15 Comments
User's avatar
Bridget Riley's avatar

This is making me want to go back and explore my own high school and college scribblings (which were undoubtedly very angsty)!

Expand full comment
S.E. Reid's avatar

DO IT

There could be gold in them-thar Mountains of Angst! 😂

Expand full comment
A. C. Sanders's avatar

I LOVE that you implemented ideas from high school! And Myan folklore was an inspiration for your story!!

So Amazing! I am looking forward to more Ferris Island tales. 🤍

(also if you ever need an illustrator down the road…. I volunteer as tribute.)

Expand full comment
S.E. Reid's avatar

Thank you so much!!

(And uh…you better not be joking, because I’m absolutely going to remember you volunteered… 😂♥)

Expand full comment
A. C. Sanders's avatar

🤣 April Fools was yesterday Sally! I am serious. It would be a dream project! 🤍 Keep me posted.

Expand full comment
J. Curtis's avatar

Really interesting backstory. On my shelf, beaten up and loved: Dennis Tedlock’s translation of the Popol Vuh.

Expand full comment
S.E. Reid's avatar

YES!! Love it!

Thanks, J!

Expand full comment
William F. Edwards's avatar

I've had a story that has also been following me for quite some time and has certainly benefited from the time it took shelved, so hearing the background for this gives me hope. Ironically mine has gone the other direction in setting, from urban fantasy to portal fantasy.

It's interesting how people come across older things like mythology, that sort of discovery with the play is why I think it's important to make works that engage with older material.

Also for anyone who wants to read the mythology discussed here, there's a free up to date translation of the Popol Vuh (the main source for it) available online as a PDF: https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf

Expand full comment
S.E. Reid's avatar

Thank you, William, and I so agree! The more exposure we can have to stuff outside of our direct experience the better; our minds and imaginations are so easily broadened that way. :)

Thanks for sharing the PDF, and I'm SO GLAD you're working on your longtime story!! Take it from me: there's plenty of goodness to be found in those stories that just won't leave us alone.

Expand full comment
Frank's avatar

S.E., had a little real life reality check, so I'm a little late getting to de-brief. Worth the wait in spades!!! In my wildest imagining, neverrr! Magnificent and intoxicating!!! Now I feel like I understand so much more about the well spring of your creativity!!! Thank you for sharing a little bit of your sorceress magic decoded...and for scattering catnip all over my floor! I will be reveling in the possibility, nay likelihood (with a cover draft to live for) of seeing that novella in publication!!! Yes!!!

Expand full comment
Shannon W Haynes's avatar

Makes me wonder if I will ever get back to my Amazonian adventure story

Expand full comment
Sara Dietz's avatar

Love hearing from others who are returning to the angsty but earnest writings of their teenage explorations 😍😭

Expand full comment
Richard Ritenbaugh's avatar

Thanks for this "debrief." I can hear echoes of my own writerly journey in what you have done with "Sayblood's Children." I have been writing about the same world since I was about twelve (some 45+ years ago!). The earliest stuff is pretty bad overall, but some of the old ideas, people, names, geography, scenarios, etc., keep popping up in my more recent writing. I believe it helps to give my current stories a bit more depth of culture and history.

Expand full comment
Leanne Shawler's avatar

Loving all of this. I too am finding that older work is finding a home in my Môrdreigiau Chronicles. I don’t really expect that my 13 Arthurian Treasures series would actually become a thing, but by the time the series is done I’ll get to 3 of them! (Fairly sure. There’s a potential fourth but I am feeling leery of shoe-horning it in.)

Expand full comment
Stephanie Loomis's avatar

fascinating

Expand full comment