My Favorite Things with Seanan McGuire

They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome to the new and improved version of My Favorite Things, a weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we welcome one of Speculative Chic’s favorite writers, the very prolific Seanan McGuire, who at times also writes as Mira Grant. What makes her so prolific? We’re halfway into the year, and she’s already published Magic for Nothing, Final Girls, and Down Among the Sticks and Bones. But the year isn’t over! Still up on the docket is The Brightest Fell and Into the Drowning Deep. Needless to say, we’re thrilled she took the time to sit down to squee about the latest things she loves. Are you excited as we are? Read on to learn more about Seanan’s favorite things!

Right now, I am playing what can only be termed a genuinely horrifying amount of Overwatch. This first-person shooter from Blizzard is the only non-Pokemon game to have managed to grab and hold my attention in…well, ever. I can’t think of another game I’ve cared enough about to become any good at, and now I put in a good fifteen hours a week for the sake of my team, my game stats, and making my fictional world a better place.

Part of the appeal is that Overwatch is the most casually diverse first-person shooter I’ve ever encountered. Of the twenty-four playable characters, many represent a naturally diverse view of the world, from Tracer (the game’s mascot, and an out lesbian in an established relationship) to Symmetra (an autistic Indian architect who fights with beams of controlled hardened light). It’s amazing to play in a world that feels like the world outside my front door.

Cheers, love. The cavalry’s here.

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I haven’t been super into anime since the end of Sailor Moon, which is more a failing of my available time than a failing of the form. (Like comics, “anime” is a medium, not a genre. So many different stories are being told, in so many different ways and voices, that trying to say they should all be judged by the standards of the same genre is disingenuous at best, and impossible at worst.) Which means that when all my friends got into this new show about ice skating, I was dubious, to say the least.

Then I broke down and gave Yuri on Ice a try, and wow, was I glad I did.

This is a romantic comedy that is also a drama that is also a sports show that is also about men’s competitive figure skating and living with anxiety. And if that seems like a lot, it is. It’s also incredibly adorable and awesome, and I adored every minute of it. So highly recommended. And it’s short, too, so you won’t have to make a super-long commitment.

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It gets a little tiresome when you won’t stop telling all your friends about the same book over and over, and I don’t care, because Winter Tide, by Ruthanna Emrys, is still the best thing I’ve read all year, and the year is halfway over. This is an exquisite, loving, utterly brilliant inquisition and vivisection of the Cthulhu mythos through a slightly canted lens, and the best evidence I’ve ever seen of the lack of life after death is probably the fact that Lovecraft has yet to appear and start throwing things.

This is a story about monsters. The monsters are not who you think they are. The monsters are not where you think they are.

The monsters are not sorry.

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Hadestown is a new musical based on the Anais Mitchell concept album of the same name. It tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice using dustbowl jazzland styled American folk, and it is absolutely incredible. There isn’t much I can say without it turning into a critical dissection of the musical versus the myth, and it doesn’t need that. It just needs to be loved. The live album should be out later this year, and despite a few small lyrical flubs, it needs to be owned. So good.

Seanan McGuire lives, writes, and wanders aimlessly around the Pacific Northwest, where she shares her home with her collection of creepy dolls and abnormally large cats. You can catch up with her at www.seananmcguire.com, or on Twitter as @seananmcguire. Seanan would like to preemptively welcome you all to the cornfield, as we’re all getting sent there sooner or later.

Author photo by Carolyn Billingsley