Darlene's Digest

Image by juhansonin via Flickr I had one of those "down the rabbit hole" moments this evening. I went online to buy the ebook edition of Jocelynn Drake's Dawnbreaker (I'm enjoying her Dark Days urban fantasy series, check it out). Anyway, I saw the mass market paperback in the store today, retailing for $7.99. I went to buy the ebook edition, and it was retailing for $14.99. I absolutely, positively do not understand why a publisher thinks I'm going to pay twice as much for a digital edition that costs less to produce, and lacks color cover art, as well as having limited portability--I can only read it on my ereader, not save it for 20 years on my bookshelf or loan it to a friend. For me, the whole idea of ebooks is that they should cost less to encourage the use of ereaders and save wear and tear on the environment. This isn't the first time I've seen this happen. There's a discussion going on right now at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about th...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife I bought a dedicated ereader last week, the Sony Pocket 300 (the one in the illustration isn't mine, but I do have the passionate purple model). So far it's working as promised--a bare bones, small, lightweight device that reads ebooks and related files. I'm liking it. It won't replace print books altogether in my house, but I do feel better about buying books I know I'm not going to keep. No trees are killed to produce ebooks, and with as many books as I buy each month that's a green move I can support. It doesn't read every single format but it reads enough of them that I've only found two works on my computer--one is a novella--in non-Pocket formats. Some of the reasons I went with the ebook reader now: 1. the price was right, under $200. 2. I'm reading more ebooks 3. some authors are producing only e-works, such as novellas or short stories you can't find in print. 4. With luggage restrictions I'd ra...

Image by ForestForTrees via Flickr September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It's also Rosh Hashanna. This could make the tropes of the holy day much more interesting: "Repent, ye scurvy dog, or it's walkin' the plank for ye!"

I hate it when that happens! I spent all morning working on a scene--one of those scenes if you must know--and when I just looked at it again I thought, "It's too soon. They need to wait." But it wasn't wasted. I clipped the scene and put it in a file to be used later. It's like those Viagra commercials: You want to be ready when the time's right. But you also don't want to rush into something when the time's not yet right. And for these two fictional characters, the time's not yet right (no matter that the heroine keeps insisting she's more than ready for some hanky-panky).

Image via Wikipedia Bombing of Ft. McHenry , Sept. 13, 1814 “But take heart, men, just as your countrymen did! America cannot be frightened into submission! I have here the account of the battle of Baltimore and the glorious defense of Fort McHenry! The nation still stands strong, boys, and will never bow to tyrants! A cheer for the United States of America, and an extra ration of rum tonight for its gallant sailors!” --Sea Change, c. 2009 (unpublished manuscript) Today's the anniversary of another attack on American soil. This one led to an amateur poet putting pen to paper and writing verses about the "rockets' red glare" that live on, 195 years later. One could wish it had been set to an easier to sing melody, but so it goes.

I've given in. Allowed myself to be assimilated by the Borg. I realize now resistance was futile. I installed Word on my computer. I am a WordPerfect user, have been since I plinked away at my first word processor. Ah, the days of WP 5.1! How I loved thee! But I've had too many problems in the past years with people who demand Word files. When I'd save my files as RTF, there were always some format glitches (and before you all rush in and tell me how I could have avoided that if only I'd been a little less ignorant, save it. It's too late). I tried that Open source thing that's an alternative to Word, and I couldn't stand it. It too never did what I wanted it to, and it was slowing down my edits on The Bride and the Buccaneer . So yesterday after hashing it over with my editor again, I decided it wasn't worth it, and I embraced the Evil Empire. Not completely though. I'll still write my first drafts in WordPerfect, where my comfort level i...

It's a plot. The words "farther" and "further" are waiting to entrap me in a morass of misuse. When they find my body, Strunk and White clutched in my hand, they'll know I went down fighting the good fight.

Image via Wikipedia I've been waiting until I had the edits in hand to make this announcement: The Bride and the Buccaneer , a new Darlene Marshall historical romance, is set for December 2009 publication in ebook and print from Amber Quill Press. Some of you may recall snippets from way back, when its working title was "A Pirate's Treasure". Here's the short blurb: A beautiful thief. . . A bold privateer. . . Two enemies united by a love for gold may find an even greater treasure in THE BRIDE AND THE BUCCANEER I'm excited to have a new book coming out, and will post a notice when I have an exact release date.

Image by Robert Couse-Baker via Flickr Happy Labor Day to all you hard working folks! I realized today that not only do I love my new career as an author, but I haven't had to wear a suit, stockings and pumps to work in ages! Yay for flamingo shirts and running shorts!

I tweeted earlier that I was going to shower to figure out what I'd be blogging today. Yes, Twitter can be that lame. But it worked. While I was showering I realized I could blog about...showering. I'll spare you the damp details of my shower. It's not about my fabulous remodeled bathroom with its two shower heads, it's about why showering boosts your creativity. Yes, being clean and smelling sweet is wonderful, even when you're the only one in your house staring at your screen and keyboard, but it's not about that either. It's about how boring, repetitive tasks can free up your mind. I hear this all the time from other writers--"I get my best ideas in the shower." Think about it: You're in a box without anything exciting catching your eye. You probably wash yourself using the same pattern of movements almost every day. This repetitive mindless activity may be just what your muse needs to wake up and give you that plot breakthrough y...