Anya Bast

I have a Writerspace chat scheduled for Wednesday 4/30 at 9pm ET. Lauren Dane will be there and maybe Jodi Lynn Copeland too! I hope to see you there. It should be fun.

If you haven’t entered the contest for the copy of Vegas, scroll down and enter. I’ll be choosing a winner by random drawing very soon.

Why am I displaying my bad reviews from Amazon.com in this blog? Well, it started over here where John Scalzi posts snippets of his one star reviews from Amazon, then issues a challenge to other authors to do the same. Rachel Caine took it up. See? So, I thought, HEY!, all the cool kids are doing it and it’s not like I don’t have some one star reviews to choose from. Heh.

Bad reviews are part of the writing life. It’s not like I expect everyone who picks up my books to like them. People come to their reading with different perspectives, different life experiences. All that stuff colors their reading of the book. Reviews are opinions, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone is entitled to theirs.

I’m very self-critical, (I’m MUCH harder on myself than anyone else is), so if a negative review is well thought out I almost always find a place to agree with the reviewer. I try to learn from those particular negative reviews and make my next book free of the errors the reviewer has said I’ve made. (However, being human, I probably just make different errors.) A good review will make me smile broadly for two hours. A bad review will make me depressed for two days, but I try to use them as a learning tool.

In the end, bad reviews make the good ones all the sweeter. And luckily I have far more good reviews than bad.

So, with no further ado, here are some of my all time greatest hits from Amazon.com. I didn’t have a whole lot of one star reviews, so I took the two stars too.

Witch Fire

One star — “Not romance, not erotica, basically porn – what little plot there is exists to connect the sex scenes, note I didn’t say love making scenes. Altogether distasteful and I won’t waste money on this author again.”

Two star — “The writing was rather…Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring.”

Two star — “I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down.”

And Lady Makes Three

One star: “I was gullible enough to follow an Amazon recommendation on this one; it turned out to be on of my biggest mistakes. I wish I could give less than a star.”

Blood of the Raven

Two stars — “I would have given this book a 1 except it did have a plot. I like my books a little “steamy” but this is a little hard core for me.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Summer and Autumn

Two stars — “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Winter & Spring

One Star — Style hasn’t improved from the first in the series. “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Anya says — same reviewer as the one above it, obviously. She read the books in the wrong order.

I own these bad reviews. I revel in them. If I could I would turn them into sudsy soap bubbles and take a bath in them. (Er? Did I just say that out loud?) Point is they are part of the glorious trip of being a writer. If you can’t suck it up and accept your bad reviews as part of your journey, then you should get out of this business.

Okay, I’m challenging authors too. Bring out the baddies! Let your Bad Flag fly! I want to see all your one/two star reviews. Own them, babies. Embrace the failure and make it yours.

…just because her friends did.

The other two Mavericks have been doing video blogs and I decided to try my hand at it too. Next time I’ll make sure I’m not sick, there’s less negative space above my head, and the lighting and acoustics are better. For now, here you go, my first attempt. I talk (a little) about RT and pimp two of my new releases.

Contests! I have one going on here at my blog, just scroll down for details. The Good, the Bad and the Unread is also running a contest for an autographed copy and they have excerpts up of The Deal (my story) and Stripped, by Lauren Dane.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaua-2LEBwI]

What Happens in Vegas is now shipping from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. I don’t think it will likely start showing up on the shelves until May 1st, but if you’re itching for your copy you can get one now.

Yay!

I’m so excited about this anthology. Be warned, it’s very, very hot!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

First off, I have a new author photo. This picture was not taken at RT, but right before RT by the fabulous Scott Church who resides in PA.

RT was fabulous as usual with the possible exception of the sinus infection I contracted two days in which kept me from attending one of the parties and staying late at the others. Aside from sickness, it was great to see old friends and to make new. I had the privilege of meeting Vivi Anna and the wonderful Sasha White for the first time, among others.

I’m totally freaking exhausted, to tell you the truth.

Here! Have some pictures…. (many, many)

The Ellora’s Cave fantasy party. Look at all the people!

Crossing the stage with a lovely man on my arm. I love this picture mostly because we both ended up with freaky white zombie eyes.

What’s even better than crossing a stage in front of lots of people? Getting OFF the stage. (Well, for me, anyway)

Me and Laura Bradford, my most awesome agent.

At the party hosted by me, Lauren Dane, Ann Aguirre, Megan Hart and Cynthia Eden.

Helllo! Come on in!

Karoke. Photo includes me, Jennifer Dunne, Lauren Dane, Ann Aguirre and Megan Hart.

Megan Hart, me, and Lauren Dane at Club RT.

Lauren Dane, me, and my husband (looking like Sexy Secret Agent Man)

The booksigning on Saturday. Oh, what is that I see? Could that be a poster of Witch Blood? Yes, it is! And here’s where I must praise my most awesome husband for schlepping, handling, managing and being an all around great guy. I don’t know what I would do without him. He took most of these pictures, in fact.

I sold out at the booksigning, by the way! I was out of books a scant half hour in.

At the booksigning. It was packed, as you can see.

Megan Hart signing books.

Patrice Michelle doing the same.

The lovely Lauren Dane talking with a reader.

Next year, Orlando! Good thing it’s a year away. I need time to recover.

Okay, hold on…I’ve got lots to say.

It’s almost RT time!! Because of RT and because I’m soon to have house guests, I’ve been madly preparing…and not blogging. Maybe you have noticed the not-blogging part. I apologize, if so. Will you be RT? Say hi, okay? I’m super friendly, so don’t be shy. I will have my camera with me at RT and will try to blog from there. Sometimes I can manage this, sometimes not. I’ll certainly try, though!

Live in PA? I’ll be participating in a booksigning with Megan Hart and Lauren Dane on Monday April 14 from 6 – 8 pm at the Borders/Waldenbooks at the Lebanon Valley Mall in Lebanon Pennsylvania. I hope to see you there!

Witch Blood received a Top Pick review from Romance Reader at Heart!

Shannon says in part, “I love WITCH BLOOD! With its fantastic characters, complex plot and super hot scenes, this is most certainly a slam dunk Top Pick. Great writing, sci-fi scenery, witchery, crazed demons and so much more, WITCH BLOOD is a read that I cannot stop thinking about. I enjoyed every minute of it…. WITCH BLOOD is a read you do NOT want to miss.”

Thank you, Shannon!

~*~

A New Release…..

Magical Seduction, an anthology with stories from Mandy Roth, Cathryn Fox and me is now shipping from online retailers. It should be stocked on your local bookshelves next week. I admire these authors so much and I’m totally thrilled to be in this anthology with them both!