Award eligibility post for 2019

Well, it’s that time of year when writers make posts about their award eligibility for the year. I had four new stories published in 2019. I admit that “The Message” and “The Red Cloak” are particularly dear to my heart, but I’d be honored if you took a look at any of them. 

“The Bone Lands” (fantasy, 3821 words). Kaleidotrope, January 2019.

I sought you on a plain of whistling bones. I walked through towers made of giants’ femurs, and under the great curved arches of a leviathan’s ribs.

A journey to the underworld. A story about what love can and cannot do.

• Reviewed by SFRevu: “A beautiful tale about the power of love.” 

“The Message” (science fiction, 4236 words). The Future Fire, February 2019.

They say I’m too young to remember what this country once was. They say I don’t remember that brief period of hope and freedom, which bloomed just briefly between dark ages. When it seemed like the world might actually come together to solve its problems. When the Message was first found, it seemed it might extend that blooming of hope forever.

A mysterious message from the stars. The fallout for one family. Also: anime, fan-fiction, and long-distance relationships.

• Featured in the The Best Short SFF-February 2019 on the blog The 1000 Year Plan. “Fogg disperses so many thematic and narrative strands and covers so many relevant scientific and sociological issues it is an absolute marvel how she weaves them together into a cohesive whole. Inventive, intricate, incandescent; stories like this are the reason I have a “Must Read” category in this column.”
• Featured in the Barnes and Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Fiction Roundup: February 2019.  “. . . luminous and compelling, a story about our longing for contact and connection across vast distances, and about how relationships can alter our lives.”
• Featured in A.C. Wise’s column in Apex Magazine, Words for Thought.
• Story notes here

“Wings” (fantasy, 2132 words). Translunar Travellers Lounge, August 2019.

Last night you were a great black cat, larger than me, with shining green eyes. You stretched out on the bed and I curled against you, the back of my head against your belly. Your purr of contentment vibrating through me. I fell asleep, so happy that I nearly didn’t think of your former self.

A fairy tale of cursed lovers. Of stories, words, and what goes beyond words.

• Recommended by writer Laura E. price on her blog: “This story is beautifully written. The language is just gorgeous. . . If you like fairy tales, or love stories, read this one.”
• Reviewed by Charles Payseur at Quick Sips Review: “It’s slow and wrenching and beautifully written, capturing a feel like a fairy tale, romantic and dark and defiant and tragic even as it finds a hope that refuses to be defeated.”

“The Red Cloak” (fantasy, 1737 words). Truancy Magazine, Fall 2019.

My red cloak is made of softest wool and is bright as berries, bright as blood. Wearing it as I cross the barren field, I glow against the snow and leafless twigs, the tangles of sticks poking up from the ground. Sparrows and thrushes dive at me, as though to peck at a bush of winter berries.

A dark retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story. A story about all the children driven to or abandoned in the woods.

  

• Featured in Maria Haskins’ short fiction roundup, “14 excellent stories I read in October: “Vanessa Fogg puts a sharp-edged new spin on the fairy-tale here, approaching  the story from a new angle and making us see the creatures and people in it in a new light. Who would expect a child to brave the woods and its dangers — wolf and otherwise — alone? What kind of mother would send her child there? And what kind of grandmother awaits her in that cottage? There’s a real emotional depth and resonance here that I love.”