Does that end up being as disastrous as it sounds?
McGuire: Toby is…not diplomatic. Toby is a blunt instrument trapped in the body of a woman who just wants to be left alone. Her friends definitely have their hands full with the effort of keeping her from screwing everything up. Which, of course, just made it incredibly fun to write.
SFFWorld: In your new series, Indexing, you are getting into the darker aspects of fairy tales. Can you tell us something about that project?
McGuire: Indexing is a police procedural about protecting the world from memetic incursions–which is to say, fairy tales. It’s not a series so much as it’s a pair of serials. The first concluded in early 2015, and is available in a collected volume from 47 North. The second, Indexing: Reflections, is running now, and will conclude on January 5, 2016 (which also happens to be my birthday). It’s a lot of running around and shooting at stuff, with a cast that’s half normal people and half manifest fairy tales who really hate their jobs.
SFFWorld: In November, you’re going to be concluding your Parasitology trilogy, written as Mira Grant, possibly the only doomsday science fiction series to involve tapeworms. What can fans expect in the third novel, Chimera?
McGuire: Tapeworms. So many tapeworms. But also, I hope, a satisfying ending. This is the first time I’ve reached the end of a set of books and gone “yeah, okay, that’s it, that’s done; I am ready to let these people rest.” I spent a book longer in this space than I expected to, and while I really feel like I did right by them, I also really feel like the broken doors are ready to be closed.
SFFWorld: You started another new series, Ghost Stories, featuring Rose Marshall, an iconic hitch-hiking ghost on the run from the man who killed her and wants her soul. Are we going to see more ghost legends in that series in future books?
McGuire: Sparrow Hill Road is a stand-alone book that ties into the InCryptid universe, not the launching point for a whole new series. Right now, there are no plans for a follow-up. That may change in the future, depending on time and interest and sales, but there are no future books currently on the schedule. I love Rose, and I want to spend more time with her, but I also really enjoy eating.
SFFWorld: With so many interesting universes that you create, you have fans who like them all. But do you ever have fans getting mad at you because you are working on one series and they want a new book in their favorite series?
McGuire: Fans are people, and people sometimes get mad at air. I know I do. So I have people huff at me because I’m not doing what they want, but I also have people get mad because I use profanity, or because I exist in material space, or because I was at Disneyland when they thought I should be writing. I just keep swimming. I need to switch between projects to keep from burning myself out, and I like to think that my true fans would rather have me writing for a long time than get exactly what they want the second that they want it. Unless what they want is a puppy.
SFFWorld: Any other up-coming projects you’d like your fans to be aware of?
McGuire: I am always working, and I always want people to be aware of everything. The best way to keep track is at my website, or at my blog, seanan_mcguire.livejournal.com, where I post a regular “inchworm girl” roundup that includes all upcoming publications and appearances, and makes for an easy tracker.
* * * * * * *
Interview by KatG – SFFWorld.com © 2015
