Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 67
March 3, 2011
Various reviews, 2008- 2010
It's been a while since I've compiled reviews, if I ever did, so here are links to some of the longer, more detailed reviews of my novels:
Read, React, Review reviewed The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover twice: number one and number two (for politics).
Impressions of a Reader reviewed The Moonlight Mistress.
Culinary Carnivale reviewed The Moonlight Mistress.
Great War Fiction reviewed The Moonlight Mistress, even though it isn't his usual sort of thing at all!
The Discriminating F...
March 2, 2011
A Moment of Geek
We interrupt this blog for an important moment of Geek.
'We Brought Succour to Belgium', novelist May Sinclair's brief memoir of 23 September – 25 October 13, 1914, when she was a nurse at Ostend and Antwerp. The coolest part? She mentions seeing a Taube. I cannot adequately convey how absolutely thrilling that is to me. Even more thrilling than if she'd seen a zeppelin. I haven't found much at all about Taubes yet.
More on Sinclair; the article quotes letters she wrote to poets Charlotte ...
March 1, 2011
World War One Linkgasm
New links!
African-Americans in the Great War at Edwardian Promenade.
Last U.S. WWI veteran dies at 110.
Old Links!
This rest of this linkgasm is primarily for my own convenience, to replace a bookmarking site that's closing down, but I thought some of you might appreciate these links I've collected over the last few years, as well. These aren't the first links you'd find on an internet search, but ones I located a few layers down, when I was searching on more specific items.
February 28, 2011
2011 So Far
2011 seems to be going well so far, writing-wise. I had January and February off from my choir (rehearsals begin again in March), so I planned deliberately to focus on writing, especially in February.
In preparation, in mid-December I read through an abandoned novel for the first time since August, with the plan of turning it into a short piece of 15-20,000 words. I cut out large chunks of subplot, saving them in separate files. I won't tell how much I cut, because, ouch! Then I let it...
February 27, 2011
Siegfried Sassoon, "A Letter Home"
A Letter Home
1
Here I'm sitting in the gloom
Of my quiet attic room.
France goes rolling all around,
Fledged with forest May has crowned.
And I puff my pipe, calm-hearted,
Thinking how the fighting started,
Wondering when we'll ever end it,
Back to Hell with Kaiser send it,
Gag the noise, pack up and go,
Clockwork soldiers in a row.
I've got better things to do
Than to waste my time on you.
2
Robert, when I drowse to-night,
Skirting lawns of sleep to chase
Shifting dreams in mazy light,
February 26, 2011
Siegfried Sassoon, "Counter-Attack"
Counter-Attack
We'd gained our first objective hours before
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,
Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke.
Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,
With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,
And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.
The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
High-booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely...
February 25, 2011
"Janus: Sonnet," John M. Ford
Janus: Sonnet
Sufficient time for faith and miracles
We find we cannot fit into our days;
And nothing's left at all that joyous dwells
Inside the heart. The spark of spirit stays
Too small for dreamburst, and all earth may prove
Inadequate for art. No human is
This potent all alone, and fear kills love . . .
Love kills fear, and alone; all-potent, this.
No human is inadequate for art,
For dreamburst; and all earth may prove too small.
The spark of spirit stays inside the heart
That joyous dwells, and...
February 24, 2011
Five Thoughts on Historical Worldbuilding
1. I definitely prefer when I can spend a lot of time with the historical background of a story, maybe not overtly by making notes but organically, letting my thoughts come together slowly as I read about different aspects of the time period. Ideally, I could read for several years…but that's never happened.
2. Eventually, you have to stop researching and start writing. You might have to go back to research at some point. You might also have to learn to work around needing more research. ...
February 23, 2011
Women Rule The 2010 Nebula Awards!
Five! Out! Of! Six!
(Yes, the cover illustrating this post is meant to be ironic!)
In the past, the Nebula Awards have been dominated by male authors. However, this year the number of nominations written by woman are astonishing, and I am so happy. It's a start.
The Nebulas are voted on by the membership of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I am a member, and have been for many years; all that time, I've been watching, and waiting for change, and trying to help that...
February 22, 2011
Vroom!
Since I'm currently working on some erotica set during World War One, I've gone back to my research materials.
The photo above reminded me of one of my favorite scenes in The Moonlight Mistress. It was a scene I didn't realize I was going to have until I got to that point and started writing.
#
Lucilla watched Kauz' housekeeper finish with the laundry, pick up a basket, and go inside by a rear door, letting it slam behind her.
Lucilla stared at the motor, thinking.
Pascal emerged. He did not t...
