Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 129
July 12, 2009
Edward Thomas, "Rain"
RainRain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rainOn this bleak hut, and solitude, and meRemembering again that I shall dieAnd neither hear the rain nor give it thanksFor washing me cleaner than I have beenSince I was born into this solitude.Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:But here I pray that none whom once I lovedIs dying to-night or lying still awakeSolitary, listening to the
July 11, 2009
Readercon 2009 Schedule
My Readercon Schedule. This is what I'm doing this weekend!Friday 6:00 PM, VT: Reading (30 min.) Reading from Moonlight Mistress, forthcoming in December from Spice. Friday 7:00 PM, ME/ CT: Talk / Discussion (60 min.) Excellent Foppery: The Use of History in the Fantastic. Graham Sleight with discussion by John Clute, John Crowley, Greer Gilman, Victoria Janssen, Robert Killheffer Following on
July 10, 2009
Guestblogging at Fiction That Defies Boundaries.
Today I am guestblogging for Michelle Lauren's Fiction That Defies Boundaries Blog. I wrote about some plot-generating worldbuilding techniques I'm using for my novel-in-progress, tentatively titled The Duke and The Pirate Queen.Hope to see you there!I'm at Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts. My program schedule is:Friday 6:00 PM, VT: Reading (30 min.) Reading from Moonlight Mistress,
July 9, 2009
The Daily Grind of the Writer - The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover
This might be the most boring blog post ever, but I hope at least a few people find it interesting. This is my writing log for The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover, in which I tracked how much I wrote each day, and sometimes what I specifically worked on. "Ducal Service" was the original title for the short story, and I referred to it as both that and "The Duchess and the Stableboy"
July 8, 2009
Historical and Paranormal: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together
For my December 2009 erotic novel for Harlequin Spice, Moonlight Mistress, I combined a historical novel with paranormal elements. The book is set during the early days of World War One, and begins with a romance between Lucilla, an English chemist and nurse, and Pascal, a French scientist. They're trapped in Germany when war is declared and must escape together. I could have proceeded from there
July 7, 2009
Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women's Writing
I've been thinking about this book lately, and considering a re-read.Excerpt from How to Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ:If certain people are not supposed to have the ability to produce "great" literature, and if this supposition is one of the means used to keep such people in their place, the ideal situation (socially speaking) is one in which such people are prevented from producing
July 6, 2009
Why I Love the Marriage of Convenience Plot
The "marriage of convenience" plot in historical romance might focus on an arranged marriage, but more typically, shenanigans are involved; the couple marries to save the heroine from ruin at the hands of a dastardly plotter, or to ensure the hero or heroine receives an inheritance, or because money is needed to avoid disgrace by covering the transgressions of a family member. Occasionally,
July 5, 2009
Julian Grenfell, "Into Battle"
Into Battle The naked earth is warm with Spring, And with green grass and bursting trees Leans to the sun's gaze glorying, And quivers in the sunny breeze; And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light,And a striving evermore for these; And he is dead who will not fight; And who dies fighting has increase. The fighting man shall from the sun Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth; Speed with the
July 3, 2009
Moonlight Mistress excerpt - First Meeting with the Villain
In this scene, the two werewolves Tanneken and Ashby meet their captor, Herr Kauz, for the first time (Tanneken has met him before the novel begins, but this is the reader's introduction to him). When describing Herr Kauz, I call him a traditional Evil Scientist.#Tanneken woke in a cage, together with Ashby. Crouched next to her, both of them still naked, he looked more alert than she felt,
Top Ten Reasons to Attend a Writing/Reading Conference
Top Ten Reasons to Attend a Writing/Reading Conference1. To see your friends!2. To make new friends. Sometimes this is called "networking," but really, that sounds like something robots do. And there's no point in "networking" if you're not also having a good time with it.3. To get away from home, which is full of housecleaning and books you haven't read and things you haven't done, so your
