Seanan McGuire made me cry (but that’s okay)

Posted by: Redhead on: July 23, 2012

• In: Mira Grant | Seanan McGuire
• 17 Comments

Due to an odd turn of events at work, I get to enjoy a 2 hour drive each day for the next four days. Thank goodness for podcasting is all I gotta say. I wanted some new goodies, so on Sunday, I asked the twittersphere for some podcast recommendations and reloaded ye olde mp3 player.

A big shout out to blogger KJ Mulder (twitter CrusaderofChaos) for recommending the stellar StarShip Sofa. (other folks recommended some great ones too, this just happened to be the one I turned on this morning) Hosted by the velvety voiced Tony Smith, StarShip Sofa won the 2010 Hugo for best Podcast. There’s plenty more awesome on that sofa, so head over to their website and check them out.

I downloaded a few recent episodes, and early this morning fired up Episode 245 featuring Seanan McGuire’s (you may know her as Mira Grant) short story Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage, which is in the new John Joseph Adams Anthology Other Worlds Than These, and was read by the lovely Christie Yant. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read any Seanan McGuire, so this would be my first exposure to her fiction.

All I will tell you about the story is that it is about a young woman who grows up. That is all. To tell you anything more would wreck everything.

But ahh, as I am quickly learning, Seanan McGuire is pure magic. A simple sounding story about a girl growing up  turned into a fragile state of brilliance, a fading rainbow, a moment of perfection that ended too soon. There is a good reason she is up for a gazillion awards (a record breaking four hugo noms!).

So go download the podcast, go listen to the story.

But don’t make the same mistake I made:

Don’t listen to it while hurtling down the interstate at seventy five miles per hour. Before the story ended I nearly had to pull over due to umm, possibly having something in my eye. Nope, not crying here, I just have something in my contact lens. Bit of dust of something. Seanan McGuire most certainly did not make me cry. Forget the title of this post, because I was definitely not the woman driving through Indiana weeping into the steering wheel of her Mazda.

But I won’t hold it against her, because now I am committed to reading everything of hers that I can get my hands on. For the remainder of this morning’s drive I self medicated with Katy Perry and that idiotic Call Me Maybe song. I never in my life expected to be thankful for crappy pop radio stations that have the same eight mindless pop songs on repeat. (Call Me Maybe twice in 45 minutes? seriously??)

And I’ll be picking up a copy of that anthology, that’s for sure. Yes, that’s right. Based on one podcast, one free piece of fiction, I am committed to buying a copy of this book (may have to wait a few weeks, until I have some available disposable income). Beyond the chance to revisit the tear-jerker McGuire, I’ll a chance to read short stores by Jeff Vandermeer, Catherynne Valente, Robert Silverberg, Alastair Reynolds, George R R Martin, and really, the list goes on and on.

regarding podcast recommendations: keep ’em coming. I’ve miles to go before I sleep.

Tags: coming of age, fantasy, podcast, short stories