Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 103

Anne Sexton, "Courage"

CourageIt is in the small things we see it.The child's first step,as awesome as an earthquake.The first time you rode a bike,wallowing up the sidewalk.The first spanking when your heartwent on a journey all alone.When they called you crybabyor poor or fatty or crazyand made you into an alien,you drank their acidand concealed it.Later, if you faced the death of bombs and bulletsyou did not do it

Why Not Twentieth Century Historicals?

Why are so few romance novels set in the twentieth century?If you go to a bookstore and look at the section labelled "Romance," certain things are there and certain things are not. With the exception of occasional outliers like Harlequin's line of 20th century "decade" books-- a line of categories that some bookstores didn't carry, and which was then closed down--historicals seem to include only

How to Write - Linkgasm #4

I visited Lauren Dane's blog yesterday for Writerly Wednesday, to talk about Dialog Tricks.Also, Great War Fiction, one of my favorite blogs, reviewed The Moonlight Mistress yesterday! Here's the link. It's so cool to be meandering about, reading your usual blog feeds, and something like this pops up.But enough about me.The Magic Treehouse Writing Lessons. No, really. Have a look. Especially

I Like Being Reviewed

I like getting reviews of my work.Not everyone does. Not everyone is required to like it, or even to read reviews of their work. But some of us like reading reviews and commentary (which is how I think of feedback that states it isn't intended as a review, or is briefer or less thorough than a review).Reviews can give me a new way to think about my work. I like it when they confirm an opinion

Romance in Short

Having written a short romance story last month, I naturally had to think about how to do it. I've written many short stories, but I would classify them all as erotica whether or not they were romantic. This was the first time I'd explicitly tried to write a romance, meaning a story in which the romance was the primary focus. (And I hadn't written a short story in quite some time.)I had

Guest at Midnight Moon Cafe

I'm a guest today over at Midnight Moon Cafe, on "Making the Paranormal Real - Boundaries and Consequences."

e.e. cummings, "may my heart always be open to little"

may my heart always be open to littlebirds who are the secrets of livingwhatever they sing is better than to knowand if men should not hear them men are oldmay my mind stroll about hungryand fearless and thirsty and suppleand even if it's sunday may i be wrongfor whenever men are right they are not youngand may myself do nothing usefullyand love yourself so more than trulythere's never been quite

e.e. cummings, "you being in love... (XII)"

you being in lovewill tell who softly asks in love,am i separated from your body smile brain hands merelyto become the jumping puppets of a dream? oh i mean:entirely having in my careful howcareful arms created this at lengthinexcusable, this inexplicable pleasure-you go from severalpersons: believe me that strangers arrivewhen i have kissed you into a memoryslowly, oh seriously-that since and if

Write Your Bliss

You can have all the craft in the world but your writing won't sing if you're not writing your bliss, your joy, the one thing you love more than anything else in the world.It's no good to say, "vampire novels always sell so I will write a vampire novel" if you don't love vampires. Love them. Okay, some people manage it, and they sell, and they sell well, but that's not my point here.My point

How Publishing Works, via Charles Stross

I don't usually post a set of links from a single author, but in this case, I am, because I think these are excellent reference posts that go a long way to explaining common misconceptions to those who have not yet experienced the wonder and confusion and WTF that is print publishing.Some very informative and useful posts by science fiction/fantasy Charles Stross about print publishing:Common