Try not to hate me, but I have to say this: It's 72F. I'm sitting on my back porch, admiring my pots of pansies. I hope it's a lovely day wherever you are, and if not, hang in there. Spring is coming.
Posts
So it was a cold, and I'm over it now, thank you. I watched "Mansfield Park" on PBS last night. I came to it with no preconceptions, because it's one Austen book I haven't gotten around to reading. I thought it was interesting, but it did have a truncated feel to it. One thing I liked about the movie was the costuming. Fanny's clothes looked appropriately out-dated, especially compared to the sophisticated Miss Crawford. We also saw Fanny wearing the same dress in multiple scenes, which reflected her status as the "poor relation". I did think the actress's messy hair detracted from the character, but that may be a personal prejudice. The classic 1940's "Pride and Prejudice" was on again last week and while I watched it, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I've seen other productions that were closer to the book. Yes, Lawrence Olivier is a wonderful Mr. Darcy, but Greer Garson was too old and too pretty to play E...
Y'all laughed, laughed , when I said my books were being published in Estonia. But I wasn't kidding. Rly. You can now direct your pirate lovin' Estonian friends to their favorite bookstore to buy Kapten Sinisteri armuke, Salakaubavedaja pruut and Piraadi saak Hot pirate romance for those cold winter nights in the Baltics!
Remember in "Romancing the Stone" where Joan Wilder is finishing writing her book, tears streaming down her face? Been there, done that. If your emotional scenes don't wrench a reaction from you, how can you expect them to move your readers? There's a scene in Captain Sinister's Lady that still makes my eyes moist when I read it, and the scene I was working on today in A Sea Change made me cry. Good news is I don't write scenes like that very often. Angst is all well and good, but my goal is to make my readers laugh, not cry. At least, not cry very often. And certainly not cry when they should be laughing.
Cold Front Coming ...which means I'll have to take care of the three P's: cover the plants and protect the pipes (the pet's smart enough to come in and snuggle on her own). The only plants I'm worried about are the impatiens, since I brought the ferns onto the porch and they should be warm enough next to the house. It's a shame, too, 'cause the impatiens are all abloom. As a good Floridian I also feel compelled to apologize to my house guest who's coming in tomorrow from Canada. One doesn't expect to find lows in the 20'sF and highs in the 40'sF on one's Florida vacation. Ah well, it will be back in the 70's by Sunday.
I'm reading another amazing history, The War for All the Oceans. I'm enjoying it so much I think I'll buy myself a copy, since the public library is rather sticky about people keeping their books for years on end. I have to say that one of the best perks of being a published author is getting to write research books off of my taxes. My naval history shelves have grown tremendously, and I enjoy having the freedom to pull a book off my shelf instead of waiting for it to show up again at the library.
Free Rice is addictive. I made it to Level 50 yesterday. My son, who used to be in my will, said it's because I'm such an old bat it's given me decades to improve my vocabulary. I said it's because of all the historicals I read. Of course, I didn't get any writing done while I was playing, but I was feeding the hungry!
I went to Amazon.de today and got an exciting holiday gift, a first glimpse at the cover of Rache Und Rosen (Revenge and Roses, aka Pirate's Price). I love these German editions! The covers are classy and the titles are euphonious! It doesn't get much better than that. According to Amazon, the book has a June 2008 release date. Just in time for all the Europeans winging their way to the US to spend their summer holidays at Disney.
Out of nowhere today the idea came to me that the way I can end my WIP is at the Battle of New Orleans. After all, my hero is an American pirate, so what better way to build up to a rousing finish than to have him participate in this pivotal event of the War of 1812? I know the common wisdom is that the BoNO wasn't necessary because the war was officially over, but I've read enough histories of the event to side with those who say that had the British won that battle, they would have kept their foothold in the US at the base of the Mississippi. Who would have dislodged them? I read an excellent history last year of the battle and its key players. Two men who were poles apart in their lives came together in New Orleans because they knew they needed one another to win the war. If you'd like to read more, I recommend to you Winston Groom's Patriotic Fire--Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans. And in the meantime, I'll go back to figuring out...
I made the mistake today of picking up my special edition (25th Anniversary, with bonus "Buttercup's Baby" chapter) of The Princess Bride. Somewhere in the house is my paperback copy, the copy I bought in 1973 because I saw the cover and it looked interesting, but it may be in my son's room because I insisted they each read The Princess Bride . Picking it up again was a mistake. Before I knew it, I was reading about Buttercup and Westley's first kiss, and the sword fight on the cliffs. And then I wanted to burn my keyboard. But instead I gritted my teeth and went back to my WIP, because my job isn't to write like William Goldman, or Nora Roberts, or William Shakespeare, my job is to write the best romance novel that Darlene Marshall is capable of writing. But in closing, let me just say that if you've only seen the movie, wonderful as it is, you owe it to yourself to read the book. The book is...well, I'd say it's "inconceivable", bu...
Today was a good writing day. I got the scene done where the hero and heroine meet for the first time, in the middle of someone giving birth. When I posted the excerpt I got feedback saying I'd struck the right balance between grossness and humor in the childbirth scene, which is what I was aiming for. It's been a long time since I've thought about the mechanics of childbirth, so it was nice to have younger eyes closer to the experience review it for me.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it was delightful. We had both boys home, the food came out well and cooked on time, we had wonderful guests for supper. Over the weekend got to see some of the other young adults who grew up with our lads and have since moved away. I just returned from the 4 hr. trek to Orlando's airport so my eldest could catch his plane to NYC. The traffic on I-75 and the Florida Turnpike was intense, but not backed up in any major sense, so it all went well. I was briefly tempted to go to the Florida Mall in Orlando and visit those stores we don't have up here, but I slapped myself upside the head with a reminder that it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the mall will still be packed. Plus, I'd rather shop in my own community, even if the selection isn't as broad. The youngest is on his way out the door loaded down with leftovers, heading back to his apartment at UF and the house is once again quiet and the nest empty. Poor Yofi has be...
I've just learned from some of my German fans that there's an excerpt from my second German book in the back of Samt und Säbel ( Velvet and Saber, aka Captain Sinister's Lady). Pirate's Price has been renamed Rache und Rosen (Revenge and Roses), which I think totally rocks! I love how Heyne, my publisher, is coming up with these wonderfully alliterative titles! No cover art has been posted yet, and the release date is sometime in 2008, but I'm psyched!