HeyJaredS. E. Tykka - Stories, Thoughts, and All Things Nice
S. E. Tykka is a romantic fantasy author who shares her thoughts on the craft, what inspires her, and stories that she's obsessing over. Her debut, Blade and Lyre, comes out on 5 May 2026.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 14, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
The monsters in our minds (opens the original)
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New to my Substack? S. E. Tykka is a Finnish-American fantasy author writing about power, identity, and bel
Why I gave up drawing maps and became a thief instead (opens the original)
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New to my Substack? S. E. Tykka is a Finnish-American fantasy author writing about power, identity, and belonging. Her debut, Blade and Lyre, is available now.I’m a member of multiple writing groups and am always in awe when I listen to my author friends talk about their imaginary worlds: multi-page journals and notes on geography, flora and fauna, and religious practices.<
50 Ways to Kill Your Novel (opens the original)
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I don’t actually know how many ways exist to ‘kill a novel.’ I’m sure there are more than 50. But I know one way: to make it a chore.The moment I get too serious with my story, I start placing expectations on it. When that happens, I kill the joy by burying my story under the weight of Mount Perfection.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556997685-309989c1aa82?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxmdW58ZW58MH
Need versus want, and the struggle with self-worth (opens the original)
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Lately, I’ve been thinking about the distinction between needs and wants.What we need isn’t necessarily what we want. We need to feel needed, but we want to be wanted—to be chosen for who we are. To lower our masks and have the courage to expose the real person behind them.I don’t know anything scarier.My friends and I had a conversation about it (admittedly after quite a few glasses of wine): how even now, in our tender midlife, those things are still difficult. They were difficult as children.
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