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.

“Cut Flowers,” Ivor Gurney

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Cut Flowers Not in blue vases these Nor white, cut flowers are seen But in the August meadows When the reaper falls clean – And the shining and ridged rows Of cut stalks show to the eye As if some … Continue reading →

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Rutabagas and Unicorns: The Windflower by Laura London

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

This essay was written in 2012 for Heroes and Heartbreakers; it is no longer available there, as the site is defunct. I’m posting the essay again because Sharon Curtis passed away on September 4, 2022. Every lady of breeding knows. … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Exile by Lisa Bradley

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Exile by Lisa Bradley is a post-apocalyptic, character-driven science fiction novel which I bought because I had met and liked the author. The apocalypse in this novel was local, affecting people living nearby with uncontrollable, violent rage. The federal government … Continue reading →

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My September Reading Log

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

My September #TBRChallenge Book was Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend by Joe Drape; I also read and wrote about Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield by Ed Hotaling in the same post. … Continue reading →

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Romancing the Beast – Embracing Monstrousness in Romantic SFF

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

I have a post up at the SFWA blog: Romancing the Beast – Embracing Monstrousness in Romantic SFF. Because the Romance genre is based on plot structure, it can easily be merged with a Speculative Fiction setting. Magical secondary worlds, … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Animals: Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend by Joe Drape

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

And now for something completely different! I went with horse racing as the sport for this month’s theme. Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend by Joe Drape is a biography of Black jockey Jimmy Winkfield (1882 – … Continue reading →

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My August Reading Log

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly is eighth and most current of the James and Lydia Asher series about vampire hunters and their uneasy vampire ally, Don Simon Ysidro. I was excited to find it’s set in 1917, with … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Blue Collar: Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart is one of those books I pre-ordered and then kept on my TBR for years afterward. Stewart is one of my all-time favorite fantasy writers, but he has gotten away from writing novels in recent … Continue reading →

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My July Reading Log

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Abandoned in Death by J. D. Robb is the fifty-fourth in that series, wow, and there are currently two more scheduled to follow. These are comfortingly repetitive despite being about sometimes truly gruesome serial murders, because the killer is … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Vintage: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

On one of the few occasions when I met the late Ursula K. LeGuin, I asked if she would recommend me a book to read. She suggested Lolly Willowes: Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner, published in 1926. … Continue reading →

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