Ghosts, Gardens, and Ferris Island: S.E. Reid’s Uncanny Fiction Finds Its Home

The CHOW Interview: How a ghost-loving poet turned rejection into a thriving Substack of uncanny fiction, Pacific Northwest lore, and reader-fueled storytelling magic.

S.E. Reid is a freelance writer, editor, poet, and the purveyor of the wildly creative and successful Substack Talebones, 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.

She lives on a patch of wooded wetland in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and her two big goofball dogs, Finn and Huck. She loves to hear and tell stories about nature, history, ghosts, and God, and when not writing she loves to cook nourishing food, read widely, and tend to her vegetable garden.

[VW} Welcome Sally.

[SER} Hi, Vince! Thanks so much for that gracious introduction!

[VW] Now, many of us know you from Substack. What was your writing journey before joining the platform?

[SER} I used to joke that I’ve been writing ever since I was old enough to gnaw on a pencil. My childhood was very imaginative; I read a lot, played a lot of storytelling games with friends, and came up with lots of my own stories in the hopes of turning them into books one day. When I got a bit older I started writing more fiction for fun, only sharing it with people close to me. By the time I reached adulthood I knew that I wanted to be a writer, I just didn’t know how to make that happen. So I gathered lots of ideas and I wrote and wrote, but never really finished anything.

That said, over the years I had some wonderful experiences with joining local NaNoWriMo groups, using my creativity in school and in my various day-jobs, sharing my writing with fellow creative friends, and practicing my skills in private, so I don’t see any of that as wasted time.

[VW] Before Substack, how were you releasing your stories into the world? And how did you feel about the publishing environment then? Were you frustrated?

[SER} In 2018 I had my first brush with traditional publishing when a short story I submitted got accepted by an online webzine (highly recommended; they’re a lovely market to work with) called Mysterion. I truly thought that experience would be my “ticket” to success…but I wasn’t ready for just how loud the crickets can be when you don’t have a pre-built audience to launch to. Still, it was a good experience and I’m grateful for it. But I knew I wanted something more.

Frustration is a good word for it. I looked at the landscape of traditional publishing and couldn’t really see myself fitting into it, and that made me sad. And at the time self-publishing still had a bit of a stigma attached to it and I didn’t know the first thing about even attempting something like that, so I didn’t see myself going that route either. It was all pretty disheartening.

[VW] We flash forward to lockdown. You start a non-fiction Substack. Then, Notes is launched on Substack, and you start interacting with fiction writers. How did these conversations influence you to get back into writing fiction again?

[SER} It all coincided with a short story I had recently finished and had tried shopping around to a handful of different online publishers. I had received some feedback from one or two markets that the story was just a little too weird to be marketable and flat rejections from the rest, and so I assumed that was that.

When I started interacting with more fiction writers on Substack it dawned on me (I’m slow on the uptake) that I could send out my weird short story to people who might actually enjoy it. Cut out the middle-man and go straight to the readership source, as it were. With the encouragement and example of those writers, I felt emboldened to share my fiction in ways I had never considered before.

So I started a new Substack called Talebones, where my fiction could live. And I threw that weird little short story out there as my first official piece of fiction on the platform. It was called A Thing Must Be Loved, and I was floored by the positive reaction it received. It was exactly the kind of audience connection I had always hoped for. From there, I was hooked.

[VW] From my perspective, it was like you were injected with super serum. You began publishing several different styles of writing, from flash fiction to a serial. What was in that super serum... Or, what has helped you push out so much great original fiction?

[SER} Ha! Well, I’ve learned that I am absolutely inspired and compelled by the reader/writer relationship in ways that really do super-charge my output. I see myself as a storyteller first and a writer second; I just love telling stories to others, and writing happens to be the medium I feel most comfortable using to do so.

Having a direct connection with my readers keeps me going in a way I never dreamed, so when I found an audience waiting to read my work it was like uncorking a bottle. Suddenly all these ideas I’d had floating around in my brain found a voice for the first time. It’s been a wildly productive force. And sure, I go through dry spells just like any creative, but knowing that I have a gracious following happy to take my work at face value makes all the difference in the world.

[VW] What do you struggle with most in your writing, and how do you push through it?

[SER} My biggest struggle is probably the natural slowdown that happens when I’m burned out. When I’m in the zone it’s all go-go-go—I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie with creativity—but what goes up must come down. And I don’t rest very well. I always feel like I should be doing something.

Thankfully, part of the beauty of Substack is that I get a real-time laboratory to test my limits in, and also learn my own rhythms, routine, and process. So a few years in now, the slowdowns don’t scare me so much. I know the motivation will come back as long as I give my brain some much-needed rest and don’t force anything. Slow seasons are just as important as productive ones.

[VW] The Pacific Northwest plays a lot into your stories, many of them set on the fictional Ferris Island. What draws you to this region, and can you describe its hold on you and your writing?

[SER} If you had told me as a kid that someday I would find so much storytelling potential in Washington State, I would have made a face and told you no way. I always thought the idea of writing about my home region was soooooo boring. But I think what started to change my mind was a college class I took on Pacific Northwest history. The professor was a great storyteller—and that definitely helps—but there was also so much about the region I had never heard before. The history bug bit me.

My parents were an inspiration, too. Family road-trips were a huge part of my childhood; my parents loved to go for drives. So we would take day-trips or camping-trips to various places around the state, and it gave me a deep sense of awe for all the varied and diverse landscapes that Washington has to offer. It’s truly incredible!

Washington is also a hotbed for weird stuff: Sasquatch, Men In Black (the original story happened not far from where I live), aliens, ghost stories, and all kinds of other phenomena spring up along the region’s timeline and pop up in paranormal research. The mixture of deep untouched woods, mountains, seascapes, and urban sprawl lends itself to all kinds of potential for creepy and unsettling tales.

I love Washington history so much I’ve started collecting weird, niche, interesting, or vintage books about it. I find a TON of storytelling inspiration in those pages.

[VW] You've created this island with a whole history as a blank canvas. How did you go about world-building, and when did you find out that you could really play around in this fictional area?

[SER} I really wanted Ferris Island—as fantastical as it is—to feel as real as possible. So I made sure that it fit neatly into pre-established Washington history and populated it with characters who are patchwork creations of folks I know in real life. This gave me all kinds of necessary limitations but also freed up a LOT of room to play. Since the island was founded in 1792, that’s hundreds of years of history to dabble in. And even the modern version of the island has its links in my real-life experiences. It’s a phenomenal playground.

Frankly, so much of what's been built on Ferris Island has come about through readers showing continued interest in it from the start of Talebones. I had a lot of vague notes and ideas about the place to begin with, but writing about it has cemented them in my mind. Substack is largely responsible for bringing this place to life.

[VW] Out of your serials, you created Ivy and Ixos, a full novella that started as a serial on Substack. What was that process, and what pushed you to make the story its own book?

[SER} Funny enough, because Ivy & Ixos was my first serial on Substack I intended it to be my first-ever published work and was going to publish it pretty quickly after I had serialized it. But because I had never self-published before I found myself too bogged down in details and I ended up shelving it for later, opting instead to make The Orchard Hounds (a short story collection) my publication guinea pig. Then, after I had learned all kinds of lessons from that experience, I turned my attention to Ivy.

My ultimate goal is to see most of my Substack fiction in print at some point or another. Sure, some stories might need hefty rewrites in order to meet my standards, but I do see it as a pipeline. Publish on Substack, then publish in print for a wider audience. Substack is the perfect petri dish.

[VW] You not only share great fiction, but you're often a cheerleader. You have "Talestack News" to announce others’ achievements. On notes, you also provide encouragement, which is always refreshing. How do you see your role as a creative peer on this platform?

[SER} That’s very kind of you to say! I think the easiest way to summarize my feelings about it is a metaphor I’ve used before: an audience of any size is a megaphone. And Substack has handed me a bigger megaphone than I’ve ever had in my whole life, so I feel a deep responsibility—and honor!—to use it well. It costs me nothing to share genuine positivity and encouragement with those around me but it can pay off big in a general atmosphere of support and gratitude. The Internet can be such a cynical place, but I do believe that sincerity is worth cultivating.

Believe me: I’m human. I have my bad days and my petty days and my angry days and my who-the-hell-cares days, but if I can channel that into urging others onward I’ve found that it bolsters my own ability to keep going, too.

[VW] Fiction substackers bemoan how tough it is to succeed on this platform. What is your perspective, and I'm not talking about subscriber hacks or making money on this platform, on finding your ‘why’ and using Substack as a tool to reach for that why?

[SER} Ooft, I could take the whole interview talking about that! I’ll try to keep it brief-ish.

You nailed what I think is the first thing people forget: find your why. Not the why you THINK you should have, or the why that that other person has, but YOUR why. It will cut out a lot of the unnecessary BS that tends to proliferate in creative spaces like this (comparison, envy, unhealthy competition, stat-obsession, entitlement, etc).

Remember always that Substack is a suite of tools. Good tools, fun tools, occasionally imperfect tools, but tools. It’s also a social platform, but I think people put too much stock in that part of it too soon. Your first job is to find your why and then implement the tools you’ve been given by this website to make it happen. Your email list is more important than your presence on Notes. Those subscribers are humans who want to hear from you, so they should be your first priority. Make your “space” tidy and easy to navigate. Understand how the newsletter format works and use it to your advantage in your storytelling. And yes: make connections with others through the social channels like Notes, but if you have a bunch of garbage blocking the front door it’ll be tough to invite those people over to your “house”. If you want people to read your work, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Online, reader attention is especially finite.

I’ve known from pretty early on that my main goal is to build an audience for my fiction so that I can write until I die and know that people are reading. I have zero expectations that Substack will ever be my main source of income; it doesn’t pay my mortgage now, but it does occasionally pay a bill or two, and I’m extremely grateful for that. If the money is what mattered to me I would have a very different strategy.

But as it is, I always try to keep my goals aligned with my output: quality fiction that’s easy to find, navigate, and enjoy, and the occasional platform-specific boost to share my audience with others. While I’m happy to keep finessing it as I grow, I could see myself doing this strategy forever. It truly fulfills me.

[VW] What's next for you? Any big projects you're working on while provided new material for growing online audience?

[SER} I’m deep in the self-publishing storm at the moment, trying to bring my first non-Ferris Island short story collection to book form, called The Shell. That should be out this fall, God willing. There’s also quite a lot of admin I’d like to do around my already-published work, getting it into local bookstores and broadening its reach through IngramSpark. I’m also in the early stages of publishing a surrealist dystopian serial with a hopeful twist called Smoke-Mouth, which is available right here on Substack for free.

Learning all the time, trying things all the time, deepening my skills, expressing my sincere gratitude along the way…this is what it’s all about!

[VW] Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Best of luck "in the stacks."

[SER} Thank YOU, Vince! This has been a blast! See you around!

If you’re tasting the Salted Wetzel for the first time…

Welcome! I’m Vince Wetzel, author of FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES (2021), the award-winning LOSE YOURSELF (2024), and a third novel currently in that precarious editing phase of unreadable and mildly entertaining. This newsletter is my literary sandbox, emotional junk drawer, and occasional cry for help disguised as content. It features short fiction, fridge philosophies (you know, the good quotes you see someone important said and you wish you would have come up yourself), interviews with authors who are far more interesting than me, and random thoughts, reviews, and side bits that didn’t make it into my books because they were either too weird or too honest.

I’m a husband, father, and California dweller who enjoys falling asleep to televised sports that move slower than my writing process. I read compulsively, enjoy touring the brewery scene with my buddies, and occasionally pretend I understand world events.

If you’re looking for polished wisdom or life hacks, you’re in the wrong inbox. But if you enjoy fiction with bite, musings with heart, and the kind of humor that masks deep existential dread—pull up a chair. I promise not to overshare. (That’s a lie.)

Beta copies are out (gulp)

Last week, I sent out the LANDSLIDE manuscript to several beta readers for their feedback. This third novel has taken several years to reach this point. In fact, I began writing this manuscript during COVID. Eventually, I set it aside and wrote “LOSE YOURSELF,” but this redemption story stuck with me.

Oh, I am now on TikTok

And I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m at vince.wetzel.author. I also have a new author Instagram @vincewetzelauthor and Facebook @vincewetzelauthor. connect with me!