The Best Website for Book Reviews – Off the Shelf Series

Book Stacks prersents: Off the Shelf: Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant Seanan McGuire is a talented urban fantasy author who draws heavily on her background as a folklorist to create rich, contemporary fantasy worlds. And she doesnt stop

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Book Stacks prersents: Off the Shelf: Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant

Seanan McGuire is a talented urban fantasy author who draws heavily on her background as a folklorist to create rich, contemporary fantasy worlds. And she doesnt stop there. She also writes science fiction under the name Mira Grant. Her first Mira Grant book was nominated for a Hugo Award this year, which she came darn close to winning!

 

Show Notes

Author website: Seanan McGuire | Mira Grant
This shows music: Evil Laugh by Seanan McGuire on the album Stars Fall Home (no longer in print)
Additional book plug: That Day in September by Artie Van Why

We start the interview talking about Seanans October Daye series, which is urban fantasy with a touch of other genres noir, closed door mysteries, etc. Seanan talks about the challenges of modernizing folklore while remaining respectful of their origins. She pulls primarily from British Isles folklore with Oberon, Mab, and Titania at the core. She includes numerous other mythologies, but they must work within the Fae world established in Tobys world.

One of Seanans primary references is KM Briggs  Briggs Encyclopedia of Fairy, and she recently acquired Briggs four volume Folk Tales and Folk Legends of Britain. Simeon mentions Briggs childrens book Hobberdy Dick as an example of the authors writing ability.

Seanan writes a monthly short fiction series for the website Edge of Propinquity. Sparrow Hill Road explores American folklore.

Seanan won the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, which is presented at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon).

Authors in the genre whom Seanan reads includes Kelley Armstrong, Jeri Smith Ready and Lucy Snyder.

Seanans new book, One Salt Sea, is on September 6, 2011.

Seanan publishes science fiction under the name Mira Grant. Her first book from the Newsflesh series earned her a Hugo Award nomination.

The author discusses why she publishers her science fiction under a pseudonym, and the advantages it provides, particularly in the areas of branding her very different series and in setting expectations for readers.

During the interview, we discussed the cover art on both series. The October Daye covers are designed by Christian McGrath, who also designs covers for The Dresden Files series. The Newsfeed covers are designed by Lauren Panepinto of Orbit.

Additional authors Seanan/Mira mentions include James Tiptree, Anne McCaffrey, Diana Wynne Jones and Ian McDonald. Seanan recently read Snow by Ronald Malfi, and puts it in the same category as Harry [Adam] Knight, author of Carnosaur and The Fungus.

The third book in the Newsfeed series is due out in May 2012, and it strongly features the letter E.

Additionally, Seanan has a new series coming out in March 2012. InCryptid features a family of cryptozooligists and is described as a combination of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and Van Helsing.

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