Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 85

Rear, meet seat; fingers, meet keyboard.

One of my favorite pithy sayings about writing is "ass in chair, fingers on keyboard." It's short and to the point. Unless you write standing up, or perhaps sitting on a rubber doughnut, it's pretty standard for a writer to sit in a chair and write. You can't write while roaming the streets or hurtling off a diving board or driving, or rather you shouldn't because that could lead to

Charles Sorley, "Barbury Camp"

Barbury Camp We burrowed night and day with tools of lead,Heaped the bank up and cast it in a ringAnd hurled the earth above. And Caesar said,"Why, it is excellent. I like the thing."We, who are dead,Made it, and wrought, and Caesar liked the thing.And here we strove, and here we felt each veinIce-bound, each limb fast-frozen, all night long.And here we held communion with the rainThat lashed us

Edmund Blunden, "After the Bombing"

After The BombingMy hesitant design it was, in a time when no man feared,To make a poem on the last poor flower to have grown on the patch of landWhere since a gray enormous stack of shops and offices rearedIts bulk as though to eternity there to stand.Moreover I dreamed of a lyrical verse to welcome another flower,The first to blow on that hidden sites when the concrete block should ceaseGorging

Research - When to Stop

I actually stole this topic from a discussion I read...somewhere, a while back. The question was, "when do you stop researching?" I have two answers.My first answer is never. You never stop researching because everything you read or look at might eventually find its way into your fiction. If you stop researching, I think your stories can grow stagnant.My second answer is to stop when you have

Steampunk Worldbuilding Questions

I'm in the early stages of creating a world in which a steampunk Western can take place. Here are some of the questions I'm asking myself. Some of them I answered promptly; some of them I'm still pondering.1. Alternate history or alternate world fantasy? How close will my world be to the "real" world? Is geography the same as in the real world?2. Overall mood: is it utopic, dystopic, or

My New Steampunk Project

It's been an eventful couple of weeks for me.For the last few months I've been working on a sequel to my World War One werewolf novel, but my next published novel for Spice will be a different project instead: a steampunk Western. The tentative release date is spring/summer 2012.I don't have a title yet, but I do have characters! The men include a Native American scientist who's also a bit of

WWI Wheels

French soldiers with a bicycle.A bicycle ambulance.Belgian soldiers on motorcycles.

Novelists, Inc. Guest Post

I'm a guest poster today at the Novelists, Inc. Blog on "I Like Being Reviewed. Really."Please drop by and check it out!

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, "Hill-born"

Hill-bornI sometimes wonder if it's really true I ever knew Another life Than this unending strife With unseen enemies in lowland mud;And wonder if my blood Thrilled ever to the tune Of clean winds blowing through an April noon Mile after sunny mile On the green ridges of the Windy Gile.--Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

Music Linkgasm

And now for something completely different!I thought I'd share a few of my favorite MP3 music blogs. It was hard, but I limited myself to five.1. The Hype Machine is a blog aggregator - it's a great place to find links to a huge range of music blogs.2. Motel de Moka has long been one of my favorite music blogs. Posts are organized into playlists, usually by mood or theme. The bloggers choose