Did y’all know that I’m an award-winning singer/songwriter? It’s true! My Wikipedia page even says so! And my first studio album, Stars Fall Home, is available again for Hogswatch! Get your copy here:
Dorothy just wanted something that she could believe in,
A gray dustbowl girl in a life she was better off leavin’.
She made her escape, went from gray into green,
And she could have got clear, and she could have got clean,
But she chose to be good and go back to the gray Kansas sky
Where color’s a fable and freedom’s a fairy tale lie.
Alice got lost, and I guess that we really can’t blame her;
They say she got tangled and tied in the lies that became her.
They say she went mad, and she never complained,
For there’s peace of a kind in a life unconstrained.
She gives Cheshire kisses, she’s easy with white rabbit smiles,
And she’ll never be free, but she’s won herself safe for a while.
Susan and Lucy were queens, and they ruled well and proudly.
They honored their land and their lord, rang the bells long and loudly.
They never once asked to return to their lives
To be children and chattel and mothers and wives,
But the land cast them out in a lesson that only one learned;
And one queen said ‘I am not a toy’, and she never returned.
Mandy’s a pirate, and Mia weaves silk shrouds for faeries,
And Deborah will pour you red wine pressed from sweet poisoned berries.
Kate poses riddles and Mary plays tricks,
While Kaia builds towers from brambles and sticks,
And the rules that we live by are simple and clear:
Be wicked and lovely and don’t live in fear
Dorothy, Alice and Wendy and Jane,
Susan and Lucy, we’re calling your names,
All the Lost Girls who came out of the rain
And chose to go back on the shelf.
Tinker Bell says, and I find I agree You have to break rules if you want to break free.
So do as you like
—
we’re determined to be
Wicked girls saving ourselves.
For we will be wicked and we will be fair
And they’ll call us such names, and we really won’t care,
So go, tell your Wendys, your Susans, your Janes,
There’s a place they can go if they’re tired of chains,
And our roads may be golden, or broken, or lost,
But we’ll walk on them willingly, knowing the cost
—
We won’t take our place on the shelves.
It’s better to fly and it’s better to die
Say the wicked girls saving ourselves.
This side of the knife
When I was fool enough to wonder
Asked what I should not have asked
Called down rain and called down thunder
“This Side of the Knife,” a wonderfully dark and cryptic song by Talis Kimberley. This version was performed at MarCon by Seanan McGuire and Dead Sexy (Seanan McGuire, Amy McNally, Brenda Sutton, Teresa Powell, Dr. Mary Crowell, & Bill Sutton) with the fabulous Judi Miller providing ASL interpretation.
Talis Kimberley has described this song as a companion story to Crazy Man Michael, which doesn’t necessarily make it any less cryptic, but definitely provides some context.
Two the ocean races that of one blood remain;
A single skin encases the slayers and the slain,
But blood will blood deliver, though later comes the fee,
As every rushing river runs to one salt sea.
“One Salt Sea” by Cat Faber, inspired by the book of the same title in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series. If you’re not familiar with the series the lyrics will sound kinda cryptic, but they’re cool enough that it’s still worth a listen.
As you may know, my husband and I are working on an album together. I’ve already shared our Indiegogo link once, but I wanted to take a moment to highlight a really special fundraising perk.
In 2013, we were invited to be the Filk Waifs (Toastmasters) at FilKONtario and our dear friend @seananmcguire agreed to write our bio for the program book.
Of course, if you know Seanan at all, you’ve already guessed that what she supplied was no ordinary bio: she wrote an original short story, casting the two of us as characters. That story has only appeared in the program book, until now!
Campaign pledges of $30 or more get you a digital copy of that bio/story! And that’s not all the Seanan you’ll find on this project!
One of the tracks is a parody of Seanan’s song “Dear Gina,” with lyrics by me and @meravhoffman. The song imagines that October Day has gained sentience outside book world, realizes that Seanan is the one doing all of these horrible things to her, and threatens revenge. 😀
(Additionally, Seanan is going to supply us with some vocal tracks!)
I hope you’ll click the link and find out more about our project!
It’s not done until it’s told,
It’s not told until it’s written,
If I’m brave and if I’m bold,
I can challenge what’s forbidden,
For nobody gets to tell me
That I’ll never be the one.
When they ask you what befell me,
Say my story is not done.
“My Story is not Done” by Seanan McGuire, 2015 Pegasus Award winner for Best Filk Song. It’s performed here by Seanan, Amy McNally, Brenda Sutton, Bill Sutton, Teresa Powell, Dr. Mary Crowell and Judi Miller.
I never thought that I could hold you forever
Always knew deep down you’d have to go home
I can be grateful for these bright years together
And I know you miss the salt sea foam
If you hurry, you can still catch the tide, my love
If you hurry you can still catch the tide.
“Still Catch the Tide” by Talis Kimberley, performed here by Seanan McGuire with Michelle “Vixy” Dockrey, Tony Fabris, S.J. Tucker, and Amy McNally. Lyrics are available here.
This is one of my favorite songs to sing along to when I want to be Sad About The Sea (a specific emotion that I experience with alarming regularity.)
“Paper Moon” by Seanan McGuire, performed here by Seanan, S.J. Tucker, Vixy & Tony, and Betsy Tinney.
As Seanan explains before performing, “In a dimension very much like our own, Firefly is still on the air and they’ve made spin offs. And I keep writing theme songs for those spin offs.”
(Series: Filksong Genealogy)
Above we have Seanan McGuire’s “Wicked Girls” (lyrics), performed in concert by the author along with Michelle “Vixy” Dockrey and Tony Fabris, S.J. “Sooj” Tucker, and Amy McNally.
And below, we have Bob Kanefksy’s truly wicked parody, “Save Yourselves!” (lyrics), performed in circle by Vixy and Tony. Yes, that’s Seanan nearby in the circle, and yes, she’s hearing it for the first time.
