It's a Jumble

  It’s that liminal week between Christmas and the start of the first Monday after New Year’s Day. That time before the work or school week begins again, before a schedule resumes; this formless time when the hours dissolve. . . into what? I’m not sure; it all melts away.   But it’s still a good time to reflect on the past year, even though most people posted their year-in-reading round-ups before the clock struck twelve on Jan 1. I did a lot of reading last year, including the entire set of volumes encompassing Dream of the Red Chamber. I wrote some stories I really liked, including my favorite thing I’ve written yet. (And I’ve sold them all!) There are some things in my personal life that have disappointed and saddened me, but c’est la vie.   Below are some books that have stood out to me. That I feel have changed me, however subtly. I feel about them as Emily Bronte wrote of the quality of some dreams: “. . . they’ve gone though and through me, like wine throu...

  The winter solstice is past, Christmas and New Year’s are coming. In this brief breath before the major holidays, perhaps you’ll have time to sit with a hot drink and a short story or two. If so, here are some to consider.   Stories of Strangeness and Horror, Dark and Light “Two Motes in the Zuegma Dark” by Sagan Lee in Lightspeed Jules let go of Scarpe’s hand and walked carefully to one side of the platform. “Ever been up close?” “Only on TV.” “You haven’t seen it ‘til you’ve seen it,” Jules said, giddy with the cheesiness of the line. Without looking, he reached for the lever that was right where he knew it would be. It gave way with a satisfying thunk. They were blinded a second time as the hangar bay flooded with light.   A hot-shot pilot impresses his dates by taking them to see Big Blue, the giant battle-mech that he pilots. But things go unexpectedly awry on this particular date. Giant battle-mechs. Jellyfish in outer space! A first date that goe...

  I did it: I started in September, and I have now read the entirety of Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone , all five volumes as published in the Penguin Classic edition (translation of vol 1-3 by David Hawkes and vol 4-5 by John Minford), each volume ~400-500 pages and in tiny font, single-spaced.   It feels like waking from a dream.   And what a dream! This strange, mesmerizing, shape-shifter of novel. It starts out like a xianxia c-drama ! (why did no one tell me that?) A sentient stone spirit (made and then abandoned by the goddess Nu-wa) falls for a Crimson Pearl Flower and waters her with sweet dew until she becomes a fairy girl. She pledges to someday repay him with her tears. The flower and stone are then both reborn in the human world to meet one another and live out their fates. And here the story shifts, for long periods of time, to something like a 19 th century English novel of manners. The stone is reincarnated as boy named Bao-yu and the f...

  The year’s not yet over, but it’s that time when writers begin posting about their award-eligible work. This year I had four short stories published. I would be honored if you took a look at any of them.   “The Cold Inside”  (dark fantasy, 4300 words) in  Metaphorosis . March 2024.   A story about a ghost who knocks on a door. A story about grief and guilt, set among the woods and water of northern Michigan. Featured in writer  K.C. Mead-Brewer’s weekly newsletter (March 6, 2024):  “Vanessa Fogg’s prose always braids tight with poetry, and her tale “ The Cold Inside ” is no different; a life may be a story, but a ghost is always a poem.” Featured in Maria Haskin’s  March 2024 Short Fiction Roundup : “A hauntingly beautiful and chilling (in more ways than one) story about grief and loss. . .  a delicate and profound unspooling of emotions, love, regret, and loneliness.”   “Th...

  My latest story is out! “ That Small, Hard Thing on the Back of Your Neck” appears in this month’s issue of The Future Fire, alongside a great lineup of writers and artists. It’s a weird little bit of body horror, and a story about the masks/skins we wear.

Some stories I’ve read recently.   Tales of Strangeness, Beauty, and Horror “Cicadas, and Their Skins” by Avra Margariti in Strange Horizons  I spent my first summer as an orphan watching cicadas fuck, scream, and molt. Wasn’t long before I plucked one of the cicada skins from the dry village soil. I brushed it clean against my secondhand clothes I was already beginning to outgrow. Dappled by sunlight, the carapace looked hard though I knew it to be brittle. A coat, people called it. To me it looked like a veil I yearned to slip into.   A fierce, angry, bloody tale. An orphaned girl has lost her mother and moved from the city to a small, stultifying village. Watching the cicadas, she learns that she can slip into a cicada’s skin. She can find herself in the skins of mice, birds, and more. And she can teach the other children of the village to do the same. An angry tale of wildness, of desperation and freedom, of seeking escape from the judgmental eyes of th...