My name is S. O’Duinn Magee, and I’m a writer.
It’s true, “S. O’Duinn Magee” is really my name and it’s a great name for a book jacket or a business card – very formal, very professional. It’s not exactly friendly , though, actually kind of hard for folks to remember unless they know how I got my name because of my dad and my grandfather and a book of Irish Fairies, so most everyone just calls me “Mags.”
All my life, I knew I’d be a writer some day. I’ve loved stories ever since my grandmother started reading me fairy tales like “The Little Match Girl” and “The Ice Queen,” and I’ve always loved books: the feel of them, the smell of them, the way they look when they’re lined up on my bookshelves and overflowing onto tables and chairs.
Somehow, though, I was never ready to say “I’m a writer.” Before I could make that commitment I needed to read more and learn more so I’d have Something Important To Say. In other words, I needed to have adventures like discovering Shangri-La and floating down the Mississippi on a raft. And I needed to have dalliances with romantic heroes like Rhett Butler and Heathcliff. And I needed to get a real job with a secure income and benefits and build up my IRA so I’d have a safety net and wouldn’t have to starve in a garret . . .
Okay, okay, so maybe I was just scared. When my world suddenly fell apart, I realized I’d been given A Sign and better pay attention. That’s when I quit my job as an English professor, moved back to Daytona Beach where I grew up, and figured I’d start right in, writing the novel I’ve been planning for years.
I’m totally serious about writing my dream novel, but I have a very bad habit of letting myself get distracted by other projects. Like collaborating with my composer-friend Christopher so we could write an opera. Or like writing up the adventures of my friend Talisman Janeway who’s a professor and lives in DeLand. Or like writing books about the whack-a-doodle family of my young friend Sterling in Ponce Inlet. I was reluctant to take that job at first, but when Sterling told me their story is like grafting Star Trek onto Seinfeld, I was hooked. (Click here to see more about these at The Anthropocene Manifesto–A Series)
So I currently have all these writing projects going on, and in the meantime I keep myself financially afloat by turning out a series of gift-type cookery books that my co-author Booker and I call Kitchen Table Books. Each Kitchen Table Book has literary or artistic aspirations and features a cleverly allusive title like Toasting with Toulouse: Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.
As to personal things about me:
- I live alone except for my cat Schrödinger.
- My apartment does not have a kitchen.
- I love strong black coffee, single malt Scotch, and Moon Pies (not necessarily in that order).
- I generally wear black because it’s easy (blacks always match and they don’t show ketchup stains).
- My favorite fiction-writers are Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Margaret Atwood (not necessarily in that order).
- I am passionate about opera.
- My favorite poet is William Butler Yeats.
- I talk to my cat.
For a more formal biography, go to my Press Page.
My name is S. O’Duinn Magee, and I’m A Writer. And I’ll love it if you call me Mags.