『Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley』のカバーアート

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

著者： 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 社会科学
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  • Who Told You That Was True?

    Who Told You That Was True?
    2026/07/14
    If Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Gwen Ifill, Peter Jennings, or even Barbara Walters came back today and started doing the news, would you believe them? If you had to stop and think about your answer, you’re not alone—and that’s exactly the problem.According to Gallup’s October 2025 report on Media Use and Evaluation, only 28 percent of Americans say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust that a report on the news is accurate and fair. That is the lowest level Gallup has ever recorded.In their tracking, they’ve shown a massive decline from 68 percent in the 1970s in Americans’ trust in news on television, in newspapers, or on the radio. That’s over 40 percent loss of confidence in 5 decades.Those numbers should frighten us.Recently, I asked a twenty-one-year-old college student where she gets her news. Her answer was funny, honest, and revealing:“Basically, it’s kind of crazy that I’ll learn about very important things on TikTok or some other goofy social media platform before an actual news source. Then I go to an actual reputable news source to find out if it’s true or not. Shout-out to NPR. I like to tune in to that radio now. That’s my new news source because the other ones stress me out.”I do not want to date myself, but I remember when there was a man named Walter Cronkite on the evening news. He spoke with a serious voice, and people believed that what he said had been checked and checked again. Viewers trusted him to tell them about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They trusted him to tell them about the war in Vietnam and the first human steps on the moon.I’m not quite old enough to have watched all of that live. Thank you, YouTube, for the things I’ve missed. Still, those recordings remind me that there was once a widespread belief that when we saw something on the news, we were seeing something true.Of course, television news was never perfect. There were ridiculous moments, too. Geraldo Rivera once opened Al Capone’s supposed secret vault on live television, promising the possibility of buried treasure, bodies, or historical secrets. After all that anticipation, the vault contained almost nothing.We have also spent decades wondering whether missing labor leader Jimmy Hoffa was buried beneath some stadium, driveway, or patch of concrete. Even MythBusters got involved in the search.The news has always contained spectacle. But spectacle used to be easier to recognize.Now, spectacle often arrives dressed in a nice suit, a sweet smile, and banter. This is called reporting.I do not know what we are going to do. We are headed toward no longer trusting the news. I find it incredible that journalists and political insiders sometimes save damaging information for books that will be published months or years later. These revelations may involve conversations with politicians that could have changed the outcome of an election, influenced an investigation, or helped the public understand a crisis while it was actually unfolding.But instead of reporting the information when it mattered, someone sat on it until the book release. News reporting seems to be about clicks and money—again, spectacle.People say journalism is dead. I don’t want to think this.. But much of what is on TV is people catering to an agenda and not telling the truth.And I am not so altruistic. Money has to be made. The station, equipment, and reporting all cost money. Frivolous lawsuits have shut down or targeted journalists.In this world of spectacle, some pander to an audience of one person: the autocrat, the executive, the politician, the billionaire, or the power broker whom the journalist believes has the ability to grant access, influence, protection, or money.Many news organizations have disappointed me. They’ll spend days analyzing one president’s poor debate performance while ignoring another politician’s slurred speech, confused statements, or obvious lies. They’ll hold one person to a nearly impossible standards while lowering those same standards for someone else. Right Jake?There seems to be no floor to depravity, no ceiling to the hysteria. I still have beef with a network that swore they had some tax returns of a very powerful man, teased it all day, then when it aired, only had the first two pages, the summary pages, which shed very little detail. You knew that, Rachel. But I digress.Who are we supposed to trust in this society?I tell people all the time that they should journal, especially women. A journal is personal. It should be original and not filtered through an AI program. Your journal should contain your words, your observations, and what you believe is happening in the world around you.That record will become even more important as professional truth-tellers become spectacle peddlers. I’m also not willing to pay per click for somebody’s opinion disguised as reporting. There are publications I still support. I pay for a ...
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    17 分
  • Making Sure They Get Home

    Making Sure They Get Home
    2026/07/07
    I don’t think Southern hospitality is just about sweet tea. I think it’s making sure everyone has a good time and gets home alive.Southern hospitality is supposed to mean something.Growing up, the Fourth of July meant my mother’s barbecue. It wasn’t just dinner. It became the neighborhood gathering, the family reunion you didn’t know you were having. Friends drifted in. A few cousins or uncles might show. No one brought anything because even Mama had already made it with at least three different options. You came because my mother cooked, and everyone knew that meant you were going to leave full, laughing. You were going to have a good time.That was Southern hospitality on a 4th of July Weekend. It was exciting, even before the fireworks.But this Fourth of July felt different.I don’t know many people who gathered with neighbors. Most stayed home. Even the celebrations in Washington, D.C. looked very quiet, quieter than I expected for America’s 250th birthday. Across the country, storms interrupted festivities, forcing some families to seek shelter—even inside the African American History Museum. Others didn’t feel the hospitality as they rode on buses with White Supremacists and Reuters photographers. I’d like to think that the photographers would’ve been neighborly and helped out, but they had a duty, I suppose, to capture the mask-wearing marchers.Sometimes hospitality means making a safe environment. No one should be fearful on the 4th of July.Again. This 4th felt different.No amount of BBQ or sweet tea can make up for fear or anguish. What happened to checking on your neighbors, making sure everyone has a ride, or that they make it home to call their mother?I thought about how my mother always wanted to know where I was, who I was with, and who the adults were. At the time, it felt overprotective.Now it feels like another expression of hospitality.Real hospitality isn’t simply welcoming people in.It’s making sure they get home.There are families who will never forget this holiday weekend because someone they loved didn’t make it home. My heart especially goes out to the family of Nolan Wells, a young Black man who went to celebrate with friends and never came home. Amid the unimaginable grief, his mother publicly thanked the volunteers, the United Cajun Navy, local law enforcement, and neighbors who searched alongside her.That, too, is Southern hospitality, showing up when someone else is hurting.On Sunday, the 5th, I had the opportunity to be hospitable to my readers at a release party to celebrate the of A Deal at Dawn. II held a tea party.What better way to celebrate a Regency romance?Picture tablecloths, teacups, ceramic platters, cookies, flowers, and just enough balloons to make a corner of Barnes & Noble feel less like a bookstore and more like someone’s parlor. We were tucked into the music section, and honestly, what could be more neighborly than books and music sharing the same space?Of course, I have a terrible habit of never doing anything halfway.I love to cook. Left to my own devices, every gathering becomes a catered affair. But Barnes & Noble has a café, which meant there were limits on bringing in outside food.Reality met Southern determination.I had to get creative.Normally, my backup plan is Cheryl’s Cookies. I always keep a stash in the freezer for emergencies. They’re delicious, dependable, and have rescued me on more than one gathering.But this wasn’t an emergency.This was a celebration.I kept thinking about the afternoon my daughter and I spent at the Russian Tea Room in New York. The tiny pastries. The beautiful presentation. The sense that every bite had been chosen with care.If I couldn’t recreate that menu, I could recreate the feeling.Every Southern tea needs cake.So I invented tea cake cupcakes.The recipe grew out of the world of A Deal at Dawn. While writing the novel, I kept returning to preserved fruits and candies. In eighteenth-century Saint Petersburg, oranges were rare luxuries. When people had them, they treasured them, preserving every bit they could in marmalades and jams.That became my inspiration.I took my favorite pound cake recipe, whipped the butter until it was impossibly light, folded in rich orange marmalade, and added buttermilk because Southern baking practically demands it. The result tasted like sunshine tucked inside a cupcake.Maybe it was over the top.But it was neighborly.That’s what Southern cooks do.I get it from my mother.I get it from the soil and the air that she raised me in.I want to feed people.I want them to slow down.I want them to feel safe.I want them to feel seen.As joyful as Sunday was, the weekend as whole kept reminding me why those things matter. I’m often asked which book signing has been my favorite. Every signing is my favorite.Whether one person comes or a hundred, someone has carved out space in their day to spend time with me and my stories. They’ve read my books, shared them ...
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    12 分
  • Access Isn’t Permission

    Access Isn’t Permission
    2026/06/30
    Here’s a dangerous lie the internet tells us: if information is public, it’s fair game. If I have to do a little hunting, a little scraping to get it—well, that just shows how clever I am.If I told you that this can be harmful. And that some of us don’t know that this invasion of privacy can erode trust forever—would you still do it? We are one like away from being unforgiven.Access Isn’t PermissionWhat is unforgivable?That sounds like a grand philosophical question. And I’m not asking this in the courtroom or commandment sense but in the everyday ways we treat each other. What crosses that simple line of right and slightly harmless wrong?Is it oversharing? Gossip? A tidbit of seductive knowledge that you found that no one else has publicly announced?Does this secret knowledge make you feel powerful?Before we go there, I need to define two words that have become part of our modern vocabulary.The first is parasocial.A parasocial relationship is a one-sided relationship where an audience member feels a deep connection to a public figure. That audience member or voyeur doesn’t actually know the public person personally, but they are invested. I’m guilty of this. I take it personally when people condemn Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, for breathing. When herAs Ever debuted, it sold out in 5 minutes. I was part of that shopping fest.A parasocial relationship is not inherently unhealthy. More and more it’s part of being an artist. Brands and publishers want that vibe to push sales. Readers want to feel like they know an author. It means so much when our words have entertained them on lonely nights and comforted them through grief.The second word is never good, doxxing. Doxxing is the act of publicly revealing someone’s private, identifying information without their consent. Often, doxxing will mean someone has published home addresses, phone numbers, places of work, or more.Recently, my friend, bestselling romance author Kennedy Ryan, appeared on a podcast with Jenna Bush, and during a lighthearted conversation about pen names, Kennedy shared that she originally adopted a pseudonym to protect her professional career and now continues to use it to protect her peace.Her peace. Catch that part.Not because she was hiding. Not because she was ashamed.Because she wanted boundaries. She deserves boundaries so she can keep a piece of herself and her life for herself.Soon afterward, the internet sleuths, parasocial avengers, began circulating her legal name in posts and threads online. Some have actually argued that releasing a legal name isn’t really doxxing because her legal name had been publicly discoverable for years.I’m sorry…Since when did intent or access excuse the action?If someone tells you, “This is private. This is how I protect myself and my family,” and you decide to broadcast that information anyway, what exactly are you accomplishing? Congrats! You’re smart. You can scrape metadata and websites. Feel good.Maybe placate your conscience because you didn’t post her home address.Hey, you didn’t hack a bank account. So clearly you are different. You’re in a category above criminals.Just because you didn’t intend harm, that doesn’t mean you didn’t cause harm. You ignored a clearly stated boundary. That’s the part our conscience should struggle with.Is it an unforgivable offense? That’s not for me to decide.What does this violation do? Hopefully, no legal harm, but you’ve made everyone on the receiving side of a fandom or readership more cautious and potentially more closed off.If you go to threads, you can see this in real time.One person wrote: “One day, in the very near future, y’all are going to lose all access to your favorite authors.”Another author wrote about feeling so violated “after her government name was shared,” that she endured harassment, stalking, and cyber abuse so severe she nearly abandoned writing forever.Another creator, from the gaming community, described having her address and phone number spread online, receiving death threats, and watching her mother become a target of harassment. It took years of therapy before she felt safe again.All of these are different situations.Different levels of harm.Yet, they all share a common thread: Someone else decided that another person’s boundaries didn’t matter.As authors, we want readers to love our books.We want to meet you. We want to laugh with you at signings, hug you at festivals, celebrate release days together. We want to feel close.But there is a distinct difference between closeness and entitlement.Writing is my profession. It is also one of the most personal things I do. Every novel asks me to hand over pieces of myself.My fears.My questions.My hopes.And sometimes my grief.Whether you’re a novelist, painter, musician, actor, graphics designer, or sculptor—every work of art contains something deeply personal. You struggle and learn—really learn—to release ...
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    16 分
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