The Cool Kid of the Pacific Northwest
Champion Series: S.E. Reid
Before I read a word of her stories, the graphic designer in me was impressed. I can’t help but admire a good clean brand image when I see one. S.E. Reid has done this, flawlessly. Her imagery reflects the nature she weaves into her fiction and surely her life.
But it’s the stories she writes that deserve your full attention. Reid will take you with her to smell the conifers and ferns. You’ll set your feet onto the spongey coastal forest floor and then wander down to the sand to find a seashell and a tide-smooth piece of driftwood. She writes in a wide variety of formats, from poetry to longer serial fiction. A piece of flash fiction called “The Wager” draws you right into its atmosphere and then provides a good satisfying twist. She has done quite a bit of stretching through genres as well, from the tech-horror/urban legend of the short piece called “Hey Eye”, to the down-to-earth sci-fi of “The Shell”.
In fact, her seven-part series, “The Shell”, was the first of her stories to catch my full attention. This story is one that stays with me, and I love that. It delves into ethical questions, putting them into your mind instead of the page. The Shell begs readers to ask the questions of themselves: “What is forgiveness?”, “Who can forgive?”, and “Who should be forgiven?”
Reid’s most recent serial novella, “Sayblood’s Children”, is a strange and brutal love story that brings an ancient underworld myth into a tender role on the Pacific Northwest coast. It’s amazing how well Reid not only humanizes a rather uncuddly underworld demi-goddess to live and breathe in our world, but she also creates sympathy for her plight.
If you like to wander in the mist and be a little haunted, but you also like a satisfying undercurrent of meaning in your fiction, check out S.E. Reid’s Talebones, and specifically, “The Shell”.
A guest post by Shannon Haynes:
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The wonderful description of S.E. Reid's writing has definitely captured my imagination and interest; I will be eager to read some of S.E.'s writing.
I agree with every word!