Auntie Sally’s Recipes with S.E. Reid

Interview Series, Part VI

Good day, dearest reader. It’s time for another entry in our Interview Series, where I host a diverse array of writers and other artists with one thing in common: I find them compelling.

This one has been a long time coming, and I’m very excited to share it with you.

Today, I bring a conversation with Substack fiction star S.E. Reid of Talebones ✨ fame. For those who don’t know her (where have you been?), here’s her own description of the kind of writing you can find on her newsletter:

This is the world you know, but slightly off-kilter.

Haunted farmhouses, unlikely heroes, beasts in the woods, strange gardens, mysterious birdsong…

Talebones is an ongoing collection of character-driven speculative fiction with a spiritual, supernatural, or uncanny twist. A mix of historical, fantasy, horror, and literary fiction with gentle humor and hopeful depth, you can find short tales and serialized works here to suit a variety of tastes!

We talk about pets, mentors, writing recipes, and her plans for the future.

This is S.E. Reid.

Hey, S.E.! So glad you could join us. How was your summer?

It’s absolutely my pleasure, Andrei! Thanks for having me!

Summer was really good, actually! Usually I find the hot weather pretty uninspiring and exhausting, but since we adopted a new dog back in spring, I spent most of the summer months soaking up the sun and fresh air. We played a LOT of games of fetch, did a lot of training, and got our new girl acquainted with life around here. Tons of fun!

Now that we’ve broken the ice, let’s talk shop. What does writing mean to you?

What a question! Let’s back up while I ponder. 

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been pretty obsessed with stories. I just love a good story; there’s nothing quite like it. My dad used to tell me little stories before bedtime, stuff he would make up, and it always amazed me that he could do that. My parents also read to me early, books of all types. All of this started a lifelong desire to hunt for great storytelling wherever it hides, and figure out how to do it, myself. 

As a result, I love books, I love movies, I love theater, I love TV shows…I even love visual storytelling, like graphic novels and illustration. And writing, specifically? To me, writing was an early gateway into being able to tell the kinds of stories I always enjoyed reading/watching/hearing for myself. It was something I found came relatively easily to me when I was young, and I’ve been cultivating that skill ever since. 

Did you ever have a writing mentor? If so, what were they like?

Never a specific, single mentor. But I was blessed with a LOT of great school teachers and creative friends. 

All of the Language Arts teachers I’ve had throughout the years, from elementary school through community college, have been instrumental in helping me learn my craft in their own way, either by assigning and analyzing certain books—even if I didn’t love the books at the time—or through their careful editing and workshopping of my written work. I did have a particular Drama teacher in high school who was wonderful. She let me write two different plays, and each were performed as Dessert Theater by our advanced theater troupe, and that was extremely inspiring for me, to be given that kind of responsibility and creative space. 

I’ve also had a few wonderful creative friends and peer groups throughout the years. In high school especially, my close friends and I used to share our stories with each other on a private forum—my first crack at serialization!—and I had some good experiences with peer groups through National Novel Writing Month in my region, too.  

Your stories range from the more realistic to the mythical to the futuristic, but as a whole, most of your fiction falls under the umbrella of speculative. What do you think speculative fiction can accomplish that fiction limited by reality cannot?

When I think of speculative fiction, I think of wrapping the mundane in shiny packaging to make it more enticing. Like flower petals attracting bees. The more colorful and elaborate the petals, the more likely the bee is to pay attention, to come and sip, and the pollen—the message—spreads. 

Most stories in human history boil down to only a handful of truths and themes, but the way we “wrap them up” is what changes. Setting a story in another land, another time, or surrounded by strange characters, makes us contemplate these truths from multiple angles, the “speculation” part of “speculative” fiction. If you want to remind someone of their humanity, or teach them about your point of view, there are few better ways than to disguise that message in something unfamiliar, colorful, and compelling. We are hardwired to learn this way. 

And, at the end of the day, speculative fiction is also just fun. It’s the sweet nectar part of the flower. We get to enjoy a delicious escape, if only for a little while.

What’s your recipe for crafting a quick, compelling story, such as flash- or micro-fiction? Is your process any different when writing short as opposed to long?

The process is similar for all of my work, actually! Just varying degrees of control. 

For short pieces, I like to have the whole thing planned out in detail, beginning to end, before I start writing. This is because short pieces have less breathing-room to waffle. I want to know what it is I mean to say and why. Is this simply a vignette, a moody little scene? Is this trying to “say” something, a moral? If I only have less than 1,000 words to say it, then I need to know up front. First line and last line should be crystal clear in my head. 

My longer pieces can afford to be a bit more “sketchy” when I set out. There may be whole sections missing from the outline in a serial, for example, but I trust my instincts enough to know that I’ll know what to do when I get there, based on what came before. This sketchy method is less practical in a short piece. 

Whether microfiction or an episodic serial, one thing remains constant, and that’s my firm belief in character motivation. Anyone who has read anything about how I put my work together will feel that I’m a broken record, maybe, but I swear by this: 

To write anything, you need 1) a character who cares about something, 2) a thing that they want more than anything else in the world, and 3) something/someone standing in their way. Once you have those three things, stories practically write themselves as you follow that character around their world, attempting to get their heart’s desire and facing obstacle after obstacle. The story ends when they get the thing they want, or they don’t. 

There is no exact science in storytelling, but the above is as close to a recipe as I think you can get!

Are there any pieces of writing advice you got early on that you still hold close?

You know what’s funny? I’ve wracked my brain to answer this question, and I think my inability to come up with an answer is telling. Every piece of advice and every rule I’ve ever learned about writing has been contradicted, bent, or broken, in one way or another. 

Because of this, I think the best piece of advice is this: learn the rules so you can break them. Once you understand WHY a rule exists, you can find out whether it fits in your work, or whether there’s a way to bend it. The mindful bending and breaking of rules in art is called style. But if you want to find your unique voice, you have to learn the standards first. This is true of all art, but especially writing.  

Pick one favorite author in each genre that you write and tell us why.

This was kind of tricky, but I think I can argue for these being the top three writers I’ve learned the most from:

—Lord Dunsany (fantasy/speculative): I went through a phase in my twenties of being obsessed with Dunsany. I’ve read a huge majority of his short fiction, and I just love it. These early fantasy writers were writing before the tropes had really been solidified, so their wacky creativity is really fun to experience. Dunsany had a whimsical way of looking at the world, but there was also a macabre edge to his work that I really love. And could the man write a twist ending! Sometimes the final line would recontextualize the entire piece. Genius. 

—Shirley Jackson (horror): Shirley Jackson is considered a master for a reason. I particularly enjoy her short stories. They are bleak and unsettling and make the everyday feel super uncomfy. I’m a big fan of mundane/domestic horror, and her work typifies the genre. My favorite short story of hers is “The Man In The Woods”; it feels like a nightmare. 

—Tana French (genre-hopper): This one is cheating a little. I don’t write in Tana French’s genre, but I would be remiss if I didn’t include her as a writer who changed the way I write. Her work is so, so exquisitely beautiful, even though she writes crime fiction…a genre not known for being “literary”. But defies genre. She crafts these incredibly mythic narratives, tormented characters, and the landscape of Ireland (where her books are set) is as much a character as anything. I own all of her books and I read through them whenever I feel in a creative slump. 

What’s the meaning behind the name of your fiction newsletter, Talebones?

The truth? It was a typo. :)

About…six years ago? I was working at a high school as a special needs paraeducator, and I was writing an incident report. I tried to type in “tailbone” and accidentally wrote “talebone”. I thought this was entirely too funny and squirreled it away as a title for something, though I didn’t know what. I had never heard of Substack. I’m actually not sure whether Substack existed back then! But I put the idea away for later. 

In 2023 when I launched my fiction Substack, I didn’t have much of a plan, but I pulled out my commonplace book and saw my little “talebone” note and thought…sure! That’ll work, even if it’s just a placeholder. But it stuck, and I’m so glad. I really enjoy the name, and I think it does a fair job of giving people the tone of my work. A little strange, a little creepy, a little clever. At least I hope so!

How do you feel about pets?

Love them! My husband and I are big animal fans. Right now we have two dogs. Finn is a nearly-hundred-pound Bernese/Goldendoodle. He’s four years old, and we got him as a puppy, a gift from a dear family friend. He’s a big, friendly, stubborn teddy bear of a dog, and the best boy. His sister, Huck, came to us back in April. She belonged to a neighbor who needed to rehome her. She’s a Yellow Laborador, and she’ll be two years old in December. She’s a wiggly, snuggly, energetic noodle, and she’ll be your best friend forever if you throw a ball for her. We absolutely adore her. A perfect addition to our family, and she and Finn get along so well!

No other pets at the moment. We’re hoping to get some kind of egg-laying birds soon—either chickens or ducks—but will probably wait until spring for that. :)

Last question. What’s next for S.E. Reid? Any plans of expansion beyond Substack?

My next big adventure is to try and get my first self-published book—an anthology of my Ferris Island short stories—into the hands of readers as an ebook and/or print book this October. Having a library of such books available to purchase over the next few years is a real dream of mine. 

I know everyone’s idea of “success” as a writer looks different. To me, it’s the ability to make a living through diverse means: my freelancing work as an editor and copywriter, paid subscriptions, my merch shop, potential print books, etc. All the threads working together. I don’t want fame, and I don’t need wealth. All I want is to make a comfortable living so I can write for the rest of my life. That’s the dream. And Substack is literally the first platform that has ever made me feel like that dream is possible, through its community atmosphere and vast array of tools to connect with an audience. 

So. Unless something drastic changes, this is home. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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And that’s the end of it. Thanks for checking this one out. You can subscribe to S.E. Reid’s newsletter Talebones ✨ at: