Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 60
June 5, 2011
"They," Siegfried Sassoon
They
The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back
'They will not be the same; for they'll have fought
'In a just cause: they lead the last attack
'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought
'New right to breed an honourable race,
'They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.'
'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply.
'For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind;
'Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die;
'And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find
'A ...
June 3, 2011
Musical Linkgasm
Here are some of my current favorite music blogs – just in case you, like me, don't have enough music to listen to. (Kidding!)
Silence is a Rhythm Too has been around for a decade! It's interesting because it reflects the taste of a single blogger.
Mashuptown focuses on, you guessed it, Mashups! I am consistently amused and impressed by how seemingly disparate songs can be, with editing skill, seamlessly blended into something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Cover Me grew out ...
June 1, 2011
Sexual Mores in J.D. Robb
One of the ways J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) uses to cue "it's the future!" in the Eve Dallas mysteries is her portrayal of social/sexual mores. Though the future is noir, rife with horrible murders and serial killers (otherwise, no work for Eve Dallas!), it's also a liberal world in some ways, though far from a utopia. Here's the rundown, so far as I can remember.
1. Prostitution is legal if the person is licensed. "Licensed companions" are not universally successful, however. Robb...
May 30, 2011
"The Dead," Rupert Brooke
The Dead
I
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.
Honour has come back...
May 29, 2011
"The One-Legged Man," Siegfried Sassoon
The One-Legged Man
Propped on a stick he viewed the August weald;
Squat orchard trees and oasts with painted cowls;
A homely, tangled hedge, a corn-stalked field,
And sound of barking dogs and farmyard fowls.
And he'd come home again to find it more
Desirable than ever it was before.
How right it seemed that he should reach the span
Of comfortable years allowed to man!
Splendid to eat and sleep and choose a wife,
Safe with his wound, a citizen of life.
He hobbled blithely through the garden g...
May 27, 2011
Reviews of Dream Lover
I have a post up at The Criminal Element today: Hijinks with History: Abigail Adams as Detective?
Dream Lover: Paranormal Tales of Erotic Romance, an anthology in which I have a short story, "Vanilla," has received a number of reviews so far.
The Discriminating Fangirl liked it–"Vanilla" was mentioned as a favorite on the romantic side.
Lady Caella's review; again, "Vanilla" has a favorable mention.
Pagan Spirits review.
May 26, 2011
Unusual Pirates
My post on Unusual Pirate Romances is online at Heroes and Heartbreakers.
May 25, 2011
Imaginary Alleys
I'll have a new post up today at Heroes & Heartbreakers: Unusual Pirate Romances.
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London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis got me to thinking. How accurate does a historical writer have to be about the tiny details of place? Does it only matter about the major landmarks, or do the side streets count as well? How about what houses were on that street at that time exactly? Or is there no way to be perfect, because some reader will always know more about that particular place than you...
May 23, 2011
Days of Our (Future) Lives: Romance in J.D. Robb
One of the reasons J.D. Robb's mystery series has continued so long, so successfully, is that it has ongoing romantic elements. There's the main couple, futuristic police detective Eve Dallas and her financier husband Roarke, but there are also a whole host of secondary characters.
In the first novel, Naked in Death, Eve and Roarke meet and, eventually, become a couple. Their romance leading to marriage continues for several books, but once they're married, their romantic...
May 22, 2011
"Enemies," Siegfried Sassoon
Enemies
He stood alone in some queer sunless place
Where Armageddon ends. Perhaps he longed
For days he might have lived; but his young face
Gazed forth untroubled: and suddenly there thronged
Round him the hulking Germans that I shot
When for his death my brooding rage was hot.
He stared at them, half-wondering; and then
They told him how I'd killed them for his sake–
Those patient, stupid, sullen ghosts of men;
And still there seemed no answer he could make.
At last he turned and smiled. ...
