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Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

By: Vanessa Riley
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 Join bestselling author Vanessa Riley as she delves into untold histories, reflects on current events through a historical lens, shares behind-the-scenes writing insights, and offers exclusive updates on her groundbreaking novels.

vanessariley.substack.comVanessa Riley Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
    Apr 7 2026
    “Liar, liar, pants on fire! ” On the playground we used to yell this at someone who did something dishonest. We were in their faces. We demanded better.Somewhere along the way, that simple standard faded. Now, lies don’t get called out—they get likes.Scrolling yesterday on Twitter, and I saw a tweet about A$AP Rocky cheating on Rihanna—that thing was completely false, yet it spread like melting butter on warm toast.Saw bits of a speech claiming to have decimated Iran’s capabilities only to have two of our airplanes shot down. I think someone was lying. Politicians bend the truth, put our troops in harm’s way and get mad when they are fact checked by bombed wreckage.Then there’s the lies we’re all guilty of— picking up pictures that look so polished that they barely resemble reality.It makes me stop and ask: whatever happened to the truth? Does it exist? Has it been trampled on these social streets and stomped on, crushed into the pavement like dust beneath our feet?According to Statistica, internet users around the globe average 6 hours and 38 minutes of being online daily. We, here in the United States, average around 10. Imagine the amount of curated illusions, we’ve soaked up. Edited photos, staged luxury trips, and even fake relationships have become some kind of digital currency.And with AI tools, bots, and filters, it’s never been easier to lie. Anyone can build a perfect life or post an outrageous Am I the A*****e Tweet, something so patently false but meant for catching casually, scrolling eyeballs.And when we see digital attention, those “likes” appear to translate into status, attention, and brand deals, the temptation to lie grows stronger.But what does that do to our souls?At first, it seems harmless. A little extra filter here. A small exaggeration there. But over time, these little distortions pile up. Truth shouldn’t be flexible. Authenticity should never be optional.And yet, we now kinda expect it.When lies are constant, they stop shocking us—and that might be the most dangerous part how easily we now accept this reality.That’s a deep cost. We compare our real lives to someone else’s fabricated one, and feel like we’re falling short. We measure our accomplishments against illusions.Then some of us feel the tug, the draw to keep up. How can we ever compete with lies.It amazes me what we are now willing to accept as normal. Dishonesty has become normalized. We see it in headlines and in speeches.Lies which would’ve gotten me kicked off the playground or grounded at home are now laughed at as everyday conversations.The line between truth and fiction keeps blurring, until it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. And yet, we all know—deep down—that our values are being lost.I want to go back to a time—real or imagined—when integrity mattered. When being a “good man” or a “good woman” meant something solid. When your word carried weight. When truth wasn’t negotiable, even when it was inconvenient.Integrity is more than just telling the truth—it’s about who you are when no one is watching. It’s about choosing honesty even when a lie would be easier, faster, or more rewarding. It’s about building a life that doesn’t need filters to look meaningful.The internet may reward illusion, but real life should still depend on truth. I want to trust in relationships, the credibility of our leaders, and see respect in our communities. None of this exists without honesty. Once trust is broken, it’s very far hard to rebuild any reputation crafted online.So maybe it’s time to bring back not just “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” but the will to challenge ourselves and others back to being real.In a world full of curated lies, the truth should be the one thing that binds us together, the one thing that doesn’t need editing.Speaking of Liars - How about murderous liars, today, is the release of the audiobook for Murder in Berkeley Square. Get cozy, as our intrepid Lady Worthing is snowed in with murderers. You know some bodies.Need More Liars?Let’s not forget the our ladies who have to fib about their identities. Female pirates in disguise. Have you gotten a copy of Fire Sword and Sea—the audio is amazing. And come out to see me April 11th, Come to Conyers Book Festival. April 12th, meet Michigan at the Detroit Public Library. All my friends and General Motors buddies come on out. I am not lying when I say, I want to see you.This week’s book list all lies:The Death of Truth, Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trumpby Michiko Kakutani Examines how political rhetoric, media, and culture have eroded respect for facts.Algorithms of Oppression, How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble Reveals how search engines and digital platforms perpetuate bias and misinformation.The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon Follows a woman rebuilding her life after a viral cheating scandal.Need more liars?A Deal at Dawn ...
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    10 mins
  • Create. Deliver. Disappear?

    Create. Deliver. Disappear?
    Mar 31 2026
    Time is spinning. Faster than truth. Faster than publishing. Faster than we can think.Half the workforce is going gig—but writers? We were the prototype.Now AI wants in, the rules are changing, and the question isn’t can you write…It’s can you survive the revolution?Create. Deliver. Disappear?Time keeps spinning.Lately? It feels like it’s whirling faster than any of us can keep up with.I saw an article last week—data pulled from Statista and reported by Fast Company—that said by 2027, 86.5 million people in the United States will be freelancing, That’s over half the workforce.Half.Half of American workers won’t have a steady paycheck or dedicated pension. Half will be finishing one job while waiting and watching for the next.Half will be part of what they call the “gig economy” . But as I look around. The gig isn’t just coming. It’s here.As I chat with friends, I think we can commiserate. We are the original gig workers.We write a thing—out of nothing but imagination, research, and discipline—and then we send it out into the world. Sometimes directly to readers. Sometimes to agents who sell it to publishers.No matter the distribution, at the core, it’s the same model:Create. Deliver. Hope it sells. Do it again.Sound familiar?Nonetheless, something feels different right now.Time itself feels different.It’s March 31st, and I swear January was just yesterday.I was hawking Fire Sword and Sea- and folks don’t forget about it. I need your bookclubs to pick it up and discuss. We still need revolution.The air of oppression is the only thing that’s not speeding up. Anxiety has us constantly scrolling, looking for endless updates, the noise—wars, prices rising and Druski sketches. People are stockpiling water. And everyone’s trying to figure out is it Ai or truth? Where do we get news from. Substack? YouTube? TikTok? If it’s IG how do you fit all in 60-second posts?Everything is whirling, spinning faster.And layered on top of that acceleration is AI.What was supposed to be a technological revolution.With Hachette pulling the novel Shy Girl from publication because of AI editing…and New York Times parting ways with a Gig Book Reviewer —who used AI to help write a review that inadvertently borrowed elements of a Guardian review of “Watching Over Her” by Jean-Baptiste Andrea.The AI revolution is feeling a little French, as in the French Revolution. It’s chaos with forces pushing to AI - I’m looking at you Grammarly and Microsoft Copilot, And other forces trying to shame you for em dash usage— it’s chaos.Authors, like many other Gig workers are frightened.Let’s just say it plainly.Many of us have had our work scraped, borrowed, absorbed into systems we never consented to. And while companies like Anthropic have at least begun conversations around accountability and repair, the larger landscape still feels unsettled.Unclear.And very unstable.But—life keeps moving.So here we are, at the end of the first quarter, and I have to ask you—and myself:Have you accomplished what you thought you would this year?I’m sitting here thinking about everything that’s happened already with Fire Sword and Sea, how many of you made sure it wasn’t drowned out. They’re are more events happening. April 11th, Come to Conyers Book Festival. April 12th, meet Michigan at the Detroit Public Library. All my friends and GM buddies come on out.You will never know how good it feels when readers show up.There is joy in that.Real joy.And I’m grateful.Truly.But I would be lying if I said there wasn’t also fear, that the gig I love keeps evolving.We are living in a time where storytelling itself feels contested.There is pressure on what stories get told.Pressure on whose histories are preserved.Pressure on whose voices are amplified—or silenced.And publishing, like every other industry, is trying to find its footing in shifting political, cultural, and economic ground.Which means writers—especially emerging writers—are asking:Is there space for me?Will my story be welcomed?Or will it be turned away before it ever has a chance to live?I think about the next generation a lot.Are they being nourished?Are they being encouraged?Or are they being pushed out by chaos, by confusion, and systems that don’t yet know how to hold onto them?These stories don’t just disappear.They get lost. And when they get lost, we lose pieces of ourselves.So what does this all mean?We’re back to where we started.With the gig. And a marketplace that’s getting more crowded as we all become gig workers.Writing has always been uncertain.Always.There has never been a guarantee that the next book sells. That the next contract comes. Or that markets will hold.This isn’t new.It’s intensified.So what happens if the book gig dries up?That’s a real fear I’ve been sitting with.Luckily, I’ve done indie publishing and tech startups. I know what it means to build something from nothing. To ...
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    13 mins
  • Vibing to Peace

    Vibing to Peace
    Mar 24 2026
    journal they could find.Vanessa, that sounds odd.Hear me out.Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for yourself is something small that will nurture your soul.Give yourself something beautiful to focus on. In a world that feels chaotic, overwhelming, even war-torn—surviving is learning how to vibe.And you vibe by writing or singing or thinking or journaling.Let me have a few minutes. Let’s vibe together.We are on the verge of something—call it world war three, call it chaos, call it the moment before everything shifts.In the middle of it all—TSA lines wrap around terminals, travel anxiety hums the background, people are forced to work with no pay. I could go on about how every headline is filled with hostilities. They escalate hourly.I’ve made the practical decision to vibe, to be above the moment rather than in it.Vanessa, what does that mean?I’m stocking up on the essentials:Water.Toiletries.And goodwill.Since the world feels unstable, the least I can do is stabilize my corner of it.But how do you reset when gas prices feel like they’re climbing without end? When groceries—something as basic as beef—begins being priced like silver?When the weather can’t decide what season it belongs to, and you’re running both the heat and the air conditioning in the same week? You give up. Nothing, absolutely nothing is under our control.I’m not telling you anything new. But I am sharing with you my survival rules 101:First, protect your peace. The crazy train’s not stopping. There’s no switch we can flip to slow things down. It has to run it’s course and teach hard, painful lessons.And it’s so difficult when the people we love—especially those in uniform—will be called into harm’s way.So what do we do?This weekend, I found part of the answer.I joined the Tanya Time Book Club and met a room filled with readers and vibed with food, fashion, friendships and books.These readers were engaged, joyful, present.Beautiful women. Supportive, diligent men.These were people who chose, intentionally, to gather.This was nourishment, to be with bookish people.I saw laughter, felt the collective breath release and reveled in this moment: we are safe. We are together.The vibe struck me:We need this. All of us.I’m tired of watching chaos. Tired of those who thrive on fear winning. I’m deeply disappointed in those who profit from division.But as I said, there’s no stopping the crazy train. Our leadership has lied and failed us.So yes—we have to buckle up.Crazy has the keys and we’re in the back of station wagon.Back to those practical steps:Stay hydrated.Stock up—little by little on essentials:Water. Staples. Medicines. These things disappear first when systems get strained.And then—just as importantly—feed your mind.Escape, escape into a book.Because stories are more than entertainment.They are a refuge. They are resistance. They are hope.If you crave manageable chaos with a side of humor—let me offer you A Deal at Dawn, releasing June 30, 2026.This is Katherine Wilcox, Lady Hampton’s story.This stubborn woman has spent her life believing that secrecy equals safety.It’s not. It’s betrayal.This story is packed with a secret baby, hurt-comfort, and herbs.And my dear girl is ready to walk over hot coals to make things right.And opposite her—Jahleel Charles, the Duke of Torrance.The master chess player is a man shaped by legacy—a Black Russian princess for a mother, an English duke for a father—and now faces a crisis that could take everything from him.His health.His independence.His future. His one chance to be a father.So the question becomes:What does forgiveness look like when trust has been shattered?What does redemption cost?And what happens when the child—once hidden—has grown old enough to understand that she’s been lied to all her life?Will Katherine make amends?Or will she give up? Or will time run out?Yes, we need more escape. I still do suggest to picking up Fire, Sword, and Sea. These pirates fight back. We can learn something.So let me leave you with this.Please take time to care for yourself.If you need to disconnect from the noise—do it.If the news feels like too much—step away.Find voices you trust. Platforms that inform without overwhelming.Guard your home front.Prepare wisely.And don’t underestimate the power of small joys.Watch something that makes you laugh.Call someone who reminds you who you are.Go hang with a book club.And above everything, read.Let a story carry you somewhere safe and full of laughs even if it’s just for a while.And be prayerful.Pray for leadership with backbone.Pray for those called into service.Pray for wisdom and mercy and endurance.Pray for creators.Creators keep creating.We need you.We need the stories written.Art painted.Words spoken, rhymed, sung, or acted.In times like these, art is not a luxury.It’s vibe to survival.This week’s book list includes:Legendborn by Tracy DeonnSecret societies, grief,...
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    11 mins
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