Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 51
October 5, 2011
Girl Fever Table of Contents
Editor Sacchi Green has posted the table of contents and some comments on her upcoming anthology, Girl Fever.
On my story: "Victoria Janssen's "The Airplane Story" crams us into the metal-walled bondage of an airliner restroom."
October 3, 2011
Some Recent Research Reading – Late Victorian & Edwardian
Over the last few months, I've focused my research reading a little more onto the late Victorian and Edwardian periods in English history.
First, I highly recommend King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild; it's gripping from end to end, as well as informative about events often overlooked or skimmed over by historians, not only the atrocities that were perpetrated in the Congo, but the worldwide efforts to protest and prevent...
October 2, 2011
"Guns of Verdun," Patrick R. Chalmers
Guns of Verdun
Guns of Verdun point to Metz
From the plated parapets;
Guns of Metz grin back again
O'er the fields of fair Lorraine.
Guns of Metz are long and grey,
Growling through a summer day;
Guns of Verdun, grey and long,
Boom an echo of their song.
Guns of Metz to Verdun roar,
"Sisters, you shall foot the score;"
Guns of Verdun say to Metz,
"Fear not, for we pay our debts."
Guns of Metz they grumble, "When?"
Guns of Verdun answer then,
"Sisters, when to guard Lorraine
Gunners...
September 30, 2011
Bulletproof Kinks
In the course of thinking about a new writing project, I'm also reflecting on what I love to read – specifically, those items that, if they appear in a book, will automatically seize my interest as a dog is interested in food. (Whether I actually like the book depends on other factors.)
Among fanfiction writers and readers, these items are referred to as "bulletproof kinks."
I…seem to have a lot of them.
–Soldiers experiencing postwar angst. World War One is king of all my bulletproof k...
September 29, 2011
Sale! To Girl Fever!
Quite some time after I originally wrote it, I've sold "The Airplane Story" to editor Sacchi Green for her anthology Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians, forthcoming from Cleis Press. My very first sale (and quite a few later ones) was to Cleis, so that makes it an extra-happy occasion. I'll post the publication date when I have it.
September 28, 2011
Some Thoughts on Nairobi Heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi
Mukoma wa Ngugi's first novel, Nairobi Heat, involves themes including African Americans in their relationship to Africans as well as outcomes of the Rwandan genocide, both for those who suffered and those who viewed from afar. The themes of the novel play into the tropes of detective novels in an interesting way. The moral concerns of noir detective novels are very present and densely complex, and the tone of the narration references classic hardboiled detective novels in that it is u...
September 26, 2011
Historical Sex Linkgasm
Today, a few links about Sex! In! History!
Lesley Hall's Victorian Sex Factoids. Want to know what historians know about those "treatments for hysteria"? This is the page for you.
Also at Lesley's site, The Condom Page, with useful bibliography, and The Clitoris: Historical Myths and Facts.
Studies in Scarlet: Marriage and Sexuality in the U.S. and the U.K., 1815-1914, a Harvard University Library Virtual Collection. Click Browse Indexes to see the available documents.
OutHistory.org ...
September 25, 2011
"Pro Patria," Owen Seaman
Pro Patria
England, in this great fight to which you go
Because, where Honour calls you, go you must,
Be glad, whatever comes, at least to know
You have your quarrel just.
Peace was your care; before the nations' bar
Her cause you pleaded and her ends you sought;
But not for her sake, being what you are,
Could you be bribed and bought.
Others may spurn the pledge of land to land,
May with the brute sword stain a gallant past;
But by the seal to which you set your hand,
...
September 23, 2011
Sometimes, you need comics.
I read a lot. I'm a writer, it's a vital part of what you might call my Continuing Education. Lately, I've been returning to comics.
Part of that is due to all the superhero movies that came out this summer, most of which I saw. Those movies reminded me of how devoted I was to following various comic series (The Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, etc.) in my teen years and early twenties, and how much I learned about story from them, especially ongoing story in the soap opera vein. I also...
