Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 55
August 16, 2011
Dandy Gilver post
I had a new post up at The Criminal Element yesterday, on Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains, fifth in a series of historical mysteries I'd like to read from the beginning.
August 15, 2011
Five Tips for Writing Erotica
Needless to say these aren't the only five things to keep in mind when writing erotica. And these five things aren't always going to be applicable. They can be useful on many occasions, however.
1. You don't need to show every twitch.
Concentrate on gestures that embody the most sensuality and emotion in the tone you're going for, and choose words to match. Obviously, this will vary according to the story and the characters. For instance, if you want to portray a building romantic...
August 14, 2011
"At Carnoy," Siegfried Sassoon
At Carnoy
Down in the hollow there's the whole Brigade
Camped in four groups: through twilight falling slow
I hear a sound of mouth-organs, ill-played,
And murmur of voices, gruff, confused, and low.
Crouched among thistle-tufts I've watched the glow
Of a blurred orange sunset flare and fade;
And I'm content. To-morrow we must go
To take some cursèd Wood … O world God made!
July 3rd, 1916.
–Siegfried Sassoon, The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918
August 12, 2011
August 10, 2011
Size Does Matter
The piece I'm currently writing is meant to be about 15,000 words. It's been an interesting experience so far. I'm learning a lot about writing at this length.
You see, I have written many short stories, almost all of them less than 6000 words, most of them in the 1500-3000 word range. I have written novels, in the 80,000-100,000 word range. I have a draft lying around for a piece of about 20,000 words, that is condensed from parts of a novel draft and is in very rough shape. And...
August 8, 2011
Women of the Mean Streets and Hottest Villains
In case you missed it last week, my guest posts from last week:
at Heroes and Heartbreakers about the Top 5 Villains I Wish Were Heroes;
and at The Criminal Element, Fresh Meat: Women of the Mean Streets, an anthology of lesbian noir from Bold Strokes Books.
Also, I don't think I ever linked this Criminal Element post from June here: History Down Under: Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series.
And now for something completely different (not written by me). Ms. Magazine on White Cowboys and...
August 7, 2011
"The Four Brothers," Sandburg
The Four Brothers
Notes for War Songs (November, 1917)
Make war songs out of these;
Make chants that repeat and weave.
Make rhythms up to the ragtime chatter of the machine guns;
Make slow-booming psalms up to the boom of the big guns.
Make a marching song of swinging arms and swinging legs,
Going along,
Going along,
On the roads from San Antonio to Athens, from Seattle to Bagdad—
The boys and men in winding lines of khaki, the circling squares of bayonet points.
Cowpunchers, cornhuskers...
August 5, 2011
Thoughts on Cowboys and Aliens
This post contains spoilers. Also ranting about stuff that irritated me, and getting far too intellectual, and probably getting incoherent along the way.
I saw Cowboys and Aliens earlier this week, and though on some levels I enjoyed it (beautifully choreographed violence, Daniel Craig's exceptional physique and the liberal display thereof) on many other, thoughtful, levels, I disliked it. Deep engagement is what I want in a movie, both visual and emotional, everything on a larger...
August 4, 2011
A Readercon View from Outside
Art in Paradise: Klingon-Free, an article about this year's Readercon at the Valley Advocate.
"The scene was small-scale in its charm, nothing but a corner of the Burlington Marriott with ballrooms, most of them host to panels discussing things that sounded more like grad school seminars than SF fan freakouts. They had names like "Animal or Alien: How Body Structure Shapes Mind"; "The Pseudo-Religiosity of Teleological SF"; and "Feeling Very Post-Slipstream.""
August 3, 2011
Critique From Outside Your Comfort Zone
Monday, I post about critiquing outside my comfort zone, about a critique I'd done for a close friend. Here's her side of the story.
But Mostly, I Just Remember Feeling Terror
by Lorrie Kim
I hadn't felt this kind of writing terror since I quit grad school. After a lifetime of clinging to the safety of nonfiction, I'd written a fan work with traces of fiction in it, a Tarot reading of the relationship between two characters from a series. My beta reader, a fellow fan, had suggested...
