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.

My December Reading Log

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Victoria Janssen

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Victoria Janssen

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, … Continue reading →

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SF Worldbuilding Techniques

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Victoria Janssen

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 … Continue reading →

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#TBR Challenge 2025

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Victoria Janssen

TBR Challenge 2025 is a fun way to actually read all those books I’ve been accumulating over the years. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it: once a month pull a dormant book out of your TBR pile and … Continue reading →

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TBR Challenge – It’s a Party!: Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

Posted on December 18, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

My choice for December’s TBR Challenge book is Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake, in which ex-fiancées end up stuck in the same house for Christmas holiday fun. I chose the book because it has professional musician characters; … Continue reading →

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My November Reading Log

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a very cozy romantic fantasy set in a world that, to me, felt very dreamlike because there were a number of fantastical creatures with magical origins. Some of these, like the merhorses, … Continue reading →

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#TBR Challenge – It Came From the 1990s!: Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

It Came From the 1990s!: Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion by J. Daniel Gifford and James Gifford was published in 2000, but that’s the end of the 1990s, it counts! This is a nonfiction catalog of all the writing … Continue reading →

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My October Reading Log

Posted on November 15, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis is fantasy romance novella set in an alternate nineteenth century England (Angland) where women do politics and men do magic. Humans have an uneasy truce with the powerful Elves. The protagonist Cassandra Harwood, a unique … Continue reading →

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My September Reading Log

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Payback in Death by J.D. Robb is fifty-seventh in this futuristic mystery series, and I continue to enjoy, from a writerly perspective, how Robb/Nora Roberts manages to both provide enough information for new readers and reward longtime readers with … Continue reading →

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#TBR Challenge – Spooky (Gothic): All Clear by Connie Willis

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Victoria Janssen

October 16, Spooky (Gothic): All Clear by Connie Willis (2010) is the second half of Blackout, which I read for the September Drama theme. It actually does fit the Spooky theme a bit, as the characters navigate London during the … Continue reading →

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