Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 22

Knitting and World War One

The Wool Brigades of World War I, When Knitting Was a Patriotic Duty, an article for Atlas Obscura, reminded me of an excellent book I read years ago: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (1990) by Anne L. MacDonald.

My Readercon 2017 Schedule

Thursday July 13, 2017, 8:00 PM, Room 5
“How to Moderate a Panel”
Alex Jablokow, Victoria Janssen (leader), Kathleen Jennings, Tom Purdom, Kenneth Schneyer.
The moderator plays a crucial role in making panels run smoothly and enjoyably for participants and attendees. This panel will cover how to get questions rather than comments from audience members, how to deal with a panelist who goes off the rails, and how to make sure everyone gets equal time, among many other topics.

Friday July 14, 20...

For the Love of a Soldier – “The Aid Station, 1916”

My World War One erotica story “The Aid Station, 1916” is appearing in For the Love of a Soldier from Circlet Press, edited by Kristina Wright. It’s out June 29th. This one has been in limbo for a long time, so I’m very excited!

Here’s the opening of my story:

Captain Harry Cash tried not to cling too obviously as the British ambulance hurtled over a hole in the road. They landed with an almighty jolt, slamming his tailbone into the hard seat and his elbow into the metal box strapped next to...

My April – May Reading Log

Fiction:
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older is a YA novel that ties in to his Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series. The magic of the shadowshapers is very, very cool, and so are the different ways it can be manifested. However, my favorite thing was the ancestry theme. The protagonist, Sierra, is a high school student, and her friends are a big part of the story, but so are her grandparents and mother and others of their generations that live in her Brooklyn neighborhood. A secondary charact...

My WisCon 2017 Schedule – Updated

I’ll be attending WisCon 41: May 26 – 29, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. Here’s my program schedule as it stands right now, with a Sunday panel added.

Saturday, 10:00 – 11:15 am, University C
“Join the Mod Squad: Enhance Your Moderation Skills”
Christopher Davis [Moderator], Victoria Janssen

Ever go to a panel and spend your time thinking, “With a good moderator, this would be a much better panel”? We will review several ways to be that good moderator, offer tips and tricks, and generally work o...

My WisCon 2017 Schedule

I’ll be attending WisCon 41: May 26 – 29, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. Here’s my program schedule as it stands right now.

Saturday, 10:00 – 11:15 am, University C
“Join the Mod Squad: Enhance Your Moderation Skills”
Christopher Davis [Moderator], Victoria Janssen

Ever go to a panel and spend your time thinking, “With a good moderator, this would be a much better panel”? We will review several ways to be that good moderator, offer tips and tricks, and generally work on improving WisCon’s alread...

My February/March Reading Log

I’m finally caught up!!!

Fiction:
Mind Magic (Lupi Book 12) by Eileen Wilks introduces a new character, a teenager named Demi who has Asperger’s. She was involved in an illegal government project to boost the power of Gifted kids until she figured out the leader, Mr. Smith, was not to be trusted. Her plotline eventually intersects with Rule Turner and Lily Yu’s seemingly separate plots, which involve a strike against the magical enforcement Unit 12 and a murder in Ohio, respectively. And ther...

My December and January Reading Log

Fiction:
I breezed through Devoted in Death by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts). This series isn’t getting any better, but offers the comfort of familiar characters and plot patterns. A new character was introduced, a deputy from out of state, who I thought might be a spinoff character. Either that or he was just there to make up wordcount.

Brotherhood in Death by J.D. Robb felt really familiar at times, at least in the mystery part; she must have written a similar plot at some point earlier in this...

My October and November Reading Log

Fiction:
I bought a bunch of Barbara Hambly short stories electronically that I hadn’t previously read. Zenobie (Windrose Chronicles) is a ghost story that takes place while Antryg and Joanna are living in our world. I love that Antryg is still a wizard in a world without magic; he’s one of my favorites of all Hambly’s characters.

A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson is novella-length, set in a science fictional world with fantasy novel trappings; there’s some science that might as well be...

My September Reading Log

Fiction:
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee is space opera fantasy. From the plot description, I was expecting it to be a difficult read, but in fact the complex, fascinating, and unusual worldbuilding is really clearly presented, so I followed it without any trouble. I don’t read a lot of books of Ideas any more, so this, too, is refreshing.

Bodyguard Bear (Protection, Inc. Book 1) by Zoe Chant is a freebie novella or maybe novelette with a standard plot of Hero Bodyguards Heroine Who Witnessed a...