Anya Bast

Cross-posted to Between Fire and Ice

In an increasingly tight and tumultuous traditional publishing industry, self-publishing has become a viable and profitable option for writers. It’s a bright spot in an otherwise murky publishing future for many of us. And everyone knows who the heavy hitter is in the self-pub market—the Kindle.

I began self-publishing my backlist about a year ago and am writing a few original novellas as well. I’ve been surprised and pleased at the income I’ve been making from my self-pubbed works and wish to continue self-pubbing in the future. About 80% of my self-pub royalties come from, you guessed it, Amazon.

In my opinion, without the ability to publish works for the Kindle, self-publishing is a no-go. Not worth it.

Bottom line is, no matter what you may think of Amazon and their business practices, if you want to self-pub you must play ball with them.

So I was pretty upset when I logged into my Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account last week to find it terminated. After some investigating, I found a warning email in an account I hadn’t checked in over a week (I’d been out of town). It appeared that the Amazon bot had located a copy of one of my novellas online and had decided that perhaps I’d plagiarized someone else’s work. It was asking for proof I hadn’t.

Since I hadn’t received the email and hadn’t responded within five days (which was totally my fault, I know), they’d terminated my account.

As I looked into the matter further I became alarmed that I would never be able to publish anything for the Kindle again. If your KDP account is terminated, I was told, they almost never reinstate you. I also knew from their TOS that if my account was terminated I would never be allowed to have another. In short, if your account is terminated with Amazon, you’re prevented from ever again publishing anything for the Kindle. That’s it. Out of business. Black balled. Some 80% of your self-publishing income is gone, just like that.

I understand Amazon is trying to prevent plagiarism and I applaud them for it. However, the bots can’t reason out what they’re finding the way a human can and mistakes are made.

I KNEW I hadn’t violated anyone’s copyright. I’ve never plagiarized in my life, never “scraped” content from the internet. All my works are 100% mine. I own all the rights to them. So I knew the Amazon bot, which is just a computer program after all, had messed up. It had found something innocuous and confused it. Or, I thought, it had likely found a PIRATED copy of my work somewhere, perhaps on Scribed.

I spent an extremely frustrating day attempting to contact someone HUMAN who could help me. There is no customer service for KDP, no number to call, no human being to talk with. There are only the bots and email. So I sent off my email explaining what I thought had happened and felt sick for the rest of the day, thinking I’d never publish for the Kindle again….and therefore never self-publish again.

Luckily, once I reached an actual, live, human being, they could see the truth. Yes, indeed the bot had found pirated copies of the novella on Scribed and one other site like Scribed (that I didn’t even know existed).

Number 123,000 why pirates suck. I hadn’t violated anyone’s copyright—it was my copyright that had been violated.

My account was reinstated, but I lost at least a week and half of sales and I’m still having trouble getting everything re-listed in the Amazon search engine. To top it off, that one novella is STILL blocked because the bot (again) found something pirated, so I’m still not done dealing with this.

I didn’t write this blog to vent. I wrote it to illustrate something self-pub authors need to understand: Amazon has A LOT of power over us. The agreement we sign gives all the power to them. I was appalled at how quickly my self-publishing career had been eliminated—80% of my self-pub income gone, just like that.

Keep this in mind and be careful about relying purely on self-publishing income because it could be taken away very easily and very quickly…all by a bot that can’t properly interpret what it’s finding on the internet.

A dozen strong beliefs I hold:

1. I believe personal growth and development is won in the moments, in how you treat others and in the love that you show.

2. I believe it’s better to be able to bend once in a while, otherwise one day you will break.

3. I believe that being kind and having compassion are strengths, not weaknesses.

4. I believe it’s important to have tolerance for everyone, even those who are intolerant. (This one is very hard.)

5. I believe we create our own reality.

6. I believe we all change every single second. I am not the same person I was yesterday, or even two hours ago, not exactly.

7. I believe we are all ultimately responsible for our own happiness. No one else can provide this for us. We make choices about how to perceive ourselves and our lives.

8. I believe that some of the most hurtful and challenging people in my life have been my very best teachers. They have helped shaped me into the person I am.

9. I believe you can’t change the past and the future is made in the present. So it’s important to really be present.

10. I believe there is always something to learn.

11. I believe that while it’s fine to strive for “more,” it’s important to be content with what you currently have and not take it for granted.

12. I believe in keeping things simple.

Please take a few minutes to tell me something you strongly believe in the comment section.

Cross-posted from Between Fire and Ice.

We’re headed to the beach today. Oddly enough, it will be cooler there than it is at home. After suffering through many, many days of 100+ temperatures, a slightly cooler ocean breeze will be welcome.

The ocean, also, is a very cleansing place for me. Being near the ocean always makes me feel peaceful and raises my spirits. These days, I could really use that. So, even though my body really isn’t made for beaches (bring on the sunblock, SPF 200,000!!), just being near the sea will be a good thing for me.

While it will be nice to escape the heat a little, the temperatures haven’t managed to kill off my garden. Below is a picture of just a fraction of the veggies we’ve been able to harvest.

Eggplant, zucchini, green peppers, peas, green beans, tomatoes and potatoes. They’ve all been plentiful. I had enough here to make a dinner for 8 people, most everything harvested ourselves.

There’s something really satisfying about growing your own food. This year was a learning for me and I’ll do things much differently next year, but I think I’m officially addicted. Next I need to learn how to preserve things.

So, since I’m off to the beach, a place that heals me, I want to ask YOU. Do you have a location you go to that hits the “reset” button for you, chills you out, makes you peaceful, raises your spirits? If so, tell me in the comments. I’d love to know.

This morning I heard an author on NPR (don’t know who, sorry) say something to the effect that a writer should always put themselves in the place of their audience when writing. I got me to thinking (this is the part where you should run away and hide).

I do think of my audience when I’m writing, but it’s usually before I start a novel, when I’m the plotting/outlining stages. For example, I write paranormal romance. That means an HEA is a must or I will be strung up by my neck by my readers and left to die a slow, choking death. There also other considerations when crafting a story for the romance reader that I always take into account when plotting and planning. Sexual tension, placement of love scene, character development, ect…

But once I start writing, I’m really not thinking about y’all anymore. 😉 At least, not when I’m sitting there looking at my MS. When I write, I’m not in the head of my audience; I’m in the head of the POV character I’m writing at that moment.

Creative visualization is a must-have tool for a fiction writer. The ability to place yourself in the environment your character is in, to smell what they smell, see what they see, hear what they hear. The hardest thing about this is, of course, thinking the way they think because those characters are not you. They have different backgrounds, different ways of seeing the world, are driven to make decisions differently than you would. The mark of a skilled writer is getting the reader to believe the characters, but in order to do that (in my opinion) the writer has to be fully in the head of the character, not the reader, when they’re writing.

This is on my mind right now because I’m writing an especially tricky character. It’s easier when a character is sort of like me. I can name a few of my heroines to whom, were they real people, I’d probably relate pretty well. Then there are characters like, oh, Daria from The Chosen Sin, who are so different from me that they’re a real challenge to write. That’s okay, I like challenges. Prefer them, in fact. Makes the experience more interesting.

Sometimes people tell me that my writing is personal wish fulfillment. This is the comment non-writers make. My characters are not fulfilling wishes I have. They are entities unto themselves, living out their lives in my imagination. I see the world I’ve created from their perspective which is usually pretty different from my own.

So, you see, as much as I love you all and appreciate the absolute hell out of you and HOPE like a crazy person you like the end result, I am not thinking of you when I’m writing. Or of myself, for that matter. I’m only thinking of the fictional character on the page and trying to get them right.

There’s only three more weeks left of school. Summer approaches. It already feels like early July here some days, so it’s not exactly sneaking up on us this year.

I have my daughter in a swim class, trying desperately to get her to learn how to swim before the hot weather is upon us. She’ll be going to camp for most of the summer (where there will be swimming) and I want her to be confident in the water (and for me not to worry about her). Her favored activity is figure skating. The water thing is not so hot with her, but we’re getting through it.

We don’t really have any special plans for this summer. We did consider Disney, but I have a health thing happening and can’t set any concrete dates at this point. It would probably be unbearably hot anyway. Florida is like a steam bath on steroids in the summer. It’s probably better to go in the fall. So we’ll wait (impatiently).

I plan to do some fishing (yes, I love fishing), much sitting by the pool, and taking the occasional day trip somewhere. Other than that, we’re playing it fast and loose.

I don’t much like the heat, so summer isn’t my favorite time of the year. I actually like winter better (snow! hot chocolate! warm, comforting fires!). I know that goes against most people’s preferences, although once in a while I’m run into someone who also prefers winter and he or she will act like we’re long lost soul mates. 🙂 It’s just not a commonly held opinion.

So, how about you? Have any interesting plans for this summer? Do you like the heat or prefer the cooler weather?

The grand prize winner is Jennifer Wilson!

The winner of prize one is Diana Fryer!

The winner of prize two is Betty Lewis!

Please email me at anyabast(at)gmail.com within two weeks to collect your prize. Congrats!!

Embrace of the Damned releases today!

Order Print at Amazon | B&N | or your favorite bookstore.

Order eBook formats: Kindle | Nook

A damned Viking warrior.

Centuries ago Broder Calderson committed murder. As punishment, he was given over to the dominion of Loki, the Trickster God, made part of the Brotherhood of the Damned and condemned to an immortal life of battle against the Blight, blood-drinkers from Hel.

A mysterious woman he can’t resist.

One thousand years to the day he was damned, Loki allows him a woman as reward for his good service and repentance of his crimes. Once Broder sees Jessamine Hamilton, he is overcome with need. But Jessa is no ordinary woman, and the truth of who-and what-she is could have dangerous consequences.

A tormented man she can’t deny.

Though a future together is impossible, the warrior’s touch ignites an irresistible passion in Jessa. But every heated kiss pushes them closer to destruction. Forced to return to the brutality of his Viking past to protect her, will Broder surrender forever to his darkest impulses?

Review quote: “A tormented warrior and the woman who awakens his desires…. With vivid storytelling, [Bast] brings readers into the world of the Brotherhood of the Damned with its immortal warriors and blood-sucking demons. This novel grips you from the start.” — 4 stars, RT Book Reviews

Review quote: “Anya Bast has created a dark and thrilling world of demons and damned men. The romance is H.O.T. hot! Embrace of the Damned is completely engrossing; I didn’t want to put this book down.” Kristie ~ Dark Faerie Tales

CONTEST

Usually I do a big contest leading up to a new release, but my life has been way too crazy lately for me to pull that off. I’m running this shorter term contest instead. It’s really easy.

1.) Read the excerpt below and send the answer to the question BY EMAIL TO anyabastgiveaways(AT)yahoo.com. If you post the answer to the question here, I’ll delete the reply and you won’t be entered in the contest.

2.) For a second (third, fourth) chance to win the prizes, post this contest to Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or wherever and post the details here. You get a separate entry for each posting you do, so the more postings the better your chance of winning.

Grand prize ~ $100 GC to the book store of your choice

Prize two ~ Complete set of the Enchantment series, signed

Prize three ~ Complete set of the Elemental Witches series, signed.

~ Excerpt ~

Set up: Jessamine Hamilton has just escaped a demon attack in a parking garage, rescued by a leather clad man on a motorcycle. The problem is her rescuer seems more dangerous than the demon.

Just as she’d nearly reached the exit ramp, the rough sound of an engine reached her ears and a black motorcycle appeared in front of her car…and stopped, blocking her path.

Jessa slammed on the brakes, sliding on the pavement, hot rubber scenting the air and stopped the car a breath’s space from Biker Guy’s leg–he looked completely unworried.

Her breath shuddered out of her. She gripped the steering wheel and stared through the windshield at the man, taking stock. A chunk of her long hair had come free from her ponytail and lay over her face. It rose and fell with her panicked breaths.

He was tall and he was ripped. The roll of his muscles could be seen easily underneath his clothes. What was worse, and completely inappropriate, was how he made her respond–like a woman to a man. It was instant, primal and wholly unwelcome. This man made her whole body sit up and take notice.

Even so, he was definitely not someone she’d want to encounter in an empty parking garage late at night.

Biker Guy swung off the cycle, leaving the admittedly beautiful thing blocking her way, and stalked toward her, long worn leather coat trailing behind him like the wings of a fallen angel. He walked with anger set into his shoulders and with a hint of menace and easy arrogance in his swagger. That anger made his body seem like it would be hot to the touch, as if he identified so strongly with rage that it affected him physically.

She hoped his eyes didn’t bleed black. She’d have a heart attack and save everyone the trouble of having to kill her.

“You!” he bellowed through the window. She jumped at the commanding sound of his voice.

“I don’t know you,” she said in a shaky voice, glancing at him, then moving her gaze to fix on the cycle blocking her path. “Move your bike. I gotta go.”

“No.” He paused. “Roll down the window.” Absently, she noticed he spoke with an odd accent she couldn’t place.

Jessa took a deep breath and tried her mojo–funneling all of it she possibly could at the man. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, why she could do it, or, really how she was even able to do it, but if she concentrated hard enough, she could make people bend to her will. Sort of like a Jedi mind trick–this is not the woman you’re interested in. Move away from the vehicle.

The man lifted his brows. “Roll down the window,” he repeated, slower this time, as if she was an idiot.

Damn it! Why wasn’t it working?

When she remained still and unresponsive, completely freaked out and unmoving, he tapped the glass. With effort, she peeled her fingers off the steering wheel and rolled down her window a crack. She glanced up at him. God, he was beautiful. Sculpted, strong jaw, full lips that compelled a girl to want suck on them, deep, oddly expressive brown eyes. Despite all that physical yumminess, he didn’t look friendly. At all. He looked heartless.

“Uh, thanks…for your help. I appreciate it.” She looked at his motorcycle. “Really. I have to go now. Can you move that, please?”

“Why was he targeting you?” The man’s voice was deep and rough, like he didn’t use it very much–like honey and gravel.

“Who? That guy back there? Listen, I’m still processing all that, okay? I have no idea who or what he was, let alone what he wanted to do with me.” She set her jaw. Savior or not, gorgeous or not, this man was starting to piss her off. “Look, buddy, I’m all out of pepper spray, but I’m sitting in a car and I’m not afraid to use it.” She looked meaningfully at the shiny, expensive Harley blocking her path.

His gaze traveled over her, catching on the painful, damaged sections of her skin. “You need healing.”

“Yeah. I’ll go the hos–”

He reached out and pulled her car door off the hinges, then threw it aside like it weighed nothing.

“No. Just no.” Jessa shook her head and scrambled into the passenger side. “No, okay? No.” She opened the passenger side door and prepared to run.

But he was there, blocking her path. “You don’t understand. Where there is one of those things, there are more. You are in danger.”

The man radiated a palpable aura of menace as he loomed over her. She gave him an up and down sweep of her gaze. He still had ice in his hair. “Clearly.”

“You’re not in danger from me.”

“And my father was the Easter Bunny.”

He grabbed her wrist and she yelped. Right below her wrist was one of the light gray expanses of skin. The area had the imprint of Fanged Thing’s fingers on it, like she’d been marked with frostbite by his skin touching hers.

The man laid his hand over the injury and it warmed immediately. When he lifted his fingers, her skin was back to its regular peachy tan color.

Jessa took a step back, her eyes wide. “I didn’t just see that. I didn’t–”

He grabbed her other arm.

“Stop doing that!” By the time she’d uttered the sentence, her other arm was healed. Then he pressed his fingers onto the few places where Fanged Thing’s saliva had dripped on her.

“Anywhere else?” he growled at her.

She shook her head, blinking rapidly with nervousness.

“You’re healed.”

“Thank you.” She tried to step away, but he held her fast. “Uh, you can let me go now.”

He stared at her as though he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. Tipping his head to the side, he examined her with thorough interest. A strange, intense light had entered his eyes and she took a step backward.

There was something about this man that told her to back off–apart from the outward signs, the cycle, the leather, the scowl. There was something inside him that screamed danger, cross to the other side of the street no matter how heart-stoppingly gorgeous he was.

She had the urge to rip her arm away from him, but she stood her ground. He was so close to her that his breath stirred the fine hairs around her face. The heat of him rolled off and she absorbed it into her own skin. Despite the threat he emanated, her body started a slow, sexual burn. She tried to ignore it, push it away. Now was the not the time and this was definitely not the man.

And man, oh man. He was every inch a man.

The lines of his face were hard and cold, set in an almost cruel expression. This was a man who was both brutal and beautiful. But even though his expression was harsh, his brown eyes were filled with heat and emotion. It softened him.

As he stood staring at her, his eyes clouded, becoming distant, and a muscle worked in his jaw. As though he might be warring with himself over something. She’d never known brown eyes could look that hot. It made her whole body tighten with sexual awareness. Worse, his gaze probably mirrored her own.

Well, hell.

Then the man reached out, snagged her sweater with one big hand and pulled her flush up against his chest. His body heat rolled off him and enveloped her, making her heart rate speed up.

A huge, strong hand grasped the nape of her neck, the other hand going to the small of her back. She made a small noise in her throat, but it wasn’t of fear–not exactly… not totally. She should have been frightened, should have been fighting him, but there something inside her that thrilled at this man’s touch. She didn’t want to get away, even though that desire made no sense at all.

Pulling her head to the side, he exposed the column of her neck, then slowly lowered his mouth to it. His tongue flicked out, tasting her skin. Goose flesh erupted all over her body and a shiver traveled up her spine.

This was wrong. This was so, so very wrong. She knew that, so why was her body reacting this way to him? He was a forbidding stranger and–

He gently bit her throat, almost as if he wanted to mark her, and she moaned, closing her eyes.

She should have been worried that fangs would suddenly erupt in his mouth. She should have been having post traumatic mental explosions of blood and flesh tearing –of icy, frostbite-giving skin and freezing saliva. Yet all she could think of was bare skin, tangled limbs, a bed….

What kind of magick did this man possess?

Kissing her skin, he murmured words in a foreign language that sounded tender, almost like endearments. His hand traveled up to cup the back of her head, his fingers raking through her long hair. He made a noise in the recesses of his throat, his body tensing, as though holding himself back from tearing her clothes off her. She wasn’t sure she wanted him to resist his impulse.

Question: What’s wrong with Jessa’s skin and what does Broder do to it?

Remember to EMAIL the answer to me at anyabastgiveaways(at)Yahoo.com. Don’t post the answer here. The only thing you post here are the details about where you pimped out this contest in order to get additional entries. Thanks so much. 🙂

This contest is, as always, void where prohibited and you must be 18 years or older to enter.

THIS CONTEST WILL END ON TUESDAY, MAY 8TH. Good luck!!!

Cross-posted from Between Fire and Ice.

In one week, Embrace of the Damned will release. Broder Calderson has written a letter of introduction to you.

Dear Reader ~

My name is Broder Calderson and I was once a Viking. I have lived for over a thousand years, most of them under the sadistic control of Loki, the trickiest and cruelest of the Norse gods. Loki stabbed a sliver of demon through my soul in punishment for my sins. It is a dark part of me I must always keep under control. Loki imprisons me through the sliver, along with other men, as warriors in a fight to prevent Ragnarök, an apocalypse for the gods. We are the Brotherhood of the Damned.

It’s not like I didn’t deserve punishment for what I did. My damning was born on a bloody night when I became something other than myself, a berserker of old, cutting down all those in my path. For that crime, I deserved death. Instead I got the never ending torment of eternal life and enslavement.

My advice to you, never offend the Norse gods.

I thought my suffering couldn’t get worse, but then Loki decided to “reward” me. A thousand years to the day of my punishment, he unlocked my chains and allowed me a woman. Not just any woman. Jessamine Hamilton is the single most perfect creature to have ever walked the earth. With an attitude to rival any Viking female and curves sweet enough to make an immortal warrior cry, she’s the one person in centuries able to bring me to my knees and make me surrender to my darkest impulses.

With Jessa, I see a future for myself, the first one I’ve seen for a thousand years that’s worth living for. Before her, I only desired death. Yet our time is limited. Loki can yank on my chain whenever he chooses. For now I enjoy my time with Jessa, even though she drives me insane with lust. I try not to think about the time I’ll have to let her go. No thought could be more painful.

And it’s not just our limited time together that’s a concern. Loki never does anything that doesn’t cause chaos and Jessamine is no exception. She is much more than the human woman she appears to be. Her secrets run deep and the danger they cause run even deeper. I will be forced to return to my brutal Viking ways to protect her.

Sincerely, Broder

(cross-posted from Fire and Ice) ….and it’s that time of the year. Gardening time. As I sit writing this post, a man is out next to the house tilling up massive amounts of ground for me to plant things. I’m, erm, sort of being ambitious about my planting projects this year.

For years now I’ve been wanting to do a large, proper organic garden. I want to be able to grow food we can prepare and eat at our own table. We’ve recently moved and now I have all the planting space I need.

So…yeah, kind of ambitious. I’m planning to plant a row of raspberry plants, blackberry bushes, a strawberry patch, make a blueberry hedgerow, and grow a whole slew of vegetables. Oh, did I mention grapes, I’m going to grow those too.

And all of this will be done without pesticides or any chemicals that I, or my family, will have a chance of ingesting. I’ve done my research, but, honestly, I’m a new gardener with a limited amount of experience.

I know that in order to control for birds (berries, yo. Birds like berries) I’ll have to set up scarecrows. I also know that to control for bugs and weeds, I’ll have to lay straw beneath the plants and plant marigolds and garlic (repels bugs). The jury is out on the black weed-prevention material. People keep telling me it’s not worth it.

As usual, I didn’t wade in, I just threw myself headfirst into the deep end. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. (Hold me, I’m scared.)

Does anyone have any good advice for me? I need all of it I can get.