Darlene's Digest

For This I Suffered Through Hurricanes? I'm sitting in front of a blazing fire, drinking hot tea, next to a small dog huddled under the covers. It's 50F right now, at 5:30, but it's supposed to get down to 27F tonight. I think my plants will do OK. I might lose some of the impatiens in bloom, but I can always cut them back and count on them springing up within a couple weeks. I more concerned about my friends who grow blueberries. Last week the bushes were blooming--too early because of our mild winter--and if we get a hard freeze it could hurt the crop. But we'll see. In the meantime, I can look out the window and see my trailing flower pots (see photo) and hope for the best.

Why I'm not writing more, or excuse #285: Office painting So last week I had the room formerly known as "Guest Room", now known as "Darlene's very own private space that you'd better not enter without knocking first and don't even do that if I have the 'do not disturb' sign up" painted. I still love the whiff of oil paint that drifts down the hall every so often. But I'm not moved in yet, and all my books are scattered about the house. There's new hardwood flooring going in next week, and I got the bookcases painted. So, since we have the freshly painted bookcases in the middle of the room and the floor consists of torn up carpet with a lot of dangerous nails poking about, I can't get in there. I find myself unconsciously reaching to my left for the reference books that used to be literally at hand, on the shelf on the bookcase next to my desk. Alas! They are now somewhere under my dear husband's summer suits which also...

Boskone 44 Once again I'm off to Boston in February (brrrrr!) for Boskone 44 . The (M) means I'm moderating that program item. I feel especially prepared for that last item because earlier in the week I'm doing a talk to the University Women's Club on women pirates titled "Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go to Sea" . Here's my schedule: Fri 9:00pm Boskone in Death: J. D. Robb 2007 (M) Janice Gelb Darlene Marshall Priscilla Olson Sat 12:00 noon The Business Side of Writing Our experienced panel is all business as they discuss topics such as how to get, grok, and get along with agents and publishers; why keeping good records prevents bad karma; whether you can deduct Boskone from your taxes; and what to do after submitting your latest story. (Hint: start your next one.) Jeffrey A. Carver Gay Haldeman (M) Sharon Lee Darlene Marshall Sat 2:0...

Fun with Translations Amazon.de now has the German edition of Captain Sinister's Lady available for pre-order. It has a September, 2007 release date! And it has a lovely cover!! And it has cover quotes by NYT Bestselling author Diana Gabaldon!!! I hopped over to Babelfish to see if I could get a translation of the page and read all about it. What I've got is a title that translates as "Including and Swords", which I'm fairly sure isn't correct, and indeed, my translator just told me that Samt und Säbel translates as "Velvet and Sabers", which I like. And she's right, in German it's quite euphonious. Babelfish also says this is the translation from the Amazon.de site: "Darlene Mars-resound kidnaps the reader to an exciting adventure on high lake: Before the background of a romantic pirate window blind in the Karibik are the most different shapes: a Pirat against will, a young widow at the threshold to a new life, bandit and a robb...

Supper in Alachua I met last night with the book club sponsored by The Pink Porch in lovely Alachua, Florida. Alachua is a town a few miles north of Gainesville, and the club met at Conestoga's Restaurant for discussion of Captain Sinister's Lady and supper. We had a grand time discussing Florida history, writing romance, the steamy bits and books in general. I was thrilled that Rosanne, the owner of Pink Porch, picked my book to discuss. For some of the ladies this was the first romance novel they'd read, and I was pleased by their response to my book. I hope they'll go on to discover other romance writers who can give them that "getaway" experience romance readers enjoy.

Go Gators! It's Great To Be a Florida Gator! Dang, that felt good! Signed, a proud alumna of the Gator Nation.

We writers sometimes ask each other, "Are you a plotter or a pantser?", meaning, "Do you carefully plot out each scene and outline your books, or do you just sit down and churn out chunks of prose, writing by the seat of your pants?" I've always described myself as a pantser, but not anymore. Over at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels, Nora Roberts referred to herself as an "organic" writer, and that's what I'm calling myself from now on. So much more elegant than "pantser". I tried to outline a novel. Turned out a month later I was still working on the outline instead of writing the book. It's not a method that works for me.

Writing Marathon, Day 3 Today's the final day of our writing marathon. I knew I wouldn't get as much done today because of prior commitments, a library foundation board meeting and the dog's bi-monthly acupuncture treatment (really), but I found myself going back and inserting a new scene in an earlier chapter, so I guess that counts as fresh writing. Six pages total, but more importantly, I feel like I've had a fresh start on the book. I've got momentum now, and I'm not going to lose it. Next week I'm hitting the ground running.

Writing Marathon, Day 2 Six pages of new material. Would have been more, but I got sidetracked by an idea that in hindsight wasn't as good as it sounded. But no effort is wasted effort.

Writing Marathon, Day 1: I signed up for a 3 day writing marathon at Books and Writers Community over at Compuserve. I needed this to jumpstart my WIP, and I've reached my goal for today of ten pages. For me, that's a lot. I know I'll have some conflicts tomorrow and Thursday, but I'm hoping this will kick me in the butt enough to keep moving forward at a faster pace.