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..”

What to do when you’ve been working hard with a publicist since the holidays on big plans elsewhere, and you want to blast back into the blog in a big way???

Why you share excerpts from Love on Mimosa Lane that you’re dying for your friends to love as much as you do ;o)

Below are a few of the excerpts I’m posting daily on my Anna DeStefano Author Facebook page.

There’s a lot going on on social media (did I mention the new publicist, not to mention a fabulous new virtual assistant AND a social media assistant). “LIKE” me over there to stay in the loop with all the fun and FB only prizes/contests and so forth. I’ll be posting a new excerpt at the top of my author page each day.

But I’ll be here again several times a week (don’t forget to tip your waitress), now that I’m mostly situated with the other and TUESDAY’S LOVE ON MIMOSA LANE RELEASE (eh-hem, did I scream that?).

So enjoy this sneak peak and strap yourself in. I’m prepared to chat your ear off about all kinds of interesting nonsense about life, love, community and the way I and my characters see the world ;o)

Oh, and don’t forget my February Writerspace Contest
and the January Hearts for Hearts Brighton goodies up for grabs
on my Anna DeStefano Author Page Sweepstakes over on FB.

Love on Mimosa Lane Excerpts

“…If you want me” —Law crossed his arms over his chest,
his energy shifting from reserved to hostile,
challenging her when she never backed down from a
challenge—“this is how you get me.”

It was on the tip of Kristen’s tongue to tell him she’d take him
however she could get him. She swallowed the unwise comeback…

***

“I see.” Kristen WAS seeing Law—and liking far too much. (more…)