Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 34
October 7, 2012
“To My Brother,” Siegfried Sassoon
To My Brother
Give me your hand, my brother, search my face;
Look in these eyes lest I should think of shame;
For we have made an end of all things base.
We are returning by the road we came.
Your lot is with the ghosts of soldiers dead,
And I am in the field where men must fight.
But in the gloom I see your laurell’d head
And through your victory I shall win the light.
–Siegfried Sassoon
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918.
October 1, 2012
Mini-Review: “9 p.m. Victoria Coach Station” by Kate Pearce
Morning, Noon and Night: Erotica for Couples, edited by Alison Tyler, is out November 13, 2012 from Cleis Press. It’s an anthology with a nifty concept: one story for each hour of the day (plus one more for lagniappe). My story is the 8:00 pm one, and I was really pleased that the story immediately following mine was by Kate Pearce.
Kate and I have actually met, you see, and we chat a bit online. Though many of the other authors with whom I share anthology pages are familiar to me from th...
September 30, 2012
“The Dragon and the Undying,” Siegfried Sassoon
The Dragon and the Undying
All night the flares go up; the Dragon sings
And beats upon the dark with furious wings;
And, stung to rage by his own darting fires,
Reaches with grappling coils from town to town;
He lusts to break the loveliness of spires,
And hurls their martyred music toppling down.
Yet, though the slain are homeless as the breeze,
Vocal are they, like storm-bewilder’d seas.
Their faces are the fair, unshrouded night,
And planets are their eyes, their ageless dreams.
Tenderly stoopi...
September 24, 2012
I’m Going to Capclave!
I’ll be at Capclave next month. Here’s my schedule as it currently stands – I do not plan to do a reading or a signing, but if you happen to have something of mine you really want signed, find me and I will happily oblige, so long as I’m not, you know, in a bathroom stall at the time. Full draft programming schedule here.
The Future of YA
Saturday, 12:00 pm, Rockville/Potomac
Warren Buff, Victoria Janssen, Sherin Nicole, Diana Peterfreund
What is the next big trend in YA now that Vampires an...
September 23, 2012
“Absolution,” Siegfried Sassoon
Absolution
The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes
Till beauty shines in all that we can see.
War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,
And, fighting for our freedom, we are free.
Horror of wounds and anger at the foe,
And loss of things desired; all these must pass.
We are the happy legion, for we know
Time’s but a golden wind that shakes the grass.
There was an hour when we were loth to part
From life we longed to share no less than others.
Now, having claimed this heritage of heart,
What...
September 17, 2012
“Crimean Fairy Tale” e-release
In my quest to make my short stories available for e-readers, I’ve recently put “Crimean Fairy Tale” up for sale, for Kindle and Nook.
The story is erotic romance, approximately 7000 words long, and is set, as you can probably guess from the title, during the Crimean War.
I knew very little about the Crimean War before I wrote it, so I read two entire books, plus skimmed another, and dug around online for Victorian slang, with the idea that I might eventually write more set in this period...
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...
