Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 23

Arisia 2017 Schedule

I’ll be at Arisia January 13-16, 2017, in Boston, Massachusetts.

My schedule:

Saturday, 11:30 am, Hale
Reading
Victoria Janssen, Hildy Silverman, Sonya Taaffe

Sunday, 10:00 am, Marina 2
“Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make Fantasy”
Victoria Sandbrook-Flynn [moderator], Esther Friesner, Victoria Janssen, Randee Dawn, Ariela Housman, Henry White
From Susan Pevensie’s lipstick to fan-hate for Sansa Stark, feminine characters often get shortchanged by fantasy authors and fans alike, losing out in comp...

A gift for Tuphlos.

My Philcon 2016 Schedule

This weekend, I’ll be at Philcon 2016 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. You can find me on the following panels.

Sat 11:00 AM, Plaza II
“Slooow Books”
Victoria Janssen (mod), L.E. Modesitt Jr., Ty Drago, Tom Purdom
What makes a book slow? Is it as much reader expectation as anything else? Can a slow book be a rewarding read? And is the an emphasis on fast-paced action in storytelling a result of how quickly things seem to move in the real world these days…or a contributing factor?

Sat 1:00 PM, Plaz...

“Preparations For Victory,” Edmund Blunden

Preparations For Victory

My soul, dread not the pestilence that hags
The valley; flinch not you, my body young.
At these great shouting smokes and snarling jags
Of fiery iron; as yet may not be flung
The dice that claims you. Manly move among
These ruins, and what you must do, do well;
Look, here are gardens, there mossed boughs are hung
With apples who bright cheeks none might excel,
And there’s a house as yet unshattered by a shell.

“I’ll do my best,” the soul makes sad reply,
“And I will m...

My July and August Reading Log

Nonfiction:
Snape: A Definitive Reading by Lorrie Kim is what it says on the tin. I highly recommend this if you like intelligent, crunchy, critical close readings. I strongly suspect you do not have to like or even have read the Harry Potter books to enjoy it. I definitely appreciated the books more after I read it.

My vacation reading included G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II by Lee Kennett. I read a bit more than half on my flight, then finished up the remaining few chapters over...

CapClave 2016 Schedule

CapClave 2016 will be held October 7-9, 2016 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

My schedule:

The Portal Story
Martin Berman-Gorvine [moderator], Elektra Hammond, Victoria Janssen, Sarah Pinsker
Saturday 11:00 am, Frederick
The portal story, where the protagonist travels to another place, world, or universe, has a long history and is a mainstay in genre literature. Panelists will discuss the best and the worst tales, as well as portal stories that defy the trope yet still stays true to the sub-genre.

...

My May and June Reading Log

Fiction:
Wonder City Stories by Jude McLaughlin went along well with my recent comics reading. Wonder City is full of superheroes, and they all have stories: young superheroes just starting out, old superheroes who aren’t sure what timeline they’re in, legacy superheroes avoiding superheroism for all they’re worth. I particularly liked that the interweaving storylines of the various pov characters gave the effect of an actual comic in prose form. Bonus: a range of genders and sexualities as w...

Readercon 2016 Schedule

I’ll be at Readercon this weekend in Quincy, Massachusetts. Hope to see some of you there! Here’s my schedule.

Friday July 08, 2016
3:00 PM, C
Fantastical Dystopia.
Victoria Janssen, Ada Palmer, Andrea Phillips, Sabrina Vourvoulias, T.X. Watson.
Dystopia is popular in YA fiction for a variety of reasons, but why do authors frequently base their future dystopian society on some flimsy ideas, rather than using history to draw parallels between past atrocities and current human rights violations...

Me and My Boi Blog Tour

Despite having read hundreds of Regency-set romances, my story for Me and My Boi: Queer Erotic Stories, “Measure of a Man,” is the first time I ever attempted to utilize that time period myself. Being me, I chose to do so with a twist or two–or three–on a trope-y plot.

“Measure of a Man” is a story of discoveries, acceptance, and happy endings.

Here’s how the story begins:

Jerusha Pettifer desperately needed this position.

He checked the fall of his breeches to make sure everything was fasten...

Me and My Boi is out!

Me and My Boi, edited by Sacchi Green, is finally out this week. Me and My Boi celebrates lesbian bois, butches, and screw-the-binary free spirits; cool bois, hot bois, swaggering bois, shy bois, leather bois, flannel bois, butch daddies, and the girls (and other bois) who wouldn’t have them any other way.

My story in the anthology, “Measure of a Man” is my first ever Regency-set story.

There’s a blog tour, and anyone who comments on any of the posts will be entered in a drawing for one free...