6 things about me.

[seanan_mcguire]

And now, ladies and gentlemen...Late Eclipses [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] is officially six days from release. That's less than a week! How am I supposed to get all my freaking out finished in less than a week? Since flailing around screaming that the sky is falling doesn't help with my countdown, here are six things you may not know about me.

6. I love snakes and spiders, have no fear of sharks, and tend to giggle hysterically when I'm on a plane and it hits a patch of turbulence that makes it feel like we're going to fall out of the sky. I am, however, morbidly terrified of pudding. This translates into a fear of any type of slug that isn't so ludicrously colored as to seem like a special effect.

5. I will not go into brackish water, because of the potential for leeches. Even if I am assured that there are no leeches in the entire country, I will not go into brackish water, because of the potential for leeches. Leeches are just not okay. Thank you, Stand By Me. In an attempt to conquer my fear, I kept a jar of leeches in my kitchen for a whole year. Those leeches were okay, because they were behind glass.

4. My collection of My Little Ponies is epic and vast, and contains almost all of the larger buildings from the original 1980s run of the toy line. Yes, including the Paradise Estate, which is roughly the size of a large card table. In that misty, far-off future where I actually have an office of my very own, it's going to wind up evenly divided between research material and plastic horses. Because that's just how I roll.

3. I grew up really, really, really poor, and I read really, really, really fast. These things combined mean that I grew up a dedicated re-reader, and will read books that I enjoy five, ten, or even twenty times. My count on The Stand is somewhere in the mid-fifties. The weirdest thing about my current bounty of available reading material is the lack of re-reading. I haven't read any of my favorites in over a year, and it's making me twitchy.

2. I have these long, elaborate, lucid dreams that seem entirely real when they're going on, even down to my needing to eat and use the bathroom in my sleep. They always end when someone tells me that I'm dreaming, and while they tend to be very realistic and grounded, they also tend to involve elements of "in a perfect world," like, you know, being published. Part of me spends every day afraid someone's going to tell me I'm dreaming.

1. My childhood idols were Vincent Price, Marilyn Munster, and Doctor Who. Considering that, and considering the way my life has turned out, I don't think I'm doing so bad. And I think they'd be proud of me.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

#3: I know what you mean about not re-reading because there's so much new stuff to read. It makes me twitchy as well, which is why I have scheduled the next three books to be read as rereads. (Also, I seem to have hit a quiet time with not much new that I want to read. Unless you start recommending things again, you book-pusher *g*...)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I may need to do this. Once I cut the pile back a bit.

[rrie-selavy.livejournal.com]

...May I ask how you fed the pet leeches?

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Piece of raw steak on a string.

Re #6

[mlerules.livejournal.com]

Suggestion: don't roam too far afield if'n you're called upon to do a reading at UC Santa Cruz.

Re: Re #6

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Banana slugs are totally fine. They look like special effects.

[themysteriousg.livejournal.com]

#6 I love the turbulence! I'm kinda neutral on snakes and spiders and have never met a shark in the water. I think they are really neat though.

#2 You are NOT dreaming. You really are a rockstar (I mean author)!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Woo!

[tikiera.livejournal.com]

I have a healthy fear of snakes, but that's because if there is one poisonous snake in the woods that day, it will be on my path. I regale people with the tale of the day that I found all three kinds of poisonous snakes that PA has in the space of half an hour, or rather they found me.

I will go into brackish water, but only running brackish water, as if that would somehow keep the leeches off me.

I understand your #3 really, really well. We also didn't have much money, and I didn't get a library card until middle school, so I was stuck with what I could scrounge together (I would shovel sidewalks, rake leaves, do errands and buy books or G.I. Joes with the money) or the elementary school library. As I was an very fast reader (adult novel in 30 minutes kind of fast), and reading at college level in 3rd grade, this was not enough.

I still reread because I can't afford my reading habit.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I can only afford my reading habit because I get so many free books. It's freaky.

[ladymurmur.livejournal.com]

#1 - any particular Doctor? Or d) all of the above? :-)

We got all of three TV channels when I was growing up, and luckily one of them was Public Television. Watching Doctor Who on Friday nights was one of the great joys of my childhood, and I've never grown out of it.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Seven.

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

Leeches are just not okay.

No. They are not. UGH!

I will have to apply that to spiders, too, though snakes are really cool.

re: 6 days left: \\0// FLAILS!!! New Toby book for me to READ!!!

Re: re-reading (too many "re's" in that!) - LOVE re-reading. I do it all the time.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yes! Read, and enjoy!

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

4. I assume you've seen the new version of the cartoon? Personally I'm glad it's more like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends than vapid cuteness and zero substance, but that's just me...I was brought up on the classic Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings so my cartoon bar is set pretty damn high. ;)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I don't get Hub, so I haven't seen it, but I'm aware of it.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I think you might like this: http://www.despair.com/sisyphus.html

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

AWESOME.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

2. I have these long, elaborate, lucid dreams that seem entirely real when they're going on, even down to my needing to eat and use the bathroom in my sleep. They always end when someone tells me that I'm dreaming, and while they tend to be very realistic and grounded, they also tend to involve elements of "in a perfect world," like, you know, being published. Part of me spends every day afraid someone's going to tell me I'm dreaming.

I read that to my wife, who replies: "You may be dreaming, but I *refuse* to give back the books!"

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[jacylrin.livejournal.com]

I will start haunting the local bookstores. And I will squee mightily and buy 2 copies as soon as I find it (because otherwise Cora will swipe it while I'm still reading).

Don't worry, Seanan. I will protect you from the puddings. And slugs.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Excellent, all around.

[sarraceniaceae.livejournal.com]

I have never known anyone else who admits to rereading books over 50 times as a child! I suddenly feel slightly more normal.

I've always sort of wanted pet leeches so I could see if they actually work on bruises like they're supposed to. This probably counteracts any normality of my previous statement.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I judge you at normal equilibrium.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

You have the Paradise Estate? Squee! I don't have the room in the Tiny Apartment of Doom for it, and my Lullabye Nursery is partially disassembled and living on top of my book case. Now I think I should re-organize my books, so your books can take up residence under my Pony Collection, which my partner does not allow me to keep in the bedroom.

No, I don't know why my ponies creep him out, either. Clearly, I need to buy him Spike the Dragon so his dragon collection can have an ambassador to my ponies.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I do!

And you should totally buy him a Spike.

[ladyphoenixia.livejournal.com]

#6 I love all those things, especially turbulence, it's kinda like being on a rollercoaster. Makes flying more fun. And now that I have my diving license I totally wanna go diving with Grey Nurse Sharks in the wild wee!

#5 I hate leeches. Sadly, avoiding water isn't enough, because if it's rained remotely recently they'll also be out and about in the bush, waiting to pounce on you when you're bushwalking (or whatever the American term for it is). I like to think I'm a brave girl, but when leeches get on me I start to freak out.

#3 I not so much feel antsy because I don't have time for rereading, instead I'll just get in a mood for a month or two when I'm absolutely uninspired to read anything new and just read old favourites. Did a lot of that before christmas, although I'm back in a "new books" mood atm.

[ladytinyhelm.livejournal.com]

There are BUSH LEACHES? O_O

Shrubbery suddenly got more threatening. *suspicious looks all around*

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It is to my eternal shame that I was not able to be at the Campbells to round up everyone in the audience and have them chorus "And you're NOT dreaming" at the appropriate moment. :)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Ha!

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

*prepares large invasion force of Transformers for battle*

You know, one of those "good guys must always have a big battle of misunderstanding before joining forces to defeat the REAL enemy" battles. :D

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

My Monster High dolls and my Ponies eye each other warily.

[dragondances.livejournal.com]

Re #6: I totally agree with you about turbulence. I love when you can actually tell that you're in a giant metal tube in the sky. Even when it shakes so hard you feel like the wings are going to rip off, it's more exciting than anything else. I love snakes, and some kinds of spiders. Thanks to my kindergarten teacher keeping one in the classroom I love tarantulas, but I'm much happier if the smaller ones stay *not* on me and eat the pest bugs when I'm not watching.

And My Little Ponies are awesome! I always much preferred playing with them and Trolls as opposed to Barbies (when I wasn't reading; I was kind of an odd child, I suppose).

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love the giant metal skybirds. And I am with you on spiders. Tarantulas, cool, small spiders, only cool if they're not touching me.

[aerrin.livejournal.com]

We have a creek about a mile beyond our house that, growing up, I would play in often. On a return home from school one year I decided to hike down there and hang out for old time's sake.

After about 20 minutes I was ready to hike back up and I went to get my shoes, looked down, and discovered it. There. Attached to my big toe. Hanging out all cool as you please.

A leech.

I nearly had a panic attack. I know you were not supposed to pull - their teethy things might get stuck in my toe! But I was a mile of rough farmland from any sort of civilization. I couldn't get anything with which to burn the sucker off (and was more than a little afraid of scorching my toe even if I could have)! I couldn't walk home barefoot and leeched!

I still don't know how or why, but after another 20 minutes of flailing the thing just let go. Maybe it had drunk its fill of my blood. Maybe it got tired of my swinging my foot through the water like a madman.

All I know is that I have never waded in the creek since.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ngh.

That is all.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Some of my family members have property on this lovely, glacier-fed lake in Maine. It does actually get hot in Maine, believe it or not, so I was all set to take a dip the first time I visited. I climbed out onto this rocky ledge, and was all prepared to take a dunk.

Then I saw this flat brown leaf-like thing swimming in the water that was wiggling along in a wave-type motion, and I asked my dad what it was.

"Oh, just a leech."

I levitated back to shore, lest it jump out of the water to get me.

I can't swim in water where I can't see the bottom, and that's one of the reasons. The other is that there might be snapping turtles. They scare me half to death.

As for this being a dream or not, well, you'd have to be dreaming me, too, which . . .

Actually, I'm kind of okay with that.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I approve of your water-based concerns.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

I very much identify with #3 - while I didn't grow up poor, I certainly couldn't afford enough new books to keep up with my reading speed, so I also reread a lot. I tend to cull my physical collection to books I'll want to reread, and there are some I've reread so often that I don't so much read anymore as flip through and retell the story to myself. For several of the books, I actually have vivid memories of what else I was doing as I read that book for the first time, and so rereading them is also reliving part of my life. I actually still can often track events in my life by what book I was reading at the time.
Growing up, school libraries, the Bookmobile (traveling branch of county library), and the local rummage sale with books for $0.50 each kept me in most of my reading material. This is how I ended up as a library aid in both Jr. high and High school.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense.

[the-liz666.livejournal.com]

So I was driving a new route to my in-laws house the other day, and I passed a large collection of south western style stucco condominiums. All one level, all with terracotta roof tiles.
The sign said, "Now renting Paradise Estates!"
My first thought was: "But now where will the Ponies live!" Followed by mad giggling to where I almost couldn't stop.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I am so with you on the leeches. I actually saw Stand By Me the first time in a theater with a couple boys I was dating. The leech scene came on and every guy in the theater groaned and crossed our legs. It has haunted me ever since.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

You, and a lot of other people.

I wonder how Wil Wheaton feels about 'em.

[vincentursus.livejournal.com]

Will the plastic horses be arranged on permanent display or will it be a more fluid arrangement?

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Fluid. They tend to get moved around from time to time, just to keep things interesting.

[antinomic.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the occasional reread, but I have unrealistic expectations, i.e. 'This time _ will not die'. Other than that craziness, its like visiting an old friend, you think you know their ideas on things, yet you usually learn something new.

While I like guns as well as the next guy, the site where I work is under a force protection practice today. It is unsettling to walk into the restroom and see someone with a helmet on and a rifle propped next to the urinal. We are in central Florida. I really think the chance of attack is minimal. But we will be ready when Mars invades.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I'm like that with The Fly. Every time I watch it, I'm half-hoping that just this once, I'll have the version from the next dimension over, where it's about the triumph of science and the human spirit, not about the pain of hubris and the punishment for trying to become a god.