Books Right Now Presents:
I’m so excited to feature Seanan McGuire, the queen of portal fantasy, on Books Right Now! I’m a huge fan of her Wayward Children series, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to interview her.
Intro
RD: Which authors inspire you most in your own journey as an author?
SM: Honestly, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Peter Beagle, and Robin McKinley.
RD: What are the best books you’ve read recently?
SM: How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn, and God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines.
RD: What were some of your favorite books growing up?
SM: Watership Down, The Last Unicorn, The Stand, and Deerskin.
RD: What are your favorite bookstores to visit?
SM: I really love visiting any used bookstore I can find, Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, and Forbidden Planet in London! And any bookstore with a cat is great by me.
A Deep Dive into Wayward Children
RD: For anyone who hasn’t read the Wayward Children books yet, how would you describe your books in one or two sentences?
SM: What happens to the children who traveled through magical portals to other worlds when the adventure is over and they have to return to the worlds where they were born? How do they adjust and get over what happened? Can they?
RD: Across the Wayward Children books, we’ve traveled through several Doors into different worlds, all of which feel vivid and real. From a craft perspective, how do you approach worldbuilding for these stories?
SM: I treat each world as if it were the setting for an entire series of books, and try to make sure that it’s solid enough to support a trilogy. After I do that, extracting a novella is easy!
RD: In the most recent release, Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, we see the return of Nancy to the narrative. Why did you decide to bring Nancy back?
SM: To be very honest, when I first wrote Every Heart A Doorway, I didn’t know this was going to be a series. If I’d known, I would have handled Nancy differently. This was the chance to fix a few things.
RD: Nancy’s Door leads to a world with Grecian elements, but one that ultimately diverges into an afterlife entirely its own. Which Grecian afterlife elements did you choose to keep, and what were some conscious choices you made to differentiate this world?
SM: I wanted to keep the quiet and the idea that the Lady of the Dead was the real authority, even if the Lord was scarier; I didn’t really want the River, or the other gods, or the separations between souls.
RD: Which Wayward Children world do you think you would be best suited to? And which one might not be your vibe, but could still be fun to visit for a holiday?
SM: Out of the worlds we’ve seen, I would probably do the best in the Moors. I understand the rules, and they won’t hurt you if you do as is appropriate. For a vacation, I’d love to go to Stephanie’s world. She’d hate the company, but I’d enjoy the dinosaurs!
RD: What originally drew you to writing portal fantasy? What advice would you give to writers who want to explore this genre?
SM: I grew up in the 1980s, when portal fantasy was the default for most children’s entertainment, so it really got written deep into my storytelling DNA. I would advise reading and watching a lot of portal fantasy, and making a close study of the differences between portal fantasy and isekai. Both are awesome: they are not the same.
RD: One of my favorite aspects of your writing is the empathy and care you show toward your characters and their relationships. Do you have a favorite character to write?
SM: Out of the characters in this series, Jack. She’s my darling dear, and it’s hard not to just let her take over.
RD: Which books in the series were the hardest to write, and which came most easily to you?
SM: Lost in the Moment and Found was definitely the hardest, and both the books on the Moors have been sweet and easy.
RD: If Wayward Children were adapted into a television series, do you have a dream cast or dream voice actors if it were animated?
SM: I think a lot of the actors we’d want are undiscovered as yet–I’d want a young trans actor for Kade, and a very beautiful fat girl for Cora. It would be a lot of very specific casting notices!
RD: Which of the Wayward Children would win the most at Magic: the Gathering?
SM: Jack, because she understands the rules, tied with Sumi, because she doesn’t.
RD: If a Wayward Children video game were ever made, are there any existing animated projects or games you would want the art style to draw inspiration from?
SM: For a video game, I’d want something that drew inspiration from a more modern take on American McGee’s Alice.
What’s Next
RD: What’s next for you? I’d love to learn more about any other projects you may be working on that you can share at this time.
SM: I’m also a lady named Mira Grant, and Mira is currently writing a very classic creature feature horror novel about a slime that eats the world.
Thank you for reading!
More About Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire lives and works in Washington State, where she shares her somewhat idiosyncratic home with her collection of books, creepy dolls, and enormous blue cats. When not writing–which is fairly rare–she enjoys travel, and can regularly be found any place where there are cornfields, haunted houses, or frogs. A Campbell, Hugo, and Nebula Award-winning author, Seanan’s first book (Rosemary and Rue, the beginning of the October Daye series) was released in 2009, with more than twenty books across various series following since. Seanan doesn’t sleep much.
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