Vivian Roth
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vivianroth.bsky.social
Vivian Roth
@vivianroth.bsky.social
120 followers 63 following 320 posts
#scifi and #horror writer, sometimes together | aerospace engineer | she/her | #writingcommunity #horrorwriters #scifiwriters #sff #sffh

Launching: NEON DREAM IN A VENDING MACHINE (hopepunk scifi)

RR: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/804429/fictions
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vivianroth.bsky.social
Just making covers for people.

#royalroad #bookcover #drawing #digitalart
November 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Trying to decide on a cover. Thoughts?
neon dream in a vending machine cover neon dream in a vending machine cover neon dream in a vending machine cover
October 10, 2025 at 9:32 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #Writingcommunity #writesky
A helper bot in terrible shape sits in the bed. Something, or someone, split it almost in two at its center. Wires claw into the air from the gaping wound, searching for their other half; and fluid, dried and sticky, forms rivers down the wrinkled metal of the body. I’d left even more bot viscera in the helper bot’s charging area. The couple that had met me in front of their scrape had no answers except pinched mouths and wide eyes.
September 15, 2025 at 3:02 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Couldn’t make a cover I liked on Canva so drawing my own.

NDIAVM cover WIP
#writingcommunity #royalroad
Jaqs in front of a neon drink vending machine
September 8, 2025 at 1:40 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Behold. This is coming along!
Knitted cardigan
August 29, 2025 at 2:32 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
NDIAVM #writingprompt #writingsnippet
With the fish bowl tucked against my side I hobble on the cane into the kitchen. The unit works for two people, but it is a bit cramped. Our kitchen fits one person, our table two, and plants consume our windowsill. A singular mauve couch butts against the far wall and each of our rooms are crowded with furniture needed to live. The carpet is a striking magenta, our walls a faded electric blue, and the scarlet tile in the kitchen is cracked. The balcony door whistles with the wind and there’s a hum we can’t find the source of, but it’s home.
August 28, 2025 at 3:11 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Jaqs has had better days.
Chill drags itself over the corpse of the summer months, its cold-cracked nails digging into the land around the city to root itself and bring autumn’s decay in a blanket of leaves. The carpet of blood red and sunset orange leaves form a runner for the wrathful ghost of winter, and in its long shadow is the anniversary of my hospital stay. Each day of falling temperatures a reminder of a changed life. And each stretch of darkness reaching ever earlier a reminder of time passing. All I can do is try my best to move on. Move forward.
July 27, 2025 at 1:08 AM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Crab crab crab
Crab Horseshoe crab Crab
June 20, 2025 at 4:13 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Smol
Smol cat
May 30, 2025 at 1:44 AM
vivianroth.bsky.social
used the word stars, an essential thing for this book to work.
#writingprompt #writingsnippet #writingcommunity
And, in weakened moments, when defenses fall and the spark of happiness stutters and dies, it calls for tears. Big, fat drops that course down reddened cheeks until I’m dried out, leaving nothing behind but a deep, angry pulse of want. A want to step into nothing. For the darkest void to pull and for the stars to reach into my soul, burying their beauty there. I want to walk among the stars.
May 5, 2025 at 4:01 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Well, fuck.
NASA AO delayed
April 29, 2025 at 7:39 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Me, to myself: this is a happy book.
#writesnip #writesky #writingcommunity

Also me:
Az bumps the old truck up the driveway of Gen’s shop. Above us, the rolling gray swells steer across the sky to blot out the sun and blanket ‘Cuse in drear. Chill drags itself over the corpse of the summer months, nails digging into the land around the city to root itself and bring autumn’s decay in a blanket of leaves—a reminder of time passing. Winter looms ever closer, and in its long shadow is the anniversary of my hospital stay.
April 24, 2025 at 10:19 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #NDIAVM #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Mel replies to my text with confusion, but agrees, and soon the car is finding a spot in a parking garage. Gen and Dom have switched to a conversation about coding that I jump into with ease. We’re a riot of sparkle and color, laughter, and the click of heels. A miniature force to be reckoned with as we trample down the stairs and across the street to the diner.
April 23, 2025 at 4:43 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Here is the mockup I did when I began my edits. I'm not sure I'll keep it, but it captures the book fairly well.

#writingprompt #ndiavm
Neon city with the title NEON DREAM IN A VENDING MACHINE
April 23, 2025 at 4:23 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Have more Az, who is arguably the best character.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Fatigue weighs heavy on my shoulders, threatening to drag me to the leaf-plastered pavement. Leave me there with the confetti of autumn and the dying light of the day soaked through with the delicious offerings of the Chinese restaurant on the corner. Az pressed against my chest keeps me from that fate. His blue light blinks and caresses my eyelids, waiting for me to be ready to move. A quiet declaration of love. At least that’s how I take it. With a sigh I open my eyes to take in Az’s brilliance. It dances against the city behind him.
April 21, 2025 at 4:47 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
#writesky #writingsnippet #writingcommunity
I am the moth to her funeral pyre
April 16, 2025 at 5:35 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Just gonna lean into this harder.
“What the hell, Jaqs,” Gen whispers as Dom crosses to the driver’s side door. “How are we with Dom Higgs?” “I wooed her with a cig and my stunningly bad conversation skills.”
April 16, 2025 at 4:43 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Az is Jaqs' personal robot and companion. He's one of my favorite characters to write because in his different forms I had to figure out how he would communicate. This shows one way.
#wipsnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
He blinks slower and pulls up a scene from an action video from last summer. In the video, two men zoom down a street in a car. One’s face set in determination. One in fear. He rarely does this and saves it for when he needs to communicate something important. “Too fast! Too fast!” the scared man screams. The video switches to an action film where the two leads are embracing. “You have to be careful.” Then a medical drama. “We don’t know what the illness is.”
April 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
My whole book takes place in autumn and winter, so unfortunately all I have is this bit from the opening pages.

#writingprompt #writesky
My skin formed a cocoon so hard that when spring leaked into summer in all its muggy glory, there was no way for the burgeoning warmth to seep in and thaw me into who I once was. The two-week stint of summer in the city of ‘Cuse helped a minuscule amount. The heavy rains and cloying heat sunk into my skin and twisted around my bones to marionette me through the days. Summer thawed me enough for Gen’s lecture about making a bucket list to wind itself into my desiccated brain. To use the list as a solution to what my life had become.
April 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
In a book about feeling frozen in a body that no longer works the same way, this is my only passage with the word chill.

#WIPSNIPS #writesky #writingprompts #writingcommunity
“You don’t want to do it through cost?” “Not as feasible for me as it is for you.” I grimace and an ice-cold chill winds around my bones. Oh no. Those weren’t words to say out loud. It’s one thing to think it, but another to say it out loud. Makes sense that Gen has given me the same lecture about voicing my opinion three times. One of these days I’m going to go too far. Dom surprises me by laughing. A soft, quiet huff that breaks the ice threading through my veins, but does nothing to slow my heart. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
April 14, 2025 at 3:04 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Please enjoy one of my favorite worldbuilding and setting building scenes.

#wipsnips #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writesky
The Seed Wars brought the first wave of people from the desolate cities and the dust bowl of the Midwest, caused by corp greed, brought more. Rising waters from climate change brought others from the coastal cities, completing the diversification of a once struggling city. With the increased population came the scrapes; towering spikes of metal and glass that threaten to pierce the sky. Once called skyscrapers, the full name has become a mocking cry hurled at old buildings that once carried it with pride. They’re overshadowed by what exists now. The scrapes ring the stumpy buildings of Old ‘Cuse like a fence. A division of old and new. It’s easy enough to cross the boundary, but there’s a different manner to those in the scrapes.
April 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
I love introducing small little things like this in books. It helps make the characters and world feel more real.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Mel casts her eyes around and focuses on a person sitting in the corner. She whips around to capture me in her sparkling gaze, sly smile creeping onto her lips. “Masc presenting person in the blue hoodie and rose pants. They sell plants on the side and are trying to buy a house with their significant other who works as a dog nurse.” I fail to obscure a snicker in a cough. It’s an old game, and an enjoyable one. A great way to pass the time. Since high school we’ve made up lives for the people around us, creating whole universes where they are the central focus. Mel had cast the first die. Now it was my turn. “Femme presenting person in neon yellow dress. They own a gift shop and are doing quite well for themselves but have always wanted to act in a romcom.”
April 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
Have one of my favorite lines in this book.

“I’ve never been to the rodeo”
#wipsnips #writingcommunity #writesky
A woman with violently orange hair pokes her head out of the nearby door. “Mel Kim, you’re up.” Mel jolts. The blush falls from her face and neck. The paleness of a ghost replaces it. I reach out and squeeze her hand. Trying to destroy the fear that’s taken over her. “Hey you got this. Don’t be scared. This isn’t your first rodeo.” “I’ve never been to a rodeo,” Mel murmurs as she stands. “Okay, bad analogy. Break a leg,” I whisper. Mel shoots me a nervous glance and steps through the door, leaving me with a hallway full of strangers and the fictional lives I create for them. And the weird man. Can’t forget him. Rob? Pretty sure that’s what Mel said. My mind has already gobbled the name and cast it into obscurity.
April 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
I bring ✨despair✨
#writingprompt #writingcommunity
Both illnesses hit me like a train at the end of last year. And dealing with the endless doctor’s visits and new meds wasn’t all. It was like the diseases opened a door and winter crawled inside my skin, murdering the life I had. By spring all that existed was the husk of a woman where the cold, bitter wind whistled through and created snowdrifts against my heart to freeze it into an icy fortress. My skin formed a cocoon so hard that when spring leaked into summer in all its muggy glory, there was no way for the burgeoning warmth to seep in and thaw me into who I once was. The two-week stint of summer in the city of ‘Cuse helped a minuscule amount. The heavy rains and cloying heat sunk into my skin and twisted around my bones to marionette me through the days. Summer thawed me enough for Gen’s lecture about making a bucket list to wind itself into my desiccated brain. To use the list as a solution to what my life had become. But now, summer is leaving, and with the rough crunch of autumn tumbling in my bucket list is daunting in the shadow of winter and the memory of what it brought.
April 5, 2025 at 5:44 PM
vivianroth.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #Writesky #writingcommunity
We were trying to live off our universal basic income without extra cost in picking the run-down building we had. But it got to be too much. We craved more. Better than the failing building we’d found years ago. Mel promised to keep a job longer than a few days to pitch in for extras. Things UBI didn’t cover like extra rent, beer, weed, fast food, movies, video games, and bots. Little joys that enhance life but aren’t considered essential. Things we’d grown accustomed to even in our little hell hole of a unit.
March 13, 2025 at 2:49 PM