Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 64

Change in Publishing Frequency

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(No, this is not an April Fool's post!)

Public Service Announcement:

Starting this month, I'm reducing my weekly blog posts from seven to four – in general, I plan to post on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, though the weekday posts might move around a little due to circumstances, or increase for special occasions (for instance, if I have photographs from a conference).

Saturdays will still be poetry days for the near future, and I'll be continuing with World War One poetry for ...

Accomplishments This Month

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I haven't spent a lot of time writing this month (mostly on purpose), but I did accomplish a few things, most of them very necessary.



1. I bought some books on the craft of writing, which I haven't done in a long while. I've been reading them slowly, and really enjoying thinking about process when for so long, I've simply had to write, without much time for thinking.

2. I wrote several guest posts for different blogs, and figured out processes to keep track of my ideas, what I had...

Fashion Magazines and Writing

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I have a confession to make.



I subscribe to several fashion magazines.

I keep them in the bathroom, mostly. Sometimes I take them on airplanes.

But, see, they are good for my writing. Really.

Fashion magazines are very image-heavy. They make a nice break from reading prose, and (unlike comics) let my mind wander a bit while I look at them. Fashion photography is often very strange, juxtaposing languid women in sleek outfits with bizarre settings, such as a lipstick factory. Even the m...

Coffee, Tea, and Worldbuilding

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One component of worldbuilding that's often forgotten is background economics.

Take coffee, for example. Coffee originated in Africa. It wasn't readily available in Europe until after 1616, and didn't start to be cultivated on a large scale by Europeans until near the end of that century. Chocolate and tea both made it to Europe a little earlier, not much. Yet how many times do characters in fantasy novels, who are living in thinly-veiled Medieval Europe, drink coffee? Or if not...

Saddle Shoes

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If you missed it Friday evening, I posted on "Undressing the Hero: Judith Ivory's Untie My Heart" for Heroes and Heartbreakers.

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For my birthday this year, I decided to get myself a pair of shoes. My first choice was well out of my price range, but then I remembered a pair of saddle shoes I'd owned and loved back when I was in high school.

Oxfords seem to be "in" right now, and it was pretty easy for me to find a moderately-priced pair from Bass. I'd worn that brand years ago, so knew...

Siegfried Sassoon, "The Death-Bed"

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The Death-Bed

He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped

Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;

Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,

Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep.

Silence and safety; and his mortal shore

Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.

Someone was holding water to his mouth.
He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped
Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot
The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.
Water–calm, sliding green above the...

Robert Service, "My Bay'nit"

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My Bay'nit

When first I left Blighty they gave me a bay'nit

And told me it 'ad to be smothered wiv gore;

But blimey! I 'aven't been able to stain it,

So far as I've gone wiv the vintage of war.

For ain't it a fraud! when a Boche and yours truly

Gits into a mix in the grit and the grime,

'E jerks up 'is 'ands wiv a yell and 'e's duly

Part of me outfit every time.

Left, right, Hans and Fritz!

Goose step, keep up yer mits!

Oh my, Ain't it a shyme!

Part of me outfit every time.

At toasting a...

Academic Heroines

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I wrote a post, "Undressing the Hero: Judith Ivory's Untie My Heart" for Heroes and Heartbreakers that will go live sometime today. I'll add in the direct link once I have it.

Now on to today's topic. I don't intend to make "unusual heroines" a weekly thing, but I do want to know…where are the romance heroines who are academics?

Career academic who solves murders, yes: Quieter than Sleep by Joanne Dobson, which I mentioned yesterday. Grad student swept into fantasy realm where she has ...

New Finds and New DNFs – Mystery

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I've been on a mystery kick lately, and I tried some new-to-me authors this time around.



Winners for me were Chelsea Cain (Heartsick) and Joanne Dobson (Quieter than Sleep and its sequels) and Barbara Hamilton, who is actually Barbara Hambly, one of my favorite writers (The Ninth Daughter). Alas, there are only two of the Abigail Adams mysteries – the second one is on its way to me now.

Losers were varied. Mystery series often have a theme of some kind. I tried one with a detective...

Accepting Compliments

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I have to work on accepting compliments about my writing.

It's weird to think of that as a skill that one must acquire, but the more I talk to people about my writing, the more I realize how difficult it is to walk the fine line between sounding like you're bragging, and unrealistic self-deprecation. The problem is worse, I think, for women; part of our socialization, in most places in the world, includes being modest about our abilities and our hard work. There's a reason why women in ...