Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 12

My January Reading Log

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Fiction:
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton is a bitingly satirical alternate Victorian England in which women have learned to make their houses fly, and of course have used this ability to become pirates, and also spend a lot of time trying to assassinate each other. It’s also a romance, though the satirical tone is maintained throughout, with the heroine gradually becoming aware of what her feelings mean. Plump Queen Victoria, who talks to a portrait of the deceased P...

#TBRChallenge – Quickie: Instead of Three Wishes by Megan Whalen Turner

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Instead of Three Wishes: Magical Short Stories by Megan Whalen Turner was the slenderest volume on my TBR shelves. I dearly love Turner’s “Queen’s Thief” series, marketed as Young Adult, that begins with The Thief. In my opinion this short story collection, like that series, doesn’t necessarily have to be considered as being for any particular age of reader, though it’s published as Children’s.

The seven stories all have a mythological or fairy tale feel, but none follows a staid, expected ...

My December Reading Log

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Fiction:
Plus-One by Barbara Hambly is a novelette in her Windrose series; I had been hoarding a couple of it for a while, as it’s from my favorite of her various fantasy series. Joanna and Antryg are attending a martial arts conference in Las Vegas at a hotel which has had a number of mysterious deaths, which Antryg suspects have a magical cause. This turns out to be the case, surprising me not at all. Aside from the fantasy element, the plot is essentially a mystery, even including the mo...

IHeartLesfic Reading Challenge

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I Heart Lesfic‘s 2022 reading challenge features a themed list of books each week, which seems like a great way to encounter some new-to-me authors; it starts the week of January 10, 2022.

My speculative fiction erotica collection Erotic Exploits is listed for the week of July 4, “Hot and Steamy,” and Finding Refuge is one of the books for “Science Fiction,” the week of November 28.

2021 Guest Posts

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My 2021 Guest Post Round-Up:

Sapphic Book Club gave me an Author Spotlight in December; I wrote about SF Worldbuilding Techniques.

I Heart Lesfic’s Project Kindness hosted a blog post from me on December 3, about growing closer to my work colleagues during the early days of the pandemic.

Queer Sci Fi featured Finding Refuge on November 28th.

The Lesbian Science Fiction Index now includes both Finding Refuge and Accepting Refuge.

#TBRChallenge 2022

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This year, I’ll again be participating in the TBR Challenge hosted by Wendy the Super Librarian. My goal is to post reviews of a themed book on the third Wednesday of every month. Feel free to join me! Tag your social media posts with #TBRChallenge. The monthly themes, and my choices to fit those themes, are listed below. All of the books are from my To Be Read shelves (physical and virtual) as of December, 2021.

January 19 – Quickie
Instead of Three Wishes: Magical Short Stories by Megan W...

#TBRChallenge – Festive: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer

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It’s true! I’ve never read Cotillion by Georgette Heyer! Until now. This book was published in 1953, so I felt free to include spoilers in this post.

I found the novel charming, with typical Heyer character types, plotlines, and shenanigans, except for one aspect, which I’ll detail later on. Oddly, given the title, there was no actual cotillion (formal ball, presenting young women to society), which surprised me. Instead, there are a couple of masquerades and a night at Almack’s, only one o...

My November Reading Log

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Fiction:
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone is space opera on a grand scale with a seemingly all-powerful Empress, a giant pirate with fur and a tail, space monks, massive fleets of spaceships and the pilots who can merge with them, be-weaponed machine-people, people made entirely of nanomaterials, souls in The Cloud…you get the picture. Scope! Sense of wonder! Homage to Journey to the West! Plus there are Space Lesbians, including the main point of view character, a too-powerful, morally ...

Accepting Refuge Launch Day is today!

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Accepting Refuge: A Place of Refuge, Part Two, is now available!

Excerpt:
Accepting Refuge, A Place of Refuge, Book Two

Miki woke early, from a nasty dream of living in the humid, congested Gamma Habitat back in the Federated Colonies. She’d been searching for Jon Churchill, who needed her, pushing her way through crowds of people who ignored and blocked her at every turn. The places she searched grew steadily more absurd. She’d even crawled inside the works of some kind of gear-based horo...

Accepting Refuge pre-order is available!

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Accepting Refuge: A Place of Refuge, Part Two, is now available for pre-order. Release date is December 6, 2021.

I haven’t uploaded to Smashwords or Google Play yet, but hopefully will take care of that soon.

Excerpt:
Accepting Refuge, A Place of Refuge, Book Two

Miki woke early, from a nasty dream of living in the humid, congested Gamma Habitat back in the Federated Colonies. She’d been searching for Jon Churchill, who needed her, pushing her way through crowds of people who ignored and bl...