Science fiction and fantasy writer. Also lapsed scientist and freelance medical writer. Stories in Lightspeed, Podcastle, GigaNotoSaurus and more.
United States
Joined April 2016
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New pinned post: my debut collection of short stories, The House of Illusionists, is now officially out from @IntFlightPress Available at Amazon, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble online, and direct from publisher. Link to more info in comment
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
Every single year, autumn takes my breath away. I always write it off as the harbinger of the dark days of winter and forget just how perfect it is, with its gentle, unassuming beauty. Walking on this quiet path, all around me was the drip of mist from the leaves, a soft light that fell so slowly, and gold, gold, gold, everywhere I looked.
📍 Peak District, England
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
I can’t stress enough that this would mean the complete extinction of human culture. You need art because it connects you to all who’ve gone before you; it challenges you to embrace perspectives not your own. Media generated to your exact preferences is the death of the soul.
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
Been reading the second volume of The Story of the Stone, aka The Dream of the Red Chamber, widely regarded as the greatest Chinese novel, and I can’t remember the last time I felt such joy in a work of fiction.
It’s the story of a group of young people living together in a vast garden in one corner of a colossal estate, and the 2,500-page narrative affords ample space for developing their characters and portraying their various quarrels, romances, humiliations, and occasional acts of witchery. There’s something distinctly proto-Austen about it (it was published in 1791), and the sprawling compound, numerous festivals and intrusions of magic make it reminiscent of the Gormenghast novels or Harry Potter for grown-ups. There are moments when I think it might be the best book I’ve ever read. We’ve also been watching the beloved thirty-six-part TV series from 1987 (free to view on YouTube).
(📸 collage by @wren_and_paper)
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
Driving through the Midwest:
-Absolutely nothing
- “HELL IS REAL”
- oh, nice, a store that sells cheese
"Telling someone (or something) to make a thing for you is not the same as making that thing. In art, idea is inseparable from expression, and doing the thing is the only thing."
uncannymagazine.com/article/…
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
people want you to do well, when you go on a date that person wants it to go well so they can stop dating. when you interview for a job they want it to go well so they can finally hire someone. people want to watch, read, hear and experience good things. we’re rooting for you
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
“Thus Chinese poetry contains beauty in not only form and sound, but also in image, and thus, like all poetry of all languages, remain in my estimation fundamentally untranslatable.”
Fascinating meditation on translation by M.T. Lee:
open.substack.com/pub/audaci…
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
I’m like the opposite of AI. It took me over half an hour to write a simple email, and I didn’t consume a single drop of water all day.
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
The fact that you can read a book written by someone who has been dead for two centuries and feel less alone than you do in most rooms full of living people is either the most beautiful or the most heartbreaking thing about literature and I genuinely cannot decide which.
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
I realize the battle has been lost, but people, art isn't supposed to have a thesis statement and then all the chapters/scenes are body paragraphs providing supporting arguments. You are confusing it with the five-paragraph essay you let ChatGPT write for you in high school.
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
Sent this to a friend who’s a writer just now and thought, “Yup, that’s it. Every time. Learn its heart.”
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
On the helicopter leaving the ship right now. This planet is impossibly beautiful from every altitude I’ve seen it…surface to 250,000 miles
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
Yes - we laughed at a screening because nobody who hangs out with molecular biologists could find it credible they’d know anything outside of their incredibly narrow research focus.
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
🚨 This was the Artemis II crew's view this morning from 41,756 miles (67,200 km) up
No human has seen a crescent Earth in full since 1972
Vanessa Fogg retweeted
I'm looking for readers for both @FracturedLit & @uncharted_mag_. It's a laidback way to get involved with a literary magazine, and it will help level up your writing! We ask for 2-4 hours of volunteer reading each week, but I'm flexible with vacations and other commitments.
My latest story is now out in Lightspeed Magazine! It's inspired by Chinese myths of immortality plus a love for tea, and it's one of my favorite things that I've written yet.
lightspeedmagazine.com/ficti…