Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 43
February 10, 2012
On Getting Away with Cliché
After a small hiatus from the genre, I started reading romance novels again in December, and I have some new thoughts.
The reason for my burnout: the constraints of the genre had palled. Instead of soothing through familiarity, they scraped across my nerves because of their sameness. I found myself skimming over scenes of first meetings, scenes of realization, scenes of sexual intimacy–skimming in novels by authors whose work I love, whose prose is skilled and creative. Everything...
February 8, 2012
Thoughts on Julie Taymor's The Tempest
When I first heard that there was to be a movie of Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" with Helen Mirren playing the lead role (Prospera rather than Prospero), I nearly screamed with excitement. That was before it actually came out in theaters, and it turned out I wasn't able to go and see it. As soon as the DVD was available for pre-order, I pre-ordered. And waited. And waited, as the release was delayed time and again. Finally it arrived, and finally I had a free evening to sit down and a...
February 6, 2012
Cover Reveal – "Under Her Uniform"
Under Her Uniform by Victoria Janssen
Isobel Hailey has disguised herself as a man so she can fight in the British Army in World War I. Only a few people know the truth, including her two officer lovers–so why can't she stop thinking about handsome Corporal Andrew Southey instead? Isobel has to keep her wits about her and her erotic fantasies hidden so she doesn't blow her cover. But when she and Andrew find themselves working closely on a mission, their attraction–and the truth–is...
February 5, 2012
"The Tombstone-Maker," Siegfried Sassoon
The Tombstone-Maker
He primmed his loose red mouth and leaned his head
Against a sorrowing angel's breast, and said:
'You'd think so much bereavement would have made
'Unusual big demands upon my trade.
'The War comes cruel hard on some poor folk;
'Unless the fighting stops I'll soon be broke.'
He eyed the Cemetery across the road.
'There's scores of bodies out abroad, this while,
'That should be here by rights. They little know'd
'How they'd get buried in such wretched style.'
I told h...
February 3, 2012
Dracula, by one person, in one hour
I did something cool Monday night. Friends of mine invited me to their house to see a one-man show of Dracula, performed in one hour. There was no way I could resist.
The picture illustrating this post was taken by one of the hosts, Kyle Cassidy, with his iPhone while the performance was going on. What you can't see is the windowseat behind the actor, which held a small, stuffed Winnie the Pooh. I kept wondering if Winnie was to be one of the victims.
Joshua Hitchens, the actor...
February 1, 2012
The Head Girl at the Gables, Angela Brazil – WWI Challenge
The Head Girl at the Gables by Angela Brazil (1919) is available for free download at Gutenberg.org.
I chose this book for the The WWI Challenge for several reasons. I already had it on my e-reader, along with a number of others by the same author. I needed to read an English school story as research for a panel at Arisia (held in January). This particular book is interesting because it has some character overlap with another Brazil novel, Monitress Merle. Finally, the novel has...
January 31, 2012
Budapest Noir
I have a preview of Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor up at The Criminal Element, if you missed it last week!
January 30, 2012
January 29, 2012
"Edith Cavell," Laurence Binyon
Edith Cavell
She was binding the wounds of her enemies when they came—
The lint in her hand unrolled.
They battered the door with their rifle-butts, crashed it in:
She faced them gentle and bold.
They haled her before the judges where they sat
In their places, helmet on head.
With question and menace the judges assailed her, "Yes,
I have broken your law," she said.
"I have tended the hurt and hidden the hunted, have done
As a sister does to a brother,
Because of a law that is ...
January 27, 2012
Writers' Ephemera
This month I've been cleaning up assorted papers I'd accumulated over the last few years. Like many writers, I have a strange attraction to notebooks, some decorative, some plain spiral-bound of varying qualities, bought for various reasons: a pretty one on a clearance table, a cheap stenographer's pad purchased on a journey. I've set aside a few of the nice ones from my collection to give as gifts.
However, that still left all the ones that were half-used, or tattered from being...
