Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 81

Website Makeover

My website's makeover is in progress. The hard part, for me, was telling the designer what I want. I'm not that great with visual stuff and when I organize things, they tend to spiral on and on and on rather being laid out in tidy grids. Luckily for me, the designer had a questionnaire for me to fill out.It's much easier for me to formulate my website ideas around what I like and dislike

Persuasion 2008 - Short Attention-Span Theater

The 2008 adaptation of Persuasion is good so far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far.Though the acting is excellent, and the settings very historical and scenic, it felt like the postcard version of the novel. It's only ninety minutes long, which explains a lot. The adaptation focuses on the romance between Anne and Frederick and the rest of the characters fade into shallow background, a

Kindle-cising

Sometimes I read while I'm exercising. Usually, it's an article or newsletter I've printed out, so I can discard the pages into recycling when I'm done. Occasionally, I read a magazine, particularly thin ones like the SFWA Bulletin, because they're easy to fold flat.I've noticed that the elliptical trainers at my gym have little ledges that look broad enough to support a Kindle or other

Novelists, Inc. Guest Post

I'm a guest poster today at the Novelists, Inc. Blog on "For Love or Money?"Please drop by and check it out!

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, "Between the Lines"

Between the LinesWhen consciousness came back, he found he layBetween the opposing fires, but could not tellOn which hand were his friends; and either wayFor him to turn was chancy--bullet and shellWhistling and shrieking over him, as the glareOf searchlights scoured the darkness to blind day.He scrambled to his hands and knees ascare,Dragging his wounded foot through puddled clay,And tumbled in

Edward Thomas, "Lights Out"

Lights OutI have come to the borders of sleep,The unfathomable deepForest where all must loseTheir way, however straight,Or winding, soon or late;They cannot choose.Many a road and trackThat, since the dawn's first crack,Up to the forest brink,Deceived the travellers,Suddenly now blurs,And in they sink.Here love ends,Despair, ambition ends,All pleasure and all trouble,Although most sweet or

Janet Mullany - Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Janet Mullany!#IMMORTAL JANEHe released her hands and stood. "Consider, Jane. You'll marry some bore of a country gentleman who'll kill you in childbed and who won't want a bookish wife anyway. Perhaps you'll stay a spinster and lose your bloom and die young of some disease they'll find an easy cure for in a hundred years or so. Or you'll see your sister die first.""Now

Fascinating Faces

I adore looking at old photographs, particularly photographs of people.I found this one on the web. It's of actress Marjorie Day. There's not a lot of information about her out there that I was able to find on a cursory search. But for my purposes, that doesn't really matter.I feel like I know her from the photo, in a different way than knowing facts, in a kind of abstract way. It's a casual

My Smashwords Experiment

Recently, I decided to experiment with Smashwords and Kindle publishing. So far, I much prefer the interface and FAQs on Smashwords, though I've been told most people sell more copies through Kindle.For my experimental book, I compiled all of my lesbian erotica that was also speculative fiction (some science fiction, some fantasy). All of these stories were originally in print.Here's the result

The Mammoth Book of Threesomes and Moresomes

The Mammoth Book of Threesomes and Moresomes, edited by Linda Alvarez, releases today in the U.S.!(My contributor's copy has a different cover than the one shown on Amazon. Not sure why.)It includes one of my favorites of my own stories, "The Magnificent Threesome." One day, I want to write more about those characters. There are a few classic Western plot elements I wasn't able to include in