Vanessa Fogg
@vanessafogg.bsky.social
Science fiction and fantasy writer. Also lapsed scientist and freelance medical writer. Website: vanessafogg.com
Pinned
The House of Illusionists – Vanessa Fogg, Writer
vanessafogg.com
New pinned post: My debut collection of short stories, The House of Illusionists, is now officially out.
vanessafogg.com?page_id=1020
vanessafogg.com?page_id=1020
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
i know it's trite but: most science fiction is not trying to predict the future.
i keep seeing people stumbling over this. "well, it wouldn't be plausible to have--" okay but maybe the author wasn't trying for "plausible." usually they aren't.
what other goals might the author have had?
i keep seeing people stumbling over this. "well, it wouldn't be plausible to have--" okay but maybe the author wasn't trying for "plausible." usually they aren't.
what other goals might the author have had?
December 6, 2025 at 11:40 PM
i know it's trite but: most science fiction is not trying to predict the future.
i keep seeing people stumbling over this. "well, it wouldn't be plausible to have--" okay but maybe the author wasn't trying for "plausible." usually they aren't.
what other goals might the author have had?
i keep seeing people stumbling over this. "well, it wouldn't be plausible to have--" okay but maybe the author wasn't trying for "plausible." usually they aren't.
what other goals might the author have had?
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
wow?????!!!???? I did NOT expect this
Am delighted that Song of Spores by @bogiperson.bsky.social is one of Scientific American’s Best Fiction of 2025!
Full list here: www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
Full list here: www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
December 5, 2025 at 8:32 PM
wow?????!!!???? I did NOT expect this
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Sale alert: This month, Stillhouse Press's best sellers are 50% off! Get titles like Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine and @amystuber.com's PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize–winning Sad Grownups for less than ten bucks.
Supporting small presses = a guaranteed spot on the nice list, I hear...
Supporting small presses = a guaranteed spot on the nice list, I hear...
December 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Sale alert: This month, Stillhouse Press's best sellers are 50% off! Get titles like Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine and @amystuber.com's PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize–winning Sad Grownups for less than ten bucks.
Supporting small presses = a guaranteed spot on the nice list, I hear...
Supporting small presses = a guaranteed spot on the nice list, I hear...
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
So many retellings by me, all in one place!
Includes were-mollusks, rampaging pumpkins, and sneaky perfumiers!
Includes were-mollusks, rampaging pumpkins, and sneaky perfumiers!
🎉It's my book day!🎉
SHELLS FOR HEARTS is available wherever you get ebooks! Can also be suggested to your library!
Full of short fiction and poetry retellings!
books2read.com/u/b6EDMA
devan-barlow.itch.io/shells-for-h...
SHELLS FOR HEARTS is available wherever you get ebooks! Can also be suggested to your library!
Full of short fiction and poetry retellings!
books2read.com/u/b6EDMA
devan-barlow.itch.io/shells-for-h...
December 4, 2025 at 3:55 PM
So many retellings by me, all in one place!
Includes were-mollusks, rampaging pumpkins, and sneaky perfumiers!
Includes were-mollusks, rampaging pumpkins, and sneaky perfumiers!
"The first time Kittu teleported was into the lavatory of a plane bound for London, fifteen seconds before it crashed in a field south of Gatwick."
This story is fully as good as its first sentence suggests.
This story is fully as good as its first sentence suggests.
Story Day! The Teleporting Disaster Fairy is now live @uncannymagazine.bsky.social - one hapless but hopeful human against the absurdity of the universe. www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...
The Teleporting Disaster Fairy - Uncanny Magazine
Content note: attempted suicide The first time Kittu teleported was into the lavatory of a plane bound for London, fifteen seconds before it crashed in a field south of Gatwick. One moment she was b...
www.uncannymagazine.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:07 AM
"The first time Kittu teleported was into the lavatory of a plane bound for London, fifteen seconds before it crashed in a field south of Gatwick."
This story is fully as good as its first sentence suggests.
This story is fully as good as its first sentence suggests.
I loved this series
I'm relaunching Dominion of the Fallen in the US with @awfulagent.bsky.social
Magnificent covers by @fringe-element.net
Deliciously gothic atmosphere, queer characters from across the world, and high intrigue--in a Paris wrecked by magical cataclysms
March 10th, 2026!
awfulagent.com/ebooks/the-h...
Magnificent covers by @fringe-element.net
Deliciously gothic atmosphere, queer characters from across the world, and high intrigue--in a Paris wrecked by magical cataclysms
March 10th, 2026!
awfulagent.com/ebooks/the-h...
December 3, 2025 at 9:44 PM
I loved this series
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Hey! Some fun news. "The Sort" (orig. @clarkesworldmagazine.com) was picked up for @wilwheaton.net's podcast. Went live today! Narrated thoughtfully and w/a kind shoutout for SFF mags at the end. And a surprise(!) mention of Uncertain Sons 🙏. Many thanks to Wil and his audio team. What an honor.
It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton
You may recognize Wil Wheaton’s name from his acting work in television shows like The Big Bang Theory, Leverage, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, or 1985’s timeless classic, Stand B…
wilwheaton.net
December 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Hey! Some fun news. "The Sort" (orig. @clarkesworldmagazine.com) was picked up for @wilwheaton.net's podcast. Went live today! Narrated thoughtfully and w/a kind shoutout for SFF mags at the end. And a surprise(!) mention of Uncertain Sons 🙏. Many thanks to Wil and his audio team. What an honor.
A new story from Rati!!
Story Day! The Teleporting Disaster Fairy is now live @uncannymagazine.bsky.social - one hapless but hopeful human against the absurdity of the universe. www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...
The Teleporting Disaster Fairy - Uncanny Magazine
Content note: attempted suicide The first time Kittu teleported was into the lavatory of a plane bound for London, fifteen seconds before it crashed in a field south of Gatwick. One moment she was b...
www.uncannymagazine.com
December 2, 2025 at 7:58 PM
A new story from Rati!!
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
did you know that we published a NOTABLE SMALL PRESS BOOK this year??? 👀
it's ONE MESSAGE REMAINS by the AMAZING @premeemohamed.com 🎉🎉🎉
read the list, and get your own copy here ✨ psychopomp.com/one-message-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
it's ONE MESSAGE REMAINS by the AMAZING @premeemohamed.com 🎉🎉🎉
read the list, and get your own copy here ✨ psychopomp.com/one-message-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025
The idea of 100 Notable Small Press Books was born November 2024, after The New York Times’s annual 100 Notable Books list featured eighty-two books from the Big Five publishing houses (Pengu…
lithub.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:40 PM
did you know that we published a NOTABLE SMALL PRESS BOOK this year??? 👀
it's ONE MESSAGE REMAINS by the AMAZING @premeemohamed.com 🎉🎉🎉
read the list, and get your own copy here ✨ psychopomp.com/one-message-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
it's ONE MESSAGE REMAINS by the AMAZING @premeemohamed.com 🎉🎉🎉
read the list, and get your own copy here ✨ psychopomp.com/one-message-...
lithub.com/100-notable-...
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
@thedeadlands.com got 177 fiction submissions in 24 hours. This is 7.5 years of fiction at the rate we publish. Imagine if every submitter were also a patron—we would be funded. Prices increase in 2026, get the best rate now. www.patreon.com/the_deadlands
Get more from The Deadlands on Patreon
a zine containing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry about Death
www.patreon.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:40 PM
@thedeadlands.com got 177 fiction submissions in 24 hours. This is 7.5 years of fiction at the rate we publish. Imagine if every submitter were also a patron—we would be funded. Prices increase in 2026, get the best rate now. www.patreon.com/the_deadlands
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
So, yes, I'm in LOCUS, reviewing short fiction! 👀 My very first review column is in this issue and I am so FREAKING EXCITED to be part of the Locus team and this magazine!
Issue 779 Table of Contents, December 2025 locusmag.com/2025/12...
December 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM
So, yes, I'm in LOCUS, reviewing short fiction! 👀 My very first review column is in this issue and I am so FREAKING EXCITED to be part of the Locus team and this magazine!
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
BCS Patreon has fallen below the monthly amount we need to pay our authors a pro rate and our First Readers a worthy honorarium ($125/mo). Sometimes folks need to lower or pause their support; we understand. But less than 1% of BCS readership donates or supports. www.patreon.com/beneath_ceas... 1/3
Get more from Beneath Ceaseless Skies on Patreon
creating an online fantasy magazine & podcast
www.patreon.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM
BCS Patreon has fallen below the monthly amount we need to pay our authors a pro rate and our First Readers a worthy honorarium ($125/mo). Sometimes folks need to lower or pause their support; we understand. But less than 1% of BCS readership donates or supports. www.patreon.com/beneath_ceas... 1/3
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Frustrated about being beset by AI slop in the reading queue and other places over the past few days. I know it's been said a million times before, but I feel like it's always worth saying again: Stories written by you will always be better than stories written by the robot.
November 30, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Frustrated about being beset by AI slop in the reading queue and other places over the past few days. I know it's been said a million times before, but I feel like it's always worth saying again: Stories written by you will always be better than stories written by the robot.
ICYMI
My interview with Vanessa Fogg about her debut, The House of Illusionists, is up!
"Speculative fiction allows me the distance, the disguise of the metaphorical [...] to write about things that would otherwise be too personal, too vulnerable, for me to write about."
medium.com/interstellar...
"Speculative fiction allows me the distance, the disguise of the metaphorical [...] to write about things that would otherwise be too personal, too vulnerable, for me to write about."
medium.com/interstellar...
The Connecting Image
Interview with Vanessa Fogg, author of The House of Illusionists
medium.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:04 AM
ICYMI
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
I just got my copy of @vanessafogg.bsky.social House of Illusionists but I know this will be awesome
The House Of Illusionists: and Other Stories
and Other Stories
bookshop.org
November 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM
I just got my copy of @vanessafogg.bsky.social House of Illusionists but I know this will be awesome
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Well @bookshop.org still has free shipping today! Here are some of my favorite books I've read so far this year which would make great reads for you or gifts for a reader in your life!
First @joshdenslow.bsky.social Magic Can't Save Us. A delightful and strange story collection
First @joshdenslow.bsky.social Magic Can't Save Us. A delightful and strange story collection
Magic Can't Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure
Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure
bookshop.org
November 30, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Well @bookshop.org still has free shipping today! Here are some of my favorite books I've read so far this year which would make great reads for you or gifts for a reader in your life!
First @joshdenslow.bsky.social Magic Can't Save Us. A delightful and strange story collection
First @joshdenslow.bsky.social Magic Can't Save Us. A delightful and strange story collection
Holiday shopping? Space Horrors, an anthology of science fiction horror stories set in outer space, is on sale for only 99 cents (e-book version) today! I'm in this anthology, alongside some very cool writers!
November 30, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Holiday shopping? Space Horrors, an anthology of science fiction horror stories set in outer space, is on sale for only 99 cents (e-book version) today! I'm in this anthology, alongside some very cool writers!
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
My #SFF curations get more traction, but I'm primarily a nonfiction author. During #nonfictionnovember, I'm spotlighting this output. Starting with #books. This sociocultural guide to deities was a crazy endeavour of telling the stories of 60, I'm delighted with its wide and lasting impact. 1/
November 27, 2025 at 10:32 AM
My #SFF curations get more traction, but I'm primarily a nonfiction author. During #nonfictionnovember, I'm spotlighting this output. Starting with #books. This sociocultural guide to deities was a crazy endeavour of telling the stories of 60, I'm delighted with its wide and lasting impact. 1/
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
"you need to grow up"
"adults do not play with toys"
etc etc etc
"adults do not play with toys"
etc etc etc
This essay resonated with me and I knew I just had to acquire it. How many of us struggle with the whole "you need to grow" schtick and how the whole YA thing has MCs ageing rapidly.
By @ph-low.com
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
By @ph-low.com
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
Old Enough to Become the Villain: Contemporary Narratives Around Growing Up
The first time I watch Everything Everywhere All At Once in theaters, I am struck by the way Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh are presented—not as the generic smooth-faced Hollywood types but decidedl…
strangehorizons.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:05 AM
"you need to grow up"
"adults do not play with toys"
etc etc etc
"adults do not play with toys"
etc etc etc
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Double issue of MicroVerse Spec Flash Roundup with Oct-Nov recs!
Flash Roundup * October-November 2025
A gathering of recent speculative flash & micro fiction, each presenting a tiny-yet-powerful universe. How tiny? About one-thousand words for flash; four-hundred words for micro. The word count…
mynachang.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Double issue of MicroVerse Spec Flash Roundup with Oct-Nov recs!
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Did I tell you about my latest story? It's short, on PodCastle, and about choices! Read or listen!
My latest story is up @podcastle.org ! You can read my flash story, "The Only Map is Memory" along with shorts by David McGuire and Courtney Floyd.
podcastle.org/2025/11/25/p...
This is, astoundingly, my 12th story published this year, far outstripping any previous year.
podcastle.org/2025/11/25/p...
This is, astoundingly, my 12th story published this year, far outstripping any previous year.
PodCastle 919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities - PodCastle
The Only Map is Memory by B. Morris Allen I use my memory for a map. It’s the only map I have, but it’s unreliable in the way all memory is. Objects that I remember as big must have been smaller, loca...
podcastle.org
November 27, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Did I tell you about my latest story? It's short, on PodCastle, and about choices! Read or listen!
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Thrilled to post that PSYCHOPOMP & CIRCUMSTANCE has made NPR's list of Books We Love!
It's one of over 300 books handpicked by NPR staffers and trusted critics. See the full list here:
apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
It's one of over 300 books handpicked by NPR staffers and trusted critics. See the full list here:
apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
apps.npr.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Thrilled to post that PSYCHOPOMP & CIRCUMSTANCE has made NPR's list of Books We Love!
It's one of over 300 books handpicked by NPR staffers and trusted critics. See the full list here:
apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
It's one of over 300 books handpicked by NPR staffers and trusted critics. See the full list here:
apps.npr.org/best-books/#...
Reposted by Vanessa Fogg
Yesterday I posted about my favorite novellas of the year, and today I'm posting about my favorite short fiction collections of 2025.
acwise.net/favorite-col...
acwise.net/favorite-col...
Favorite Collections of 2025 – acwise.net
acwise.net
November 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Yesterday I posted about my favorite novellas of the year, and today I'm posting about my favorite short fiction collections of 2025.
acwise.net/favorite-col...
acwise.net/favorite-col...