Archive for the ‘What About Everything Else?’ Category

Readers and Writers…

Sunday, June 22nd, 2014

Reading today? Escaping, passing time, relaxing, recharging?

What’s tops on your TBR pile?

reading pink lady

I’ll take a bite of them all–as a writer, it’s all the same. Inspiration and research and understanding and filling the well. I’m more creative with my mind relaxed and loose, the way reading recharges me.

Just finished Nora Robert’s Bride Quartet series. Fun and flirty with touches of deeper tones. I write with a bit more angst, and I like her characters better when they have more conflict and struggle to deal with. These friends are just a bit to cutsie to be ideal cup of tea. But Nora’s amazing, the way she unfolds story and people and relationship. So much to enjoy and admire.

What’s your poison?

What I’ve seen while I’ve been away…

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

Sky and water and peace and space…

Inspiration.

Join me, won’t you?

Water is Light

light 3

Transition 1

light 4

Morning light

dark

Lost a dear, sweet friend today I haven’t seen for too many years…

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014

Love, too brave and infinitely pure to hold close for always. It lives to be freed, to grace more than an earthbound home allows. Fly onward, sweet Ellen, strong and sure. Beautiful forever. This is not darkness, these longing shadows you leave behind. A new beginning, light drawing closer. Share it. Think of us again, generous spirit. My friend…

love you between the shadow and the soul

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

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

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.

FINAL LoML Front LowRes

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.

time in a bottle

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. (more…)

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

Friday, January 24th, 2014

***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).

FINAL LoML Front LowRes

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). (more…)

Kindle Daily Deal! $1.99 Christmas on Mimosa Lane

Sunday, December 22nd, 2013

A quick shout out! Christmas on Mimosa Lane is the Kindle Daily Romance Deal until midnight tonight!

Get your digital copy for only $1.99!

And share the great news with friends you think would like to visit Chandlerville ;o)

COML low res

“A deeply emotional story that furls around your heart like a Christmas ribbon.”

—Lori Wilde, New York Times best-selling author

Robyn Carr Interview and Kindle PaperWhite Giveaway!

Tuesday, December 17th, 2013

Kindle Love Stories is spotlighting a wonderful interview Robyn Carr and I gave in Seattle, talking about our Christmas novels, the real-life struggles our characters face and why we spotlight healing in our stories. To celebrate, Amazon’s also giving a way a Kindle PaperWhite!

So, watch the interview.

Enter to win the Kindle PaperWhite on my Facebook Author Page
between now and Thursday.

And if you haven’t yet, check out Christmas on Mimosa Lane.

COML Front 240x360

Christmas on Mimosa Lane is a charming, tender delight… Anna DeStefano is a treasure!”

~~Teresa Medeiros, NYT and USA Today Best-selling Author

WIN Love on Mimosa Lane

Friday, December 13th, 2013

Sign up for your chance to nap one of the 20 copies of Love on Mimosa Lane my publisher’s giving away on GoodReads!

FINAL LoML Front LowRes

Click HERE.

Do what the page say.

Tap your fingers until the end of the month.

Oh, and pre-order the book while you’re at it.

You can always give the free copy away as a gift ;o)

Inspire yourself! WIN Vintage Trifari…

Friday, November 15th, 2013

“Passion is energy.
Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”

~ Oprah Winfrey

The holiday season every year, I’m reminded how lucky I am, how blessed I am, and how many inspirational things wait for me around every corner. That might sound corny. But the leaves are changing, my wind chimes are singing, families and friends are making reconnecting… There’s passion in the air. Passion for loving and living and being more aware of how inspired we can be by the amazing world around us.

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.”

~Martha Graham

dancer colorful

Our lives are challenging, to say the least. Many of us (myself included) can struggle through the holidays with difficult memories or difficult twists and turns in our lives and families. But this time of the year, EVERY year, I’m determined not to let myself forget that how I react to my life defines my life. And I’m determined to be passionate. I’m determined to love and live and be excited about today and tomorrow–and to hopefully inspire people around me to want the same.

That’s why butterflies are my totem, and a major part of my brand…and my challenge to you ;o) If you feel down or stressed or overwhelmed this year, think of butterflies hovering freely on every breeze, around every flower, in every garden of your imagination. And even when it’s cold outside, they’re waiting, growing inside their cocoons, biding their time until they’ve transformed into something even more beautiful.

Like this!

trifari butterfly

My November contest prize!

It’s a vintage Alfred Philippi Trifari pin, like the special treasures little Polly cherishes in Christmas on Mimosa Lane.

Enter to WIN here.

Be inspired.

Pay it forward.

Share  your passion this season.

Share your excitement with those you love!

The Soul of the Matter: Eyes Forward. Go on.

Friday, October 11th, 2013

You push and fight and work and struggle and win and fail and fight some more. You feel good and bad and take stock and wish you hadn’t and then feel better and stronger and ready to go on. Life goes ahead of you, not waiting, not wondering, not judging but always watching for you to be up for the next challenge. If you’re a parent or a spouse or a partner or a child or a student or a professional or a writer or whatever you might be, you understand. From the moment you wake each morning, you’re on and you choose and you hope for another day in which you stride more than you stumble.

How do you do that, when there’s so much going on and so much behind you and finding your place in it all is overwhelming?

Eyes forward, my friends.

eyes forward

Of course you’ll remember, good and bad, and of course you’ll worry, even when times are good. But you’ll dream, too, and you’ll want. You’ll hope and believe. You’ll pick yourself up and forgive yourself and look to others for help, but not for validation or approval. You’ll be as sensitive and weak as you are and not apologize. You’ll be strong and determined, too. You’ll be exactly what you’re meant to be, and you’ll demand your place–first from yourself and then from others.

Eyes forward, to me, means more than confidence. It’s awareness that where I am isn’t where I’ll always be. No taking the good for granted or assuming the bad is all there is. Celebrate, learn, plan, let go, continue, fight, but breathe through it all and get out of your own way. The rest is noise and my personal stuff and the emotional damage I do to myself when I’m unsure of what else to do, so why not make a mess while I’m stalled.

Why not?

Because my job is to keep my eyes forward and go on.

go on

Yours is, too.

All around me is proof of how lucky I am, how fortunate and blessed, even as the next challenge bears down. All around you, you’ll find the same. All we have to do is see it. Look forward, not backwards or to the side or down at our feet worried that we’re going to trip up and mess up and get it wrong. Whatever “it” is, look forward, look it in the eye, and SEE it. Then step into the opening it creates and conquer that next step and then the next.

Have a great weekend, my friends. It’s going to be absolutely beautiful!