Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 114

The Nine Tailors - Peter Wimsey on tv

While I'm out of town for Thanksgiving, I thought I'd post my comments on various television adaptations of Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels. It's as good a way as any to occupy myself while I wait for release day for The Moonlight Mistress!Those novels are a major part of my fictional consciousness. I read them for the first time in the early 1980s, then again in the late 1980s with a much

Introduction to Steampunk

I'm visiting the Romance Junkies Blog today, so please stop by! Tomorrow at my own blog I start six days of posts about television adaptations of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy Sayers.#Steampunk RecommendationsComics:Fullmetal Alchemist is a wonderful Japanese steampunk series, available as both manga and anime.Also in comics, Lea Hernandez' Cathedral Child and Clockwork Angels. Phil

Three Takes on the Marriage of Convenience

I recently read, in succession, three new books by Mary Balogh, a perennial favorite of mine in historical romance. The three books about three sisters each featured a Marriage of Convenience plot, and each one approached that basic plot from a different angle.Warning: there are some plot spoilers in this post.First Comes Marriage was the most traditional. The heroine's teenage brother,

Edmund Blunden, "Report on Experience"

Report on ExperienceI have been young, and now am not too old;And I have seen the righteous forsaken,His health, his honour and his quality taken.This is not what we were formerly told.I have seen a green country, useful to the race,Knocked silly with guns and mines, its villages vanished,Even the last rat and the last kestrel banished --God bless us all, this was peculiar grace.I knew Seraphina;

Moonlight Mistress Excerpt - Arrivals

Moonlight Mistress is out December 2009 from Harlequin Spice. In this scene, Lucilla is briefly and unexpectedly reunited with her lover.#After Hailey was safe and cared for, Lucilla walked down the muddy path back to her quarters in one of the slapdash rear huts. She was dizzy from lack of sleep and reliving, in a near trance, the moments when Ashby had shifted from one form to the other. If

Nifty Women Who Fought in World War One

Along the lines of "Nifty Stuff That Ought to be in Romance Novels," there are some famous women in World War One that would be fabulous sources for heroines.I highly recommend Into the Breach: American Women Overseas in World War I if you'd like a good overview of the many non-combat roles women played in Europe during World War One. The book focuses on Americans, but I still think it's a good

My Philcon 2009 Schedule

I'll be at Philcon this weekend. My schedule is below.Fri 7:00 PM in Plaza IFANTASY BASED ON NON-EUROPEAN SOURCESVictoria Janssen (mod), Stephanie Burke, James L. Cambias, Christine Norris, Tom Doyle You don't have to go "all medieval on me" to write fantasy. What are the best examples of fantasy not based on European backgrounds to date?Fri 8:00 PM in Plaza VII THE BOOKS WE COME BACK

Edwardian/Belle Epoque Research Links

The Edwardian period in England officially lasted from 1901-1910 but is often extended through the end of World War One in 1918; another term, more applicable to the rest of the Europe, is La Belle Epoque, which stretches slightly longer. A great place to start reading about the period is the blog Edwardian Promenade. Be sure to check out the links.Simple factual research is all well and good,

Cherry-Picking Time

An editor to whom I'd previously sold reprints contacted me last week about possibly contributing to a new anthology.Immediately, this made my heart sing. It sang even more when I found out I could write any subgenre of "hot romance" that I chose. Whee! Ideas ideas ideas! I've been missing writing short fiction, and the freedom it offers to experiment.As I often do, I went promptly to my

My Top 16 Romance Novels

I'm exactly one month late posting my sixteen favorite romance novels, but, well...here they are anyway, in random order. And it was really hard and made me very sad, but I did it for you. I limited myself to books published as romance, not science fiction or fantasy or mystery that included a romance in the story. I allowed one book per author. One of my requirements was that I'd read the