Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 34
September 16, 2012
“September, 1918,” Amy Lowell
September, 1918
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the swee...
September 10, 2012
September 9, 2012
“France,” Siegfried Sassoon
France
She triumphs, in the vivid green
Where sun and quivering foliage meet;
And in each soldier’s heart serene;
When death stood near them they have seen
The radiant forests where her feet
Move on a breeze of silver sheen.
And they are fortunate, who fight
For gleaming landscapes swept and shafted
And crowned by cloud pavilions white;
Hearing such harmonies as might
Only from Heaven be downward wafted–
Voices of victory and delight.
–Siegfried Sassoon
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918.
September 3, 2012
“Bread and Roses” – Happy Labor Day
As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: “Bread and roses! Bread and roses!”
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
As we come marchi...
September 2, 2012
“To Victory,” Siegfried Sassoon
To Victory
Return to greet me, colours that were my joy,
Not in the woeful crimson of men slain,
But shining as a garden; come with the streaming
Banners of dawn and sundown after rain.
I want to fill my gaze with blue and silver,
Radiance through living roses, spires of green
Rising in young-limbed copse and lovely wood
Where the hueless wind passes and cries unseen.
I am not sad; only I long for lustre.
I am tired of the greys and browns and the leafless ash.
I would have hours that move like a...
August 27, 2012
Guest Post Roundup for July and August
My most recent novel, The Duke & the Pirate Queen, gets a brief mention over at RT Book Reviews.
I’ve been doing a lot of guest blogging this summer for a couple of different sites.
I compared Arthur Morrison’s fictional detective Martin Hewitt, Investigator to his contemporary Sherlock Holmes, and gave my thoughts on the Top 5 Sex Scenes in SF/F.
Also, I wrote previews for quite a few upcoming releases.
Hidden Paradise by Janet Mullany, erotica set at a weekend “living in the Georgian perio...
August 22, 2012
“There Will Come Soft Rains,” Sara Teasdale
There Will Come Soft Rains
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely kn...
August 20, 2012
My Summer Publications – 2012
I have a few erotic short stories out in anthologies this summer, and one that’s upcoming for the fall.
“The Airplane Story” was out in June 2012 in Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians from Cleis Press. The anthology was edited by my friend Sacchi Green. It’s a very short story – all of them in the anthology are – but fun, I think. You can sort of guess what it’s about from the title. I, umm, couldn’t think of a better title, so I just called it “The Airplane Story” while I...
August 13, 2012
A Soldier’s Secret by Marissa Moss, out 9/1/12
I don’t normally post reviews in this blog, but this isn’t really a review. I acquired a galley of A Soldier’s Secret by Marissa Moss because I have a longtime fascination with crossdressing characters in fiction, particularly women who dressed as men – I’ve created more than one crossdressing character. But I also love to read about the real women who could, and did, do the same throughout history, risking a lot more than their reputations if their real sex was discovered.
Here’s the blu...
