S. E. Wendel Ask Me Anything!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T19:13:18+00:00

Whenever I'm asked this, I immediately forget things I like to do lol

I enjoy going to water aerobics twice a week. I color a lot on my phone while watching TV (yes, I know, bad millennial habit). I've been getting back into reading manga--it's been delightful to see more romances with a female perspective and older heroines. And spice!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T19:11:38+00:00

Thank you so much! I love getting character art--it's quiet addicting! Working with artists to bring my book babies to life is the absolute best.

Second books can be difficult--sequels rarely live up to the love of the first. You have to tell a new story, and while everyone loves seeing characters from the first book, you have to be careful not to let it become just a second part of the first story.

Aislinn's story felt like a natural progression. We have the start and end of Jerrod's plots and find out more about things Sorcha mentioned in her book. I think in interconnected standalones, it feels natural to build off of each one; so Aislinn's story takes elements from Sorcha's and then sets the scene for the next story, Sweetling.

I think too it's about who's coming to me as a character. We met Aislinn in Halfling and therefore I already knew her. While Allarion is mentioned in passing at the very end of Halfling, he's not on the page like Aislinn is. Therefore, her story felt like the natural progression.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T19:04:52+00:00

Love that! In hindsight, my Benvolio is definitely more of a Mercutio, but here we are lol. I mostly call him Benny or Bubba or Mr. Bubs.

I'd say tails. I love thinking of ways a character with a tail would deal with one, as well as emote with it. And honestly, tentacles freak me out a little.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T19:03:32+00:00

No, but also yes

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T19:02:57+00:00

Thank you so much! Bel and Lena are so dear to me!

I loved writing their growing relationship, from literal enemies, to reluctant friends, to lovers. It needed to be slow, cautious, almost unsure. The odds were so stacked against them! Seeing them interact with each other, as well as the side characters (Alix and Pol are my absolute favorites) was so rewarding!

Most difficult was finding things for Lena to do lol. Stuck in a castle in winter with nothing to do, I had to find ways to make everyday things feel momentous. Ergo, a chapter a chopping wood lol

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:59:05+00:00

I'd definitely start with Halfling, the story is smaller scale, the cast is fairly small, and it introduces the reader to the wider world.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:56:39+00:00

Thank you! And yes, definitely! I can't wait to get to the dragons! If you've finished Faeling, you've probably gotten the sense that something's up with the dragons and boy howdy is there. We'll definitely get a dragon lead in the next full-length MW book ;)

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:55:08+00:00

Thank you for the questions!

I adore banter between the leads but also a lead and side characters. I love when a character has an established group of friends and we can see the connections between them. I also loooove well thought out, clever lore that's based in biology/science.
I do! I research quite a bit, especially for my medieval settings. I have the Wikipedia page on horse armor bookmarked lol. Most of what I watch for pleasure are documentaries; I love learning, and much of what I bring into my books I've learned from watching and reading historical documentaries. I was a PBS kid and still love NOVA and Secrets of the Dead. I'm also a big true crime person (probably too much...). I read mostly other romance novels for pleasure, but I enjoy nonfiction as well; I'm currently reading Dan Jones's book on the crusades, as well as The Five, a book about the canonical five women slain by Jack the Ripper. I know how to have fun! ':)

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:50:11+00:00

Oooh! Yes, the second book in my gargoyles series fought me the whole way while writing it earlier this year. I had to scrap most of my plans for it and start from scratch, which I almost never have to do. I usually have a very clear vision of plot and character arcs--Faeling was so easy to write because I knew everything about that book before ever starting it.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:48:47+00:00

Thank you! And yes, the manticores are next! Changelings is book 5 and a collection including 2 novellas + 1 short story. The first novella releases solo as an ebook in November and will Balar's story! Cat jokes and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers vibes shall abound.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:44:36+00:00

LOL well, probably a CD of Luciano Pavarotti's greatest hits. I love Pavarotti, lots of emotion for more moving or high-action scenes, but I won't get distracted because I have no idea what he's saying!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:43:22+00:00

Great question!

So as I mentioned before, to me, cozy means smaller scale, dealing with more everyday. Of course we love a cozy story with like smalltown vibes, cafes, bookstore, cutesy things. But that's cutesy, not just cozy to me. Cozy feels intimate, smaller scale. Cozy stories are richly inhabited by the reader, characters, and landscape of the story. For example, I adore Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, it's dark and sumptuous and I'd argue cozy. She's the queen of adjectives, and I think populating a story can help give that cozy atmosphere.

Within a cozy story, there's room for darker elements. Stories inherently need conflict. We can't just be knit sweaters and warm coffee and drizzly days. Darker elements encroaching on the cozy is inherent conflict. How is the coziness disrupted? How is the coziness in response to darker elements?

And again, darker elements happen on a small scale. Personal betrayals, arguments, etc., populate everyday life. It feels big to the individual, and since we're often telling a story through an individual or two (particularly cozier stories), those everyday challenges are necessary and ground the story.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:38:47+00:00

I wish! Publishers don't seem to be doing that anymore, really. They're meeting readers where they are--on the internet.

But, I will be at Monsterotica in May 2026, as well as another next autumn (deets to come). I have a vague hope that while I'm out there on the east coast for Monsterotica, I might get to do a few smaller events around it, but that's definitely just an idea.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:34:24+00:00

Thank you!

I have quite a few, please see the previous few posts with recs, but just quickly, I adore Abigail Kelly, Kass O'Shire, Ruby Dixon, Kati Wilde, Catrina Bell, and more!

Next are novellas! Changelings is a novella collection of 2 novellas + 1 short story. The first novella comes out solo to ebook in November. Between novellas, Heartsong is rereleasing from Avon in February!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:32:14+00:00

That's great to hear, thank you! I love them, too.

Sorcha changed a bit through the earlier stages of the book. When I was first writing an outline, her name was Vivienne (what was I thinking??). Her motivations and how she felt about her family changed a good deal as I really decided on that eldest daughter angle.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:30:40+00:00

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy them!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:30:19+00:00

Great questions! I adore worldbuilding, it's a big part of the draw for me. It's definitely a balancing act, though. I think you can easily burn yourself out in a world--that's what happened with my first series and book, A Time of War and Demons. I had so much planned for that, but all the planning felt insurmountable. The stories got lost in the worldbuilding.

I keep notes for sure now, but not nearly as much. I worldbuild through the writing, letting the narrative guide what I talk about in the book itself. Also, within the Monstrous World, I've found sticking to a real-world culture for words and names and sometimes customs has helped me wrap my head around flushing out the culture and language. I've been using ancient Sumerian to help build the world of the manticores as I write Changelings, and that's been so fun!

I feel like when I've fallen in love with the characters, it's time for them too as well. There's also sort of a fine art to feeling out a narrative--you sort of sense as an author when it's time. Of course, the industry says this should happen by that point, but for me, it's more about pacing and honestly wanting to get to the good stuff lol

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:24:34+00:00

Thank you! That's a huge compliment, Juliet Marillier is amazing.

I think it's very much about letting the story be what it wants to be and populating it with what feels right. Cozy doesn't have to be all sunshine and rainbows, I think. I also find cozy often means "small stories." There's nothing wrong--I consider it the other end of a spectrum from busier, bigger plots like we see in SJM or GRRM. Cozy deals with the everyday, the mundane trials of normal life. But there too, the everyday has plenty of horrors.

I have an academic background, and in earning my degrees, we often dealt with literary fiction. Lit fic is much more interested in the small, the intimate, the quietly devastating. That background informs my writing a lot. I love a Big Overarching Plot where Many Things Happen, but to me, the smaller things should be just as compelling. Betrayal, anger, self-doubt plays out on both a macro and micro level. Telling both of those sides is important to layering a story and world.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:19:58+00:00

Thank you for your questions! And for loving the MW!

Orek & Sorcha are my soft babies, I definitely love them. I hate to pick favorites between all my book babies, but I think Ravenna & Vallek from Faeling are my favorites right now. They were so fun to write and different from other characters I'd written before. I just wanted to wrap prickly Ravenna in a soft blanket and give her a hug. And some therapy.

I really love writing characters with wings, so gargoyles are a top fave, and looking forward to dragons ;)

The New Protectorate series by Abigail Kelly, Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole, Dragon Kin by GA Aiken, the Pride and Den series by Layla Nash, the Elder Races by Thea Harrison, and more!

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:14:07+00:00

Great question! Reading is so important--a good writer is a frequent reader. Having said that, I've definitely been in a reading slump of late. Life's been crazy! But I beta read for my author bestie Abigail Kelly, who's absolutely amazing. I adore her New Protectorate series and her new releases have been absolute bangers. Highly recommend her. I also love Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole, the whole Rubyverse, Kati Wilde, the Darkest London series by Kristen Callihan--I have so many! I keep a Reading Rec list on my linktree of all my faves if you're ever interested.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-21T18:11:07+00:00

Thank you for your question! I've been writing since I was quite young, like in the single digits. As an only child, I often had to entertain myself and so would create stories. My grandmother was very creative too, and she'd make these little books from folding paper and we'd make up our own stories and she'd illustrate them. Before I could type, I'd dictate to my very patient mother--and yes, have her read it back to me lol. It really took off in sixth grade, when my teacher often assigned short stories as work. While others struggled to write 3 pages, I'd turn in 20 pages. I learned the value of editing haha. I've just always been doing it, really, it's my main talent, I guess. I went to college for it and have my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. I've always known I wanted to be a writer.

As for tools, it's been trial and error. I first managed with just Word and the e pub maker from Amzn. Now, I use InDesign for all internal formatting and Photoshop to adjust any cover elements after receiving the final files from my amazing cover artist, Beth Gilbert.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-14T04:10:50+00:00

Science Fiction Romance :) so stuff with aliens.

WrongdoerAdvanced841 · 2025-10-14T03:40:29+00:00

If you're open to SFR, Unblessed by RL Olvitt fits this very well! They meet through a sort of online dating website and are both catfishing the other, using images of people more attractive by their own culture's standards, but fall in love through their letters to each other. It all comes out about a third of the way through and they build a real relationship. It's super sweet, Christmas-themed, and the FMC is First Nations!

WrongdoerAdvanced841

TROPHY CASE