The Napa Valley, three miles wide and thirty-some miles long, was not simply carved out by water flowing between the mountains. The moving tectonic plates have been pulling the mountains apart with the events of the San Andreas network of faults. Evidence of this cataclysmic work are most obvious at the northern end of the Valley where heated groundwater shoots geysers up through fissures and settles down into mud baths with supposedly medicinal properties.

One can begin to understand why Anastasia, raised in this tumultuous environment and earning a living from the product of the same soil, might be constantly on the verge of eruption. How could she not be explosive when the elemental forces under and all about her were in a constant state of unpredictable movement?

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Anna’s Napa Valley winery has been suffering debilitating attacks, not from other competing wineries but from an intensely troubled young man. She must take action soon or she will lose everything: the winery, the land, the vines, and the equipment. Even her identity is being threatened.

"I feel it’s a very personal matter. How could he try to stop me from my destiny? I was born into this life. It is all I know and all I ever wanted to do. Something eternal happens on this parcel of earth. I have to do my part to keep it alive."

She must figure a way out. It has to be something dramatic, yet simple, but so effective it will set in his brain forever.

Something happened to Anastasia over which she has no control: her mother died at her birth. Anna's passion to succeed is not simply because she respects her great grandfather and admires his accomplishments.

Though she is certainly aware of her wish to emulate him, what she never realized was how motivated she has been by a dormant desire to prove she is worthy of being alive.

Nick Taddeo