Darlene's Digest

I want a new toy. When I was in Boston I stopped into the Sony store. Big mistake. They had the Vaio TX series ultralight on display and it was so adorable I just wanted to slip one right into my bag and take it home. Less than 3 pounds, XBrite screen, 4-7 hour battery, and much easier to schlep through airports than my big Vaio notebook. I could just pop it into my shoulder bag and wouldn't need the computer case. *Sigh* When I sign that 6 figure book contract, I know what I'm buying first.

And the final page edits on Captain Sinister's Lady are done! Yay! At least, I say they're done. I need the editor to sign off on it and then we're really, really, really done and the book goes into the production queue over at Amber Quill Press. I feel like such a writer. I'm sitting here in my bathrobe at 10:30 in the morning because I needed to get right to work on the edits so I could get it out today. But now I can stretch, do my tai chi , and as soon as the fog clears off, walk the dog. Then later today I'm going to pick up all those books the library has been holding for me 'cause I couldn't break away from this work to get over there. And I can read for fun again. Yay to that! And tonight I will go out with my dear husband to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We'll try to overlook the fashion disaster of 30 years ago, when we believed a powder blue tuxedo was a good thing, and celebrate in better style tonight with dinner at a favo...

Made it home from Boston, but it was a near thing. Went out to lunch yesterday with the college boy, and while we had a really delightful lunch at a Malaysian eatery on Mass Ave., I didn't realize he'd never driven to the airport from downtown. Took him a bit to find the right route, and I made it through the gates only by walking at a pretty fast clip. Thank goodness I'd had the sense to wear the comfortable boots! However, the flight into Memphis was late, and I had to run to get to the other terminal where the flight to Gainesville was. I went skidding up to the counter with my boarding pass, and threw myself on the mercy of the crew, telling them if I didn't take 2 minutes to run to the loo there was going to be an unfortunate incident during the flight. "There's a restroom on the plane," one youngster said. "Yes, but it will be at least 20 minutes before we're in the air and I can use that!" I whined. So they held the gate for me for...

Boskone '06 I'm having a great time here in Boston, visiting old friends, making new friends, and participating in some super panels. Yesterday's was on history and worldbuilding, a topic near and dear to my heart, and I met Naomi Novik. Her new novel, The King's Dragon , is getting some very good advance buzz and I'm anxious to read it. Today I sat in on some SF Fandom panels, and one on electronic communities such as Blogger. Thursday night I went out for supper and drinks with my niece and some local celebrity chefs. If I ever write a contemporary, I could see having a chef hero. Some of them are the rock stars of the new decade, with groupies, television shows and huge fan bases. And can they cook! Good times, sped along by some excellent single malts and wine in one of Back Bay Boston's better establishments. Tonight we've got a Space Cowboy Luau planned (Don't ask. really) and that will keep us busy for a few hours. Tomorow, more panels! And I'...

Stranded! I'm stuck in the Memphis airport for five hours because my flight from Gainesville connecting to Boston was delayed. That's the bad news. And I'm going to miss spending the day with my son in Boston. That's the worse news. Here's the good news: I wisely told my travel agent to book me a flight in an airport where I had club access and could wait in comfort if stranded. I brought my laptop and have wireless access. The galleys of Captain Sinister's Lady are ready to be downloaded and read. So it could be worse.

My lips are chapped from editing. OK, I know that sounds strange, but it's true. When I'm in final edits mode I read the manuscript aloud as I'm scanning the page, and all that talking chaps my lips. But the reading aloud helps. It's amazing what the brain fills in because your eye tells it something should be there, like a comma, when in reality it's not there. Reading aloud catches more errors and typos. So the really good news in all of this is that Captain Sinister's Lady is now in final edits, which is keeping me on schedule for a spring publication! Yea!

Boskone 43 I'll be in Boston February 17-19 for Boskone 43 at the Boston Sheraton , one of the best of the regional SF conventions. You can find me on these panels: Friday 9:00 pm Hampton: Building Worlds with History It is almost trite these days to note the layers of deep history that underlay Lord of the Rings and gave it depth and richness missing from fantasy like Conan. OK, a world needs history which never shows up in the stories. How do you go about building that history? Do you need to be a real-world history buff? Do you copy from our history or make it up from whole cloth? Is there such a thing as too much history for the good of the story or the good of the writer? Should an aspiring fantasy writer start out by constructing the history or does the history just grow? Darlene Marshall, Debra Doyle, Leigh Grossman (m), Naomi Novik Sunday 10:00 am Hampton: What I Do When I Should Be Writing G.B. Shaw said of the English encyclopedist Samuel Johnson, "I have no...

Yes! Take that, Buffy! Darlene Marshall -- [noun]: A person with a sixth sense for detecting the presence of goblins 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I celebrated two marriages last night. Three, if you count my own, because both of the other events reminded us of how fortunate we are. The first event was a reception for a couple married 73 years . Think about that for a moment: Being married 73 years to the same person. The couple was married at the height of the Great Depression. Their marriage survived that, WWII, all the changes brought about at the end of the 20th C., and lives on into the new millenium. When I see this elderly couple walking down the street, they're usually holding hands. Their body language as they lean towards one another to catch what's being said speaks volumes in itself. We're celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this month, so it was an inspiration to us. The second event was a wedding for a young lady of whom we're quite fond. It was one of those events which in our community could clearly be labeled "the wedding of the year." It was the fairy-tale wedding little girls drea...

OK, the rumors that my dear husband didn't buy tickets to the Heart Ball this year because last year I placed the winning bid on a massive oriental rug are simply not true. However, it is true that friends don't let friends drink and bid at charity auctions. Instead we're going to hear the California Guitar Trio, and for our anniversary, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields! With Gil Shahan! Now that's a classy way to celebrate the month of February!

The African Queen is on tv tonight on one of the classic movie channels (TCM, 8 p.m. EST). I'm going to take advantage of it being a chilly North Florida night, build a fire, pour myself something that will warm me from the inside out, and once again I'll be swept away by one of the Best. Romance. Movies. Ever. We're talking true romance here, not pretty people doing pretty things in pretty locales, but a tale of two lost souls who find love where and when they least expect it. Talk about "you complete me". This is the one to watch.