Winter Meltdown Excerpt and another Hunky Guy Pic

Hope everyone had a GREAT Mother's Day.

We disappeared up into the mountains, slept in a B&B beside a water fall (it was a working Grist Mill), and hung out all day Sunday (my husband, son and I), being a family in the sunshine and fresh air (and of course the flea markets and antique places along the way ;o) It was heaven. Perfect!!

Then we came back and celebrated my husband's birthday yesterday. And my son winning awards at his 6th Grade Honors ceremony. Let me just say, I'm such a proud mommy.

As promised, I'm including a excerpt of my VERY early Winter Meltdown draft (just received revision notes from my New York editors), to tease you ;o) You're going to love this one, my friends--due on shelves next January! Let me know what you think of this tiny taste, LOL!


Also, check out what another gifted artist I've also gotten to know through the Romantic Times conference, Maida Reyes from Crossing Realms, (http://crossingrealms.com/) did turning one of Steve's and my late-night shots into a sample book cover.








Don't she and Rose (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=129805753&
MyToken=20170a1a-78ae-4eb6-b0aa-a9a285db4d2a ) make a great team! And of course, Steve ( http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=301715902 ).

The Crossing Realms site is under reconstruction, so keep checking back to see more of her Maida's fabulous work. She's a true talent, and as she comes up with more samples from my little experimental walk through the publishing world beyond writing my books, I'll be sure to share!

You can check back to the May 5th post (http://annadestefano.blogspot.com/2008/05/gorgeous-gus-gorgeous-guys-everyone.html ) and see how much work was done on ME (my jeans and T-shirt are gone, I have makeup on now, and it's not so obvious that I work out 4 or 5 times a week, LOL!), and how amazing Steve looked right from the start ;o)

So, just one more glimpse for my faithful readers into the work that goes into getting our books and covers out on the shelves for you to enjoy. Without all these creative artists making us visually appealing and relevant, no one would pick up our books. Maida, Rose and Steve--you rock!!!

Enjoy the Winter Meltdown draft excerpt--more to come ;o).

Remember, all comments go in the running for Snow White and Grumpy and the Grumpy T-shirt giveaway. New prizes with the next post, too, and we'll keep it going through the end of the month. If you haven't bought your copy of Mothers of the Year yet, it's still available in some stores and on Amazon (see the link to the right) and eHarlequin.com. I'm hearing RAVES from readers--it'll make you laugh and cry!!!

Then, keep an eye out for my To Protect the Child release party in June!!!

Winter Meltdown
******************

"Chloe played with Prada. That's a fierce outfit you're almost wearing. Very, Shut your mouth, I'm not and uptight lawyer freaked out about being the main draw at the party of the season!"

"It's not a party," Felicia Gallo corrected her best friend, over the rim of the champagne flute Willard had kept filled with Cristal during their winding drive from the airport. "It's a—"

"It's a freaking dream weekend, girlfriend." His discriminating eye catalogued one of the many designer outfits her last-minute shopping spree had produced. "And you're going to take advantage of every second of it."

"What do you care?"

Felicia hadn't cuddled up with champagne in ages. When would she have found the time? She'd forgotten the warm, golden glow of it. The expensive bubbles that effervesced into her thoughts, making it more trouble than it was worth to obsess too much about anything.

"As long as you get to swap lip gloss secrets with Maddy Lov," she snarked, "you'll be the talk of every Diva in Manhattan."

"You're the only diva I care about this weekend, my dear." Willard caught her tugging at the fur-trimmed neckline of the purple snow suit that fit her like a second skin. His eye-roll of frustration admonished some of the champagne's golden magic. "You agreed to take some chances again. Let me catch you slinking back into your shell, and mama's going to slap your hand—or some other part of your anatomy."

The threat came with an affectionate wink.

Felicia laughed.

Laughing with Willard always called to the creative, exuberant parts of her. The parts she covered up with Channel suits and St. John dresses, even though she secretly loved Cloe and Roberto Cavalli.

Willard was tall and pretty-boy-meets-gym thin. An outlandish risk-taker in both business and expressing his personal style. Unabashed about relishing the success he'd willed into reality. Midwest born and bred, he owned three of the top restaurants in New York. He traded on his connections to power players from industries as varied as entertainment and sports, as a child swapped baseball cards. Effortless should have been Willard's drag name—then again, his current moniker, Vivid, wasn't far off the mark.

"To fun." She raised her glass in a toast that the wine kept her from questioning.

"To my goddess friend embracing her fabulous self." Willard clinked and drank. "And, to you propositioning the first gorgeous hunk of man you see."

She sputtered at the challenging arch of his eyebrow.

"No more dares." She sighed when Willard emptied the rest of the bottle into her class. "Dares and booze are what got me into this mess in the first place."

Her gay husband, as Felicia's friends affectionately referred to Willard, chucked her under the chin with his forefinger.

"You're confusing being drunk," he said, "with hiding behind your brains and daddy's legal empire for five years."

"Six." She stared at her empty glass.

Six years already?

"That's right. The asshole with the teeny, tiny penis was your big mistake of 2003."

"And 2002. And 2001." She raised her champagne flute in an empty salute to Phillip Rhalston Bowen IV, a man of sizable ego and ambition. And equally sizable genitalia, no matter the rationalizations she'd needed to survive their breakup. "Hell, we'll just call him my big mistake of the millennium."

"Nonsense." Willard popped the cork on more Cristal and poured for both of them. "You have much better mistakes in you. This weekend for instance. You agreed—"

"No holding back," she recited. "I know."

The mantra had been her talisman for weeks. Without it, she'd have called off the first vacation she'd planned since nixing her engagement to the asshole with the teeny, tiny penis. It had gotten her and all her new clothes into her father's Towncar and to the airport. Then on the plane, when she'd almost bailed on Willard in the Crown Room.

Too bad it wasn't silencing the second-guessing now.

"Hiding's not for you, darling," Willard insisted. "What a waste of that mind and refined sass of yours."

"You couldn't care less about my sass. If it weren't for Maddy Lov, you—"

"Hiding's beneath you." Willard's glibness evaporated. He set his drink aside. "It's definitely beneath me, and we're supposed to be attached at the hip for this romantic getaway in the snow. It's time to live the exciting, lust-filled life a successful woman like you deserves—and a successful man like me."

"And what kind of woman would that be?"

Intelligent?

Sophisticated?

Stylishly unapproachable? A force to be reckoned with in the boardroom? Or lonely as hell—every night she crawled into her king sized bed alone, aching for a man's hardness next to her?
Willard took her glass.

"A woman who should be blasting out of her comfort zone," he said. "Not tiptoeing around inside it, following all your stupid rules and locking your heart away. Screw how badly no-nads took you for granted. "

Felicia watched the Colorado scenery whiz by. The complimentary limo that had retrieved them from the airport had been steadily climbing toward the their resort ski destination ever since. The quiet, isolating snow that covered the world outside her window called to Felicia, not the excitement that supposedly lay ahead.

Had Phillip simply been taking her for granted, when she'd caught him sampling the leggy brunette who manned the coat check at Willard's East Village Italian trattoria, Viva!? Or had Felicia just not been enough to keep his attention?

You're a tiger in the boardroom, Fe, he'd said. But sometimes a man needs more...

"Kick that shell to the curb this weekend, gorgeous." Willard motioned over her shoulder. They were pulling up to Winter Pass Lodge. "Remember, you're going after the first hunk you set eyes on. I'll accept nothing less from you than a total weekend meltdown..."