Anna DeStefano's Blog, page 8

What Will You Wednesday!

What Will You Wednesday!
I will be grateful for every person I connect with today, letting them know whenever possible.
What will you “Pay Forward” today?

I will be grateful for every person I connect with today, letting them know whenever possible.

What will you Pay Forward today?

Building Community One Story at a Time…

Pay it forward. We like the sound of it. We learn the difficulty of it. We must find our own way to it. We must make it real on a personal level, before it becomes a guiding  force in our lives.

For me, that way began with Building Community One Story at a Time, which is my 2014 challenge: for this blog going forward, for the life I’ve been blessed to have, for my family and writing and service and teaching and editing and mental well-being.

I’ve already experienced some amazing results this year, trying my personal Pay It Forward mantra on for size, taking it out for a spin, stretching it at the seams to see what gives, throwing a pebble into the stream and searching the ripples for what is real… You get the picture.  And you’ll get more details here, daily. I’m so excited to share. I hope to inspire. I long to create a space where others can’t wait to do the same. It’s time to turn up the volume and live my 2014 challenge out loud.

I’m all in.

Meditating on what could be my chance to give is no longer enough for me. There’s more calling me than thinking about it. There’s more calling each of us.

Deadlines and responsibilities and demands and successes and failures and fears and dreams aside, there’s life to live. And paying what I’ve found forward, feeding myself with the energy of feeding others however I can, is that life for me. Living on “building” others up, in tangible and intangible ways every day, is already changing me. More than I could have imagined. It will change you, too. I challenge you to find out just how much.

Building Community One Story at a Time…

What does it mean to me? I’m not sure yet, but I’ll be finding my way out here every day. I invite you to search and experiment and share what you find, right along with me.

So far this year I’ve:

Begun a book-donation/community-based charity (Hearts for Hearts) and inspired friends, family, writers, publishing professionals and neighbors to donate thousands of books to those in need in their communities.
Mentored a high school senior, helping her (with assistance from more rock star publishing pro friends of mine) write, revise, edit, create cover art for and (very soon) indie publish her first novel on Smashwords.
Seeded a book donation program at my YMCA that drove member participation and resulted in a landslide of books and TWO community libraries (adult and children’s) for members who can’t afford to buy their own, all in a matter of months and launching by the end of April. A dream come true, and Hearts for Hearts is only getting started.
Begun a non-fiction project to share with other mothers/parents my experience raising and letting go of my teenager, proceeds of which will fund another, to-be-named, community-based assistance program for families not as lucky as mine who must conquer challenges I can’t possibly imagine WHILE dealing the insanity that is loving, inspiring, guiding and letting go of our children as they grow.
Started mentoring/freelance editing again for a few select clients, feeding my passion for helping writers learn how to create the very best they can and set their voice free in the world for readers to find.
Finished one new novel (a long novella, actually), and begun a second, in a new series about community and family and the struggles beneath the seeming calm in the ordered world so many of us see when we look out our suburban windows. By the end of 2014 I will be close to completing a third, and I could be more excited about the spin-off on Mimosa Lane (younger and full of energy and light AND deeper emotions and challenges and successes!) my publishers supporting!
Given a keynote at a reader event, focused more on the “person” of my reader/writer audience than the business of publishing. I have another scheduled for the fall. I couldn’t be more excited–more than I’ve been about any writer/publishing event I’ve been asked to speak at for years. The energy of immersing myself in that kind of “inspiring” opportunity was a revelation.

That’s my pay-it-forward start.

What will be yours?

It takes only one decision to go for it (in December of last year, Hearts for Hearts was only a flicker of an idea) to change your entire world’s view. Make that decision today. Record it (here or there, it doesn’t matter). Take the first step toward achieving your Pay It Forward commitment. Then take the next. And when you feel strong enough in what you’re doing, when it feels real enough, be brave enough to share your experience, good and “bad” results. Check in here when you get the chance. Let me encourage you on your journey–and be encouraged on mine by the good I know you’ll be doing in your life and the lives of others.

Support me in building community one story at a time–your story, my story, the story of the next person in your expanding world that you help–and I’ll be right here, every day, supporting you!

Delayed Valentine’s Day? Let’s delay it all year!

I live in the arctic tundra… I mean, in the balmy Deep South. In the last three weeks, we’ve had more snow and ice than we have in the last ten years–COMBINED. No one hundreds of miles of us has been able to leave their house for days this time around, let alone shop for their sweethearts.

So what does The Rumpus recommend you do? That’s right, The Rumpus… A kick asz cool site, and they’re spreading the word about Hearts for Hearts.

***

Looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift for the book-lover in your life? Why not pay that gift forward to your community?

Romance novelist Anna DeStefano’s Hearts for Hearts initiative “to give back to their communities by donating books they already own to nearby assistance groups” such as “homeless shelters, Medicaid nursing facilities, or similar centers.”

***

There’s a lot of “Holy Valentine’s Day Interruptus Batman” going on around all over the place today. But what if Valentine’s weren’t about a single day? What if sharing love and inspiration and relaxation and escape were an everyday thing?

That’s what we want Hearts for Hearts to be. It’s a call to look closer at the community around you and find a way to help (the way the characters in my not-so-light-and-fluffy romance novels do). In my stories, there are always happy endings. But my characters and readers work harder than in a lot of other novels for their bright and shiny endings. The deeper emotions I hope their challenges stir ring truer to life, at least to me, and that makes the victories I live to write for these hard-working characters even more fulfilling.

So, yes, I write candy, hearts and flowers stories. Sort of. And I live in a candy, hearts and flowers neighborhood. Sort of.

But just a mile or so from me, there are pockets of need that I’ve been able to serve–by doing nothing more than giving away books. Books I’ve written, books I’ve read and loved, books my friends have been thrilled to share, too. My friends and I have personally given story (romance, fantasy, mystery, young adult, inspiration, non-fiction, you name it) to families living below the poverty level, foster care facilities, nursing homes, and even our local YMCA, where Hearts for Hearts has seeded new children and adult libraries for their members, many of whom join via scholarship.

What does a different kind of Valentine’s Day and paying it forward with story look like? After my initial Hearts for Hearts donation of a few hundred books to my YMCA, and my challenge to open libraries where books could be taken and donated without having to check them out (because so many of our members don’t have the ability the buy their own books and would want to take them home, and that’s EXACTLY what we want them to do) THIS is what the community “book drive” looked in January…

And the donations just keep pouring in….

And the library isn’t due to open until March!

All accomplished in just a little over a month (over 1000 books and counting, THOUSANDS more pouring in still, as people see what’s happening and get excited), all with no money and very little time out of anyone’s schedule.

We can all give back. We can all find a way to make a difference. This is my way today, Valentine’s Day, and every day this year as Hearts for Hearts dreams of 50,000 books being donated through the program by the end of 2014.

I’m can’t wait to hear if it’s your way, too!

Love… What it means to you and me?

The best love stories are about so much more than the romance on the surface, even when the happily ever after ending is what all romance readers look for.

Some romance readers like sassy, some like funny, some like sweet, some spooky or dramatic or heart-pounding. But we’re all going readers reading for an ending that inspires and encourages and gives up hope that our lives could be just as well-crafted and happily-ended.

But love stories can be about so much more.

It’s this “more” that love can speak to, that I write for. How we love and how we relate and how we deal with or lives is shaped by the world around us. Our families, the ones who made us and the ones we build for ourselves, define so much of what we see as ours, and sometimes what we think we can’t. Our world view can tell us we’re loved. It can insist we’re unlovable. OR it can challenge us to fight for the love we need, no matter how many people might be standing in line to let us down. The families and community I write about find their happy endings, but not before I show them fighting as hard as they have to, to conquer some of the very real challenges we all do

I want that CONQUER THE WORLD reality for my characters, my readers, and myself. I want the the kind of happy ending we all hope for, no matter what gets in our way. The one where we’ll fight, and we’ll never fight alone, until we claim our HEA. And I HEART stories where kids are fought for and families are fought for and communities are fought for, no matter their challenges.

I’ve talked a little about Hearts for Hearts, and I’ll be talking more this month, as we celebrate Valentine’s day. Hearts for Hearts is about more. Seeing so much more in the world and lives around us, and seeing if we can’t dig in and help someone else fight. The kind of giving I’m challenging readers to embrace is what I’ve challenged myself to do with my writing from Day One. Let’s build community. In our lives, let’s make our families and neighborhoods and friends and towns stronger, especially the parts of our world that don’t look so glittery or happy or easy to deal with. Let’s make what we have count by giving just a bit of it away (our time, our books, our compassion). Let’s build community one story at a time, and let’s see just how amazing that can be for all of us!

How can you conquer a need in your world today? This week? This month? What does loving your community mean to you?

That’s the question for the contest we’ll be drawing winners for this week!

Look for contest details tomorrow (after I announce the winners from last week).  But today’s comments will count toward the randomly selected winners from this week for a signed copy of Love on Mimosa Lane and an Amazon Gift Certificate. Again, details tomorrow.

But for today, for this post, how will you conquer and help others conquer the world around you? Read up on Hearts for Hearts for inspiration, but there are so many ways I’m sure you’re all already out there, like the characters in my novels, making love a reality, one story at a time.

I’m DYING to hear your stories.

SHARE ;o)

“Like the fool I am and I’ll always be…” ~Jim Croce

I’m obsessed with the number three. A lot of artists are. I’m convinced Jim Croce was. His songs break down that way a lot, and the lyrics follow a rhythm I respond to on an instinctive level, long before I know why.  Snippets of Croce music have always been there for me, when I’ve needed them, and they converged while I wrote Love on Mimosa Lane, being there for my hero, who I was at times having a hard time seeing.

Law Beaumont was a bad boy (hence the Leroy Brown initials), but he’s not anymore. But who is he. He has no clue. Except he’s an honorable man doing his best to raise his daughter, feeling responsible for how badly her young life had turned out so far. But he’s going to keep walking that tough, winding road, not yet living a hidden dream, but he will be (say that in Yoda’s voice, it’ll mean more to you)…because leading characters to their dreams (more on that soon) and setting them free from the past, so they can thrive, is my pattern. I do it in threes, too, I’ve discovered over these last three books (more on that soon, too).

“If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud…”

Not having pride about trying hard and failing is a good thing, until you let it distance you from dreams that have more to do with thriving than they do surviving. My survivor of a hero has lost sight of that at the beginning. We all have, once or twice in our lives, at least I have. We forget who we once were–we forget our “name” as it where.

And so, the first “third” of Love on Mimosa Lane got the working section title, “I Have a Name.” Law finds himself, who he was before it all went to hell, because it’s the only way to really help his daughter. Taking his identity back from all the damage and failures and mistakes is the only way to unchain himself and his child from their hold. It’s the only way any of us do, really.

“Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by. I’m gonna go there free…”

I’ve told you Law as a musician, right? That’s how he thinks of it. It’s who he was, not who he is now. Except, when Kristen comes into his life, when he allows her in after staring at her from a distance (in a sexy-as-hell, non-creepy way), so does his music. His creativity. His voice. His soul. She unlocks the parts of him he gave up to survive.  She won’t let him be only what he thinks he’s become. She sees who he is and doesn’t let him off the hook about it, because to have her, he’ll have to be more than broken–she’s come from too much brokenness herself, to settle for that kind of half-life, and she’s just as good (better?) at protecting herself as he is.

And, so, the second third of Law and Kristen’s story happened with the working title, “I Have a Song.” She’s his song. He’s the music she craves. Together they become more than they could ever be alone. Sounds trite and cliche. But you know me better than that.

But singing someone else’s music only gets you so far down that road. Law’s a songwriter, too. Like Croce and all other artists, he sees life in a way no one else can. Expressing that vision defines him, feeds him, creates him. Until he can wrap his head in song around what he’s thinking and feeling about Kristen (and the life she could bring back to him and Chloe, by sharing it with him), it’s not really there.

And so we have the last third of the novel’s working title, “I Have a Dream.” Law’s Valentine’s gift to his daughter and lover is singing to/for them at the town V-Day Dance. But to Kristen, he sings the song “Come Back to Me,” that he’s been composing in his mind for longer than he can remember, since first seeing her years ago. Only now he can put the notes and words down. Now he can say them, claim them, sing them for her and himself and everyone else. Now that dream is real.

“If you’re going my way, I’ll go with you.”

Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name” is broken into thirds, and I’d never realized that before now. Before this book.

Have I been that blind?

Ordering my thoughts along the lines of his creative genius pulled everything together for my characters and story, even though these quotes and headings are long gone. His progression of theme and lyrics is something I talk about in the story itself. It’s something I hope you experience as you read. I’m dying to have done it and them justice.

You’ll have to let me know…

WINNERS… And Taking on FB again with our next fun Release contest!

We have more winners (from this weekend’s contest which ended midnight last night ;o). And we have another chance for everyone to chime in about there love of music, as I share all week the Jim Croce lyrics that inspired me as I wrote Love on Mimosa Lane. I’m heading back to Facebook to give it another go there, but each day I’ll be posting here as well. Comment on FB or in any of the posts on the blog, or all of them to increase your chances. I’ll select winners randomly from all the comments. NEW CONTEST DETAILS  and MAGIC FACEBOOK DISCLAIMER WORDS below.

But first, our winners (randomly selected from the blog and FB comments):

Signed copy of Love on Mimosa Lane: Kathy Arel, who commented on FB on January 25th.
$10 Amazon Gift Certificate: Angie M, who commented on the blog on January 25th.

Ladies, please message me on FB or via email at Anna @ annawrites . com, to confirm your mailing address (Kathy) and email address (Angie, so I can send your gift certificate electronically). We’ll get your goodies to you ASAP.

New Contest (look for blog posts all week, in addition to this one, where you can enter).

Music lives with me daily. All my life, I’ve heard it. And I was good at making it for a while, though I was never an artist. I couldn’t create. I could follow notes on a page, but I could never let go of the counting and the visual and the fear of doing it wrong, and just play for the joy of it. Not the way I do with writing. But I HEART MUSIC. So does Law Beaumont in Love on Mimosa Lane.

Jim Croce came to me as I thought up Law (and changed his name to match the initials LB…can anyone tell me why?).

Excerpts from JC’s songs were slotted into each LOML chapter heading. They had to come out before publication, of course, for copyright reasons, but their legacy lives on in the story.

I’ll be sharing Jim Croce inspirations all week, here and on Facebook, in addition to the JC-inspired Pinterest Board I’ve put up. Chat here or on the daily blog posts through Friday or on my Anna DeStefano: Author FB page. I’m hoping to convince you to chat with me about JC or other musicians and lyrics that speak to you–because who wants to be a geeky music nerd, all by herself!

Pin to the JC Pinterest Board. Share photos, pics, videos or whatever on FB. Whatever is fun for you.

I’ll be checking the blog, FB and Pinterest every day, watching. At midnight Friday, I’ll select winners randomly from all the fun. No pressure. No you have to talk about what I want to talk about. I’ll just be talking JC and LoML, you be talking what moves you. Let’s just talk music, okay?

JC/LoML reveal of the day: My Valentine’s story is is about dreams and wishes that have never come true…and how they can answered by the people who were meant to help us, if we can somehow find a way to trust them after everything we’ve been through in live.

I know, it already sounds a bit heavy for a cheesy romance novel, right?

But it’s the kind of deeper, harder-fought-for, triumphant, joyous story (once I’m done) I love to write. And it’s exactly the kind of vibe I’ve always gotten from Time in a Bottle. Which is why the quote about Croce’s box of regrets being completely empty, except for how his love answered every dream he had, sang in my head every day as I wrote Love on Mimosa Lane.

What music sings to you, saying what you need to hear most, exactly the way you wish you could say it? Let us know in the comments or on FB, or pin something on Pinterest, for today’s chance(s) to win one of the above prizes!

Okay, rehash:

Contest ends midnight Friday, 1/31/14.
Enter by posting music/lyrics-related in comments/pics/videos/pins here in blog comments, on my Anna DeSefano: Author FB Page, or on my Pinterest page.
I’ll randomly select two winners (one each) for the above prizes and announce them on the blog and FB.
See magical FB Disclaimer words below.
HAVE FUN!
Good luck, everyone ;o) Looking forward to hearing from you.

MAGIC FB DISCLAIMER WORDS

By commenting/participating, you release Facebook from any involvement in or responsibility for this contest.

The owner of this blog/giveaway acknowledges that this promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook

If you could have your own singer/songwriter to love… And WIN more goodies ;o)

Can you tell from the cover of Love on Mimosa Lane that one of the central themes in the book is music? I hope so. We worked pretty had on that one (pats self on back).

More accurately, the healing, magical restorative power of music. At least it is to me, and to my central characters.  Yeah,  the book is about community and patching back together broken homes for two very special kids and still loving unconditionally when you think someone’s forever ruined your ability to be vulnerable in love, but music is a key factor for bringing everyone together in the end. Music has been a safe, deeply moving, motivational place for me my whole life. I wanted to share that.

Our hero in LoML is a singer songwriter. He’s given up for years his gift for moving his own soul and others with his creativity and talent and unique voice. Allowing inspiration to move within him again, because he can no longer hold it back each and every time he confronts our heroine (No, he doesn’t burst into song and dance, this isn’t a musical. But she DOES inspire him in ways only music has before ;o), is a first step toward healing for him and so many others in the book. I sense many artists are this “soul” place within their own realities, where their paintings or music or words or photographs or whatever transform more around them than they’ll ever know.

I actually patterned Love on Mimosa Lane, at least in theme, after a series of Jim Croce lyrics I’ll be sharing over the next week on my Anna DeStefano: Author Facebook page. Croce’s ability to tell a story with a few perfect words, to paint a picture with the movement of simple notes and the timber of his voice, is life transforming. He reaches into me with every song and phrase.

At one point while drafting  the book, I included snippets of his lyrics at the opening of each chapter, to remind myself of the theme I was going for within. These had to be stripped away before publication for copyright reasons. But I squirreled away those moments (my husband says I save everything). I’ll be sharing them here and on social media. I eventually, at the end of the novel, have our hero sing a couple of Croce songs that melt hearts and reveal who he really is, soul-deep, more than he can possibly reveal without his music. I LOVE it when a plan comes together!

Can you guess which of Croce’s songs he chooses.

It’s an epic moment, symbolism-wise, even if I do say so myself ;o)

Music is an epic thing, if we let it work its magic in our lives.

I’d love to know what singer/songwriter/music can do that for you. I’d love to share the fascination (okay, borderline obsession) I’ve had with music since I was a small child. I’d love to know their are other freaks like me out there, who if they could write novels would dream and plot and fashion an entire novel around a musical theme, if they could ;o)

Which leads us to Release Week 2’s  CONTEST ;o)

Riddle me this: Who’s your favorite singer/song writer/musician? Which song’s touched you more over the years than any others?

Talk music with me, and I’ll select two winners again this time:

ONE randomly from all you play along
ONE, like before, with the most creative comment!

How to enter:

You can comment below (here on the blog)
You could post a picture of your favorite artist/album/music video on my Anna DeStefano: Author Facebook Page (Like the album cover above).
Or both!

What you can win:

1Signed copy of Love on Mimosa Lane, OR
$10 Amazon Gift Certificate (to buy Love on Mimosa Lane or music or whatever else your heart desires)

CONTEST ENDS:

Midnight Monday, January 27th, 2014.

I’ll choose 2 winners, ONE FOR EACH PRIZE, from a combination all who enter (see Magic FB Disclaimer Words below)!

I’m DYING to read your responses.

Good luck everyone!

MAGIC FB DISCLAIMER WORDS

By commenting/participating, you release Facebook from any involvement in or responsibility for this contest.
The owner of this blog/giveaway acknowledges that this promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

Would would you do with two free books? And other Facebook disasters ;o)

***WINNERS UPDATE***

We have winners, everyone ;o) And I heard from earmuffs! And we’re going to have a week-long blog contest next, starting today (see my next blog post, later this morning) where you can post on FB OR on the blog (or both), and we’ll try not to get thrown in the pokie for raising hell in our bad, bad way.

Until the, Earmuffs had revealed herself to be... Marcia Boswell Carney! Congrats to Marcia, who’ll be receiving two signed copies of Love on Mimosa Lane.

And the bonus signed copy of the book and the $10 Amazon gift card go to… Audra Holtwick! Audro, look for an email from me, asking for your mailing address for your book, and to confirm the email address I should send the gift card to.

Thanks again for playing, everyone, and for being so patient with the FB meltdown. Come out and be naughty with me again in our Release Week 2 Contest (which I have to go post now and share all over Facebook ;o)

**********

Okay, so Facebook has a lot of rules. Evidently my fans having a blast telling me what they’d do with two free signed copies of my spankin’ new Love on Mimosa Lane is against the rules. Either because I didn’t include the magic FB disclaimer words (see below for magic FB disclaimer words), or someone got in a snit and reported our fun as spam (see HATERS).

Anyhoodles, the contest was supposed to end with me announcing the winner…but FB pulled the post and all the entrants, including their FB contact information (see REALLY???). Fear not, I remember the post that made me spit Diet Coke onto my keyboard (see ARGH!). Now all I need is a FB contact to go with the entrant whose answer was something close to:

Given the weather outside, I’d find a way to fashion earmuffs out of them.

OMG. If I could be that funny, that succinctly, that perfectly, I’d make a living as a comedic writer rather than a snarky/angsty one (see NOT A CHANCE IN HELL).

So, “Earmuffs,” If you find your way to this blog post which I’ll be posting all over Facebook (see below again for magic FB disclaimer words), please message me at my Anna DeStefano: Author FB Page and claim your prize.

But there’s more (see SHAMELESS INFOMERCIAL GIRL)! I promised that if you shared our post of shameful FB fun, you’d be in the running for a Bonus Prize: a signed copy of Love on Mimosa Lane AND a $10 Amazon gift card. Can’t leave you hanging on that my friends, even though the details of who shared the original contest post have also been atomized.

Which leaves me to (see DRUM ROLL PLEASE), this real purpose of this blog post, which is to get rid of that dang $10 gift card and signed book burning a hole in my cyber pockets (see ANXIOUS WRITER FLIPPING MIDDLE FINGER AT FB and hoping fans will understand/join her) (see below AGAIN for magic FB disclaimer words):

Comment below, using an email address that can I contact you at if you win,

on how much more fun we can have on my blog, than in some lame FB post that gives us no room to stretch out in.

You have until midnight tonight (Friday, 1/24/14).

One randomly selected winner will receive the prize one of my enthusiastic FB fans should have Wednesday. I’ll do the random selecting. (see below FOR THE LAST TIME, PROMISE!, for magic FB disclaimer words).

Oh, and if you take it upon yourself to share this blog link or one of the FB statuses that will announce it, I’d have no way of tracking it, so it’ s on you, since it’s strictly forbidden for us to have fun that way in any official capacity (see ANNA DOESN’T LIKE TO BE TOLD HOW TO HAVE FUN!).

Any questions?

Anyone else feel better now?

MAGIC FB DISCLAIMER WORDS

By commenting/participating, you release Facebook from any involvement in or responsibility for this contest.
The owner of this blog/giveaway acknowledges that this promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

I HEART Flawed Heroes and Other “Love”ly Goodness…

Another writer said to me the other day that you have to “surrender to your characters.” I couldn’t agree more. And my heroes always insist on being flawed. Broken in the past and not completely being done broken. They don’t want Hollywood versions of what it’s like to have been a bad boy or a wounded hero or a shell of a man trying to believe in love again because he can’t seem to stop completely no matter how hard he’s tried. And did I mention I write romance novels ;o) LOL!

See, actually, I don’t. At least not anymore–not the category-type Harlequin novels that I love and began my career writing. I wish I still could–I had a good thing going there for a while. But these guys won’t stay out of my head. Or other writers’ heads, authors I admire like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her Gabe Bonner in Dream a Little Dream, or Debra Dixon and her Sully in Bad to the Bone, or Linda Howard and her Webb in Shades of Twilight… This gives me comfort, because these are romance authors, too–the BEST at the game, IMHO. But they write bigger, deeper, gritter stories and characters who can challenge the reader through a full range of not always so comfortable feelings. Then they give us the most amazing happy endings. I LOVE that. Especially during release weeks for new books, when I can see readers responding to how I write flawed heroes, and loving it, too.

I wanted to WRITE  that, back in the day I first started this ride–heroes, heroines, secondary characters and plots and themes that make others feel and experience and embrace the journey on the page (and in their imaginations) the same as these masters do . And now I am, in my own not-quite-romance, not-quite-women’s fiction, bigger book way.

Love on Mimosa Lane is my first full-on Valentine’s story. There’s a strong romantic central theme, there’s even a Valentne’s Dance and an amazing, happy ending where the central characters have just returned with the hero’s little girl from Disney World of all places. BEAUTIFUL, romantic, tough and challenging, hearts and flowers but only after real tears, because I’m also writing real problems and their ups and downs and aftermaths and crashes and then their rebounding and valiant recoveries that pull hearts and lives and relationships and entire communities together.

I HEART flawed heroes and heroines and communities and the amazing things they do to become who the need to be, once and for all, for themselves and the people they love so fiercely. And I’m so very lucky to be able to write these stories now, no holding back, no making them fit what every romance reader would want. These days, on Mimosa Lane, I get to write the whole story and characters that come to me, surrender completely, and bring eager readers along for a ride like they’d never find anywhere else!

A Love on Mimosa Lane excerpt is below, from one of Law Beaumont and Kristen Hemming’s exciting turning points, to give you an idea what I’m talking about. Check out the reviews on Amazon, to see what early readers are saying about the story. And be sure to let me know your thoughts, too, when you get the chance.

Oh, and there’s a contest on my Anna DeStefano: Author Facebook Page until midnight tonight (1/22/14, EST),

giving away free signed copies of Love on Mimosa Lane and an Amazon gift card!

Check that out, too, because I want my most faithful blog buddies in the running for the prizes!

Thanks again to everyone who’s been so supportive on this “flawed” but fabulous ride!

***

Kristen was standing before her office window instead of sitting at the desk, staring through the blinds. She had the file he’d given her clutched in her hand.

She folded her arms over her chest and turned toward him.  He shut the door behind him, not knowing what to say. But he wasn’t leaving until this was done, and done right.

“This is a really bad idea,” she said—using his words from last night. “Open my door, Mr. Beaumont, or my staff will get the wrong impression.”

“I wasn’t brushing you off out there. I wanted to talk to you in private. And my name is Law.” He sighed, willing the frustration out of his voice. “Whatever else we are now, I think we at least owe it to each other to use our first names.”

“Okay.” Her eyebrow rose. “What are we, Law?” 

“I don’t know. But I know I’m not in a place to figure us out. Libby’s going to be on the warpath. I have to deal with her, and I can’t do that and worry about how any of this is affecting you, or what you’re thinking, or what I’m going to do if you decide you can’t handle another minute of my crazy life being mixed up with yours. I’m digging myself out of a deep hole. Deeper than I’d realized. I can’t afford to be distracted, the way I’ve tuned too many things out for too long.”

“I’m not trying to distract you.” Some of the rigidness eased from her posture. “What if I were to decide that being mixed up with your crazy life suited me just fine?”

Well, Law admitted to himself, that would be even worse, wouldn’t it?

“I don’t think that’s likely to happen.” There, he’d said it, because she wouldn’t. “You’ve been great to me, Kristen. But I need to be free of this before we end badly, too.”

She tilted her head to the side, as if she’d only now realized that he was nuts. “You barge in here, shut yourself in my office, and stay when I ask you to go, because you want to tell me we’re over, before we’ve even done anything to be over, so you can be free of me before we end badly?”

“That didn’t come out right.”

“I would hope not.”

This wasn’t what he wanted: her confrontational and hurting; him trying to do the right thing, but being an ass to her all over again. None of this was what he wanted.

God, she was sexy, giving him hell in that teacher’s tone of hers, in her prim little suit with a skirt that dared a man to run his hands all over and under and up her mile-high, toned legs.

“I never meant for this to happen,” he said, suddenly needing to adjust the fit of his jeans. But he’d be damned if he was going to draw attention to his predicament. “I never meant to upset you or your life.”

“I’m not upset.”

He was close enough now—three steps closer to the window, by his count—to know differently. Her pulse was beating away at the base of her throat.

“Law . . .” She said his name breathy and half-formed, while his finger traced the soft skin beneath her chin. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to be okay with me keeping my distance while I sort things out with Libby.” He let his finger slide just a little lower, torturing himself, before dropping his hand to the waist of his jeans. To make sure it stayed there, he snagged his fingers in his belt. “But I want you to know that the last forty-eight hours between us is making it nearly impossible for me to let go.”

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I know exactly how you feel. But you are letting go, right? And here I was, thinking you’d trust me enough to let me help you sort things out.”

“Kristen . . .” He didn’t trust her. He didn’t know how to trust anyone.

Her hand tangled in his shirt, tugging him closer.

He brushed her lips with his, softly, sweetly. It was a chaste first kiss. It was a gentle good-bye.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered, his hands still at his sides. Hers were on his arms now, running up the muscles that felt like they might never unclench from the strain of maintaining space between them.

“Then don’t,” she whispered back.

She held his gaze for a second, and then she closed her eyes and kissed him. Harder, out of control, her mouth open to his, her lips soft to his tongue, her body pressed to his as they lost themselves in each other. No groping. No desperate need. Just touching and being touched and needing stronger than anything he’d let himself feel in a long time.

She stepped back, leaving him grasping for the emotional restraint he’d kept up all morning. He was in the midst of the most destructive mess of his life since the accident with Libby that had all but destroyed him. His daughter needed all of him now, to get her through this. And yet . . .

He needed Kristen, too, and the way she was making him feel broken open and stitched up and full to brimming and empty, all at the same time. He stared at her answering confusion.

“What are you going to do next?” she asked.

He shook his head. He had absolutely no idea.

Love on Mimosa Lane Release Day! Whimsy, Weepy, Dancing and Want…

That’s what release day really feels like, at least for this writer. I think for a lot of writers, we just don’t like to talk about it, because we’re supposed to be professionals and above it all and in this for the craft. Which we are. But we want to be read, all of us, and we want to dance with our readers while they discovery our characters and stories. We want to feel light as air, whimsy ensuing, each time a new book comes out. We want to weep for how badly we need it to be received by the hearts of those who’ve loved what we’ve done before, hoping that this time we don’t disappoint.

Which is a long way of saying, Love on Mimosa Lane releases today.

This is how my publisher sees release day (and the professional side of my writer’s mind). All business and clean and beautiful.

This is how the child in me sees it. All playful and fun and let’s have fun.

I SO love Kristen and Law’s story. It’s a Valentine’s-themed novel, and amazing that way. It’s a community novel, and amazing that way, too. The marketing for this novel even calls it a “Love story to an entire community,” there’s so much to read here about what it’ s like to raise kids and families and find your heart in a small town.

I SO want others to dig Love on Mimosa Lane for the same reasons I do. The creative child inside of me just wants to say, “Let’s play!” Except there’s all this other stuff going on I need to focus on, too.

Whimsy, weepy, dancing and want…

Bear with me as I share these next few weeks bits and pieces of Love on Mimosa Lane’s inspiration AND the marketing/promotion side of my business, too. It’s all the same thing, in a way. It’s all me, wanting to dance with you down Mimosa Lane, loving how this trilogy has come together in such an amazing, lovely, heart-warming Book 3!

Here’s today’s excerpt. For a new one every day, “Like” my Anna DeStefano: Author Facebook page, plus that will keep you in the loop on all the great giveaways and contests and amazing price breaks and things coming our way as we ease into a crazy new promotion blitz from my publisher!

***

Kristen could feel her heartbeat all over her body. She shouldn’t say it. She absolutely shouldn’t say it. But how could
she not, when it sounded as if he was saying good-bye?

“I’m not trying to fix you or anything else,” she said. “I’m not expecting anything from you, and I know you need to do what
you need to do now, without thinking about me. I’m just trying to care, that’s all. Like you care, a lot more than you want people to know. I see that every time I see you with Chloe. I saw it in how you handled Fin, even if you talked to him at first just as an excuse to get away from me.”

“What?” Law stepped toward her. He stopped. He stopped way too soon. “What did you see?”

“You never stopped caring, Law, no matter how many times you might have tried. Trust me, I know what it looks like when a

person cares only about himself. That’s not you. No matter what’s happened in the past”—and Kristen didn’t give a damn about his prison sentence or the mistakes he’d made before he’d grown up enough to make something more for himself—“you’re a good man doing right by his daughter and his ex-wife. You’re fighting a hell of a lot harder to do right by both of them than a lot of people would.”

She paused, expecting him to say something, needing him to in a pathetic way she despised. When he didn’t, she accepted that it was time to bow out. It was past time. But he seemed so alone, standing there as if her words had fractured something inside him.

He couldn’t seem to move now. So Kristen did, toward the parking lot. She slowed on her way past him, holding herself still for the few seconds it took to say, ”I think you’re amazing, too. If ever need to talk with someone who has just as hard a time trusting her feelings as you do yours, give me a cal..”