Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 44
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...
January 25, 2012
Zouaves at Arisia – Pics
I was thrilled on Sunday morning at Arisia when, while ambling through the lobby, I spotted a zouave. I walked a little past, wondering if I'd been mistaken – maybe it was just a similar uniform, and he was busy chatting with someone – but then I couldn't resist, and went back to request a picture. There's a French zouave in The Moonlight Mistress, in a bit part, simply because I think they were pretty cool. (My zouave is riding a motorbike.)
These guys were dressed as American...
January 23, 2012
Girl Fever: Cover Reveal
I have a post on World War One male/male romances over at Heroes & Heartbreakers.
Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians from Cleis Press now has a publication date of June 12, 2012 and is available for Amazon pre-order. "The Airplane Story" by me will appear in this anthology. Isn't the cover nice?
January 22, 2012
"Fleurette," Robert W. Service
Fleurette
THE WOUNDED CANADIAN SPEAKS:
My leg? It's off at the knee.
Do I miss it? Well, some. You see
I've had it since I was born;
And lately a devilish corn.
(I rather chuckle with glee
To think how I've fooled that corn.)
But I'll hobble around all right.
It is n't that, it's my face.
Oh, I know I'm a hideous sight,
Hardly a thing in place.
Sort of gargoyle, you'd say.
Nurse won't give me a glass,
But I see the folks as they pass
Shudder and turn away;
Turn away in distress…
Mirror enough, I ...
