Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 129

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,

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

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

Romancing the Beast

Paranormal romance almost always features the hero as a paranormal being and the heroine as an ordinary human. How does this resonate with gender relations and power relationships in our society? Is it a way of expressing women seeing men as another species? And does it all come down to fairy tales?I'm going to ramble on these ideas for a bit, and hopefully I will shake some ideas loose that I

Paranormal Appropriation

There are a lot of paranormal romances and urban fantasies on the market, and certain mythological creatures--vampires and werewolves, for example--tend to be used a lot. For that reason, I can understand why writers look a little farther for inpiration, and hunt for mythologies that haven't been used as much in the romance genre.However, often, to me, the borrowing feels like stealing. I'm

World War One Recruitment Posters

I love looking at the material culture of the First World War as well as reading the rhetoric of the period. These recruitment posters are a good example of how men were convinced to enlist in the armed forces. Guilt and comraderie seem to have been used in equal measure.This is an Australian poster--note the soldier's "digger" hat and the ghostly figures of men dressed as athletes and ranchers

Normative Heterosexuality and the Alpha Male Fantasy

Normative(Adjective): of or establishing a norm or standard.Romance novels feature vast numbers of heroes who are so-called "alpha" males - usually taken to mean men who are better-looking and stronger than other men, with more dominant personalities, and usually some other advantage as well, such as high social rank, large amounts of money, or superpowers. They are usually coded as more

Edmund Blunden, "Concert Party: Busseboom"

Concert Party: BusseboomThe stage was set, the house was packed,The famous troop began;Our laughter thundered, act by act;Time light as sunbeams ran.Dance sprang and spun and neared and fled,Jest chirped at gayest pitch,Rhythm dazzled, action spedMost comically rich.With generals and lame privates bothSuch charms worked wonders, tillThe show was over – lagging lothWe faced the sunset chill;And

Moonlight Mistress excerpt - Food

Welcome to Snippets Saturday!While driving from Germany to France, Lucilla Daglish asks Pascal Fournier about his first sexual experience.#Pascal paused, as if remembering. "The widow Jacques stood behind a table that was dusted with flour. She wore an apron, decorated with flowers, and a cap over her hair, of the same fabric. She didn't wear these things in the front of the bakery. It is