Category Archives: research

#TBRChallenge – After the War: The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson is nonfiction about, well, the time after the First World War. I took this month’s theme very literally! … Continue reading →

Posted in nonfiction, research, wwi | Tagged | 1 Comment

My September and October Reading Logs

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Victoria Janssen

Nonfiction: In War’s Dark Shadow: The Russians before the Great War by W. Bruce Lincoln took me a year or more to finish. This book is from the 1980s, when it was a big deal that Lincoln had actually been … Continue reading →

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Knitting and World War One

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Victoria Janssen

The Wool Brigades of World War I, When Knitting Was a Patriotic Duty, an article for Atlas Obscura, reminded me of an excellent book I read years ago: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (1990) by Anne … Continue reading →

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The Mechanics of Research Into Writing

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

This post is a tidier version of a talk I gave to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society in October, 2012. The purpose was to give some concrete examples of how my research reading finds its way into my fiction. I … Continue reading →

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The Research/Writing Interface

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

I’m going back and forth between researching and writing, on my new novel draft. I don’t follow any sort of organized plan so far as historical research reading goes. I don’t finish all my research reading before I start to … Continue reading →

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Language Linkgasm

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

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More on Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

This is a continuation of my comments from this post. Because I read Holding the Line on my e-reader, I was able to easily copy quotes that I found interesting. I reproduce them here for my own reference and, hopefully, … Continue reading →

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Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin – WWI Challenge

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

My next book for The WWI Challenge is Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin. It’s a memoir that was published in February 1918, when most memoirs I have looked at seem to have been written and published in the years … Continue reading →

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Zouaves at Arisia – Pics

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

I was thrilled on Sunday morning at Arisia when, while ambling through the lobby, I spotted a zouave. I walked a little past, wondering if I’d been mistaken – maybe it was just a similar uniform, and he was busy … Continue reading →

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2011 Reading: Best Nonfiction

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Victoria Janssen

I went through all the nonfiction I read in 2011, and the books below are the volumes I enjoyed the most; they cover a range of topics. London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis, by Jonathan Schneer, is pretty much what it … Continue reading →

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