Anya Bast

I’ve been in my cave editing Witch Heart and finishing up Witch Fury this week. I have tons of work right now. It’s hard because it’s summer and a mild one at that. I want to be outside. So I’m getting up early and staying up late to work. That way the bulk of the day is mine to do with as I wish.

Today it’s beeeeeautiful, so I’ll probably spend a large of chunk of it outside with my daughter, who just got a new slide. She’s crazy about it. She calls it her Wheeeee! 😉 Tomorrow it’s going to be very hot, so I might take her to the pool. We have a pool in our backyard, but the public pool is graduated in depth, like a beach would be. So much easier for the little ones.

Soon I’ll be starting a novella that will introduce a new series I’ll be starting after the Elemental Witches series is finished. This novella will be included in an anthology to be released in October 2009. The other authors will be Angela Knight, Lora Leigh and Allyson James. Think I’m happy to be included in an anthology with such an absolutely fantastic group of writers? Er….trust me, I made the squee heard ’round the world when my agent called asking me if I wanted to be included. I don’t know the title yet or many of the details, but I’m sure more info will be coming soon.

A couple announcement/housekeeping type things:

I’m planning to draw a winner for my contest (see below) this evening, so if you’re going to enter, get your patoochie down there and do it. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

Also, did you know I’m on Facebook? I love Facebook, guys. I’m not so much an ardent fan of Myspace (but, BOY, I get a lot of personal notes from readers through MySpace). I’m not a monster promoter in general, and especially not on Facebook. I just hang and play with some of the applications. I won’t be trying to fling my books at you on there or anything. So, if you want to friend me, go ahead!

Okay, now for a monster promotion. Heh. Way to make a liar out of myself. Look for a really big month-long contest on this blog starting in early September. I’m still working out the details, but it’s going to work something like this — a chance to win free books every single day from some of the authors I love, (you should see my shopping cart on Amazon.com right now as I prepare). There will also be some rocking, HUGE, prizes at the end of the month (think awesome gift certificates) to coincide with the release of The Chosen Sin on October 7th. More details coming soon.

Lastly, check out DaneHart.com! Megan Hart and Lauren Dane have teamed up to blog together. I’m sure the results will be hilarious and entertaining.

Now I’m off to play in the sunshine!

So far I’ve really been enjoying the summer. I hope you have too. The weather has been mild, for the most part, yet warm enough for swimming and running through the sprinkler. This fills my daughter with lots of joy, joy that I get to partake in too. 🙂 My world is just about perfect when she’s laughing. When I’m not hanging with my daughter outside, I’m writing.

At the moment I’m working on Witch Fury, the last of the books in the Elemental Witch series. I’m angling toward the end of the book now, gearing up for the fireworks display that will bring the story of the Coven witches, the warlocks, and the daaeman to an end. It’s a bittersweet thing. I’m excited about my next project, yet it’s always hard to say goodbye to characters that you’ve spent years with. It’s hard to close up a world that’s lived in your mind, one that you’ve created and populated and that exists so vibrantly in your subconscious that you dream about it at night.

My next project is another series, this time one based on pre-Celtic myth. Before the year is out I plan to write a novella set in this new world and get a good start on the first full length novel of the series. Right now I’m reading and researching, taking notes and building my world. I’m reading some Yeats (apparently he believed in faeries. Who knew? Maybe you did, but I didn’t). I’m also finishing up Gods and Fighting Men, by Lady Gregory.

So, I’m closing up one world and opening another.

But before you see that new world, there will be two more Elemental Witch books released. In fact, here is the cover for Witch Heart, the third in the series. Pretty, huh? The cover artist is Tony Mauro. I think I’ll keep it. 😉

With the immense powers of an earth witch, Claire isn’t destined to be a demon’s handmaiden. Yet this has been her fate since she was six, when her warlock mother brought her to Eudae. Now at thirty-one, she’s about to discover her true power—and how far others are willing to go to take it away…

As part of a mission with the Coven, Adam Tyrell rescues Claire from her enslavement—and finds himself immediately taken with the beautiful witch. But this charming playboy soon learns that it’s easier to steal Claire from demons than win her heart, for her life as a servant has ravaged her spirit. But with Adam determined to protect her from the warlocks who want to harness her magick for evil, Claire’s resistance starts to give way—and they find themselves in the heat of danger, surrendering to the lure of their deepest desires…

Witch Heart will be out on January 6, 2009. It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon.com. This year is flying by so fast, it seems like the release date will be here in no time.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a contest over here, so let’s do one. One random poster will get her choice from my backlist. Pick a title from any publisher. One snag is that if you pick something from my EC backlist, it’ll have to be in ebook since I don’t have any extras of those titles in print right now. Comment on anything you want. About how you’re spending your summer, on the weather, on the prettiness of my new cover ;), on worldbuilding, what you’re reading right now. Anything you want, as long as it’s of substance. Blank posts or “I’m posting to enter” posts will be disqualified, (I get those sometime from the sweepstakes people and I call foul on that one).

Have a fabulous day, you all!! I plan to spend mine working on Witch Fury.

I’m running a blogwarming contest over on Maverick Authors until the first of the year. You can win books from Lauren Dane, Megan Hart and me. Go on over to the entry titled Blogwarming Contest and enter! It’s super easy. All you have to do is talk about books.

It’s early on Friday morning and I’m up having some coffee and worrying about my husband driving on icy country roads. My daughter’s occupational therapist will arrive in a couple hours and I need to clean my house! It’s a mess. See, right now, I have Book Brain. Like I wrote about in a previous blog post, it’s when the novel takes over and I can’t really think straight anymore. Cleaning? Bwahaha! Ain’t happening when I have Book Brain.

What’s good about having Book Brain right now is that I’m entering the middle section of Witch Heart. The middle is always the hardest part of the book for me to write. I have my strategies to get through it, and I usually revise the hell out of it before I write the end. But, still, the Dreaded Middle. Ugh. However, the pacing of this book is so that entering the middle isn’t that bad. So Book Brain right now is a very good thing. Hopefully it will carry me over the hump of the middle and start me down the slope toward the conclusion.

Last night I wrote about 2k on Witch Heart. That’s actually pretty good for me in one sitting. I also wrote 2k on a sooper seekrit story I don’t want to say anything about. So, 4k for the whole day. Not bad.

This morning I’m itching to get started on Witch Heart again. I have all kinds of things to write and I can’t wait. But, life, you know. She gets in the way.

No rain forever and now a flood. I tried to get my daughter off to her child care this morning, but we have washed out roads around my house. I get the day off! I’ll give you three guesses what I’m going to do with it. 😉

I didn’t blog about Sven this Sunday because we were trick or treating at the zoo. So, here’s my update, a little late and a little water logged.

7,015 / 90,000 (7.8%)

About 5k of that are words from last week. I also am revising The Darkest Kiss (yes, again) and I added just over 5k to that one. It makes for a total of 10,000 words toward my Sven goal.

10,000 / 70,000 (14.3%)

Are you sweating? If so, how are you doing?

The second round of Sweaty Seventy has started! Are you participating?

Or are you gearing up for NaNo?

I’m doing the SS because it gives me more time. I believe in quality over quantity. Some days I struggle all day long for 1,000 words, but those 1,000 words are exactly what I needed to write, where I needed to write them. They are worth more to me than 5,000 words that lead me in the wrong direction, you know?

Plus, SS conveniently starts at the time I’m beginning Witch Heart and runs just short of its deadline. So, SS it is.

How about you?