Darlene Marshall is an award-winning author of historical romance featuring pirates, privateers, smugglers, and the occasional possum. Most of her novels are set in Florida, and she loves working at a job where business attire is shorts and a shirt festooned with pink flamingos and palm trees.
Marshall arrived in North Central Florida in 1973 to attend the University of Florida for a degree in broadcast journalism (now Telecommunications) and fell in love with the large trees and rolling hills, although she misses the beaches of SW Florida. She’s worked as a broadcast and print journalist (WGGG, WCJB, Fort Myers News-Press), news anchor, news director, radio station owner (WNDT), and obituary writer. After selling radio station Wind FM she became a novelist because there were fake people in her head having adventures, so it was either write it down or check into therapy. She’s never been a pirate, but the day is not yet over.
The fiction writing began in CompuServe’s LitForum back when 1. Dinosaurs ruled the internet 2. There was no internet, only dial-up 3. Cool kids had something called “email”. Marshall was encouraged by other LitForum members (including authors Barbara Rogan and Diana Gabaldon) and decided to see if she could write a book. She could, then she wrote eight more (look for What the Parrot Saw in 2019!) and is now working on her next novel in the “High Seas” series. She’s still with the rebranded CompuServe, now the LitForum.com, where she’s section leader of Erotic Writing.
What’s unique about her business is she offers you about the cheapest vacation you’ll ever take. For a couple of hours you can get away from it all, in the comfort of your own home, reading about strong women and good looking men, with a guaranteed happy ending. It’s the break you need from daily life.
What she enjoys most about GAWN is realizing she can’t stay in her pajamas all day while she writes. It’s good for her to have conversations with people who aren’t in her head, the food is excellent at the meetings, and she’s surrounded by hardworking women and men who introduce her to new products, new sales techniques, and who are the best people in the world, her potential audience of readers.
Her books have been published in English, German, and Estonian (seriously), and she’s represented by Barbara Collins Rosenberg of The Rosenberg Group. Too much of her time is spent on social media where you can find her at Instagram (www.instagram.com/darlenemarshallauthor/), Twitter (www.twitter.com/@darlenemarshall/) Facebook (www.facebook.com/dmarshallauthor/) and her website (www.darlenemarshall.com)
Marshall’s married to local attorney Howard M. Rosenblatt and has two sons, a son-in-law, and a dachshund who listens as she reads her work aloud, but isn’t much for constructive criticism.
For more information: darlenemarshall@darlenemarshall.com
