Darlene's Digest

I'm very pleased to announce  The Pirate's Secret Baby   won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence for Historical Romance. It's thrilling to see my love story of pirates, puppies, poppets and a befuddled governess receive recognition from other writers. This is the second national award for The Pirate's Secret Baby . Earlier this year it received the New England Chapter RWA Readers' Choice Award for best historical. As always, I'm grateful to my publisher, Amber Quill Press , to my editor, Catherine Snodgrass, and most of all, to my many readers and fans. Thank you all for making my books winners. I couldn't do it without you.

The New England Chapter of RWA presented the Readers' Choice Award to The Pirate's Secret Baby at its conference this past weekend. I was thrilled to receive word of the award, and humbled when I saw the finalists, all excellent novels from top writers. It's recharged my writing batteries and I'm back at work on the follow-up tale. I realized this week that I needed to go back and steer my characters in a slightly different direction, ramping up the conflict. However, even though this re-writing puts me behind schedule, it's a lot easier to change what I've got than start fresh. One of my favorite writing quotes is, "You can fix anything but a blank page." For this morning though, I'm basking in the love my pirates received. I'm so happy that readers enjoyed my tale of pirates, puppies, precocious poppets and a befuddled governess. Thank you all for your support!

The Bride and the Buccaneer wins Beacon Award! The Beacon is awarded by FCRW, the First Coast Romance Writers. I won in the historicals category. This Monday is off to a good start.