Darlene's Digest

Word came out today that my publisher, Amber Quill Press , made the list of Romance Writers of America accepted publishers. This doesn't mean a great deal to the average reader, but it's important to me as a writer. I've received word of more epublishers folding this week and leaving their authors high, dry and unpaid. Having the RWA approve my publisher is a good sign, indicating the company is moving from the edge to the mainstream. It also means I'm now eligible for the RITA awards, the romance equivalent of a Nebula or Edgar, and that too is good news.

My second beta reader checked in today and said she found no problems other than a few typos. Most importantly, since she's a sailor, she didn't find any egregious errors from this sailor of the armchair variety. Whew! Now to finish my own read through and send it off!

If my lips are chapped I'm nearly finished. The last edit I do before I send a book off to an agent is to read it aloud under my breath. This allows me to judge the pacing and flow of dialog, and it catches some amazing typos that the eye just skips over. Time to invest in another tube of Burt's Bees and hit the books.

I know I'm done with the book now in revisions and edits because when I was walking my dog I began getting snippets of scenes and dialog from the next book (working title-- Babes in Breeches ). Oh, and speaking of working titles, I'm still mulling over alternatives to A Pirate's Treasure for the one I just finished. One reader suggested Going for the Gold , which while accurate, isn't quite what I had in mind either. Anyway, I've got some interesting ideas on where I can go with this next novel. I'm anxious to begin working on it, and if I can hammer out the remaining edits this week on Treasure and get it off in the mail, I'll begin research on Babes. And I'm just kidding about the title. But it's a good enough working title for now.

I read an amazing novel this weekend, The Necessary Beggar, by Susan Palwick. It's part fantasy, part futuristic SF, and utterly captivating. A young man commits a heinous crime, and under the laws of his land not only is he exiled, but his entire family joins him in exile. They're shuttled through a dimensional portal to another world--Earth, circa 2020. They're illegal aliens of the most dramatic sort, trapped without papers, skills, language or anything else that will help them survive. But survive they do, and the story of how this family adjusts, copes and loves one another is powerful and beautifully written. There's a lovely bit of romance in here as well, and I highly recommend Palwick's wonderful story of emigration and growth.

Heard back from my first beta reader today and she said she liked the story a lot and didn't find any major plot holes! After that, it's all small stuff like little edits. That certainly has put me in a smiling mood today!

There's a review of Samt Und Sabel over at Amazon.de. I ran it through Babelfish and got an idea of what it says, which was fun. But even I know that four out of five stars is a universal language in reviews.[g] If you read German, check it out.

I wanted to expand on my post yesterday when I put up pictures of my clean desk. Here are a few shots of my office. The large window looks out over the street, and you can see my muse's bed down in the corner in front of the bookcase. You also get a glimpse of the Dachshund of Doom gazing out at her queendom. The sword leaning between the two bookcases was a birthday present from my younger brother. My son said, "Other moms in the neighborhood get sweaters for their birthday. You got a sword. That's pretty cool." The red wall is for energy, and the other walls are a shade called "mellow ivory". The combination of colors works well for me. I don't think I'd paint the walls red anywhere else in the house, but it was fun to experiment in my office.

I know I should wait until I get back my beta readers' notes, but I just couldn't sit on this manuscript any longer. I even cleaned my desk this morning so I'd have a fresh space, a good way to mentally prepare. So I'm starting revisions, red pen in hand, and I've already found some wince-worthy typos. This is a good thing, I tell myself, I can fix this even before the readers get back to me. Of course, my fear is the beta readers will get back to me and say "Burn this manuscript at once!" But in the meantime there will be less typos.

Just sit on it and let it hatch I've set my manuscript aside for a week or two. Ideally, I wouldn't look at it again for six months, but I do want to get it off to the agent. Taking a break from it will help me look at it with a fresh eye, and be more likely to catch mistakes or find a passage that needs to be rewritten. But it's hard. I also don't want to dive right into the research for my next novel 'cause I don't want two different stories spinning through my head, so I'm catching up on reading the TBR pile, cleaning a little around the house (my porch looks fit for humans again) and assorted other small tasks that get neglected at the end of the book. Oh, and I printed out a copy for myself in Courier rather than Times-Roman. When I go back to the book, it will be easier to catch errors if I use a font that's different from what I've been staring at for the last 18 months. The remodeling continues, and so far, so good. No major crises. Ye...

Looking for a good read in German? Then look no further. Samt und Säbel aka Captain Sinister's Lady, by Darlene Marshall, is now available from RandomHouse.de. A perfect beach read for when you're winging from Munich to the coast of Spain for a summer getaway. Or, given the weak dollar, when you're flying from Berlin to Disneyworld. Tell all your friends who read German! Who want to improve their German! Who think it would be cool to read about Florida pirates and privateers, in German!

First Draft Done! I've finished the first draft of my new novel, working title A Pirate's Treasure. I've got 93,000 words and have started on revisions. But I'm one of those people who love revisions. I would rather work with something than have to stare at that blank page and blinking cursor all day.

Dark Shadows From Scifi.com: Johnny Depp to star as Barnabas Collins in the remake of Dark Shadows. Catch me while I swoon.

Tired of being considered one of the herd? Here are some book covers you can use to hide your copy of Deathly Hallows. Caution--not worksafe! Oh, and even though this is now everywhere, my son sent it to me first. What a cool kid!

Today's tip of the hat for creative assistance goes to the Dachshund of Doom. While I was doing the morning walk I had a breakthrough about a clue I need to plant towards the end of the WIP. I know I wouldn't have had this flash of brilliance on my own. It took the mindless activity of walking Her Highness to stimulate the braincells. Showering is my other favorite mindless activity to stimulate the brain cells, but with our bathroom undergoing remodeling I don't have a shower stall that's bland and comfortable enough for my mind to turn off. No, while I'm using the hall bath it's all about how quickly can I get in-and-out and why am I the only one in the house who notices the need for re-grouting? And the clue has to do with Gainesville's tourist highlight, The Devil's Millhopper . A friend of a friend once said, "Let me make sure I understand this--your town's claim to fame is a hole in the ground?" and that about sums it up. I'...

My WIP is creeping towards the end, and it's making me think now about what I have to go back and fix at the beginning to make it seem like a seamless work, and not the pastiche my writing usually is in the first draft. What I like about sitting down with a full manuscript in that first read through is seeing my characters fully fleshed, from start to finish. It allows me to pay close attention to them, now that I have the action out of the way, and make sure that their motivations are true to them and true to the story. But first, I'm off to finish that rough draft.

Librarians rock. Reference librarians rock the hardest, and university librarians are like gods you want to burn incense to 'cause they know how to find out everything. Today's incense is being wafted over towards the University of Florida Libraries, where information was uncovered for me that makes it logistically possible for me to write a Really Big Scene I've been wanting to write. I'm so happy!

The WIP is about 85% finished. Plot pieces are falling into place. I'm finally figuring out why I wrote certain scenes months back and set them aside for later use. Now it all makes sense. The joys of being an organic writer, as opposed to an outliner. I may not always know why I'm dancing the steps I am, but in the end it all works. And I do believe it's more exciting that way, at least for me. I'm no longer staring at my characters' dialog snippets, scratching my head and asking, "Why did you do that?" Instead, I get to have more "Aha!" moments as the pieces fit together into (I hope) a seamless whole. Whew!

I'm back home, having stopped off at that hotbed of pirate activity, Amelia Island and Fernandina. This time though the only plundering was of the restaurants and pool bar at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island , where we reveled in the celebration of our best friends' daughter's wedding. What a weekend! I enjoyed the Ritz so much I dropped unsubtle hints in my dear husband's ear that an anniversary get-away to Amelia might be just the ticket--he could golf, I could explore historic Fernandina and do some writing, and at night we'd cuddle in front of the fires in the lounge or down at the beach. More on this as it develops...

Greetings from Central Florida! I'm down here in Orlando, accompanying my husband at the Florida Bar Convention and drinking way too much good wine. Other than that, I churned out 10 pages of new material today! I said to my husband, "Honey, clearly I need to be in a luxury hotel to be productive!" He's not buying it, but I haven't given up hope. It's been a good opportunity to catch up on the WIP and take a couple days to spend with friends and family. More on this tomorrow.