Yup--the picture kind of says all you need to know about the personal side of who I am. Professionally, I am an author, and a fantasy editor with Hadley Rille Books since January 2011.


My critically acclaimed debut novel, Finder, was published in November 2010 by Hadley Rille Books. What? You don't think it was critically acclaimed? Well here's my proof:

"...DeFino’s first novel creates an exotic desert environment as a backdrop to the story of a young man’s coming-of-age and a young woman’s search for the only family she has left. VERDICT Compelling characters and a fascinating world background make this a good addition to most fantasy collections." ~Library Journal

To see the whole review, you can go here: Library Journal Review
Amazon Reviews 
Goodreads reviews
And if you'd like to read a sample chapter of Finder <--there you go.

Feel free to wander about, see what's up. If you get bored here, head on over to the blog sisters-in-Hadley Rille Books and I put up, Heroines of Fantasy  where we have all sorts of interesting guests.

Coming soon to this space--All things A Time Never Lived releasing May 26, 2012!

All my books are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-million, and just about any local or indie bookstore near you (if you ask nicely.)

Off I go! I've decided not to take my computer, so I'll see you all on Monday! Wish me luck! Woohooo! So excited.

A Time Never Lived is up and available on Nook and Kindle. Look!
Kindle/Amazon

Nook/B&N

It's here! It's really here! This never gets old.

Wise words. Wise, wise, wise.

And the frenzy before launching continues! Huzzah! Diana Munoz Stewart interviewed me on her blog: The Write Catch wherein we talk about the writing process, inspiration, and sex.

Come on in, if only for the sex. You know you want to. ;)
And I'd like to thank Karin Gastreich once again for her post on Heroines of Fantasy. It truly is humbling to have such friends as these.

And to prove this space is not simply self promotion, I give you: A NEW FORGOTTEN ENGLISH WORD FOR THE DAY!

It has been a while, I know. Aside from the chaos and turmoil in this household, the words just haven't inspired me of late. Today's word however, is fabulous:

peezy-weezies:  It is said of a person who is sulky, or in the dumps, that he has the peezy-weezies or the hansy-janzies.
                                                         ~William Cope's Glossary of Hampshire Words and Phrases, 1883

Two fabulous, fun words in one day! Can't beat that.

Thanks, all, for stopping by, for being so supportive, and sticking with me through the chaos and the joy.

I'm not going to say anything except that I have the BEST friends, and in particular, an amazing sister-in-HRB, Karin Rita Gastreich.

Check out Heroines of Fantasy today.

(By the way, if you have trouble posting in Blogspot, please let me know. There are glitches we are trying to figure out.)

And only now do I realize I didn't NUF last week while in VAB. Ah, well--the beach and lots of chocolate cake will do that to a person.

Just a quicky today:
The Shadows One Walks is now at 10,375 words. So far--LOVE!
A Time Never Lived releases NEXT WEEK!!! Eeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Beyond the Gate is with Kim, awaiting an "official" edit--did I say that already?

I'm doing a Goodreads Giveaway to celebrate the release of A Time Never Lived. I'll be giving away two signed copies of Finder, and two of A Time Never Lived. If you'd like to enter to win one or both, go here for ATNL and here for Finder. Click "enter to win a copy of this book." Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell your dog! Ok, not the dog, but the cat might be interested.

The conversation over at Heroines of Fantasy continues, if you want to put your two cents in. :)

Last--I got this snippet in my head yesterday, and it won't leave me be, so I'm putting it here because that usually works to get rid of an earworm:
Time is a tiny hand in mine, growing, and slipping away.
There now. Let's see if it works.

We gave William a bath out in the yard. How cute is he???

Something else I learned from Myths, Lies and Half-truths of Language Useage.
Read these words out loud:
daughter
slaughter
onslaught
fraught
taught
( Now say this one... )

Ha! Kinda cool, huh? That's called a linguistic fossil: evidence of how that collection of letters used to be pronounced. The English used to say the words above as dafter, slafter, onslaft, etc. Why did laughter keep the old sounds while the others dropped off? Well, I don't know, but I'm sure someone does. Actually, I do a little, but it's too long to go into here. So freakin' cool.

Virginia Beach was amazing, as usual. I have a new respect for Velveta cheese, as it figured prominently in a story involving a one-eyed sea serpent, a giant, and aliens. I wish I could explain further, but I'd have to be put in the witness protection plan if I did. I spent too much time on the phone; so much so that my dollbabies threatened to take my phone and toss it into the ocean! Next year will be different, I swear. If I go back on it, they absolutely WILL follow through on their threats.

Four of the ladies and I went to see The Avengers--and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the delectable eye-candy onscreen. Nope, not even a little. Intellectually stimulating film, The Avengers. I watched it for the articles--honest. And really, I did love it the way I loved Thor and Iron Man and The Hulk. I love me a superhero movie, yes I does.

We played games on Monday night, talked books on Tuesday, watched American Idol together on Wednesday, we made Kumihimo things in the afternoon and went out for dinner on Thursday, and on Friday, I got to visit with the spectacularkskye1027, who met me at the Sonic and bought me a cherry coke. The days were full of silence and writing, chatter and walks on the beach, The Daily Show with Julie and Marg and Mary. Breakfasts and strong coffee, so much good food, and cake.
The week ended too soon. It always does. I know that's part of what makes the week so special. Like Brigadoon, it happens only once in a great while, and for a short time--magic. That's what dollbabyweek is. Total magic.

I got some pretty cool news last week on the Finder front. I can't tell what it is, because it's just a possibility at the moment, and one I won't know the facts of for quite some time. But it is monstrously cool. You'll have to take my word for it. :)

AND! I finished all my reworkings and fuddlings of Beyond the Gate and handed it off to Kim who might just end up being my editor on this one. Very exciting. Now I wait, like a good author should, and must, and hates doing anyway.

Last but not least, I got my panels for ConQuest next week--yes, next week! I can't believe it!
Linguistics in SF/F: (moderating this one) What does a fully developed language add to a story/world? how do you make one? From Pig Latin to Huttese, languages help shape a world mythos.

Star-Crossed Lovers: They Don't Just Happen in YA Discuss the adults who find true love and the demons/werewolves/vampires/fairies/evil governments they must battle.

The Rapunzle Syndrome: Can you have a strong female character and still be rescued by a man? Rapunzle needed a prince, but the prince needed Rapunzle. Can you have romance with both hero and heroine on equal footing or does there always have to be a damsel in distress?

I also have two book signings and a launch party in there! And a barbeque on Sunday. It's going to be one hell of a long and busy weekend!

That's my wrap-up of the week. How was yours?

Whew! What a week. I've a better round up on the way, but I have to get to work and I have a couple of things I must share with you before I do, or I'll never be able to settle down.

My blog post on Heroines of Fantasy is up: Homecoming, and saying good-bye. I'd love to hear/read your thoughts on things, because even though I kind of pulled this out of my ass (what a gross idiom, huh?) this morning, I've been thinking about it sincethe long ride from VAB on Saturday.

Speaking of that long ride, I listened to one of my Teaching Company courses almost in its entirety: Myths, Lies and Half-truths of Language Usage. Wow--it'll blow your mind. There was one thing in there that has me especially excited, because it's one of those grammar things that always gets me--yes, even anal me: lie vs. lay. Gads, it trips me up even though I KNOW I know it. Now, however, I have a sure-fire way of never getting it wrong again.

Lie = passive
Lay = active

Just like rise is passive, and raise is active. I know the difference between rise and raise, why not lie and lay? Crazy, huh, how simple it really is. Lying down is a passive act, while laying down is not. You LIE down, you LAY SOMETHING down. See that? Easy-peasy, and I feel like an idiot for never seeing the simplicity of it. Considering so many still get it wrong, I can't be the only one, and so I pass it along to you so that you may never feel like an idiot again. ;)

Finally, a confession--I did NOT keep up with you as I'd hoped to last week. If I missed anything important to you, please let me know. I might have been less than diligent last week, but I'm still a curious oyster always hungry for news.

It is amazing, how silent a house full of women can be. We're all in the same, sunny room, doors open to the rush of the sea and the squorking gulls. Diana, Linda, Julie, Karin, Marg, Linda, Geri, and me (Sara and Mary are downstairs at the moment.) Still, it is silent, the keyboard clicking the only other sound; and the occasional turn of a page.

There is freshly baked chocolate cake downstairs.
There will be chatter and laughter later.
Tonight is game night.

This is bliss.

You may not see me, but I'll be here, keeping up with all your news. After today, I get to stop working and get back to BTG and TSOW in earnest.


Kim Vandervort has a really great post up over on Heroines of Fantasy: Why is ritual important to us as humans, and us as writers? Great thinkish stuff. Come think with us. :)

 <--this is what I wake up to every morning.

I have only one thing to say today----Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Jane! Get me off this crazy thing! VAB, here I come!!!!

...I barely commented. But I read all your news! I'm not a wretched LJ friend, I swear! I'm in an editing frenzy, trying to get this novel back to its author before I go to Virginia Beach next week. Losing time as I have to driving my recovering son here there and wherever he needs to be, I really don't know if I'm going to pull it off. 

Head down.
Nose to the grindstone.

Or, as my husband once said, "Head to the grindstone."

I suppose that saves time...or at least a few words.

THIS week, I get to play editor. I'm stoked about it, though sad that I won't be able to really work on BTG's new beginning. Sigh...maybe I'll sneak it in a little each morning. Nope! I must be strong! This edit needs to be done and in the can by the end of the month. Edit first, BTG after. Hmmm...maybe I should send those extraordinary betas the new ten page opening...

Today in Heroines of Fantasy, my darling Mark Nelson is up. His first novel (my first official, solo edit!) will be out in June of this year. I'm as excited about his book as I am about my own. His subject oh HoF--series fiction, When Is Enough, Enough? The convo's already started. Come on in and add to it.
(And please let me know if you have any trouble accessing or posting. There have been issues we're attempting to resolve.)

Lastly, I had to share this, because you all might not be as ferociously geeky about words (not you, sallymn, you're even geekier!) you are nonetheless pretty fierce. Ye Olde Debunking <--go there. You will thank me, I promise.

He "walked" in the Liberty Park (NY) March of Dimes Walk today with his mommy and daddy. Now he's all tuckered out.

I did not play editor after all this week. Next week, I hope. This week, after spinning my wheels in editorworld on Monday, I got to work on both The Shadows One Walks and Beyond the Gate.

First, TSOW: I forgot to get a word count, but I didn't add all that many since last week. I mostly did a bit of rearranging and tweaking. I go a little overboard on the first ten pages, tweaking and perfecting. It's just a me thing; I like to have a solid foundation to build the rest of my story on. Sometimes (ok, most times) that beginning gets moved or completely deleted. I know it seems like a waste of time to line edit stuff that's not going to stay--but it's not. In doing that kind of thing, I'm righting things in my mind. I'm starting threads that will weave in and out of the rest of the book. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the opening three chapters, and the order in which they appear. I think I've got the right foundation going. We'll see.

Second, BTG: Again, forgot to get that word count, but I did write ten pages of the new beginning. It's fabulous. AND, best of all, I am next to certain that by changing the beginning, I'm cutting a good 5K words more. This thing that started out at 199K, went down to 179K, down again to 144K, is going to be below 140K. Mark my words!

Third--the boy is doing very well. Really well. I won't even say, "We'll see!" or "one day at a time!" because such sentiments gives doubt something to latch onto. We'll have none of that, thank you. Right now, he's outside making a bow out of a hickory tree he cut down in the woods out back. Yes. A bow--that thing you shoot arrows from. He's always wanted to try. Now's his chance.

Fourth--I get to see my daughter, son-in-law and GrandWilliam tomorrow! Woohoo! Very excited.

Fifth--I leave for Virginia Beach and my Doll Baby Week of Writer Women at the Beach Week! I need it!

Sixth, and possibly best--my little girl comes home two weeks from Saturday. After four months in France, I imagine she's grown up a lot, but she is ALWAYS my little girl. I can't wait!

Have a splendid weekend, all!

Does consternation qualify as a frown?

I haven't posted a GrandWilliam pic since March! Forgive me for depriving you of his insane cuteness. To make it up to you, I give you...GINGERBABY!

Many things, that's what. The first of which is--MY BOY IS HOME! Yes, he's home, and we're all very happy--happy to see him so well and so NEW. That's the only way I can describe it. He's so full of joy, life, and hope. I haven't seen him so relaxed and focused in years. I know this is only the first leg of the journey, but he's made a really good start of it. As I said to the hubs yesterday, when we went to get him--and forgive the dire analogy, but drug addiction is no less dire: It's like he had cancer. Now the tumor is out. It's time for chemo. And for now, enough said.

Second thing--Alison Goodman (author of Eon and Eona) is our guest blogger over on Heroines of Fantasy. I met Alison at World Fantasy this year. She's beyond fabulous, and so is her work. Eon won the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Her first novel, Singing the Dogstar Blues, won an Aurealis for Best Young Adult Novel. Come see what she has to say about research, and getting the details right.

Third thing--I am not a writer this week. I am an editor. Part of me is bummed not to be able to get to work on all the exciting stuff that came out of last week. Part of me is glad to let it stew a few days. But this edit needs to be done and back to the author by the end of the week. Down to the wire on solo-edit #2! I'm excited. I love this job. And if the rest of it reads as well as it has so far, I might even get it done before the end of the week.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I know I did.