Happy New Year!!!

What a fast and crazy few weeks we've had around here. Wonderful crazy, as I hope your holidays were, but crazy all the same.

A brand new year calls for a new post, however, and a little bonus for my online buds. I've sent my agent new proposals for the Atlanta's Heroes series...and with it a first chapter for Remember Me--the book that will follow Legally Yours if Super buys it. Check out the first scene below, and if you dig it, I have it on good authority there's more ;o)

Got some great reviews in my Christmas stocking. The first, from Cataromance.com. According to Donna Zaph:

The Perfect Daughter by Anna DeStefano touches the heart and pierces the soul with the poignant story of a resilient woman who is able to face her terrors with the support of her family and the love of her man. I was delighted to revisit with characters I had met in previous books and to read this engrossing series conclusion. The Perfect Daughter storyline encompasses the growing threat of gangs, even in small town America. Ms. DeStefano treats this real life problem with an insider’s view that captures her reader’s attention and provokes an empathic response. I am never disappointed in my expectations of an Anna DeStefano book. She faithfully delivers a true romance wrapped in an up to date message from today’s headlines. I recommend that you treat yourself with Anna DeStefano’s The Perfect Daughter this Valentine’s Day.

Tomorrow, we'll hear from the Romantic Times reviewer. I think she liked this one ;o)

Oh, and I still don't have mailing address for two of my holiday party winners: Shannon, I'm holding a $5 Borders gift card for you, and Catslady...that Liz satchel wants a new home. Send (or resend, if I've lost it somehow) me your addresses via email, and we'll be in business.

Here's the Remember Me excerpt...want to start the new year off right, sharing the wealth...we're going to have to start talking about the Feb. Launch Party soon!!

*****

Just a little further, and we'll be safe," she said.

They just had to make it just a little further away from the building, and then...

Then what!

There was no little further. No safe. Not until they were miles away from there.

He'd have every exit covered. More men watching the street. They were trapped.

Because she hadn't done her job.

She hadn't done anything but fail. Hadn't followed her instincts to get out while she still had him snowed.

And now he knew.

Maybe not everything, but he knew she was running, and that she wasn't leaving alone. She could hear his men searching still. Orders being shouted inside the building they'd just escaped. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered. She had to get them out of there.

If he found them, he'd never let them go.

Not alive.

She peaked around the dumpster they'd crouched behind. Searched the darkness of the filthy alley, looking for something, anything to use as a weapon.

"Nattie?" The scared whisper at her elbow shook with fear.

"Shh," she cautioned, squeezing the little hand clinging to hers. "We have to be quiet."

It was either be quiet or be dead.

And dead wasn't going to happen. She could still make this disaster right, somehow.

"Nattie." The hand tugged free. "I left Felix in my room. I have to --"

"We can't go back." Damn! How could she have left Felix? How could everything have fallen apart so quickly?

"But--"

"No!"

She'd worry about Felix later. Once she actually got them to later.

The door they'd left the warehouse through creaked, it's rusted hinges scraping open. More than one set of footsteps echoed on the damp concrete, scuffing over the discarded cardboard and junk littering the area beside the dumpster.

She forced deep breaths, one hand motioning for silence while the other pressed against the dumpster's filthy side. As a hiding place, it was too obvious for their pursuers not to check. But she'd been desperate and fresh out of alternatives.

"Desperation makes you reckless and careless," a wise voice from her past reasoned in her mind. "But you can use the recklessness to your advantage. Maybe even make yourself a little luck every now and then."

The footsteps stopped.

The dumpster's lid was lifted long enough for someone to peer inside, then quietly closed. It was empty. She'd already checked. Dress shoes scraped in opposite directions. Two sets of them, heading around round either side of the dumpster.

Time to make herself some of that luck.

"Run!" She shouted as she shoved the dumpster forward with all her strength, crashing it into the men.

Both grunted. One toppled to the ground, his gun skidding away.

She grabbed it as they sprinted toward the street. Shooting her way out was stupid, but stupid wasn't dead, which meant they still had a chance.

A hand clenched in her hair and yanked her off her feet, dragging her back into the alley.
She twisted. Ignored the pain tearing through her from his grip. Brought the gun around to fire.

There was dead. Then there was taking one of these bastards with her. She had a sudden taste the latter.

"Nattie!"

The childish scream echoed off the buildings.

A shadow moved to her right, coming from behind. Before she could react, the side of her head exploded.

Blinding pain consumed her.

Blackness sucked her under, narrowing her vision to the sight of the gun now pointed between her eyes. Another scream came, and along with it the certainty that she'd failed.

It was over.

"Do it," she snarled, the weakest part of her almost relieved.

But she was still fighting, even as the darkness took her...

Her arms twisted against her restraints.

Her feet kicked at the hands holding her down to the table.

Her head twisted despite the shattering pain, the darkness turning to grey as the blinding overhead light drew closer...

Table?

Light?

"Hold her still," a warm, calm voice intruded into the icy cold of her terror.

The warm hand on her shoulder belonged to the voice, she realized, not her nightmare. It was soft, not cruel, absorbing her shivers. Quieting them.

"It's okay," he whispered close to her ear. "Try to relax. You're safe now...