Welcome to Talebones!
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!
Subscribe for FREE to receive every new tale straight to your inbox, or Support Talebones with a Paid Subscription for access to the archive of paywalled work, bonus materials, and more!
What you can expect if you subscribe…
Talebones publishes new content on a seasonal schedule, as follows:
Tuesdays: musings on writing, creativity, and general writerly updates published on the Talebones home page. We call these Talebones Tuesday!
Fridays: when in season, you’ll get serialized fiction, posted section-by-section.
TBD: one-off short or flash fiction as and when the inspiration strikes! (My goal is to post 3-4 pieces of short fiction per month.)
Curious about how our seasonal publishing works?
Click here for information about the Current Publishing Schedule!
And as a bonus…
When you subscribe, you also get automatic access to TALESTACK NEWS where I share all the most news-worthy announcements from around the Substack fiction community, twice a month! (Not interested? Here’s how to opt out!)
AI Use & Pangram Statement
ALL written content posted online and published in digital or physical form is fully written, edited, produced, and formatted by S.E. Reid, unless otherwise stated.
Images, branding, and covers are all produced by S.E. Reid (unless otherwise stated) using public domain graphics, fonts, and stock photographs.
Other human professionals and artists who contribute to Talebones will always be fully credited for their work.
No generative AI is used.
NOTE for full transparency: While it was being serialized, the thumbnail images for my second-ever serial, Goldgreen, were AI-generated, with full disclosure in each post. This was back when the Substack image feature was new, and I was curious about its use and foolishly unaware of the ethics involved. Those images have since been replaced with stock photographs, and all of my thumbnail images, covers, and branding before and since have been (and always will be) produced, to the best of my ability and knowledge, without the use or “aid” of AI.
—
Pangram Statement 2026
While I have nothing but respect for the writers who choose to turn off the recently-implemented native Pangram feature, I have chosen (so far) to leave it on.
Ever since I launched this newsletter in summer of 2023 I have asked you to trust me when I say that I don’t use AI in my writing—whether fiction or housekeeping—or in my published books. Not to generate text, assist, edit, advise, format, anything. I have never used AI for these things, and I never will. I value my process, voice, and creativity too much to take what I perceive to be a harmful shortcut. That is my promise to you, and the entire professional relationship between you and me, through Talebones, has hinged on that trust.
Personally, I will be ignoring the Pangram feature. I won’t be using it to scan my own work—I will never know how AI-esque the AI-scanner thinks my writing is. As a former educator, I do resent that my long-studied ability to write clearly and professionally is now a “tell” for being inhuman, but that’s a different story.
Equally, I will not be turning the scanning feature off. This is my extension of trust back to you. I have asked you to trust me, and now I’m entrusting you in return with the scanning feature. It might even tell you that a percentage of my work is AI-generated or assisted. It’s wrong, but it will be up to you whether you trust it, or you trust me. That is the privilege you are allowed to have. And if you decide that I am not trustworthy, and it hinders your ability to enjoy my writing, you are allowed to take your readership elsewhere. That is your freedom.
My genuine hope is that Substack will reverse-course and remove Pangram from the platform entirely. I believe it is a net negative and an unnecessary—even harmful—obstacle to place between writers and their audiences. But until that happens, if it ever does, it’s only fair that you and I both have an equalized balance of power in this situation, especially if you’re going to offer your time, attention, and even money to my work.
It has been my greatest pleasure to bring you homegrown, handmade, human-hearted fiction, and I hope to earn your continued trust every time we sit down to enjoy a story together in the months and years to come.
Your grateful storyteller,
S.E. Reid
Credits & Interviews
Awards & Accolades
Summer 2023 Lunar Awards Honorable Mention (for The Orchard Hounds)
2023 Lunar Impact Award Winner
January 2024 - Substack Featured Publication
Interviews
Lunar Award Impact Interview (hosted by Brian Reindel) - December 2023
8 Questions with S.E. Reid (hosted by Eleanor Anstruther) - July 2024
Spoken Ward Podcast Episode with Bridget Riley (hosted by John Ward) - September 2024
“Auntie Sally’s Recipes” (hosted by Andrei Atanasov) - October 2024
2x2 Interview (hosted by Ann Kimbrough) - February 2025
Top In Fiction Interview (hosted by Erica Drayton) - June 2025
Craft Chat (hosted by Eleanor Anstruther) - August 2025
Serials on Substack | Panel Discussion with Bridget Riley and Hanna Delaney (hosted by Erica Drayton) - August 2025
CHOW Interview (hosted by Vince Wetzel) - August 2025
Brief Bio
S.E. Reid is an author and editor living 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.
You can find more of S.E. Reid’s nonfiction, poetry, and spiritual writings here on Substack at The Wildroot Parables.
Or, for more news, social media, and general contact info, find her here.
