Darlene's Digest

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 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.