S.E. Phinney's Blog

When I was writing my first book, I made the conscious decision not to describe characters in ways that could be used to definitively identify them as belonging to (or not belonging to) any particular race. I wanted readers to be able to imagine the people they were reading about in whatever way they wanted. I thought this would help. I was mistaken.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty well accepted today that for most readers, unless a character’s race is specified, they’re interpreted as, by default...

I figure August through October counts as fall, yeah?  A small selection of what I’ve read recently: The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud (2017) This is the final book in the Lockwood & Co. series, which I’m very sad about. It does feel like the conclusion, but I think it also feels left open enough […]

The post What I’m Reading: Fall 2017 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

So I’m pretty terrible about blogging in a timely fashion, but here are a few of the books I’ve particularly enjoyed over the past, eh, six months or so: A Pocket Full of Murder and A Little Taste of Poison by R.J. Anderson (2015, 2016) I read these a long time ago and don’t really […]

The post What I’m Reading: Spring/Summer 2017 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

Lately I’ve been mostly reading the news, rather than books, but sometimes I’ve had to stop for a while and go bury myself in a fantasy world. A few favorites: Growing Old with the Inuit by Justin Nobel (2015) This isn’t a book, but it was hands-down the best thing I read in all of […]

The post What I’m Reading: January and February 2017 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

All week I’ve been reading the news with growing horror. Every day it’s worse and worse. Two months ago, the United States voting public freely elected a proto-fascist, isolationist plutocrat with no relevant experience to the presidency. (That was bad enough.) Now, in the eight days since taking office, President Trump has already set into […]

The post A Statement. appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

Wow, December 31 already and I’m still having to stop myself writing 2015 for the date… It feels like 2016 went by really quickly–which is probably good; enough terrible things happened this year that we don’t really need it to go on any longer. The last two months of this year, my regular routines got […]

The post What’s Good This Month: December 2016 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

October was a really good month for me, in terms of reading–a new book came out in not just one but two of my favorite series. And, in anticipation of Goldenhand, I decided to re-read the entire Old Kingdom series. I can’t believe I’d forgotten how good they are. The two new books I read […]

The post What’s Good This Month: October 2016 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

It’s been a long time since I’ve paid very much attention to any writing contests, because most of them charge quite a bit of money to enter, and most of them are meant for short stories, and I realized a while ago that I don’t really like short stories. But this contest is for super-short […]

The post This Writing Contest is Kind of Cool appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

Six months ago, Weeks and Days was officially released. Since then, reviews have been trickling in. Some of them are even good reviews! Here are a few that I especially liked: “Told in conversation and inner monologues, this is the story of two people falling in love and figuring out who they are and what […]

The post What People Are Saying About Weeks and Days appeared first on S.E. Phinney.

My favorite book this month was: Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle by N.D. Wilson (2016) I didn’t totally love Wilson’s first series, and I also didn’t totally love the cover of this book, so I was kind of hesitant for a while. But it was awesome. One of the best middle grade […]

The post What’s Good This Month: August 2016 appeared first on S.E. Phinney.