Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 69

When It Rains, It Pours

There's something I've noticed about writing. Excuse me while I philosophize for a while. Often, writing itself, or sometimes doing things to do with writing, seems to create its own momentum.

For instance, if I feel I haven't sold anything for a while, I'll "cast bread upon the waters," which to me means looking at calls for submissions, emailing to check on submissions that are already out, looking to see if I have any finished or partially-finished stories that I can send out in response ...

Linkgasm: Cool Writing Stuff

It's been a while since I've posted links, and they're starting to pile up! I have interesting friends. Some of these links came to me through them.

WriteWords Phrase Frequency Counter. Enter a number of words in the phrase (2 – 10) and then enter text, the more the better. I pasted in an entire novel. Hit submit, and the software will give you a list, from most frequent to least frequent, of all the phrases you repeated in your document. If you use only two-word phrases, note you'll...

What Characters Look Like

This is another post based on a question from Tumperkin, who is really good at making me think.

The gentleman whose picture is illustrating this post is actor Vincent Perez. Many writers have said they use pictures of people to help them visualize characters; often pictures of actors or models, which makes sense, because those people have their pictures taken a lot, and it's easy to clip them from a magazine and tuck them into your notebook or hang them on a bulletin board. I don't do that, ...

Jane Kenyon, "Year Day"

I have a Valentine's playlist up today at the new Heroes and Heartbreakers here.

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Year Day

We are living together on the earth.

The clock's heart

beats in its wooden chest.

The cats follow the sun through the house.

We lie down together at night.

Today, you work in your office,

and I in my study. Sometimes

we are busy and casual.

Sitting here, I can see

the path we have made on the rug.

The hermit gives up
after thirty years of hiding in the jungle.
The last door to the last room
comes unlatched...

Siegfried Sassoon, "Stretcher Case"

Stretcher Case

He woke; the clank and racket of the train

Kept time with angry throbbings in his brain.

Then for a while he lapsed and drowsed again.

At last he lifted his bewildered eyes

And blinked, and rolled them sidelong; hills and skies,

Heavily wooded, hot with August haze,

And, slipping backward, golden for his gaze,

Acres of harvest.

Feebly now he drags
Exhausted ego back from glooms and quags
And blasting tumult, terror, hurtling glare,
To calm and brightness...

Siegfried Sassoon, "The Road"

The Road

The road is thronged with women; soldiers pass

And halt, but never see them; yet they're here–

A patient crowd along the sodden grass,

Silent, worn out with waiting, sick with fear.

The road goes crawling up a long hillside,

All ruts and stones and sludge, and the emptied dregs

Of battle thrown in heaps. Here where they died

Are stretched big-bellied horses with stiff legs,

And dead men, bloody-fingered from the fight,

Stare up at caverned darkness winking white.

You in the...

Do Not Read This Book – Inez Kelley Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Inez Kelley!

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DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.

Seriously, don't. I wrote Sweet as Sin and while I love it, you might not, so don't bother wasting your money. Several reviewers have sung its praises. They speak of needing tissues, of the story lingering with them, of feeling John and Livvy's pain as if it were theirs and of delighting in their hope. One reviewer called it genius. Another called it the best book she had read in years. One other said it was beautiful, compelling...

When a Splurge Isn't

Some purchases may seem like splurges, but in the long run, they really aren't. Here are a few of mine:



1. A netbook.

When I purchased by Acer netbook, I already had a laptop. An aging laptop, it's true, but thought the battery was (and still is) weak, it still works. However, after I bought the netbook, which is much smaller and lighter, I found that I wrote more. I was more willing to carry the netbook around all day, and take advantage of random bits of time to write.

Outside of...

Throwing a Book Launch

Have you thought about throwing a launch party to celebrate your book's release? I've done it. I've done it three times and I think I'm getting a handle on how to do it.



First, decide what kind of event you want. Is the party to celebrate your book's release with your family and friends? To sell a lot of books? To find new readers? How many attendees will you invite? Can you obtain sufficient space for that size group?

A book launch doesn't have to be held in a bookstore. A living...

Swearing in The Duke and The Pirate Queen

This post was inspired by an essay on swearing in romance novels over at Alpha Heroes.



I thought a lot about the way my characters in The Duke & the Pirate Queen would swear. The book is set in a fantasy world that is not dominated by Christianity; more than that, I'd gone out of my way to avoid mentioning religion at all. Also, I wanted the swearing to be part of the worldbuilding.

All the cursing/swearing I can think of is religious, sexual, or scatological. I'd thought about...