Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 130

Writers Never Run Out of Blog Topics

Since I've begun this blog, I've started to notice more and more bloggers who complain that they don't have anything about which to blog.My first thought is always, "then don't blog," but of course that isn't a good answer if you're blogging because you've set yourself a goal, or because you promised to write a guest post for someone, or some other reason that makes blogging feel more like a

Revision Metaphors

Sometimes I look back at what I've written in my zero draft. I see heaps of words lining the road. The heaps have shape, but they don't yet have architectural value. They're not smoothed and stacked. Sometimes I want to go back and tidy up those heaps, maybe build a little dome or pyramid for them to settle into. I have to wait until I've got a full manuscript before that will be a really useful

Food in Fiction

I like to put food in my fiction.First of all, people eat. What they eat can say a lot about their character, and about the world in which they live, and about their interactions with other characters. Does Oscar make breakfast for Max? If so, does he make Max's favorite (chocolate-frosted sugar bombs dipped in Nutella) or Max's least favorite (kippers with catsup)? Does Oscar even know what

Reviews, the Sweetest Pain

"Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good." --Samuel Johnson I think writers often worry too much about how their work will be perceived, or rather, how they imagine their work will be perceived, before it's even finished. They worry about how other writers will see their work: hackwork, work of genius,

The Art of War - World War One Poster Art

Today's post is what is sometimes referred to as "picspam." I find WWI-era posters fascinating. Here are a few interesting ones. I'll post some recruitment posters later this month.

Posters aimed at financing the war were very common. Here's a German war bond poster.


Here's one for the Russian liberty loan.



Money was needed for relief of refugees and other victims of the war.




This American War Bond poster is unusual because it's a photograph rather than a painting.












Sentimental appeals were quite

Edmund Blunden, "Can You Remember?"

Can You Remember?

Yes, I still remember
The whole thing in a way;
Edge and exactitude
Depend on the day.

Of all that prodigious scene
There seems scanty loss,
Though mists mainly float and screen
Canal, spire and fosse;

Though commonly I fail to name
That once obvious Hill,
And where we went and whence we came
To be killed, or kill.
Those mists are spiritual
And luminous-obscure,
Evolved of countless circumstance
Of which I am sure;

Of which, at the instance
Of sound, smell, change and stir,
New-old shapes for e

Edward Thomas, "This Is No Case..."

This is no case of petty right or wrong
That politicians or philosophers
Can judge. I hate not Germans, nor grow hot
With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers.
Beside my hate for one fat patriot
My hatred of the Kaiser is love true:
A kind of god he is, banging a gong.
But I have not to choose between the two,
Or between justice and injustice. Dinned
With war and argument I read no more
Than in the storm smoking along the wind
Athwart the wood. Two witches' cauldrons roar.
From one the weather shall ris

Jackie Barbosa Guest Post - Confessions of a Sub-Genre Slut

Please welcome my guest, Jackie Barbosa!

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Confessions of a Sub-Genre Slut


Before I get started, I'd like to thank Victoria for giving me a chance to blab about myself on her blog. Of course, the downside of guest blogging is that one has to think of something to blab about. Naturally, I procrastinated as long as possible, hoping I'd have a clever idea. Then, I reached the point where I couldn't wait for a clever idea to come along, so I settled for something else.

Okay, first things first. I write

Guestblogging at Romance Junkies

I'm guestblogging today at Romance Junkies about "Historical and Paranormal: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together."

I'll re-post it in this blog later on.

How To Write A Novel (in 72 easy steps!)

I long ago came to the conclusion that the trickiest part of writing a novel is figuring out how you write novels. You being yourself, a particular author with a particular method of working. All writers know, or should know, there is no absolute right way to do anything. Every writer works in a different way, and I've heard others say every novel they write is written in a different way from the one before.

I think I've figured out what works for me. Note everything I say here is in reference to