Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

So recently, I bought an issue of Maxim, only to discover that they had included their list of '200 movies everyone should see.' Naturally, I disagreed with a great many of their selections, especially the part where their horror movies seem to have been chosen through purely arbitrary measures, largely having to do with how much gore could be splattered on the screen. That doesn't work for me all that well, and so I have decided to present a better, more carefully considered list. IE, 'the horror movies I say everyone should see.'

( We cut because we care. Also because failure to cut results in a much higher bodycount, and nobody wants that. Well. I want that. But I'll be merciful. )

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What did I miss?

1. My name is Seanan McGuire; I'm an author, musician, poet and crazy person, presently living in Northern California. I am a very chatty person, whether you're talking literally 'we are in the same place' chattiness, or more abstract 'someone has left Seanan alone with a keyboard, run for the hills' chattiness. This does not, paradoxically, make me terribly good about keeping up with email or answering comments in anything that resembles a reasonable fashion. We all have our flaws.

2. My name is pronounced 'SHAWN-in', although a great many people elect to pronounce it 'SHAWN-anne' instead. Either is fine with me. I went to an event where we all got name tags once, and the person making the name tags was a 'SHAWN-anne' person, who proceeded to label me as 'Shawn Anne McGuire'. I choose to believe that Shawn Anne is my alter-ego from a universe where, instead of becoming an author, I chose to become a country superstar. I believe she wears a great many rhinestones, because they're sparkly, and she can get away with it. Just don't call me 'See-an-an' and we'll be fine.

3. I believe that editing is a full-contact sport, complete with penalty boxes, illegal checking, and team pennants. My editing team is the Fighting Pumpkins. We're going all the way to the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS this year, bay-bee!

4. I find it useful to keep a record of the status of my various projects, both because it warms the little Type-A cockles of my heart, and because it helps people who need to know what's going on know, well, what's going on. So you'll probably see word counts and editing updates go rolling by, as well as more generalized complaining about the behavior of fictional people. I am told this is entertaining. I am also told that this is possibly a sign of madness. I don't know.

5. I am a musician! More specifically, I'm a filk musician. If you know filk, this statement makes total sense. If you don't know filk, think 'the folk music of the science fiction and fantasy community'. I have two CDs currently available, Pretty Little Dead Girl: Seanan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005, and Stars Fall Home. I'm in the process of recording a third CD, Red Roses and Dead Things. I write mostly original material, and don't spend much time in ParodyLand. It just doesn't work out for me.

6. Things I find absolutely enthralling: giant squid. Plush dinosaurs. Siamese cats. Zombies. The plague. Pandemic flus. Horror movies of all quality levels. Horror television. Science Fictional Channel Original Movies. The large colony of infant preying mantises currently living next to my front door, where they wave their tiny alien arms in menacing fashion at all that comes to challenge them. Halloween. Candy corn. Pumpkin cake.

7. Things I find absolutely horrifying: slugs. Big spiders dropping down from the ceiling and landing on me because ew. Bell peppers. Rice. Movies that consist largely of car chases and do not contain a satisfying amount of carnage. Animal cruelty. People who go hiking on mountain trails in Northern California and freak out over a little rattlesnake. Most sitcoms. A large percentage of modern advertising. Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr Pepper.

8. I am owned by a classic bluepoint Siamese named Lillian Kane Moskowitz Munster McGuire. Yes, I call her that, usually when she's been naughty. The rest of the time, she's either 'Lilly' or 'Lil'. She shares me, grudgingly, with my elderly chocolate-point, Nyssa.

9. I'm still trying to sort out exactly what I want to post here, beyond general updates and my approach to the madness that is the writing process, and I'm open to suggestions.

10. I write: urban fantasy, horror, young adult, supernatural romance, and straight chick-lit romance. I occasionally threaten to write medical thrillers, but everyone knows that's just so I'd have an excuse to take more epidemiology courses. I love me a good plague.

Welcome!