Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 74

The Lotus Eaters

This post was originally written for Stephanie Draven's blog.



One section of The Duke and the Pirate Queen would not exist if not for revisions.

When writing the synopsis for the novel I knew I had to visit an island, and if possible my protagonists needed to be taken captive by islanders. Since this was an erotic novel, the islanders would force them to compete in a sort of sexual display contest. It wasn't until I'd had a little break from the manuscript, though, that I realized I'd...

Philcon 2010 reports

Jared Axelrod really enjoyed the steampunk panel in which we both participated at Philcon 2010.

Brian Siano blogs about his experience at the steampunk event Dorian's Parlor, the following week.

Barbara Barnett on the pros and cons of her experience at Philcon 2010.

Among the Skiffoids, panel reports by Michael Flynn.

Lawrence Schoen on Day One.

Alyce Wilson's Reports and Photos.

Boxing Day, World War One

What? Boxing Day means something different?

A World War One Christmas Card

Researching Asian Pirates

This post was originally written for Jeannie Lin's blog.



This is the story of how I did NOT use a great deal of my research.

When I began writing The Duke and the Pirate Queen I knew that the heroine, Captain Imena Leung, was of mixed race; her mother from a fictional empire analogous to China, and her father from somewhere else. I never did decide exactly where he came from, as he has only a small role in the novel; I suspect he's from somewhere in this world's equivalent to the Southern P...

Why Pirates?

This post was originally written for Inez Kelley's blog.



I have never been a particular fan of pirates. They're really just thieves on boats, right? (*ducks missiles*)

Perhaps that's why the heroine of The Duke and the Pirate Queen was actually a privateer, sanctioned by her government to hunt pirates. She's on the side of Law. Mostly. She fought and fights against enemies who have fewer scruples than she does, and that makes them more dangerous.

However, even though I'm not fond of...

Research Mashups

This post was originally written for Risky Regencies.

The Duke and the Pirate Queen isn't a historical. However, it is set in a fantasy world, and I've often noted that my approach to creating a fantasy world is very similar to the way I research to write a historical novel. The difference is in the variety of sources I feed into my brain. My subconscious, which I call my "backbrain," assimilates all the information and, hopefully, leaves me with an idea of a world that holds together like ...

The World Beyond the Story

This post was originally written for Ella Drake's blog.



The Duke and the Pirate Queen is set in a fantasy world that's based on all kinds of elements taken from our own world. Maxime's duchy is a Mediterranean-esque land with aspects of several centuries and countries.

Imena comes from an empire that's very loosely based on fifteenth-century China–I say "loosely" because though I read Gavin Menzies' 1421: The Year China Discovered America, no specific facts from it made their way into the ...

Writing Explicitly

This post was originally written for Kate Elliott's blog.



I think there are several keys to writing good explicit sex scenes. The first is to give up any pretense of hiding yourself. You can't hide from the reader, and you most especially can't hide from yourself.

By the way, it doesn't matter if you've never done the thing you're writing about and never intend to do it. What matters is what you think and feel about the action you're depicting. Writing, in some ways, works on the brain ...

Siegfried Sassoon, "Together"

Together

Splashing along the boggy woods all day,
And over brambled hedge and holding clay,
I shall not think of him:
But when the watery fields grow brown and dim,
And hounds have lost their fox, and horses tire,
I know that he'll be with me on my way
Home through the darkness to the evening fire.
He's jumped each stile along the glistening lanes;
His hand will be upon the mud-soaked reins;
Hearing the saddle creak,
He'll wonder if the frost will come next week.
I shall forget him in the morning light;