Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 3

#TBR Challenge – Rizz: The Gentleman’s Book of Vices by Jess Everlee

The Gentleman’s Book of Vices by Jess Everlee was very fun and I will definitely seek out more of this author’s work. It’s a male/male romance set in 1883 London. Extrovert Charlie Price is embedded in a small community of queer friends, while Miles Montague, after his lover died in prison, isolates himself from everyone while writing philosophical and filthy erotica under a pen name. It’s a bit of a Grumpy/Sunshine story and I loved seeing how Charlie shows Miles how lonely he’s become through ...

Now Available on Itch.Io!

Check me out on Itch.io!

The entire Refuge series is now collected there and available for purchase!

Steamy Sapphic Treats!

I’ve issued an updated ebook collection of some of my favorite steamy romance stories!

Steamy Sapphic Treats features six character-driven romantic bedtime stories, from contemporary to historical, and includes:
“Cinema Fantastique”
“The Princess on the Rock”
“Still Marching”
“Found”
“Poppies Are Not the Only Flower”
“Delivery.”

Stay tuned for this collection’s spicier cousin, coming soon!

#TBR CHALLENGE – Previously, In Romance…: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is an epistolary novel, with opposing time-traveling rival agents attempting to win a war. Also, they gradually fall in love.

The fun of this book, for me, was in my appreciation of the prose style, and in piecing together the scraps of worldbuilding to differentiate the two sides and the two agents, Red and Blue. the book is also a commentary on correspondence, particularly the type of correspondence that is timely (heh) and ...

My January Reading Log

Fiction:
Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw is a novella in the Greta Helsing series about a doctor who treats supernatural beings (a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing of Dracula fame). This rather cozy installment starts off with the tragedy of a child being turned into a vampire, but things swiftly take a turn for the better when the unloved child finds herself among caring strangers, her new vampire kin, who want what’s best for her. Plus there are barrow wights. I very much enjoyed the original tr...

Welcome to Refuge!

This is the official website of writer Victoria Janssen, author of A Place of Refuge, is science fiction #hopepunk following three former guerillas who lose their fight against a fascist empire but escape to a utopian planet. They’re figuring out what’s next with the aid of pastries, therapy, and other people. A Place of Refuge is now available in an omnibus edition with extras. New! Dissenter Rebellion: The Rattri Extraction, a Refuge prequel.

Victoria is a member of the Science Fiction and Fan...

My December Reading Log

Fiction:
You might be surprised to know that A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is the first book by this author I have ever read, after receiving many recommendations for her work over the past I don’t know how many years. I would consider it to be dark fantasy with some fairy tale elements turned sideways. Set in an alternate Regency-like world, across the sea from the Old Country, it opens with a child being abused by her mother in a horrible magical way: her mother controls her body ...

#TBR Challenge – New Year, Who Dis?: Watson and Holmes by Karl Bollers

Watson and Holmes by Karl Bollers (Author), Brandon Perlow (Editor), Rick Leonardi (Artist), Larry Stroman (Artist), Khary Randolph (Artist), Paul Mendoza (Artist) is a comic series recommended to me by a Boston friend a while back. I bought it immediately, but then I shifted from a period of reading a ton of comics to reading none, and am only now just getting back to one of my favorite types of media.

As you can probably guess, Watson and Holmes is a revisioning of the Sherlock Holmes mysterie...

#TBR Challenge: New Year, Who Dis?: Watson and Holmes by Karl Bollers

Watson and Holmes by Karl Bollers (Author), Brandon Perlow (Editor), Rick Leonardi (Artist), Larry Stroman (Artist), Khary Randolph (Artist), Paul Mendoza (Artist) is a comic series recommended to me by a Boston friend a while back. I bought it immediately, but then I shifted from a period of reading a ton of comics to reading none, and am only now just getting back to one of my favorite types of media.

As you can probably guess, Watson and Holmes is a revisioning of the Sherlock Holmes mysterie...

SF Worldbuilding Techniques

While writing Finding Refuge, I revisited various science fiction worldbuilding techniques I’d learned from years of reading the genre, listening to writers, and of course practicing them myself. One of my most important goals is allowing the reader to be curious about what happens next. Worldbuilding can be a big part of that.

Many or most guides to writing science fiction hammer in the idea of “showing, not telling,” but no writing rule should be followed off a cliff. If you can make the “tell...