Anya Bast

Thirteen First (or first and second) Lines from my books.

Idea shamelessly stolen from NJ Walters, who did the same thing last week.

~*~

1. He looked like sin and seemed like salvation. Salvation for her sluggish libido, anyway. (Witch Fire)

2. The cup slipped from Moira’s fingers and crashed to the wooden floor of her home. (A Change of Season

3. Bianca sat on the floor of the crumbling building where she’d taken shelter. Her solar-powered lantern cast a dim light, bathing the bleached walls of the room in an eerie glow. (Water Crystal)

4. The blade could injure the wind itself. (Whisper of the Blade)

5. Mason downed the shot of whiskey in front of him and relished the burn of the alcohol down his throat. (Seduced in Twilight)

6. Jade’s heavy boots clanged on the metal walkway as she trekked across the heart of Harcourt Prison. All around her men stood at the bars of their cells catcalling and shouting obscenities. (Blood of the Damned)

7. Serena fought back a hard twinge of loneliness as she pushed aside a branch and stepped into the grove of oak trees that grew in the exact center of her thousand-acre property. (Ordinary Charm)

8. Ben had never believed in fate or destiny, not love at first sight. Hell, he’d never even believed in love. Codependency, maybe, but not love. He thought it was a myth, love. Just some name people gave to lust on steroids. (Edge of Sweetness)

9. Theo watched the glass slip from Miranda’s fingers and crash to the floor as the goblin walked into the restaurant. (Tempted by Two)

10. If only he could’ve fallen for a woman like that one. (Blood of an Angel)

11. Still a virgin. Was I destined to remain a virgin for the rest of my pathetic, royal life? (Getting Slayed)

12. Sienne glanced up, then lowered her eyes as was proper, but in that moment she memorized the visage of the man who would be her temporary keeper. (Winter Pleasures: The Capture)

13. “He can make you forget your own name in bed.”
Fate snapped out of her reverie and blinked at her acquaintance, Cynthia Hamilton. “Excuse me?” (Blood of the Raven)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Erin the Innocent

2. Sparky Duck

3. Heather

4. Lany of Melany Logen aka Mechele Armstrong

5. Alasandra

6. Lauren Dane

7. Susan Helene Gottfried

8. LA Day

9. miladyinsanity

10. Lorelei James

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Apparently Witch Fire is one of the featured novels in the freebie Borders Books & Music “Romance Top Picks” pamphlet. I am actually not familiar with this publication, but this is what I was told by someone this morning. They give it away at the front door or at the counter or something? In any case, there’s a $1 dollar off coupon you can use on any of the titles in the booklet, so grab one and you can get a buck off Witch Fire.

Oh, and it seems Witch Fire is starting to ship to the bookstores. *gulp* Not sure when they’ll put it on the shelves.

Ask me if I’m nervous. G’wan, ask me.

You can read more about this over on Dear Author.

I happened across this site a few days ago and thought it was really cool. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before on the ‘Nets. Romantic Advances gathers all the upcoming releases in one place and cross references them by sub/genre. So, if you’re looking to add to your already towering TBR pile, (like the one beside my bed that theatens to topple and kill me in my sleep? Yeah, like that one), you can go there and find new reading fodder.

Additionally, if you write for a RWA recognized publisher, you can fill out a form and have them post your book. Slick!

Anyway, when I visited the site I had no idea who was behind it. Turns out these bloggers (most of whom you probably know) are the brains behind the beauty.

• Devon
• Jane
• Jennie
• Kristie J
• Rosario
• Sybil
• Tara Marie
• Wendy

I’m pushing to get the revisions to Witch Blood done. The revision process is always huge for me. I love the actual writing of the book. That’s the fun part. The revision portion of the project is just plain hard work. I still love it, but it’s a lot of work. Especially when you’re like me and you’re second guessing every paragraph.

In other news….

So, even though Witch Fire isn’t out on the shelves yet (June 5th) and it’s not shipping from Amazon.com yet (I bet it will be soon, though), I know it’s shipping to people who special ordered it from brick-and-mortar stores. Yiiiieeee…. Witch Fire is out there and people are reading it!!!!

There’s this funny writer thing. I have something like twenty books out there, but the release of every new one (especially one as huge as Witch Fire) always makes me feel like I’m getting ready to speak publically — you know, the clammy hands, shortness of breath thing. Ah, the nerves I’m feeling right now…someone pass the chocolate (and a bottle of wine).
I love Mira and Jack so much. I hope you all do too. 🙂

So yesterday we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. I wanted to LOVE it, like super duper squeeing LOVE it. Unfortunately I just thought it was okay. I loved Cap’n Jack, of course. You can’t put Johnny Depp in a role that I wouldn’t like him. I’d pay money to watch that guy read the phone book.

Okay, now back to revisions….

Don’t Hassle the Hoff: The Autobiography.

Shuuuuut up! No way. Noooooooo waaaaaay.

That’s it. I have no more words.

Thirteen Things I do when I have writer’s block

1. Go back through the synopsis and my notes to figure out if I mucked up somewhere and clogged the flow of the story.

2. Sit down and have a tete-a-tete with the main characters. Interview them. Try to locate any muckups.

If the first two fail, I…

3. Take a drive. I don’t know why but driving helps me think about my writing.

4. Take a walk, either outside or on the treadmill.

5. Call a friend who will brainstorm/talk plot with me.

6. Listen to music. I can’t listen to music while I’m writing. It has to be an independent activity.

7. Even better, listen to music while I clean the house. I hate to admit that cleaning the toilet jogs me free of writer’s block sometimes, but it does. Must be those scrubbing bubbles (or are those for showers? I forget)

8. Watch a movie. It makes my mind travel different roads.

9. Read a book. Same deal. I never read a book in the same genre I’m writing, though.

10. Talk it out with husband, who invariably comes up with an idea. If it’s a good idea and I use it, he’s very proud and happy and tells everyone. If the idea doesn’t work for the plot and I don’t use it, he’s disappointed and tells everyone. Use with extreme caution.

11. Sit outside with a nice glass of red wine. I like this one the best.

12. Take a long bubble bath. This one’s pretty damn good too.

13. Blog or write a poem. Sometimes writing about something else jars the block free.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Gina

2. Rhian

3. Rene Lyons

4. Erin the Innocent

5. Anna J. Evans

6. Marissa

7. miladyinsanity

8. jenny®

9. Sparky Duck

10. Lauren Dane

11. tvaddictgurl

12. N.J. Walters

13. Ann(ie)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

An interesting topic came up on the RT reader’s board recently. I read it last night and spent all this morning thinking about. I was going to reply there (and probably still will), but my response is long enough that it makes a good blog. Since I’m always looking for blog fodder, well, dude, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.

The thread is about the lack of sexual tension in erotic romance, and how sometimes the H/H fall into bed with each other too soon, before the reader cares whether they have sex or not. The excellent point was made that it actually makes the book less hot.

In fact, this is an issue I’ve struggled with when writing some of my books. (I have fought a few characters over this very issue.) I do mostly write erotic romance, so it’s something I’ve spent a lot longer than just this morning mulling over. In some of my books the H/H get busy pretty early on (never in the first chapter or anything like that, but early in the story). In other books, Water Crystal comes to mind immediately, it takes them a while.

I can’t answer for all authors, but here’s why sometimes the sex happens early in my books…it’s all about the characters.

The characters drive my plots and determine when everything happens and at what sort of pace. If I have a character who has a good reason, good motivation, for resisting jumping into bed with the other lead, then I am provided with a way to build a significant amount of sexual tension.

For example, Angelo in Water Crystal resists Bianca for a couple very good reasons. The first is because she’s his prisoner and he’s got honor. As much as he might he want to give into Bianca’s constant blatant attempts to seduce him, he won’t. Later on there’s another reason but it’s a spoiler so I won’t talk about that one.

In Witch Fire, both characters have good reasons to resist each other. Jack knows that to sleep with Mira he’ll be tangling up his life in ways he may never be able to undo. Mira just wants to avoid all men and stay true to the promise she’s made herself, no matter how attracted she is to Jack.

In Blood of the Damned, Jade has plenty of reasons to resist Niccolo. The list goes on….

Conversely, some of my characters don’t have good reasons to resist. Some of my characters are the wilder kind and to have them resisting sex would simply go against their natures and ruin the story with implausibility.

However, if the H/H do have sex early on in the story, you can bet there will be lots of other sorts of tension keeping them apart until the end, not the least of which will be emotional. Because there are lots of kinds of tension — sexual, internal, external. Tension and conflict, after all, are integral components of any novel, romance, erotic romance or otherwise.

I always try for sexual tension in my books because sexual tension makes the book hotter. Sexual tension is foreplay. Who wants to have sex without foreplay? However the length of the sexual tension in my books is dependent on the characters and the characters alone. I write ALL DIFFERENT kinds of characters, so some of my books may have a lot of sexual tension and some may have less.

It’s all about the character in the end.

And I have not done my job as a writer if I haven’t made the reader care about the characters and what happens to them, no matter at what point in the story they first make love.

It does have to go through the revision and polishing process, which is not a small task, but I wrote THE END on Witch Blood last night. Whew! The ending took me forever to write. I think I have three different versions.

So now I go through it chapter by chapter and then send them out one by one to my critters. Right now I have random notes to myself scattered throughout the book, notes to go back and change this or that or clarify some point. I have to address all of those, make sure there are no skipped words, (I’m the queen of skipping words), plus a million other details, but…..

It’s good to write The End on a project.

Today I’m exhausted. I’m getting sickish, but beating it back with Wellness Formula that I bought at Wild Oats.  I didn’t go to sleep until 2am (see above for the reason) and instead of sleeping until her wonderful time of 8am, Miss S woke up at SIX. Ugh.

Nevertheless, I start revisions today.

Ceeeeeeeeellllllebrate good times! C’mon.  Nah nah nah!  (heheheheheheh. I’m so evul because I know that’s going to be stuck in people’s heads now. I just needed to share the wealth. I don’t like to suffer alone.)

…but for a good reason. I’m so close to finishing Witch Blood I can taste it.

Next week, thirteen things I do when I have writer’s block. Luckily, I don’t have it now!

Rhian asked me a good question in my call for blog topics. (Got a topic you’d like to see me blog about? Put in the comments…PLEASE). Who puts the kink in erotic romance? Do authors really sexplore to gain fodder, do they borrow from other authors? Where does it come from?

I get this question a lot, actually. Newspaper interviewers have asked me this. Here’s what I say…. (of course, I can’t answer for all erotic romance authors, just moi).

My kink comes from everywhere.

I will say right off that my husband and I have a great sex life. We have always had snapping sexual chemistry and are well suited to each other in this area. So, yes, I do get some of my inspiration from my personal sex life. Both physically and mentally, since my husband will work through scenarios with me, er, orally. (Stop it! I mean as in conversation.)

But, no, I haven’t personally gone out to research everything I write about. Sorry to say, I’m just not that deviant. Rather than a sex kitten, I’m more your regular thirty-something woman you see pushing a cart at the grocery store. Sorry to destroy anyone’s illusion. Heh.

I have always had a great imagination and I’ve always enjoyed research of the bookish variety. These two things together are really where a lot of my kinky scenes come from. I research women’s sexual fantasies, the ones they don’t talk about out loud — bondage fantasies, menage a trois, female/female encounters, ect. I have an article I wrote about some of the most popular female fantasies. I should dig it out and post here sometime.

By the way…I can NEVER get any readers to talk about female/female encounters, but, (oddly enough, hmmm), it’s a top sexual fantasy for most women.

Anyway, first and foremost I define my characters. The plot grows from there. Though sometimes I’ll start out with a specific fantasy in mind — like menage a trois, or BDSM, or male/male.

So basically, my kink comes from everywhere — my sex life, books and research, and my imagination.

Great question, Rhian!