If you missed me on "Conner Calling" this past Friday you can still listen to the show, online, here . I love the Internet!
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No Pink Plume for Me Ah well. Like my Gators, I was eliminated early on. I won't be winning the coveted pink plume in the DA BWAHA, but I can say "Wait 'til next year!" And the radio show went very well. We had quite a few callers on "Conner Calling" and I think we could easily have gone another hour. It was great fun, and I look forward to returning on a future show.
Radio Daze Reminder! Listen for me at 1 p.m. EDT on "Conner Calling" on Friday, and you can catch the show on streaming audio here. It's WUFT/WJUF's phone-in/email-in talk show about books and authors. The North Florida NPR station reaches from Lake City down to nearly the middle of the state, so you can hear me live or on your computer. We'll be talking about The Bride and the Buccaneer , ebooks, Florida history and more, so tune in!
I'M IN THE TOURNAMENT!!! "64 books. 1 champion. Get your game on." It's time for the March Madness of the DA BWAHA . As one wag said it so well, the annual competition is "where romance fans stomp all over their favorite authors' hearts to get to the finish line and a shiny new iPad!" You can sign-in and fill your brackets until Wednesday, and then the voting and elimination begins. The Bride and the Buccaneer is in the Historicals category and I'm flummoxed to have been chosen given the array of talent alongside my book. Nonetheless, I would appreciate your stomping all over those other authors' hearts and voting for me. Want to buy some of the books in the tournament? Go to All Romance DA BWAHA store for the ebooks, or follow the Amazon link at the tourney site for the paper editions. Read great books! Win wonderful prizes! Does it get any better than that?
MORE LIBRARY LOVE I attended a Foundation meeting yesterday and heard some great things about awards our library is winning, ones we're nominated for, and perhaps most importantly, the work we're doing at the county jail. We believe our public library may be the only one in the nation with a full branch of the library housed in the jail. It has much of the material you'd find at any library branch, with a few differences. For example, all the books are paperbacks so they cannot be used as weapons. Only the librarians have internet access on the branch computers, though the patrons can use CDs such as the Florida Statutes to do research. But here's the surprising part. The sheriff's office pays half of the expense to maintain the library, and has for years through administrations of sherriffs both Republican and Democrat. I've known all the sherriffs in the 30 years since the jail library opened, and none of those men and women were bleeding-heart libe...
Radio Daze! I'm going to be on "Conner Calling", WUFT/WJUF's phone-in/email-in talk show about books and authors. It's our North Florida NPR station, with a signal reaching from Lake City down to nearly the middle of the state. Listen for me on Friday, March 19 at 1 p.m. ET, and you can catch the show on streaming audio here.
Congratulations to Goodreads Winners! Three people will receive signed copies of The Bride and the Buccaneer in the mail this week, and nearly 1,000 entered the Goodreads contest. Thanks to all of you who entered! If you've purchased a copy of The Bride and the Buccaneer or any other Darlene Marshall novel and would like a signed bookplate, email me at darlenemarshall[at]darlenemarshall[dot]com.
Image via Wikipedia Reflections on Wedded Bliss I celebrated my 34th wedding anniversary this week. We went out to supper the night before with friends, exchanged gifts (he got cufflinks, I got a lovely peridot ring), and our plans to watch a movie and open up that special bottle of whisky morphed into watching ice dancing and drinking herbal tea, but hey, we're old. It got me thinking though. One of the remarks I hear about my heroes is that they're "nice". Sometimes I hear they're too nice. One faithful reader said she loved Jack Burrell from The Bride and the Buccaneer because he's my "sweetest hero yet", a description that would annoy Jack greatly and cause him to scowl ferociously. He sees himself as a fierce privateer, the scourge of Caribbean shipping. He is that fierce privateer. But he's also the hero. And I can't write a hero without looking at him critically and asking myself, "Could I marry him?" My perception...
Boskone 47 Recap Let me start by saying I had a wonderful time, and a huge "Thank You!" is owed the hardworking volunteer staff who put together this convention. I picked up my materials when I checked in Friday afternoon, and confirmed that I had two panels Friday night. Then I took a look at the Pocket Program to see what items I wanted to attend. That's one of the perks of Boskone. I'm not only presenting, but I get to see other writers share their expertise. My first panel was Seriously, Where *Do* Your Ideas Come From? I've done similar panels before, but I always manage to find something fresh to say. This time I mentioned how while I was out walking last week I saw a hot pink condom of unusual dimensions by the side of the road...and it gave me the idea for a story. So the short answer is, my ideas come from everywhere. The other panelists were Paul G. Tremblay and Mary A. Turzillo, with whom I've done panels at previous cons, and Hugo and Nebula...
BOSKONE 47 This is my, I think, really, truly final schedule for Boskone 47. See you in Boston! Dress warm! Friday 7pm Seriously, Where *Do* Your Ideas Come From? Lois McMaster Bujold David Anthony Durham (M) Darlene Marshall Paul G. Tremblay Mary A. Turzillo We know ideas don't come from a mail box in upstate New York. So, seriously, where do they come from? Do you muse on "what if's"? Are there personal inspirations for your tales? Do you find a particular setting evocative, and just waiting to be detailed in a story? Friday 8pm: Paranormal Romance: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf? Darlene Marshall Ginjer Buchanan (m) Rose Fox Toni L. P. Kelner Shariann Lewitt Since paranormal romance surged to popularity in the 1990's, there's been debate over whether to consider it part of that nebulous field we call "the genre." Paranormal romanc...
Huge E-Book sale! Until midnight tonight, AllRomance and OmniLit are offering ebooks at 50% off, including The Bride and the Buccaneer and my other titles. This is partly in response to Amazon's price war with Macmillan, and you can read the details at the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site. The code is SBTBARe1. It's only good until midnight tonight (Mountain Time) so act fast! The Mobipocket format works on Kindles as well as other units.