Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 27

Reading Log, September-October 2013

I haven’t posted anything substantive in this blog in a really long time! Sorry about that.

I haven’t been doing a lot of writing, but as usual when not writing much, I have been reading, and I’ve been logging that reading, after a fashion. I’ve decided to post my off-the-cuff commentaries in manageable chunks For Your Pleasure. These posts are going to have a mixture of fiction, nonfiction, and fanfiction.

September 2013
Fiction: Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik, latest in the Temeraire serie...

Book Posts!

I haven’t done a roundup of my work for Heroes and Heartbreakers and The Criminal Element lately, so here is a collection of my recent posts.

First Look: Lauren Gallagher’s Razor Wire, an intense lesbian romance set on an Okinawan military base; the story begins after one of the protagonists has been raped by a superior officer.

Family Issues and Finding Love in Janice Kay Johnson’s One Frosty Night: this was a slightly unusual book for Johnson, in that there’s an underlying possibly-murder mys...

Arisia 2015 Schedule

January 16-19, I’ll be attending Arisia in Boston.

Here’s where you can find me at the convention:

Orgasmatron: The Erotic & Not So Erotic in SF/F

Sat. 10:00 pm, Marina 2

Not every SF/F story fades to black when the sexy times start. Let’s talk about our favorite erotic SF/F stories and some that just AREN’T RIGHT.

Jo Vanderhooft [mod.], Connie Wilkins, N.K. Jemisin, Victoria Janssen, Tegan Mannino

The Arisia Mega Fan-Casting Panel

Sun. 2:30 pm, Marina 4

Believe it or not, not every great book or com...

Philcon 2014 Schedule

Here’s where you can find me at Philcon this year.

Sat 5:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three

The Capaldi Report: A New Who

Victoria Janssen (mod), Gordon Linzner, Deborah Stanish, Rebecca Robare, Christine Norris, Gail Z. Martin

With the first season of Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor concluded and fandom awaiting the Doctor Who Christmas special, what has worked and what has not? Has this new “alien” Doctor worked out well? How has Moffat’s new season helped or hurt the arrival of the new Time Lord?...

“Two Hundred Years After,” Siegfried Sassoon

Two Hundred Years After

Trudging by Corbie Ridge one winter’s night,

(Unless old hearsay memories tricked his sight)

Along the pallid edge of the quiet sky

He watched a nosing lorry grinding on,

And straggling files of men; when these were gone,

A double limber and six mules went by,

Hauling the rations up through ruts and mud

To trench-lines digged two hundred years ago.

Then darkness hid them with a rainy scud,

And soon he saw the village lights below.

But when he’d told his tale, an old man said

That...

World Fantasy 2014 Schedule

This week, I’ll be attending World Fantasy in Arlington, Virginia.

You can find me on the following program item:

The Great Game in History and Fiction

3pm-4pm, Nov. 8, Tidewater 2

Ian Drury (M), David Drake, Jim Fiscus, Jennifer Povey, Victoria Janssen

Before World War I, there was the Great Game, as from 1813 to 1907, the British and Russian empires vied for supremacy. The geopolitical machinations of this period influenced the politics of many fantastic novels, coloring the colonialism of The B...

CapClave and Links

I recently enjoyed this post about category romances by Jessica Tripler over at Book Riot and this post about the history of erotic romance by Meoskop at Love in the Margins.

I wrote a preview of the new Eileen Wilks novel, Unbinding over at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

And I previewed an anthology of alternate universe Sherlock Holmes stories at The Criminal Element.

I’ll be attending CapClave this weekend, and will participate in the following panels.

Saturday. October 11, 10:00 AM, Salon A

“Doctor...

Charity Anthology

My latest story, “Found,” appears in an anthology to benefit The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Her Private Passion: More Tales of Pleasure and Domination is currently available for Kindle.

Blurb:

Five smoldering tales of women’s passion for women. Five best-selling authors bring you their hottest lesbian historical stories of desires that cannot be denied.

From elegant aristocrats, cross-dressing soldiers, and sultry sirens, to naughty nuns, seductive spies, and innocen...

My Schedule for Readercon 25 (2014)

I’ll be at Readercon this weekend, July 10-13. All of my programming is on Friday, but I’ll also be around all day Saturday.

Friday July 11, 11:00 AM

“Everything in Moderation: How to Moderate”

Leah Bobet, Jim Freund, Elaine Isaak, Victoria Janssen (leader), James Patrick Kelly.

An exceptional moderator is usually someone who has moderated panels in the past, understands the subject matter, knows a bit about the panelists, and realizes that they are there to guide the conversation—not to impress...

Some previews and updates

1. I had a couple of previews go live recently at Heroes and Heartbreakers: Summer Rain, an anthology, and Beyond the Velvet Rope by Tiffany Ashley, an erotic romance set at an exclusive nightclub.

2. I’m going to Readercon July 10-13, 2014, and will post my schedule as soon as it’s finalized.

3. I’ve spent the summer so far focusing on putting some stories up for Kindle – Nook will be next, once I get the hang of it. I’m experimenting with different covers and blurbs. The Wrangler’s Secret: Th...