Jordan Welsh, Scottsdale PI and maverick heiress, is the heroine of Stealing the Moon & Stars. She’s also 5’10”, just like Jean Steffens. In the writing partnership Jean is “Mutt” to Sally J. Smith’s “Jeff.”

Jean’s memories of being the tallest girl in her class inspired many of the scenes in our book. There’s nothing more painful to an adolescent girl than being the one who’s different from the others. At seventeen, it wasn’t exactly easy to find a guy who could look her straight in the eye and that made for some dates she’d rather forget. But we’re so glad she didn’t. Now she looks back on those days with the confidence and good humor that comes with age and with knowing her own self worth.

Mementos from her first big high school dance never made it into her keepsake book, and chances are, they never will.

It was springtime. The night was starry. The moon was full. It was the first night Jean had ever worn shoes other than flats on a date.

The young man who called for her was only about 5’8”, not exactly short, but when he stood next to our statuesque beauty in the silky royal blue formal and two-and-a-half inch heels, he might as well have been a Danny DeVito clone. When the photos her parents took came back from the Walgreens, Jean had to beg them not to have blow-ups made and distributed to all the relatives. She and her “date” looked more like baby-sitter and charge than peers.

Once they arrived at the dance it turned out that HE was the target of most of the jokes, not SHE. Think it had something to do with the plaid corduroy suit the sartorial genius had chosen for the night of the big dance? While all his buddies wore dark suits or even the odd classic tux or dinner jacket here and there, Jean’s guy looked like Pee Wee Herman.

When we wrote the scene where Jordan takes a stroll down memory lane recalling her first prom, elements from that first disastrous high school dance took Jean down the same path. Although, Jean admits she definitely had a better time at her dance than Jordan Welsh seems to have had at hers.

See what you think.

(Excerpt from Stealing the Moon & Stars (Camel Press) Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens.

Unpleasant memories of Jordan’s tragic junior prom came creeping in. It was an event she did not care to recall.

 It was the first time she wore high heels, but there were several other reasons she’d never forget prom night. First, it was the millennium year 2000, and the whole world glittered with the rosy promise of a new age dawning. Silly, giddy fools. I mean, come on. Look how things are turning out? Meet the new age, same as the old age, maybe worse.

 It was also one of the many times during her high school years she tested the turbulent waters of rebellion and went directly against Mary’s wishes. It was all about the dress. Mary’s choice was a flowing royal blue Grecian full-length gown. Jordan’s choice, multiple layers of colorful netted petticoat over a short strapless bodice. It looked like a suitcase full of confetti exploded all over it. It was sexy and flirty and young. Jordan begged Mary to buy it for her, but Mary ignored her plea and went with the blue gown. Not to be thwarted, Jordan bought her chosen frock on the sly and had her BFF, Winnie Marlow, bring it and meet her in the girls’ restroom, where she changed clothes.

 The main reason for regret was the choice of Brandon Allen as her date.

 By age fourteen Jordan had reached her full height, five feet ten in her stocking feet. In the spring of 2000, just before her seventeenth birthday, she was too young to be okay with it. Nevertheless, she was used to dating shorter boys when asked, which wasn’t often at that stage of the game.

 The only boy brave enough to invite her to prom and risk the certain ridicule of his classmates for dating “the Amazon” was Brandon Allen, charming and all, even kind of cute, but unfortunately barely five-six. The evening of her junior prom was the first time she ever dared to wear high heels. Although she imagined herself quite grown-up and sexy in them, their added height put her at well over six feet. It would be a fiasco. Her parents took pictures with their fancy new digital camera. She and Brandon looked more like mother and child than peers.

 As Brandon led her out for the first dance and put his arms around her, his face was level with her breasts. Things went from bad to worse as the band swung into Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” and he rested his head on her bare décolletage—a definite disadvantage of the confetti dress. Things went completely to hell when they tried a fast dance to “All Star,” and he kept ducking and turning beneath her arms. Couples around them giggled and teased.

“I don’t feel well,” she told him. “Could we just go?”

 But Brandon was having a good time and didn’t want to leave. Jordan spent the majority of her junior prom sitting in his car in the parking lot waiting for him to come out and drive her home. It didn’t do any good.

 By Monday morning she was so mortified she couldn’t look anyone in the eye. Needless to say, photos from her junior prom never made it into her memory book. (End of excerpt)

The Evidence Suggests: No matter how awful things seem in high school…it DOES get better. And that’s the long and the short of it.