Letters to the Pumpkin King

by Seanan McGuire

This is the first collection of Seanan McGuire's non-fiction works. It contains everything from essays about "My Little Pony" and being a geek girl, to her advice on writing and things she's learned since becoming a published author, to poetry reprinted from her out-of-print, limited-edition collections, Paths Through the Babylon Wood and Leaves From the Babylon Wood.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Essays

387 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Hi! I'm Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I'm also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.

Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).

I do not check this inbox. Please don't send me messages through Goodreads; they won't be answered. I don't want to have to delete this account. :(

Reviews

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is probably more like 3.5 stars but i rounded up because it's seanan ;)

so this book is separated in to two sections. the first 270 are various essays and journal entries taken from her online platforms and the last 110ish are poetry - previously published on VERY limited release so this is currently the only way you can get those. i enjoyed it overall although it is a LOT to take in. it took me over a week to read this book and i still feel like i read it too fast.

the essays were very interesting and while i didn't always agree with her 100% seanan is very witty and insightful so it's always fun to read her opinion pieces. i only really have two complaints about this section and they're both more 'personal preference' than anything. the first is that essays were just ...VERY vaguely grouped by topic ...sometimes, and i really would have liked them to be in chronological order with original dates at the beginning of each. sometimes she tells you the year it is from if she deems it important but i just really like things to be in order and to me it's kind of jarring to read an essay about her winning her first hugo award then 30ish pages later you've got another one on how she'd really love to win a hugo but it's probably never going to happen. why not just put everything in order???? also there was a LOT of advice on writing which i mostly skimming because i'm not a writer, but i can't exactly dock points for that because obviously a writer is going to write about her writing process.

the poetry was pretty good as well. i'm not a huge fan of poetry in general but i liked hers more than most. it was mostly traditional-style stuff about faeries and fairy tales, as you would expect from seanan.

basically you should read this if you are a die-hard seanan fan but i'm not sure how much value it would have to someone who doesn't really know about her. also it's $20-30 depending on where you can find it so you know ...it's definitely something i had to talk myself into getting [although i'm glad i did! and i'm glad there was a black friday amazon code for $10 off a $25 book order + free shipping lol]

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

LETTERS TO THE PUMPKIN KING is a collection of two volumes of poetry that were originally published in very limited editions and a wide selection of mostly short essays that first appeared online as blog/journal entries. The table of contents alone runs nine pages, which gives an idea of the wide range of subject matter. The essays are very entertaining, written in an intelligent and impassioned manner. Even when I didn't quite completely agree with the substance a few times I was impressed with the sharp wit and clever style in which the arguments were presented. The poetry is quite good, too, being for the most part traditionally formatted verse about mythology and folklore. Overall, it's a very enjoyable, thought-provoking book. The cover is a very cool pumpkin-king-reading-letters painting by David Palumbo.

[Aimée · Rating 4 out of 5]

In diesem Band (erschienen als limitierte Edition bei NESFA Press) sind Texte zu folgenden Themen inkludiert (nicht erschöpfend^^):

~ Das Dasein als Autorin, Filkerin (Folk-Musik mit Nerd-Themen, wie irre!), Katzenmama

~ Leben als Geek-Girl, My Little Pony Sammlerin, Serienjunkie und Horrorfilmfan

~ Aufwachsen in übelster amerikanischer Armut

~ Hass-Rants auf die Modeindustrie und Erwartungen an Frauenkörper

~ Vergewaltigungen und wieso sie das ihren Protagonistinnen nicht antun wird (Trigger Warning, btw)

~ Diverse unterhaltsame Spiele wie Buch-Limericks, Blurb-Raten oder America's Next Top-Author!



Und das alles natürlich nicht chronologisch, denn das wäre ja vorhersehbar und langweilig. So steht mal ein politischer Post neben einer Katzen-Anekdote und eine Award-Show neben Horror-Haikus. Zum Schluss gibt es zwei Gedichtsammlungen, die bisher nur als limitierte Heftchen auf speziellen Cons erschienen sind zu den Themen Märchen, Mythen und magische Begegnungen im Wald. So ist nicht nur für jeden was dabei, jede*r kann auch noch was Interessantes lernen - oder wusstet ihr, was filken ist? Dass der Pumpkin King scheinbar eine eigene Religion hat? Oder Charaktere man besser nicht töten sollte?



Nachdem ich mich hoffnungslos in die "Wayward Children" verliebt habe, wollte ich a) zwischen den einzelnen Bänden was anderes lesen, damit ich mehr davon habe, und b) sehen, ob ich auch Seanan als Person mögen würde, daher habe ich mir diese Kollektion aus Essays und Blogeinträgen der letzten Jahre gekauft. Kann man eine Person lieben, der man nie begegnet ist? Wenn ich mir Seanans Meinungen so ansehe (und die Bazillionen Pagemarker), glaube ich, dass wir zumindest sehr gute Freundinnen werden könnten. Außerdem war ich noch nie neidisch auf die Einleitung, die andere über eine Person geschrieben haben, aber verdammt, ich wäre ein glücklicher verrückter Keks, wenn andere so über mich denken würden, wie Cat Valente und Elizabeth Bear über Seanan.



"Welcome to Seanan's world. It's a lovely place, full of fairies and pumpkins and autumn nights and truths told by candlelight."

[Estel · Rating 4 out of 5]

McGuire writes great little non-fiction essays. I think those are the stronger part of this book, though it's fascinating to see a lot of her poetry collected here. I understand now exactly how much she likes mermaids. This is also an interesting little time capsule into how much has changed in the last decade. I'm quite happy with having read it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction in the form of blog entries/short articles plus poetry reprinted from two limited edition collections with a fae theme - Leaves from the Babylon Wood & Paths Through the Babylon Wood. Published in 2013/14, so some of the news is old but the content on advice, writing, opinion pieces are still interesting and relevant. Good for Seaon McGuire fans.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Sheila Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the essays quite a bit. I'm not really a poetry person so I don't have much to say about the two poetry collections.

[Earl C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very short version:
-Essays/blog posts: 4.5 stars
-Writing: 4 stars
-Poetry: 3.5 stars
-Accessibility: 3.5 stars

This book is an interesting collection of blog posts and essays from the ever-turning corners of the mind of Seanan McGuire with two small collections of poetry added to the end. The topics range from the whimsical to the deeply serious and include but are not limited to: My Little Pony, fandom, writing, politics, personal revelation, rape, dealing with non-visible chronic illness, horror movies and some behind-the-scenes looks at conventions and awards ceremonies in the Fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror genre.

On balance they are well written and should be interesting to a wide range of people. There are some real gems in the mix including some very cogent thoughts on the process of writing. These can prove very useful to aspiring authors.

Your mileage will vary and your favorites likely will not be the same as mine but there is a great deal of good material here.

The poetry is an interesting addition, including a nice selection of her work that should appeal to those who enjoy more traditional forms of poetry worked heavily into the themes of fairy tales and fantasy.

For die-hard fans of Seanan, this is an absolute must. For lovers of fantasy/horror/science fiction it will likely have some very entertaining bits for you. Her analysis of various aspects of fandom are very interesting reads. My particular favorite being...something different every time I start to think about it.

[Anie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seanan McGuire is a delight, and several hundred pages of Seanan-brain is just a wonderful, wonderful thing. Her essays -- mostly blog posts converted into a collection of fun and wondrous things -- are, indeed, available for free on her blog; that being said, having them compiled so handily is quite nice. The poetry, on the other hand, is not available so freely, and it's well worth a read. Highly suggested for any Seanan fans.

[Pointsandwheels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooooooooo good. But better to be eaten in little doses. Pure, unadulterated Seanan is like a rich chocolate cake. Eat it in small bites.

I wasn't crazy about the poetry, but that's because I'm not terribly into poetry. I'm glad it's included though; it was interesting to see that side of her.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book filled with Seanan-brain, this collection of essays/blog posts is at times delightful, sometimes infuriating, sometimes sad and always entertaining.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of essays and journal entries. McGuire seems like a fascinating person that I would love to meet real-life! A couple of her essays really struck home with me...there was one that I bookmarked about loving oneself...I'll have to find the title of the essay. I'm not much into poetry, so the final bit of the book didn't hold me as much, but there was a great Mermaid poem that I also marked.

I'm going to look for her books now.