Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 61
May 11, 2011
Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research
I'm participating in author Brenda Novak's Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research. You can bid here on an autographed print copy of The Duke and The Pirate Queen. You must register to bid.
Fast Time and Slow Time in Fiction
I've been reading The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes by Joan Silber for a while now. It's a small book, and easy to read, but it packs in a lot of concepts, and I don't want to rush my reading of it both for that reason and because I'm enjoying it so much. There's a mix of lofty concepts of time and story with practical writing tips.
In fiction, things might happen at a "normal pace," depicted in scenes. Or events might be summarized, so in effect something that would...
May 9, 2011
Planning for RWA 2011
Next month, at least at the end of next month, I'll be attending the annual National Conference of the Romance Writers of America; on the same trip, I'm attending IASPR's conference, so I'll be staying in two different hotels. Which means that I need to make sure I have all of my ducks in a row, because that week of travel will be upon me faster than I think.
Both IASPR and RWA are being held this year in New York City, which for me is quite convenient, since I live in Philadelphia...
May 8, 2011
"The Last Meeting," Siegfried Sassoon
The Last Meeting
I
Because the night was falling warm and still
Upon a golden day at April's end,
I thought; I will go up the hill once more
To find the face of him that I have lost,
And speak with him before his ghost has flown
Far from the earth that might not keep him long.
So down the road I went, pausing to see
How slow the dusk drew on, and how the folk
Loitered about their doorways, well-content
With the fine weather and the waxing year.
The miller's house, that glimmered with grey...
May 6, 2011
Short-haired women, no-haired women
I found this article in The Guardian by Anne Billson very, very interesting, given that the heroine of The Duke and The Pirate Queen shaves her head, mainly for the purpose of displaying the privateer tattoos on her scalp.
"…long, lustrous tresses are one of the major signifiers of femininity. One of the first things a girl does when disguising her gender is cut her hair…"
"Short hair on female characters is rarely permitted to exist in its own right. It's a statement, a sign of playing ...
May 5, 2011
Rammstein! Rammstein!
I'm out of town at the moment – I traveled to northern New Jersey with a friend to see the German metal band Rammstein in concert, and am staying overnight.
Here are a couple of videos to give you a taste:
May 4, 2011
May Pirates! Ahoy!
Read a pirate book in May! You know you want to!
A few weeks ago someone brought up the idea on Twitter of reading a pirate book during the month of May. Then everyone in the discussion apparently forgot about it, except me.
That means I get to pick the rules, right? So, to play: read a pirate book you haven't read before. Then talk/write about it. I was thinking romances, but classics that aren't romances might be cool, too – for instance, I've never read Treasure Island.
If you...
May 2, 2011
Dream Lover releases today!
Happy release day to Dream Lover: Paranormal Tales of Erotic Romance, edited by Kristina Wright!
My story in this anthology is titled "Vanilla," and I noticed it had a mention in one of the Amazon.com reviews: "After finishing the book, I think my favorite is "Vanilla." –L.M. Tanaka
Here's a small excerpt of my story:
Devlin had flour on the tip of his nose.
Louisa stopped in the communal kitchen's doorway and watched him absently brush his nose with one floured knuckle. He'd spilt...
May 1, 2011
Joanna Russ links
Here are links to some essays by by Joanna Russ (1937 – 2011).
Towards an Aesthetic of Science Fiction: "Science fiction, like medieval painting, addresses itself to the mind, not the eye. We are not presented with a representation of what we know to be true through direct experience; rather we are given what we know to be true through other means—or in the case of science fiction, what we know to be at least possible. Thus the science fiction writer can portray Jupiter as easily as the ...
April 30, 2011
"Dirge Without Music," Edna St. Vincent Millay
Joanna Russ passed away yesterday, after being in poor health for many years. Sarah Monette reminded me of this poem.
Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A ...
