Author Archives: Victoria Janssen

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.

Short Stories Versus Novels

1. Do you think that some writers are inherently “short story writers” and others are inherently “novel writers”? 2. If you believe that’s true, are the writers of one form incapable of writing the other to a base level of … Continue reading

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Me and The Doctor

This post originally appeared at Amanda McIntyre’s House of Muse Blog, 10/1/09. My name is Victoria and I am a Dr. Who fan. If you’ve never seen the show, it began on the BBC in 1963 and continued until 1989, … Continue reading

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Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, "Hit"

Hit Out of the sparkling sea I drew my tingling body clear, and lay On a low ledge the livelong summer day, Basking, and watching lazily White sails in Falmouth Bay. My body seemed to burn Salt in the sun … Continue reading

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Moonlight Mistress Excerpt – Danger

Moonlight Mistress is out December 2009 from Harlequin Spice. In this scene, Noel Ashby has recently been captured by an enemy. # A woman crouched before him, naked, her long blond hair trailing to the chalky stone floor. She had … Continue reading

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Robin Bradford Guest Post – Audiobook & E-book Pricing

Please welcome my guest, Robin Bradford! # The price of sharing For years, there have been two markets for audiobooks. There was the retail market, which sold audiobooks at around $39.99/title. This was higher and lower, of course, depending on … Continue reading

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Anne Sexton, "The Black Art"

The Black Art A woman who writes feels too much,those trances and portents!As if cycles and children and islandsweren’t enough; as if mourners and gossipsand vegetables were never enough.She thinks she can warn the stars.A writer is essentially a spy.Dear … Continue reading

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Living/Writing Balance

I sing in a choir. I would have more time to sing and practice music if I didn’t spend so much time writing. Or vice versa. And if I didn’t spend so much time reading, I would have more time … Continue reading

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Sisyphus, Writing

I dug into my journal entries of six years ago for this post. I was working on, at the time, the first novel I ever actually completed. Looking back, I seem to have had much more anxiety over the process … Continue reading

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Stories in the Head

I used to make up stories before I went to sleep every night. Usually I didn’t get very far. Sometimes I would barely arrange the scene before drifting off, and would start in approximately the same place on the following … Continue reading

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An Experiment in Second-Person Present

This is an old essay I unearthed from the depths of my laptop. # Point of view and tense have a dramatic effect on a story’s tone. The following excerpt comes from the first typed draft of my short story … Continue reading

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