Anya Bast

Have you been left behind by the peeps who went to BEA, or, perhaps….the Rapture? Dude, it’s after 6pm and I don’t see any blood rain yet.

If you have been Left Behind, don’t despair! Instead join me, Susan Helene Gottfried and Denise Agnew at a chance to win some LEFT BEHIND LOOT!

“Sexy and dark, Jaded is the intriguing follow-up to Jeweled. Bast has created a trio of tortured survivors who find love and healing in this historical gem.” —RT BOOKreviews, four stars

Haunted by a traumatic attack when she was eighteen, Lilya Orensdaughter has become a courtesan in the Temple of Dreams, determined to never again lose control. But she will do anything for Byron Andropov, the man who nursed her back to health all those years ago—and who now wants her to help his friend Alek Chaikoveii come to terms with the powerful magick he possesses.

In Alek, Lilya finds a kindred spirit. The attraction between them is immediate, and soon Lilya surrenders to nights of unimaginable ecstasy. But she can’t forget Byron, who’s concealed his feelings for Lilya because he believed she would never love again. As tensions escalate between the two men who are vying for Lilya’s heart, Lilya finds herself torn between her desire for the man who saved her, and the man whose soul resembles her own—only to discover that in the world of unrestrained passion there are no boundaries. If only you’re willing to give up control…

For an advance copy of JADED (releases on June 7th), answer the follow question: Assuming some of us were Raptured today and it’s just us hard core sinners left on earth, whatcha gonna loot tomorrow?

This contest will run through midnight tomorrow night! Winner announced Monday morning. Don’t forget to enter Susan and Denise’s contests too!

Jaded releases in less than a month. I can’t believe it’s almost June!

Jaded is the sequel to Jeweled, which came out last November, and will end this short two-book series. Both books are menage a trois romances (M/F/M, in case you’re wondering). They are very hot and are both very romantic. There’s also a significant amount of worldbuilding in the books.

I am of the opinion that it is possible to write erotic stories that are both romantic AND are set in elaborate worlds. I think it IS possible to have it all. Honestly, I can’t write any other way because I get bored.

Jeweled and Jaded are set in a world flavored with the French Revolution with a dash of Russian Bolshevik uprising. Up until the beginning of Jeweled, only those with magick are privileged and wealthy. Those born into the lower classes who have so much as a breath of magick are whisked away from their families (willingly or not) and fostered at the royal palace.

If they pass a test of their magick at age eighteen, they are fitted with a precious jewel–in the small of the back for the women and the back of the neck for the men. Then they are considered “washed” of their low born status and fit for marriage into the royal family. This is, of course, simply a way to keep the royal family in control of the country.

Except the lower classes become fed up with this system that keeps them so impoverished. They rise up, storm the palace, and hunt down every member of the royal family and every one of the “Jeweled” they can find.

These books are historical fantasy, a setting you don’t see often in romance. The world has a Victorian feel, but, although certain technologies are beginning to be developed, I wouldn’t call these stories steampunk.

Jeweled features Evangeline, who hates her fall from grace. For her, adjustment from life as a celebrated “Jeweled” is very tough. The reader might not like her much at first, but stick with her, she changes and grows over the course of the novel.

Jaded has a much different type of heroine. Lilya is not magicked at all. She comes from a very rough background and has spent her life as a courtesan, one who is in charge of every aspect of her business–from the selection of her clients to what she does with them. All of that is turned on its head when two particular men enter her life and she is forced to confront her past and readjust her present. If she doesn’t, she’ll have no future.

I hope you all will enjoy Jaded. I’m getting very excited for its release!

So right now I’m building a world. (In my head I’m hearing Let’s build a word! Let’s built it! Let’s build it now! which you won’t understand unless you have a child who watches Word World on PBS Kids.) Ahem. Anyway, right now I’m building a world (and some words too).

This world is new for me, having wrapped up the end of my Dark Magick series with Midnight Enchantment (Jan, 2012). I’m now hard at work on the first book of my new series for Berkley. It’s based in large part on Nordic mythology and I’m breaking my brain (honestly, not the strongest organ of my body anyway) on a whole bunch of books about it.

I’m not creating a who’s who of Nordic myth, though. I’m using it as a foundation. I’m weaving in legend from many countries and then adding my own twist. My “twist” is pretty significant. I’m hoping that my world is much different than others of authors who have also used these traditions to build their worlds.

It will be. Because that’s the really cool thing about minds. They’re all different. We all interpret things differently, “read” texts differently, ect. We all have different filters through which we view our worlds that are created as a result of just about everything that’s happened to us since we were born (well, and our basic genetic makeup) It’s what gives every author her individual voice.

So I’m wrestling with some significant questions like, what kind of religion exists for these people I’ve created? How are laws made and enforced? What are the conflicts between the different types of supernaturals within this world? Lots of questions. So far I only have partial answers for some of them, but it’s amazing how more answers evolve as I write. If I sit there with the questions in front of me, trying to answer them like the essay section of an exam, I can’t do it. But if I put myself in the world, write from inside my character’s heads…it develops. That means a bit of rewriting, of course, but whatever is most effective, right?

Sometimes I wish I could rearrange my real world like that. Just a little rewrite over here…no more homophobia! Gone! Hit the delete key and make a little change over there…ethnic cleansing? *poof* Racism? Goodbye! Famine? Disappear! People putting melamine in baby formula? Never happened! You get the picture.

Aw, it would be nice anyway.