Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 104

Kinesics in Fiction

The body language of one's characters of course must have something in common with the readers' experience, or it won't communicate anything to them. But how to make descriptions of body language interesting? And reveal character in the specific as well as in the general sense? And be clear to the reader but at the same time be as invisible as the word said in one's prose?I tend to focus on the

Cell Phones Make Life Difficult (For Writers)

When Tanya Huff's vampire novels were made into a television series, Blood Ties, the original novels were re-released. The first time I read those books, I'd borrowed them from a friend. This time, I bought my own copies, since I was in the mood to reread them.(This post is not about that television show, but I thought a visual of one of the show's leads might interest some of you.)What

Alison's Wonderland Cover

Behold the cover for the 7/1/2010 Spice anthology Alison's Wonderland! Isn't it amazing? Click on the image for a larger version.My contribution is a small (very small!) reprint of one of my Elspeth Potter stories.

Pondering the Mail-Order Bride

I had another thought about Western romances.Does the reason the "mail-order bride" plot is so popular in Western romances have anything to do with the idea that marriage is linked to civilization? In that case, marriage could be civilization, and imposing it upon two people can be likened to imposing a farm onto a wilderness, or law upon a den of outlaws.True, the mail-order bride isn't usually

Isaac Rosenberg, "Break of Day in the Trenches"

Break of Day in the TrenchesThe darkness crumbles away.It is the same old druid Time as ever,Only a live thing leaps my hand,A queer sardonic rat,As I pull the parapet's poppyTo stick behind my ear.Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knewYour cosmopolitan sympathies.Now you have touched this English handYou will do the same to a GermanSoon, no doubt, if it be your pleasureTo cross the

Excerpt from A War Nurse's Diary: The Tale of Ragtime

The following is an excerpt from A War Nurse's Diary: Sketches from a Belgian Field Hospital, published 1918 and now in the public domain.There's a whole novel in this story.#That reminds me of "Ragtime." I must tell you about him. His real name was de Rasquinet, but, when written hastily on a chart, it looked like ragtime, and was easier to pronounce. People who do not like medical details had

Explicit, Implicit, or Somewhere in Between? - Janet Mullany Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Janet Mullany!#Explicit, Implicit, or Somewhere in Between?Now and again (oh, I lie. I Google myself all the time) I come across a reference to my first Regency chicklit, The Rules of Gentility (HarperCollins, 2007), as a book that "has no sex in it."Unfailingly it makes me laugh because the book is full of sex. What the book doesn't have is explicit language describing

Basics of the Western

So, Westerns. What are the basic elements of a Western? There are the two plots: 1) a stranger comes to town and 2) someone leaves town, heading for a new place. A subsidiary plot involves surviving in the wilderness, whether that's physical (making a go of a farm or ranch) or emotional (surviving in a corrupt town) - both come under the category of Civilization versus Wilderness. And,

Alleys and Doorways Print Edition

A while back, my friend Meredith Schwartz edited an electronic anthology titled Alleys and Doorways: Stories of Queer Urban Fantasy for Torguere Press, and I agreed to write an Elspeth Potter story for it. I started that story over twice and eventually abandoned my initial attempt and wrote something completely different in a very limited time period, so it was an interesting experience for

Realism in Fantasy (Sex) - Cecilia Tan Guest Post

Please welcome back my guest, Cecilia Tan!#I like the fantastic. I like magic and surrealism and being transported to another world by a book. And as anyone who has read pretty much anything I've written knows, I like to mix magic, surrealism, and escape with eroticism. But there reaches a point where if the sex itself is too "airy fairy," if the Vaseline is smeared on the lens too thick, that it