Anya Bast

Okay, okay, so this isn’t technically the first kiss scene of Witch Fury. I guess you’ll have to read the book for that one. ;-p This is more of a teaser scene that may (or may not) lead to the first kiss scene. Call the Snippet Saturday police on me. G’wan.

Excerpt from WITCH FURY (June 2, Berkley Sensation) © 2009 Anya Bast

She reached out and traced a long white scar running from his shoulder down over his pectorals. His flesh shivered under her touch and his breath caught almost too softly to hear. She flattened her palm against his warm flesh and savored the steady, strong beat of his heart thrumming under her hand.

“What you’ve done with these scars–you’ve made them magnificent. You’ve transformed them into something your own, art of your own. Taken your wounds and made something beautiful out of them.”

He caught her hand in his so fast it made her gasp. Theo stared down at her. “Don’t push me.” He stood and walked toward the hallway.

“Push you? What are you talking about?” She rose from the couch.

Theo turned and stalked toward her. “You know what I mean. I’m attracted to you and you know it. Don’t push me. This isn’t a game.”

“What?” Honestly, when she traced the scar on his chest the last thing she’d been thinking about was sex. She’d simply been moved by his experience and the marks he’d always wear to remind him. “Theo, I wasn’t trying to push you, but if I overstepped our boundaries. I’m sorry.”

“I can’t be around you without wanting you.” He turned away from her, once again walking toward the hallway. He meant to escape into his bedroom. Run away.

Sarafina followed him. “Theo, wait. We need to talk this through.”

Theo whirled and crowded her against the wall of the hallway.

Her breath left her in a rush of surprise and a spike of fear. She had to quickly remind herself that she trusted Theo and he meant her no harm.

His arms pinned her on either side of her body and his head dipped, his warm breath teasing the fine hair at the edges of her face. “The last thing I want to do with you is talk, Sarafina.”

Her stomach muscles tightened and her breath caught. “I didn’t know you were attracted to me,” she whispered. “You gave me no reason to think so.”

“I’m giving you reason now.” His voice was low and melodic in a raw, masculine way. He spoke right next to her ear, sending shivers through her body.

Her breathing hitched. Yes, yes he was giving her a reason now, ample. So much it was making her head spin.

His hand dropped an inch, toyed with the button of her jeans. “And if I can’t make myself walk away right now, I’ll give you even more reason.”

Want to read more snippets? Here’s a list of all of today’s participating authors. Enjoy!

Lauren Dane
Cynthia Eden
Vivi Anna
Sylvia Day
Moira Rogers
Mandy Roth
Viv Arend
Beth Williamson
Elisabeth Naughton
Michelle Pillow
Jaci Burton
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Victoria Janssen
Shelli Stevens
Maggie Robinson
Juliana Stone
Sasha White
Maura Anderson
Shelley Munro
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Kelly Maher

Oh, and, hey, you all, join me at Writerspace tomorrow at 9pm ET for a chat about Witch Fury. I’d love to see you there and I’ll be giving away a prize of some kind.

Anya Bast’s CRUEL ENCHANTMENT, continuing the author’s upcoming Dark Magic series, in which to free her kind from imprisonment in a charmed prison city, a Fae former assassin must enlist the help of The Blacksmith, a man who has been waiting years to enact his deadly revenge on her, to Cindy Hwang at Berkley Sensation, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

From Publisher’s Marketplace.

Yay and the Dark Magick series shall roll on!

I will be chatting at Writerspace three times in the few weeks:

Individual author chat during which I’ll talk about Witch Fury and anything else you’d care to discuss: Sunday, May 31st at 9 PM ET

Berkley Jove Author chat during which I’ll be chatting with many other awesome Berkley Jove authors: Thursday, June 11th at 9 PM ET

After Midnight Authors chat during which I’ll be chatting with many other awesome After Midnight Authors: Monday, June 22nd at 9 PM ET

I’ll be offering prizes at each, I’m sure, because that’s just how I roll. Hope to see you there!

This is cross-posted from the Bradford Bunch blog. I meant to post this yesterday but life kicked my butt instead.

It’s now ONE week until the release of Witch Fury and I am still amazingly calm about the whole thing. It’s a much nicer change from the anxiety-fests of my earlier mass market releases. I’m actually enjoying this one and that’s a good thing, right? The best thing, in my book. Don’t get me wrong, writing is my job and it is work. I take time out from doing things I want to do all the time in order to get my word counts in. I sacrifice. I toil. I constantly miss movies at night with my husband to get in quiet time to work on my WIP. Sometimes the words come out hard and I have to yank them. Sometimes they come out easy. But it’s always work.

Work that I love. Work that I want to continue to love. Book release anxiety diminishes the joy I take in my writing, and therefore it’s my job to diminish the anxiety. It’s a virus infecting my contentment, but I think I finally found the cure. Whew. It took a couple years.

But as I sit here at my laptop on Monday night, my husband and child asleep in bed and my cats lounging around me, I’m very content with my job. I’m so blessed that I’ve been able to take something I love to do and turn it into a career. I wish everyone could do that.

Right now I’m getting ready to turn my attention to JEWELED, an historical fantasy menage a trois romance that will release from Berkley Heat. This is a very, very hot book. It’s also extremely emotional, probably one of the most emotional stories I’ve written. My voice does come in a range of flavors. I’m very comfortable (probably the most comfortable) writing action-packed paranormal romance that tickles the line of urban fantasy. But I like to branch off into other subgenres once in a while too. I like to challenge myself in my writing and tackle plots that are a little bit out of my normal comfort zone. JEWELED is one example of that.

I DO love my job. 🙂 And I’m happy to be able to say that with an honest and open heart a week before a mass market release…right before the craziness starts (good craziness, but craziness nonetheless).

I do hope you all love Witch Fury as much I loved writing it. I wrote a free short story that further ties up the tale of one of secondary characters, btw. I’ll try to have it up on my site the week of the release, though I wouldn’t recommend reading it before you finish the series.

Have a fantastic day, all! I’m having my hair done and will spend the rest of the day working. Luckily, working on something I love. I wish that same thing for all of you.

The winner of Yasmine’s Seething Summer Gift Bag is Cathy Wellman! Congrats, Cathy! Yasmine will be contacting you for your information.

Thanks for reading and responding to our blog exchange. As always, it was a blast!

This is a blog exchange I’m doing with the fabulous Yasmine Galenorn. Essentially, we interviewed each other. Here you will find Yasmine’s answers to the questions here on my blog and you’ll my answers over on her blog. I’m offering a prize of a goodie grab bag. Yasmine is also offering a Seething Summer Gift Bag (sounds good!), so make sure you leave a comment on both our blogs! Yasmine’s blog is here.

Join two of Berkley’s most magical authors as they interview each other about their upcoming releases. Yasmine Galenorn’s Demon Mistress and Anya
Bast’s Witch Fury will be coming out on June 2, 2009–just in time for the each Reads Season. Get your copies when they come hot off the press, to
turn up the heat with the Girls of Summer!

Demon Mistress
by Yasmine Galenorn
Berkley (Mass Market); June 2, 2009
Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9780425228647

We’re the D’Artigo Sisters: Half-human, half-Faerie, we’re savvy–and
sexy–operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But our mixed-blood
heritage short-circuits our talents at all the wrong times. My sister
Camille is a wicked-good witch whose magic is as unpredictable as the
weather. My sister Delilah transforms into a tabby cat at the worst possible
times. And me? I’m Menolly, acrobat-extraordinaire-turned-vampire. And if
the nerds from hell don’t get their act together, I’m going to turn their
toga party into a bloodbath…

Life’s getting stranger by the minute. First, Iris and I unearth a diary
from one of the bartenders at the Wayfarer who disappeared under mysterious
circumstances. And when I discover a ghoul in the woods near our home, we
know there has to be a necromancer nearby–another sign that something’s
wrong. But the blood really hits the fang when we discover a secret society
bent on winning Shadow Wing’s favor. Now it’s up to us to stop the chaos
they’ve unleashed on the city, and to prevent the demon they summoned from
devouring Delilah’s soul…

Anya: How did the original seed of the idea for your series implant itself
in your mind?

Yasmine: Actually, I have no idea where the original idea for the Sisters’
world came to mind. I think it was the culmination of years of playing with
fun ideas, of watching shows like Buffy and Charlie’s Angels and InuYasha
and movies like Hellboy and Labyrinth, and all those lovely action flicks.
One night, I was sitting in the living room watching TV when the three
D’Artigo girls jumped through the window (it was a surreal vision, okay?)
and introduced themselves to me and said, “You must write about us.” And
that’s how it started. ~smiles~

Anya: Do you listen to music when you write? Why or why not? What are some
of the songs off your current playlist?

Yasmine: 65-70% of the time, yes, I do now. I never used to but it’s become
integral to the worlds I write over the past few years-ever since I started
the Otherworld Series. Current playlist is for Night Myst-the new urban
fantasy series I’m working on (contrary to rumor, it’s not YA). A few of
the songs on it I play over and over are: Half Light (from the Mothman
Prophecies soundtrack), Rolling Under (same), a lot of Gary Numan (Dead
Heaven, The Angel Wars, Dreamkillers, My Breathing, Praying to the Aliens,
Before You Hate It, and more), Social Enemies (Orgy), Ladies and Gentleman
(Saliva), Remedy (Seether), Psycho (Puddle of Mudd). You can see the entire
playlist for each book on my website.

Anya: I know you have many cats like I do. Do they “help” you write? 😉

Yasmine: Oh yes, especially the kittens. Calypso and Brighid (both ten
months now) love to help Mommy with the keyboard and the monitor and the
printer and ten-key adding machine. Meerclar just supervises. ~laughs~ I
sure miss my Tara-my office kitty, and they help fill the void she left
along with her sisters Keeter and Luna (we lost three seniors in the past
year).

Anya: What do you think makes this book stand out from the previous ones in
the series?

Yasmine: In Demon Mistress (book 6) the monsters may be demons, but some of
them are also closer to home in a bad, bad way. And Menolly, having faced
Dredge–her own personal demon in Darkling (book 3) is back and more bad-ass
than ever, but without the perpetual chip on her shoulder that her sire left
her with. She’s able to laugh more here, and able to start thinking-even
just a little-about the future. Camille and Delilah face their own changes
in the book too, settling in to the state of affairs that both Dragon Wytch
and Night Huntress left them with. Demon Mistress is, ultimately, about bad
guys who may look like the boy next door, and good guys who might look like
a crazed hobo, and everybody in-between.

Anya: If you could hit the sheets with any one of your characters, who would
it be and why?

Yasmine: Oh mama, what a tough choice. I do adore most of my leading
men-Smoky with that hair of his would probably win out, though Morio,
Trillian, Rozurial, and even Vanzir wouldn’t be far behind. Any one or all
of the above would be fine-the more the merrier when we’re talking fantasy
and hot summer knights.

Anya: How do you think your character has grown/evolved over the past few
books?

Yasmine: Menolly has come into her own. She can never forget the past, but
she’s managed to get a grip on it-and therefore-herself. She’s learning how
far she can be pushed, just what she’s willing to compromise on, and how-in
a world that’s gone so far wrong-to let a part of herself actually be
vulnerable to the heart of another. Since each book rotates through the
different viewpoints of the three sisters, Demon Mistress ties up another
cycle, but not the series by any means, in the ongoing battle of the
D’Artigo girls against the demons-and demons come in so many forms.

USA Today bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy for
Berkley: both the bestselling Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon Series for
Berkley and the upcoming Indigo Court urban fantasy series. In the past,
she wrote mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and nonfiction metaphysical
books. Her books have hit the New York Times and USA Today extended
bestseller lists numerous times.

Yasmine has been in the Craft for over 28 years, is a shamanic witch, and
describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos. She lives in Bellevue
WA with her husband Samwise and their cats.

Yasmine can be reached via her website at, and via MySpace. She is also the co-founder of the Witchy Chicks blog.

Welcome to Snippet Saturday.

The theme for today was “heroine’s defining moment”. I realized after I signed up to participate in this theme that most of my heroine’s defining moments come at the end of my novels and those are snippets I don’t like to share (too spoilery).

This snippet is a “defining” moment of sorts. It’s actually one of two rather large inciting incidents for Sarafina of Witch Fury (June 2, 2009, Berkley Sensation). It’s a point in the novel where her world turns on end and everything she’s known all her life changes.

Enjoy!

Excerpt from Witch Fury, by Anya Bast © 2009

The door burst inward, ripped from the hinges at the same time the uncontrolled blast of fire hit it. Sarafina screamed in surprise, stepped backward, tripped and fell on her ass.

For a hazy, confused moment she thought her magick had exploded the door. Then she focused past the smoke and saw the dark outline of a man–tall, muscular build, long dark hair, grim expression on his face.

The man glanced at her for the barest of moments. His long hair blew around his face from the force of the magickical battle behind him. His eyes were hard and dark. In his brutal expression lay control and power. Knowledge–deep and wide. Sarafina noticed all that about him in a second and it took her breath away.

What new nightmare was this man?

The newcomer turned and deflected an aggressive attack from Stefan. The room exploded into chaos. Two men barreled through the door after the intruder. Instead of using magick to defend himself, he punched one in the face, grabbed him by his shirt front and threw him into the second. Then he whirled to once again face Stefan.

The scent of white hot fire and dark, rich earth filled her nose as furniture slid across the floor and slammed into the walls. The floor itself rippled. It was like a battle of supernatural titans.

Sarafina clutched Grosset to her chest and crawled behind an overturned table, holding her trembling dog close and wishing like hell this was all some really strange dream fueled by her grief. Any second now she’d wake up and shake her head over it, tell herself she’d never eat cold enchiladas before bed again.

But this was no dream.

Shouting, cursing. Explosions. Fire crackling. Growing hotter and nearer until thick bursts of earth extinguished the flare-ups.

Silence.

Footsteps pounded through the rest of the house. Shouting in the distance. In the room where Sarafina and Grosset hid behind the overturned table there was no sound. Nothing.

Maybe the intruders–whoever they were–had forgotten about her. Maybe the hulking man in the doorway had gone away. Maybe this was her chance to get out of here.

Moving slowly, she peeked around the edge of the table and saw only a smoldering fire in a trashcan over in the corner of the room. Smoke wafted through the air. She inched out a little more, straining to hear any other sounds from inside the house. She didn’t know who the party crashers were and wanted to avoid them. With her luck they were worse than Stefan and his ilk.

Movement. The swirl of a long black duster.

The man was still there. Peeking out, she watched him circle the room, languid, lethal. His muscular body seemed tense with the desire to kill something, didn’t really matter what. The man turned toward her and she ducked back behind the table and closed her eyes, praying he’d pass her by.

“Warlock.”

A hand grasped her collar and lifted her straight up. Sarafina screamed and Grosset exploded in a flurry of Pomeranian rage. He snapped and growled at the man who’d trapped her in his big, sweaty, meaty hands–hands big enough to snap her neck in two seconds flat, she noted with unease.

“Tell your dog to chill.” The words came out gravelly, like they were forced from an infrequently used set of vocal cords. His grim expression grew even darker–his eyebrows coming together in the middle and the lines around his mouth deepening.

If she’d met this man on the street, she’d turn and walk the other way out of sheer instinct for self-preservation.

And she was currently caught in his powerful hands.

Lauren Dane
Cynthia Eden
Vivi Anna
SJ Day
Moira Rogers
Leah Braemel
Mandy Roth
Viv Arend
Juliana Stone
Savannah Foley
Beth Williamson
Elisabeth Naughton
Michelle Pillow
Jaci Burton
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries

I’m finally feeling better after a week of the plague. Since the weather’s been nice and we’ve been cooped up inside, I’m taking my daughter to the zoo for a while today.

Don’t forget to check tomorrow for the first round of Snippet Saturday, and then on Monday for my blog exchange with Yasmine Galenorn.

Now I’m off to commune with the lions, tigers and bears. Have a great day, all!

…until Witch Fury releases and I’m still totally calm. This is not a normal emotional state for me right before a release, but I like it. I really do.

My daughter goes to day care one day a week. Mostly it’s so she can run around and play with other little kids her age, but I admit the day off once a week for me is pretty nice too. The thing is, day care is like germ lollapalooza, and she’s been bringing stuff home to me and my husband. I have been sick literally every other week for the last three months.

This is of the suck.

However, as I am told by mothers wiser than I am and many doctors, too, that this has an upside. My daughter is building up her immune system (I guess I’m building up mine too, huh? Or maybe I’m too old for that now. *g*) and this will make her transition to school easier. If we didn’t go through this period of germ exposure now, she’d be doing it later–in pre-school or, worse, in Kindergarten, when it would be detrimental for her to miss school. And, so, we soldier through the germ fest that is day care. I’m just getting over a bug now that my daughter was down with all last week. My husband has it now. I have a martial death rattle in my chest right now. It’s so very attractive.

Anyway, I actually wasn’t posting to whine about germs, although I could do that for a while. I wanted to let you know that the amazing Yasmine Galenorn and I will be doing another blog exchange–like the one we did when Witch Heart released–on Monday, May 25th. We interviewed each other and will have our respective answers up on our blog that day. We’re both also going to be holding contests. So stop by and check it out.

Also, if you’re in Minnesota, I’ll be signing Witch Fury at Uncle Hugo’s bookstore on June 6th 1-2pm. Mary Janice-Davidson will also be there signing Undead and Unwelcome. So stop on by if you’re in the area. I would love to meet you. I don’t get up to Minnesota very often.

So I mentioned last week that I’ve been waiting a long time to dedicate a book to a certain person. Witch Fury is dedicated to him. His name was Pete and he worked in a small bookstore with me when I was college. He was an older man, retired, looking for a way to spend his twilight years without getting bored. He had Parkinson’s and his hands shook. He had skin cancer, too, and would wear band aids over his nose sometimes when he had tissue removed, but always made light of it. He was married and had a large, happy family with sons who came into the store and visited him frequently. He loved to read.

Pete and I struck up a close friendship, though we were an unlikely pair. I was a psychology and English major in college and worked the bookstore on nights and weekends. I hadn’t written my first book yet, but that would come soon. At this point I was writing more literary fare, being influenced by the writing courses I was taking for my degree. I loved writing poetry the most and took several poetry writing classes. Pete also loved to write poetry.

It wasn’t long before we were exchanging bits of our work with each other and giving each other feedback. Pete was maybe my first crit partner. At first the exchange was tentative and shy, both us a little wary of sharing our work with another person. But trust soon grew and we traded something back and forth almost every day. Pete’s writing voice was wry and happy, poking fun at the world and the people in it. Mine was on the dark and angsty side and my writing could be intensely personal sometimes. Through our writing, we got to know each other very well.

Then Pete’s personality started to change. He’d always been a relaxed, laid-back, happy guy, always ready with a smile or a compliment. But now his emotions was swinging wildly. Sometimes he would break down in tears in the back room or fly into a rage over nothing. It was terrifying to watch. The close-knit crew of the bookstore wondered where our Pete had gone.

Soon, we all knew why he was acting so strangely. Pete had a brain tumor wrapped around his brain stem and it was slowly killing him. It was advanced and affecting his emotions in ways he couldn’t control. They would do emergency surgery, but the chances weren’t good he would make it through the complicated procedure. Pete had become sort of like a father to me and I was in denial. I thought for sure he’d be okay. There was no way he could die. But he did. He died on the operating table.

It wasn’t the first time in my life I’d suffered the loss of someone close to me. It wasn’t the second or third or fourth time, even. However Pete’s death affected more than any of the rest. I really can’t say why for sure. He wasn’t a relative of mine. I hadn’t even known him long. He was just a man I worked with and exchanged my writing with. But maybe that sharing of my writing–such an intimate part of me at that time in my life–was why his death impacted me so much. I look back on Pete now with a lot of fondness and I still miss him. He was an amazing and exceptional person and the world was better off with him in it.

So, that’s the story behind the dedication of Witch Fury.