Darlene's Digest

One of my few regrets about living in Gainesville for my adult life is its distance from the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Granted, it's the place to be during hurricane season (or as I told more than one concerned friend during Irma, "We're the place Floridians evacuate to , not from "), but I miss being close to the sand and the sea, especially the Gulf. I grew up in SW Florida and spent many days at Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero and Fort Myers beaches. When our children were small we often vacationed at Clearwater beach or with the grandparents in Fort Myers. Now, though, I don't get over there as much as I'd like. However, since my son married into a Yankee family that likes to come south in the winter, we're spending the end of the year at Siesta Key. This was our third visit to the son's in-laws and we opted to stay for a week and really make a vacation of it. We had a charming, rustic Old Florida cottage on the Intracoastal Waterway and e...

It's the end of an era, and for some of us, a very personal loss. CompuServe is closing. Yes, I know, you're probably scratching your head and saying, "Didn't they shut down years ago? My granny used CompuServe!" Your granny wasn't the only one. Back in 1992 friends in science fiction fandom started asking me, "What's your email?" I looked at them blankly, and a kind soul explained to me how it worked. "You mean I can send a message to anyone, anywhere?" "Sure, as long as they have an email address." I needed email for my responsibilities as event coordinator for the first night of ConFrancisco, the 1993 World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. When I asked which service was best, I was told GEnie, Prodigy and CompuServe were all good choices, but many preferred CompuServe because of its civility--moderators kept forums from erupting into flame wars. This appealed to me, so I became 71702,3077 at CompuServe....

We were in Baltimore over Memorial Day, enjoying a relaxing weekend with friends at Balticon51, an area science fiction convention. It was my first visit to the city since Worldcon in '98 when I came down with mono. My memories remain mostly fuzzy about that time period. This time though it was all good. Even though we were there primarily to catch up with good friends (I'd list them all but I'm afraid I might leave someone off--they know who they are), it was also a very enjoyable convention. I volunteered for a Green Room shift, because cons run on volunteer power and as a Green Room manager at numerous Worldcons I knew exactly how important it was to have the room well staffed. However, Manager Eileen did a bang-up job and only needed me for a couple hours, so I was free to hang out and visit with people. I even attended some program items, including a valuable one on how to hand-sell your books. I also took time to see some sights. Baltimore, of course, is a his...

As many of you know, I've been working hard since Amber Quill Press closed. I edited and re-released three of my earlier novels as ebooks at Amazon  and Smashwords . I've been shopping the manuscript of WHAT THE PARROT SAW, and hope for good news on that front. But in the meantime, I'm still writing. I'd started work on a novel that has possibilities, but yesterday I made the tough decision to set it aside for now at 10K words in, and try a different project. Book #1 was frustrating me because I couldn't figure out enough of the characters' goals, motivations, and conflict, and when the author can't finger the GMC it's time to re-think it. Debra Dixon's classic Goal, Motivation, and Conflict  is often referenced by romance writers, and it's become somewhat of an industry bible for good reason. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to write a novel, in any genre. In the past I've sometimes had to get 1/3 into my manuscript before I knew ...

We were blessed to have our previous dachshund, Yofi, for 16 wonderful years. You can find older posts in this blog where I refer to Yofi as "my muse" because she'd sleep in my office, and tolerated my reading my manuscripts aloud to her. She'd also help me break through sticky plot issues. We'd take long walks, and this freed up my mind to explore new directions with my writing. Sometimes I feared I was rushing her home to get to my keyboard, and I had images of her flying behind me like a wiener dog shaped kite. Now we have Dodi, nine months old (picture) and settling into her routine. Today on our walkies I suddenly saw a whole new direction which includes pirates  for troublesome Book #9, and I knew where I needed to go with this story. It's good to have my muse back again.

It was a strange morning. Now that I've got  three books in my backlist available again ( Captain Sinister's Lady, The Bride and the Buccaneer, Smuggler's Bride ) and I have What the Parrot Saw under consideration by TPTB, I started work on Unnamed Book #9. Kind of like the unnamed Tropical Depression #9, but my book won't be called "Ian" or "Hermine". Anyway, I started to jot notes on the as yet unnamed hero and heroine for Book #9. Spent a good hour working on personality traits, location notes, what the MacGuffin is, etc. Then the diva dachshund disturbed me with her tennis ball. One must obey the doxie directives, so I got up to toss the ball a few times and (ha!) wear her out. After about the fourth squeaky ball event, I found myself thinking about a totally different novel. One I'd thought about a few years ago. One that linked to my other Regency Pirate books ( The Pirate's Secret Baby, Castaway Dreams , etc.) Suddenly, I knew what...

I enjoyed the monthly Writers Alliance of Gainesville meeting where the guest speaker, UF professor and author Dr. Kevin McCarthy, encouraged us to find our niche. I was leaning toward my next project being an American privateer/War of 1812 tale, and I'm going to delve further into this. In the meantime, I'm still editing What the Parrot Saw . As usual, it's a roller-coaster of moments ranging from "Ouch, I can't believe I wrote that!" to "Hmmm....not bad." More on this as it develops. Also, my books are still available through Amber Quill Press until the end of March, at which time they'll be closing their doors forever. If you're interested in all the stories leading up to What the Parrot Saw , I encourage you to fill your ereader and bookshelves now.

St. Augustine was a cosmopolitan piece of Europe bordering the new United States. With Florida tossed like a shuttlecock between Spain and England, the Americans were poised to seize the territory of East Florida and shore up their coastline, eliminating the foreign threats from their southern shores. “See? A perfectly respectable establishment,” Jack said when he ushered Sophia into Captain Roberts’s home on St. George Street. The two-story house had a stuccoed lower floor, its creamy walls reflecting the afternoon sun, and a wooden second story with a balcony. It did indeed look like the abode of a prosperous sea captain, neatly maintained if sparsely furnished. There were no pictures on the wall, none of the little touches making a house a home. --The Bride and the Buccaneer I modeled Captain Roberts's house ( Captain Sinister's Lady ; The Bride and the Buccaneer ) on the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum on Aviles Street in St. Augustine, Florida. I "relocat...

I'm thrilled to be able to add "award winning author" next to my name, and to list the awards my books have won. It's not bragging (well, OK, maybe it is), but winning a prestigious award, I believe, helps potential readers be more willing to take a chance on an author or a book. I know I've discovered some wonderful books that way. Every time I enter a book in a contest, I promise myself I'll judge at least one writing competition. That's how it works in many contests--authors, librarians, booksellers are the judges. But the contests only work when people are willing to step up to the plate, when they give back to their community. I'm judging a contest now. I won't say which one, but I volunteered because if I had entered that contest, I'd want to be confident there were judges in place to take on the task of reading and evaluating the submissions. Our close community of romance readers, authors, editors and publishers only works when we all p...

I was plinking away at the WIP this morning, crafting the new scene that came to me while I was out walking on Sunday. Then I realized that while the new scene does help and is necessary, I'm going to have to substantially re-write 35,000 words of what I've already done. Writing is indeed akin to taking weird meat by-products and turning them into sausage. So, while it was a "two steps forward, one step back" morning, it could be worse. I've learned to trust my instincts on these things and I know the new scene (and the re-writing) will make [working title] Mattie's Story even better. Oh, and if you're wondering why I have the cover of The Pirate's Secret Baby as my graphic, you probably haven't read TPSB . That's where we are first introduced to Marauding Mattie, the would-be pirate, so it's a fitting illustration for this post. It helps keep me on track while I'm working on the book, asking myself, "What Would Mattie Do?...

I've mentioned once or twice that my favorite writing music is epic soundtracks without vocals-- Game of Thrones , Hans Zimmer music, Klaus Badelt, that sort of thing. Where once I depended on film or TV soundtracks, I'm finding now that some of the best epic music is being composed for games. It may set the mood for gamers to score points against their opponents, but for me these pieces trigger a little switch in my brain that says, "Time to write!" It may be a chicken/egg deal: When I hear the music, it sets off a response. Or I may have picked the music deliberately to create that response. Regardless, it helps keep me focused and on task. I use Pandora's Epic Soundtracks station, or when I want to go offline, I use my personal playlists. So on that note, I'm cranking up my  #4 Writing Music playlist of Game of Thrones (Season 1) , Braveheart, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and Gladiator. Time to write!

Today was a horrible writing day. I had excellent intentions, but my brain felt like tapioca, and nothing was working. I did get about 1,000 words ahead in Mattie's Story, the WIP that's a follow-up to The Pirate's Secret Baby , but it wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped it would be. Then I went for a walk this afternoon. Somewhere in the daily two mile constitutional, my brain kicked into gear, and suddenly I had an important piece of Mattie's backstory. Of course I had my small notepad and pen with me, so I paused to make notes (which I just put in the computer) and resumed walking. Now I have a great starting point for tomorrow's work and more importantly, I feel psychologically recharged!

People always want to know what an author is working on now. Sure, I had a new book come out this month, and the reviews of The Pirate's Secret Baby have been gratifying, but I can't rest on my success. I still have fake people talking in my head. The newest people conversing while I'm cooking, or walking, or sitting staring at my screen are Mathilde St. Armand, aka "Marauding Mattie" and Anthony Woodruff. Mathilde's figuring out her place in the world. It's not easy being the illegitimate daughter of a pirate and a prostitute in the best of times, but in Victorian England, it's a whole different level of difficult. Anthony's just trying to keep Marauding Mattie from using him for shark chum. More on this as it develops. And it is developing. I'm doing #1K1Hr sprints via Twitter to get the story rolling, and its beginning to come together. In the meantime, if you haven't yet read The Pirate's Secret Baby , rush out and get a co...

Yep. Only five months after missing my self-imposed deadline, I've finished the first draft of novel #7. It's a great feeling, knowing I've got a book I can work with. Oh sure, there's still oodles to be done. Just an hour after I typed "The End" I jumped out of my chair at lunch, ran back to the computer, and changed the wording of the last sentence. Now I'm going to clean it up. I'll go back through it and where I have brackets like this : [describe dress], [supper menu], [THIS MAKES NO D*MN SENSE AT ALL!!!] I'll fill in the blanks. Or make it make sense. Then I'll let it sit for a week while I attend LoneStarCon3 , the World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Some time away from the book will allow me to look at it with a fresh eye and catch mistakes before I send it to my beta readers. When it's finally as clean and shiny as I can make it, I'll send it to my publisher, who'll let me know when it will be rele...

I got in some quality writing time on [working title] The Hot Pirate's Secret Baby , which I'm fairly certain will end up being titled The Pirate's Governess . I realized while walking the diva dachshund this morning that I could be finished with this first draft by the end of the month. My normal routine at that point is to set it aside for at least a week and do some research. This way, when I come back to the book I'm (ideally) seeing it with a fresh eye. The next step is to go through it, fix obvious errors, and replace brackets. This is where I've been in the middle of a scene, and rather than stop and take time to add description, unless it's integral to the story, I write [DRESS] and come back later to fix it. I believe I learned that from Diana Gabaldon, so a tip of the hat to a mistress of the craft of writing. If I have to stop to research or check something, it can break the flow of the story. This is especially true when I'm in the middle of a sc...

Yesterday I took a large chunk of my WIP and moved it to much later in the narrative. I realized all the tension had drained out of my story because I had the heroine's Big Secret revealed far too early. While this meant a lot of re-writing in the first draft, it infused me with new energy and enthusiasm. One of my favorite quotes about this business is: "I don't enjoy writing. I enjoy having written." I'm still hammering away at this book, but it's shaping up nicely. Best part is, I didn't have to throw out the scenes I shifted yesterday, so I'm still 85,000 words into the book, and that's very encouraging.

I'm off this week to attend Chicon 7 , the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. I'm moderating a panel on Friday at noon: Beyond the First Two Pages We’ve all heard how important it is to hook a reader’s attention quickly. But let’s say you’ve already done that. Your story’s opening dramatic, ingenious, and free of typos. Your first two pages have been polished to near oblivion. Now what? Darlene Marshall (M), Pat Rothfuss, John Berlyne, Nick Mamatas, Carol Berg There will also be signed copies of Castaway Dreams available in the Dealers Room, at Old Earth Books. Beyond that, I'm looking forward to attending program items, checking out the Art Show, meeting with friends and, of course, watching the Hugo Awards. If you spot me at Chicon 7, be sure to say hi!

I paused yesterday in my writing to check some notes, and pulled one of my research books off the shelf. It was Aristocracy and People--Britain, 1815-1865 . When I looked up from my desk, two hours had gone by. You can say what you like about the ease of research via Google and Wikipedia (and I do appreciate having those services at my fingertips), but there's nothing like a good book to get in-depth information for research. Sometimes it's information I don't even realize I needed, or can use, until I'm three or four pages beyond the facts I was checking. I love my job. I get to combine my enjoyment of history with playing with my imaginary friends, like my new buddies, pirate captain Robert St. Armand and governess Lydia Burke: [working title] THE HOT PIRATE'S SECRET BABY             “I am so tired,” she said, looking down at her worn shoes. “Just kill me, or ravish me, or throw me out the window onto the street. I don’t ...

I need to move the action in [working title] The Hot Pirate's Secret Baby to England, so I've spent the morning reviewing my research notes. One of the books was recipes and now I'm starving for some biscuits, clotted cream, a lovely trifle... *Sigh* My hardboiled egg and healthy veggies for lunch aren't looking very appealing right now. In other news, I began wondering what happens to that secret baby (actually, a 7 or 8 year old child in the book) when she grows up.  Will she remember the piratical ways of her youth and rebel against the constrictions of mid-19th C. England? I shook the Magic 8 Ball and got "Signs point to yes".  More on this as it develops.

I was cleaning my fountain pens today (I know, I should have been writing more instead) when it occurred to me that I had no idea why I was writing "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party" a gazillion times. Yes, I knew I was writing it to test the ink flow on the Sensa and the Cross, but why that sentence?  Then I remembered it was a famous line I'd first learned, as so many people did, in typing class.  That sentence was used to test one's speed while typing, and it lingers in the back of my mind to this day. Then I wondered if they still teach typing in schools?  I know penmanship seems to have gone the way of the rotary dial telephone, but I would think touch typing is still a useful skill in this keyboard age.  I know it makes my writing faster than if I were looking at my fingers or "hunting and pecking" my way through a manuscript. Incidentally, the pens all appear to be unclogged and ready for action now.  I think I...