Line #17 Creator/SeananMcGuire


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hs003.jpg]]
2
3	Seanan [=McGuire=] is an American writer and singer-songwriter.
4
5	[=McGuire=] is the current record holder of the most UsefulNotes/HugoAward nominations in a single year, racking up five (and winning one) in 2013. Her ''Literature/OctoberDaye'' series has made her a New York Times Bestselling Author as well. She also writes under the {{pseudonym}} Mira Grant.
6
7	In addition to her many prose novels, [=McGuire=] also writes comic books for Creator/{{Marvel}}. In 2018, she became the new ongoing writer of ''ComicBook/SpiderGwen'', and scripted the ComicBook/{{Mystique}} segment of ''ComicBook/XMenBlack'', as well as an ''ComicBook/XMenGold'' annual. As part of the ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan'' {{crossover}} event, she wrote the tie-in series ''The Amazing ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}''.
8
9	As a singer-songwriter in the {{filk}} genre, [=McGuire=] has released five albums to date.
10
11	She also occasionally draws a semi-autobiographical [[http://seananmcguire.com/gallery.php?gallery=6 webcomic]].
12
13	She has a [[http://seananmcguire.com/index.php website]], though it seems to have not been updated in a while. Her [[https://seananmcguire.com/blog/ blog]] is more up-to-date, and she regularly posts on [[https://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/ Tumblr]]. A full list of all her written works is available [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nMLUtl1t-7S3SK_Qj7Jj_b6ZekmR5Uch2ly_gyzUNTo/edit#gid=0 here]].
14	----
15	! Selected bibliography:
16	[[index]]
17	!! Prose Novels
18	!!! '''as Seanan [=McGuire=]'''
19	* ''Literature/OctoberDaye'' series (2009 -- present)
20	* ''Literature/InCryptid'' series (2012 -- present)
21	* ''Literature/{{Velveteen\|Vs}}'' series (2012 -- 2016)
22	* ''Literature/{{Indexing}}'' series (2014 -- 2015)
23	* ''Literature/GhostRoads'' series (2014 -- present)[[note]]Though the first book is a FixupNovel based on short stories originally published in 2010[[/note]]
24	* ''Literature/WaywardChildren'' series (2016 -- present)
25	** ''Literature/EveryHeartADoorway'' (2016)
26	** ''Literature/DownAmongTheSticksAndBones'' (2017)
27	** ''Literature/BeneathTheSugarSky'' (2018)
28	** ''Literature/InAnAbsentDream'' (2019)
29	** ''Literature/ComeTumblingDown'' (2019)
30	** ''Literature/AcrossTheGreenGrassFields'' (2021)
31	** ''Literature/WhereTheDrownedGirlsGo'' (2022)
32	* Alchemical Journeys
33	** ''Literature/{{Middlegame}}'' (2019)
34	** ''Literature/SeasonalFears'' (2022)
35	* ''Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day'' (2017)
36	* ''Deadlands: Boneyard'' (2017)
37	* ''Literature/DyingWithHerCheerPantsOn'' (2020)
38	!!! '''as Mira Grant'''
39	* ''Literature/{{Parasitology}}'' trilogy (2013 -- 2015)
40	* ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' series (2010 -- 2016)
41	* ''Literature/IntoTheDrowningDeep'' series (2015 -- 2017)
42	* ''Final Girls'' (2017)
43	* ''Kingdom of Needle and Bone'' (2018)
44	* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}: Echo'' (2019)
45	* ''Literature/InTheShadowOfSpindriftHouse'' (2019)
46	* ''Square3'' (2021)
47	* ''Literature/{{Unbreakable}}'' (2022)
48	!!! '''as A. Deborah Baker'''
49	* The Up-an-Under
50	** ''Over the Woodward Wall'' (2020)
51	** ''Along the Saltwise Sea'' (2021)
52	** ''Into the Windwracked Wilds'' (2022)
53	[[/index]]
54
55	!! Short Stories
56	* ''Literature/StarWarsCantoBight'' -- "The Wine in Dreams" (as Mira Grant)
57	* ''The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination'' -- "Laughter at the Academy"
58	* ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' #364 -- "Too Late Now"
59	* ''Laughter At The Academy'' -- A 2019 anthology of her own short stories.
60
61	!! Comic Books
62	!!! '''Creator/MarvelComics'''
63	[[index]]
64	* ''ComicBook/SpiderGwen: Ghost Spider'' (2018 -- 2019)
65	* ''ComicBook/GhostSpider2019'' (2019 -- present)
66	* ''ComicBook/XMenBlack -- ComicBook/{{Mystique}}'' (2018)
67	* ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan: The Amazing ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}'' (2019)
68	[[/index]]
69
70	! Discography:
71	* ''Pretty Little Dead Girl: Seanan [=McGuire=] and Friends Live at OVFF 2005'' (2006)
72	* ''Stars Fall Home'' (2007)
73	* ''Red Roses and Dead Things'' (2009)
74	* ''Wicked Girls'' (2011)
75	* ''Creature Feature'' (2015)
76	----
77	!!Tropes in her other works:
78	* AlienKudzu: In the short story "Too Late Now", whose narrator outright compares the plot to ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' InUniverse, Earth is overrun by alien plants that outcompete all Earthly vegetation, and then [[ManEatingPlant start eating people and animals]]. Humanity is reduced to a few heavily fortified enclaves that rigorously search returning scouts for any trace of seeds.
79	* AuthorAppeal:
80	** Virology, infectious diseases, and herpetology all show up in her works (she studied herpetology in college and worked as one before becoming a full-time writer).
81	** Apparently she has a narrative kink for “character licks blood off their hand for the ability to beat mind control” (it shows up in both ''Literature/OctoberDaye'' and ''Literature/InCryptid'', though there it's someone else's blood).
82	** Sisters, fatphobia (and defying it), and [[KidsAreCruel bullies]] are some more recurring themes.
83	** She has a fondness for MadScience, with her album ''Red Roses and Dead Things'' focusing on it.
84	** Old-fashioned carnivals show up frequently in ''[=InCryptid=]'' and several of her songs.
85	** She is demisexual and panromantic, adding a number of queer female relationships in her works.
86	* BeastAndBeauty: Her song "[[https://youtu.be/hOuNgvUUbo8 Creature Feature]]" is about a classic movie monster (some verses imply he's a FishPerson, others a werewolf) falling in (presumably one-sided) love with a human woman, who's terrified and disgusted by him (at least at first). The song ends on a hopeful note, with him waiting at a movie theater for her.
87	* BecomingTheCostume: In her Patreon short story "Face Your Furs", an unnamed theme park implants {{nanotechnology}} into the {{Goofy Suit}}s employees wear to turn them into BeastMen. This is all [[ReadTheFinePrint perfectly legal]], but they're still treated more like property than employees, and complications arise when [[spoiler:the transformation turns out to be irreversible]].
88	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: in her horror novella ''Final Girls'' the unnamed black technician is the first to die. But this story is very much about the rules by which horror movies operate, so it's almost a low key {{lampshade}} as used.
89	* BoyMeetsGhoul: A lesbian version in her Patreon short story "Inflatable Angel", in which a CuteGhostGirl meets and falls in love with a living woman.
90	* CircusOfFear: "[[https://youtu.be/YFI9xOqO_g0 The Poisonous Circus]]" is about a circus for {{Nightmare Fetishist}}s.
91	* CreatorInJoke: There are several that appear in multiple books.
92	** The poem "Mairzy Doats" appears in both the Literature/OctoberDaye and Literature/{{Newsflesh}} books.
93	** Being betrayed to the bad guys by a pair of shoes likewise appears in both sets of books.
94	** The creepy children's book in ''Literature/{{Parasitology}}'' shares several lines with her filk about Silent Hill.
95	* CruelCheerleader: Played straight, discussed played with and backflipped to hell. Notably, the evil cheerleaders that do show up are just as likely to be physical threats given that modern cheerleaders ''need'' to be superb athletes to do their routines.
96	* DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much the protagonist of any of her stories except for Parasite.
97	** Literature/GhostRoads has Rose.
98	** Literature/InCryptid has Verity (Antimony as well. Alexander can bring the snark from time to time but on the whole, he's much more prone to dry academic humor).
99	** Literature/{{Indexing}}'s is Henry.
100	** Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'s is George, though the entire cast could qualify.
101	** Literature/OctoberDaye has Toby, the Luidaeg, and several others.
102	** Literature/VelveteenVs has Velma.
103	** '' Final Girls'' has Esther.
104	* GenderBlenderName: A number of her heroines go by masculine-sounding diminutives.
105	** October "Toby" Daye
106	** Georgia "George" Mason
107	** Henrietta "Henry" Marchen
108	** Jack and Kade from ''Every Heart A Doorway''. Jack is short for Jacqueline. Kade is gender flip of Katie, because he is a trans boy.
109	* ExactWords: "Country Song", her filk about ''Film/{{Slither}}'', has Starla argue that her marriage to Grant no longer counts on these grounds.
110	-->''You can say that I'm a cheatin' whore, that I haven't got a heart''
111	-->''But the vows I took on the holy book read until death do us part''
112	-->[spoken] ''And baby...you're dead.''
113	* HarsherInHindsight: Her love of virology and infectious diseases means that many of those stories are cautionary tales about how then-current quarantine and sanitation measures were insufficient and the world was unprepared for a serious epidemic. Then the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic hit, proving many of those fears right. Perhaps the most harsh is the author's note on "The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells" in the ''Laughter At The Academy'' anthology, which was published a little over a month before Covid was first identified in Wuhan.
114	--> '''[=McGuire=]''': I believe the modern world's disdain for quarantine and willingness to support structures that encourage its violation is going to do a great deal of damage one day, and with new diseases emerging regularly, that day may not be particularly far in the future. [...] Wash your hands.
115	* HauntedFetter: Her Patreon short story "Inflatable Angel" is about Caroline, a worker at a shipping warehouse who was crushed to death under a pile of packages. After she's dead, she finds out she's a ghost bound to an inflatable dragon put in someone's yard as a holiday decoration. The dragon is on a timer, and once it deflates in the early morning, she goes back to TheNothingAfterDeath. After a few nights, she meets Abby, the woman who owns the inflatable, and at the end [[spoiler:Abby brings the dragon and timer inside so they can be together even after the decorations are put away]].
116	* KidFromTheFuture: Her song "[[https://youtu.be/VXp-q7iVG6I Time Travel Girl]]" is about the MadScientist singer's [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter daughter]] stealing his time machine and traveling back to make sure her parents stay together.
117	* LyricalDissonance: A lot of her filks are cheery, bouncy numbers about horrible diseases, zombies, etc. (For example, "Zombie Wedding" actually picks up a little when the narrator mentions she'll be committing suicide to marry her newly-dead boyfriend.)
118	* MagicalHomelessPerson: ''Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day'' has Sophie, a witch with a magical connection to rats. She divides her attention and mental capacity among many rodents spread out across the city, which makes her human self appear very scatterbrained and prevents her from fitting in with humans.
119	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ghosts and what they can do vary by the book unless it's a shared 'verse. The ghosts in ''Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day'' are different than those from the ''Literature/InCryptid'' books.
120	* PlantAliens: ''Too Late Now'' is a tribute to ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', featuring a post-apocalyptic world where humans live in small fortresses in fear of ravenous plants.
121	* PomPomGirl: A recurring theme in Ms. [=McGuire=]'s writing, likely to be discussed in some depth. Individual examples can be {{Valkyries}} or badass cryptozoologists, "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On" focuses on a badass team of them keeping a town safe, and some characters can be former cheerleaders.
122	* PromotedFangirl: She's a major fan of the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise and its {{Final Girl}}s, and got to write ''Alien: Echo'', a young adult novel set in the universe.
123	* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: In the short story "Laughter at the Academy",[[note]]published in the anthology ''The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination''[[/note]] "Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder" is a recognized psychological disorder, and anyone pursuing scientific research beyond a bachelor's degree is heavily scrutinized, and tested monthly for it. The MadScientist of the story is a mad psychologist who discovers how conditioning can induce a previously sane person to develop SCGPD. Nobody suspects her because [[HardOnSoftScience everyone assumes only hard scientists can become mad]].
124	* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: In her Patreon short story [[spoiler:"Sweet as Sugar Candy", Leah uses human bone as the secret ingredient in her marshmallows]].
125	* SelfParody: She wrote a [[https://seananmcguire.com/songbook.php?id=172 parody]] of her own song "[[https://seananmcguire.com/songbook.php?id=63 Pretty Little Dead Girl]]", changing the words to be about [[Series/{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]].
126	* ShoutOut: The author is an unabashed fan of Stephen King, and mentions other pop culture she's fond of as it comes up.
127	* StupidEvil: The antagonist of ''Too Late Now'', Manhattan, [[spoiler:pushes Boston into a hole to get eaten by the plants]], even though he already found out where her scavenging find was so he could loot it. [[spoiler:[[HoistByHisOwnPetard This results in him and everyone with them also getting eaten.]]]]
128	* SummonBiggerFish: In the short story "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On", the Fighting Pumpkins cheer squad, faced with an unstoppable alien invasion, [[spoiler: summons Bloody Mary. They add "I killed your son", which, according to UrbanLegend, will get Mary to kill ''everyone''. Including them, but [[HeroicSacrifice they don't care]].]]
129	* TakingYouWithMe: In "Dear Gina", the titular Gina instigated an EvilIsNotAToy incident and then skipped town when she realized the consequences. The narrator knows she can't escape the monster hunting down her friend group one by one, so she acquires Gina's address and writes it nice and big on her wall so the monster will know exactly where to go when it's done with her.
130	-->''Gina, when you're dead, then I'll forgive you''
131	-->''P.S.: I hope it hurts like hell''
132	-->''Love, Katie''
133	* TeensAreMonsters:
134	** ''Every Heart A Doorway'': whether the teens are monstrous because they're teens or because they're no longer accustomed to reality as we know it is left to the reader.
135	** ''Final Girls'': Daphne and her clique of popular kids are bullies who take it to the point of violence. They are also a deliberate invocation of this trope, being part of a horror movie simulation.
136	* {{Tuckerization}}: The author likes to toss in her good friends, but also has sold Tuckerization appearances in her books for charity.
137	* VillainProtagonist: Leah, the narrator of her Patreon short story "Sweet as Sugar Candy". Sure, David went against her wishes and wanted to expand her business, but [[spoiler:she kills him and turns his bones into marshmallows]] and it's implied she'd been doing this to other people for a while. In this case, [[spoiler:TheWitchHunter was right]]!
138	* WellIntentionedExtremist: To the point of being a VillainProtagonist, [[spoiler: the main character of ''Kingdom of Needle and Bone'' breeds a super-measles strain that permanently destroys infectees' abilities to be vaccinated, assuming they even survive, in order to convince the world of the seriousness of maintaining herd immunity. The initial outbreak alone kills ten million, including ''her own niece''.]]

Context Creator / SeananMcGuire