I’m Going to Capclave!

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

I’ll be at Capclave next month. Here’s my schedule as it currently stands – I do not plan to do a reading or a signing, but if you happen to have something of mine you really want signed, find me and I will happily oblige, so long as I’m not, you know, in a bathroom stall at the time. Full draft programming schedule here.

The Future of YA
Saturday, 12:00 pm, Rockville/Potomac
Warren Buff, Victoria Janssen, Sherin Nicole, Diana Peterfreund
What is the next big trend in YA now that Vampires and Dystopias have had their big hits? Will the audience for YA continue to build or has it overexpanded? As YA books get longer and more sophisticated, is there really a need for a separate YA label?

Romancing the Paranormal
Saturday, 3:00 pm, Salons A & B
Victoria Janssen (M), Sherin Nicole, Jean Marie Ward
Witches and werewolves and vampires in love. Why has paranormal romance become so popular? Is this a fad or a lasting subgenre? Have publishers started cutting back? How much romance needs to be in the book for it to be paranormal as opposed to urban/modern fantasy?

Young, Adult, or Both?
Saturday, 4:00 pm, Salons A & B
Andrew Fox, Ron Garner, Victoria Janssen (M), Morgan Keyes, Diana Peterfreund
How does YA differ from a children’s book or an adult book? How are the pacing, characterization, and language different, or the same? Are there things you can do with one age level and not the other? Are these distinctions needed? And what about series like Harry Potter in which the children grow up?

Dressed for Success
Saturday, 6:00 pm, Bethesda
Ron Garner, Laura Anne Gilman (M), Victoria Janssen, Diana Peterfreund
How detailed should your clothing descriptions be in your story? Does the clothing have anything to do with the character? Does it describe them, or allow them to do certain things? Do the readers care?

WWI Comeback
Sunday, 11:00 am, Bethesda
Andrew Fox, John G. Hemry, Victoria Janssen (M), Jean Marie Ward
It has been nearly a hundred years since the War to end all wars. Is this a setting that still has potential? Will the movie “War Horse” and the tv show “Downton Abbey” spark a new interest in fiction set during World War One?

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“Absolution,” Siegfried Sassoon

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

Absolution

The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes
Till beauty shines in all that we can see.
War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,
And, fighting for our freedom, we are free.

Horror of wounds and anger at the foe,
And loss of things desired; all these must pass.
We are the happy legion, for we know
Time’s but a golden wind that shakes the grass.

There was an hour when we were loth to part
From life we longed to share no less than others.
Now, having claimed this heritage of heart,
What need we more, my comrades and my brothers?

–Siegfried Sassoon
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918.

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“Crimean Fairy Tale” e-release

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

In my quest to make my short stories available for e-readers, I’ve recently put “Crimean Fairy Tale” up for sale, for Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

The story is erotic romance, approximately 7000 words long, and is set, as you can probably guess from the title, during the Crimean War.

I knew very little about the Crimean War before I wrote it, so I read two entire books, plus skimmed another, and dug around online for Victorian slang, with the idea that I might eventually write more set in this period. So far, I haven’t. But I might!

As for the other part of the title, the story is actually science fiction. But stealth science fiction. You’ll hardly notice, because the point-of-view character is not familiar with the genre and so doesn’t pick up on things that a clever Dr. Who fan would spot.

The story was originally written for and published in The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance.

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“September, 1918,” Amy Lowell

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

September, 1918

This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.

–Amy Lowell

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Multiplication – Vintage Erotica Covers

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Victoria Janssen






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“France,” Siegfried Sassoon

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

France

She triumphs, in the vivid green
Where sun and quivering foliage meet;
And in each soldier’s heart serene;
When death stood near them they have seen
The radiant forests where her feet
Move on a breeze of silver sheen.

And they are fortunate, who fight
For gleaming landscapes swept and shafted
And crowned by cloud pavilions white;
Hearing such harmonies as might
Only from Heaven be downward wafted–
Voices of victory and delight.

–Siegfried Sassoon
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918.

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“Bread and Roses” – Happy Labor Day

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: “Bread and roses! Bread and roses!”

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for — but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler — ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

–James Oppenheim, The American Magazine , December 1911

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“To Victory,” Siegfried Sassoon

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

To Victory

Return to greet me, colours that were my joy,
Not in the woeful crimson of men slain,
But shining as a garden; come with the streaming
Banners of dawn and sundown after rain.

I want to fill my gaze with blue and silver,
Radiance through living roses, spires of green
Rising in young-limbed copse and lovely wood
Where the hueless wind passes and cries unseen.

I am not sad; only I long for lustre.
I am tired of the greys and browns and the leafless ash.
I would have hours that move like a glitter of dancers
Far from the angry guns that boom and flash.

Return, musical, gay with blossom and fleetness,
Days when my sight shall be clear and my heart rejoice;
Come from the sea with breadth of approaching brightness,
When the blithe wind laughs on the hills with uplifted voice.

–Siegfried Sassoon
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, 1918.

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Guest Post Roundup for July and August

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

My most recent novel, The Duke & the Pirate Queen, gets a brief mention over at RT Book Reviews.

I’ve been doing a lot of guest blogging this summer for a couple of different sites.

I compared Arthur Morrison’s fictional detective Martin Hewitt, Investigator to his contemporary Sherlock Holmes, and gave my thoughts on the Top 5 Sex Scenes in SF/F.

Also, I wrote previews for quite a few upcoming releases.

Hidden Paradise by Janet Mullany, erotica set at a weekend “living in the Georgian period” retreat.

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond, a young adult fantasy novel whose plot involves mass disappearances on Roanoke Island.

Stranger in the Room by Amanda Kyle Williams, a mystery set in Atlanta, and featuring a female Chinese-American private detective.

Z-Rated, the newest erotica anthology edited by Zane.

Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez, translated from the French. Keep an eye out for the upcoming movie.

The Girl in Trouble by Kathryn Miller Haines – a YA mystery set during WWII.

Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough – a 20th-century Gothic mystery.

That Thing Called Love by Susan Anderson, one of the first few contemporary romance authors I ever read.

Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack by Wendelin Van Draanen, a Middle Grade mystery novel.

Dangerously Close by Dee J. Adams, a romance about a Rock Star in Hiding.

Close Your Eyes by Iris and Roy Johansen, a thriller in the Kendra Michaels series. Michaels is a sort-of-Holmesian detective.

The Formula for Murder by Carol McCleary – a mystery with several historical figures as characters, including the protagonist, reporter Nellie Bly.

I also spent some time recently updating and adding links to my For Writers page. Feel free to comment if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

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“There Will Come Soft Rains,” Sara Teasdale

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Victoria Janssen

There Will Come Soft Rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

–Sara Teasdale
Flame and Shadow, 1920

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