Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 97

Jane Eyre Advertises, Will Travel

I'm a guest poster today at the Novelists, Inc. Blog on "Promotional Drops in the Online Bucket." Please drop by and check it out!I recently re-read Jane Eyre in conjunction with Jessica of Read React Review, and am posting about it today, Saturday, and Sunday (there will be a discussion on her blog beginning May 23rd). That's a photo of my tattered copy to the right, which I've now had to

Reading and Reading Again

In the last couple of years I've started to become fascinated with the study of reading and narrative. I partly blame a friend who specializes in a related academic discipline. I haven't read a lot about theories of reading yet (amusing irony!) but I have some academic books in my Giant Wishlist of Doom.I'm going to ramble on a bit about the vague scraps of ideas I've acquired so far.One of the

Reading our Grandmothers

Jessica of Read React Review, one of my favorite blogs, recently mentioned that she had never read Jane Eyre and had decided to do so. I and several others volunteered to read or reread it along with her. I'll be posting on my re-read Friday, May 14th through Sunday, May 16th, and hopefully will manage to put in links to some of the other posts, as well, as they appear - Jessica's post is now

Making the Paranormal Real: Boundaries and Consequences

This post was originally written for Midnight Moon Cafe.I was a reader and writer of science fiction and fantasy long before I read romance, and in many ways my reading tastes still reflect that early influence. I tend to favor paranormal romances that have dense worldbuilding that makes sense to me and holds up to questioning. I think, in general, that's a good thing, because anything that can

Occupied Lands in World War One

The novel I'm working on now, a sequel to The Moonlight Mistress, focuses on the main werewolf characters from that novel and their marriage of convenience. Tanneken, the female werewolf, was working as a spy in the previous novel, so I decided to make her activities central to the plot.These are the books I've used so far. I recommend them all highly.I mentioned Tammy Proctor's Female

Carl Sandburg, "Among the Red Guns"

Among the Red GunsAfter waking at dawn one morning when the wind sang low among dry leaves in an elm Among the red guns, In the hearts of soldiers Running free blood In the long, long campaign: Dreams go on.Among the leather saddles, In the heads of soldiers Heavy in the wracks and kills Of all straight fighting: Dreams go on.Among the hot muzzles, In the hands of soldiers Brought from

The Bashful Hero

I wish more romance novels featured bashful heroes.I've never been a huge fan of the romance novel hero who's physically large and good at everything and gorgeous to boot. Except, I don't mind that combination of traits if the hero is bashful about being good at everything, or embarrassed because he's so tall, or just interesting in some way. To me, there's no point in reading about someone

Sex for the Oppositional

I'm sure I've seen another discussion, somewhere on the Internet at somewhen, a discussion of villains and sex. If I could remember where or when, I would hunt it up and post the links for your reading pleasure. But since I can't, I'll just ramble in my usual fashion.The villain of a story doesn't necessarily need to be Evil. They usually have more depth if they're like everyone else, and

Less Is Enough

There's a reason stories aren't made up of eighty percent description. It's because there has to be room for the reader.Reading is a collaborative exercise, between the writer and the reader. The writer has a shape or picture (or insert preferred visualization here) in her mind. She approximates that shape with words, intending to communicate them to readers. (Does any writer ever think their

Conflict

This is one of those posts where I'm writing about something obvious, but writing about it helps me to internalize it.You can't have a story without plot, and you can't have a plot without conflict.Conflict is wanting what you can't have. Barriers between you and what you want mean you have to make choices, either to face the issue or flee from it, or find that third decision which is something