Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 40
April 9, 2012
April 8, 2012
"San Martino del Carso," Giuseppe Ungaretti
San Martino del Carso
Valloncello dell'Albero Isolato il 27 agosto 1916
Di queste case
non è rimasto
che qualche
brandello di muro
Di tanti
che mi corrispondevano
non è rimasto
neppure tanto
Ma nel cuore
nessuna croce manca
E' il mio cuore
il paese più straziato
–Giuseppe Ungaretti
April 2, 2012
Blog Vacation!
I'm having a blog vacation this week. See you on April 9th!
A few recent links to keep you company:
Preview of Lady Drusilla's Road to Ruin by Christine Merrill.
Preview of A Tryst With Trouble by Alyssa Everett.
Preview of Inheritance of Shadows by Janis Susan May.
April 1, 2012
"The Debt," Edward Verrall Lucas
The Debt
No more old England will they see–
Those men who've died for you and me.
So lone and cold they lie; but we,
We still have life; we still may greet
Our pleasant friends in home and street;
We still have life, are able still
To climb the turf of Bignor Hill,
To see the placid sheep go by,
To hear the sheep-dog's eager cry,
To feel the sun, to taste the rain,
To smell the Autumn's scents again
Beneath the brown and gold and red
Which old October's brush has spread,
To hear the robin in...
March 30, 2012
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning – WWI Challenge
My next book for The WWI Challenge is Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History by Jay Winter. I actually started reading this book at the very end of last year, but I wasn't very far into it, so decided to count it for the challenge.
As you can guess from the title, this is a nonfiction book in an academic writing style. It had been on my To Be Read pile for quite some time, because I'd come across many mentions of it in the bibliographies of other ...
March 28, 2012
Short Story Sale!
Sale! No matter how many stories I've sold so far, it's still cheering when I sell another, particularly when it's a new story rather than a reprint.
I've sold an erotic short story, "8:00 PM Appointment Tee Vee" to a Cleis anthology entitled Morning, Noon, and Night, edited by Alison Tyler. I love the idea of the anthology; it has one story for each hour of the day. I don't know the release date yet, but will put it on my "publications" page as soon as I have it.
I'm especially...
March 26, 2012
Coriolanus (2011)
I saw the Ralph Fiennes-directed movie of "Coriolanus" several weeks ago, in one of our local art-movie theaters. I had never seen the play performed, and had never read it, though I did read a detailed summary ahead of time.
As you can tell from the still, Fiennes chose to use a contemporary setting, and that, I feel, made the movie. The film was shot in eastern Europe, in Belgrade, and all of the soldiers, and the warfare that's shown, could easily have come from a news report. They ...
March 25, 2012
"Wache," August Stramm
Wache
Das Turmkreuz schrickt ein Stern
Der Gaul schnappt Rauch
Eisen klirrt verschlafen
Nebel streichen
Schauer
Starren Frösteln
Frösteln
Streicheln
Raunen
Du!
–August Stramm
March 23, 2012
Yes, I saw "John Carter"
…and it wasn't bad at all.
A friend of mine really wanted to see "John Carter" (which really ought to have been titled "A Princess of Mars"), and she talked me and another friend into going with her. I was the only one of us who'd read any of the Barsoom series, though C. had read all of the Tarzan books. My memory of the five or six Barsoom books I read back in high school was vague as to plot, though I did remember loving Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks. I remember he seemed to...
March 21, 2012
Analyzing Antryg
I recently re-read one of my favorite trilogies by Barbara Hambly, the Windrose Chronicles. Partly I did so for enjoyment, partly because I intended to blog about the experience (My Heroes & Heartbreakers post). This read, I also wanted to take particular note of one aspect of the books: the characterization of Antryg Windrose.
I first read these books when I was in college, and I absolutely loved Antryg. He's not your typical fantasy hero because he's, well, insane. Though some of h...
