Anya Bast

All right…who wants to win a $100 GC to Amazon.com? Of course you do! It’s very simple to enter. I’m going to ask three questions and you answer one of them in the comments on my blog. Check back on October 15th to see who won (the winner will have five days to contact me and collect his or her prize). Good Luck!*

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1.) If you were going to write a book, what would you call it and what would it be about?

2.) What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done?

3.) What accomplishment are you most proud of?

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Capturing Caroline is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com and will release on October 10th. It will release from other ebook retailers on the 10th or shortly thereafter.

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Grief-stricken by the strange disappearance of her two sisters, Caroline Gannett tries to go on with life…until one day she mysteriously vanishes from the world too.

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*Void where prohibited. (Some assembly required. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Batteries not included. If rash, irritation, redness, or swelling develops, see your physician. Ect… Ect…)

I’ve been pretty much absent from the usual cyber places lately—Twitter, Facebook, my blog, ect. It’s funny to think of the Internet as a “place,” but it kind of is. I disappeared when I was fighting breast cancer and just sort of never came back (I’m totally fine. Reconstruction at the end of September!).

I mostly took the summer off. My daughter only did a couple days of camp a week. The rest of the time was summer figure skating training, so I was heavily involved with her stuff. Also, I just needed some time off. I needed to relax with coffee in the mornings, spend time in my garden, meet up with friends. That sort of thing. I needed no stress, no deadlines, no “shoulds,” no “oughts,” and no word count goals. I needed to let writing go so I could find it again.

Writers need to be careful not to turn the thing they love into something they resent. I never want writing to feel like my old cubicle job. If it feels like that, I’ll quit. And there’s nothing like cancer to put life into perspective for you.

But I haven’t quit writing, and I have found my love of it renewed. I’m back to word count goals now…and I want them. I’m well into the third novella in the Mates of the Lycaon series and I’m really enjoying the world and characters.

Other than ferrying my daughter to the ice rink and back, the summer was filled with raising Monarch butterflies (give me a few minutes and I’ll bore you to tears about their decreased numbers due to pesticides killing off all the milkweed….), my organic garden, and chicken raising.

Chicken raising! OMG, what was I thinking? Well, I know what I was thinking—we have the space, I have the time….free range eggs!!! They’re a lot of work, though, those free range eggs.

Right now I have three bunches of chickens. The first bunch is three young pullets that just started laying (first pic is of Juliette, Claudia and Priscilla).

The second bunch is made up of nine week old Rhode Island Reds (second pic). Unfortunately, they are mostly turning out to be roosters. (If a farmer ever tells you he can sex a week old chick by looking at their wings, run away.)

The third group is only two weeks old and will be in the brooder for awhile (third pic…cute, right?). Eventually I’ll get all the groups grown up and integrated, though most of the roosters are going to have to go.

So it has been awhile since I last updated about my cancer journey. I hope, for the most part, it’s over.

I got the happy news that I will not be needing chemo. They analyzed the tumors using a test called the Oncotype DX, which determined that, as long as I take a drug which blocks estrogen in my body, the chances of the cancer returning is only about 8%. In my case, chemo would have no effect and would not lessen that 8% any further, so there’s no reason to undergo it.

I’m only 39 and I’ll be going into menopause because of this drug, but, hey, I also get to live. I call that a win.

Also, I had a test checking for a genetic component. If I had tested positive, I would have lost a couple more body parts. Thankfully, I tested negative. So, no more surgeries and no chemo. All I need to do is take a pill every day.

For my own part, I’m also juicing twice a day. Fruit in the morning, vegetables in the afternoon. Always organic everything. I have changed my diet to about 80% fruits and vegetables, total, juiced and solid. I consume zero processed foods. I’m eating less meat and drinking no alcohol. I’m exercising every day. Cosmetics, lotions, shampoos, ect all remain natural and as chemical free as possible.

I still have no clue where this cancer came from, and I’m going to do all I can to make sure it never visits my body again.

Today I’m going back to writing. I have about 5k emails in my inbox asking about a sequel to Pursuing Paige. I’m working on it!!! I’ll be wading through emails today, so, if you wrote, please expect a reply soon. 🙂

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I started off writing erotic PNR for Ellora’s Cave. That was more years ago than I would like to think about. So long that I’m now beginning to get the rights back to all those novellas I published way back when.

I’ve been taking them one by one and updating them. Changing language I used back then, but wouldn’t use now, changing scenes here and there. After that I’m having new covers commissioned and releasing them as self-published ebooks for the Kindle, Nook, and on Smashwords.

It’s been interesting revisiting my older works on a number of different levels. I thought I would find the writing shakier, since I’d just been starting out and we all grow and develop as writers over time. While I have changed and updated certain things in these novellas, the writing was much stronger than I’d imagined.

The Embraced series has four novellas total. They follow the stories of four vampires. The first book, Blood of the Rose is set in the 1800s. The next two, Blood of the Raven and Blood of an Angel are contemporary. The final novella, Blood of the Damned, is futuristic. They all feature common secondary characters. You can do that with vampires since they’re immortal. Love it. 😉

I’m excited to give new life to this series and also excited to be dipping my toes into the world of self-publishing.

Another title I’m re-releasing is Ordinary Charm. This novella remains one of my personal favorites because not only does it feature a witch as a heroine, Serena has a few more curves than you see in your average romance novel heroine.

The hero is pretty interesting too, since he’s the physical vessel for a pagan god called Cernunnos.

Gotta love that, right?

I like the cover, too. Pretty eye-catching and straight to the point, don’t you think?.
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I hope everyone had a nice holiday. My daughter was off for five straight days, so I didn’t do much writing. She’s five and it’s possible to get work done with her around, but I wanted to spend some quality time with my girl, so I took the time off.

We saw Arthur Christmas in 3d (super cute, btw), had Thanksgiving at my aunt’s house (first time in eight years I didn’t host/cook…and it was SUBLIME), baked snickerdoodle cookies (our fav), and took her ice skating for the first time.

Growing up in Minnesota, back before global warming caused temps there to grow milder, my life was filled with ice and snow. I was on my high school figure skating team and can remember getting up at five in the morning in the dead of winter, temperature fifteen below zero, and heading into the rink for practice before school. These are good memories from good times.

So I was excited to share the joy of skating with my daughter and a bit scared too. I hadn’t strapped on a pair of skates in years and my daughter…well, she’d never worn a pair. Together we hobbled out onto the ice. My daughter turned to me immediately and said in an accusing voice, “You didn’t tell me ice was so cold and slippery!” Erm, yeah, I guess I just assumed she’d know, but she is only five.

We clung to the boards the first two times around, my daughter learning how to balance on the skates and me trying to remember. When she fell on her butt the first time and exclaimed about how the ice wasn’t only cold and slippery, it was !!!hard!!! too, I thought it was over. I thought she’d say she’d want to quit, but instead she pulled herself up (okay, I helped) and continued on.

Slowly I got my legs back under me. Muscle memory is an incredible thing. And, slowly, my daughter figured out how to keep her balance and move forward. She fell. A LOT. Over and over. Hard thumps onto her butt, sometimes onto her knees. Every time she fell, I thought, this is it. She’ll want to quit now. But every time, she pulled herself up, more determined than ever to learn how to skate.

By the end of the session, she could skate all around the rink by herself, completely unafraid of falling. I was so proud of her. It’s important to learn how to fall, important to be okay with falling. It’s even more important to be able to pick yourself up after a fall and move on. She showed an incredible amount of perseverance on the ice that day, and she loved skating. She’s already bugging me to go back. 🙂

So, what did you do on your Thanksgiving holiday? (…if, of course, you celebrated it.)

….drawn at random by my husband….is Limecello Congrats!

Thanks everyone for participating!

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.

These are things I’ve learned about writing. They might not be true for everyone. Accept at will.

1. Writers Write to be Read.
I don’t know why, but they do. Most writers don’t write manuscripts and then hide them under their beds or only let their relatives and friends read the book. Writers want to give their words exposure. I’m no exhibitionist…er, actually, let me rephrase…I’m pretty shy and introverted and would never want to be a celebrity or anything, but I want my words read. I want to share my characters and my worlds with others. That’s a strong motivator for me.

2. Write What You Love, Not for Market.
I know it’s a cliche, but it’s true. It’s always one of those things that women writers are told, (along with a condescending pat on the head), more than male writers are told. I do think to some extent a writer should be looking at the market, but within that parameter they should write something they love. I’ve watched writers trudge away at a book in a genre they don’t enjoy, just because they think it will sell. The problem is that their lack of enthusiasm comes out in the writing. That’s going to be a No Go no matter what, eventually.

3. Being Able to Butcher Your Baby Look at Your Writing Objectively is a Good Thing.
I have developed the ability to stand back (well, okay, mostly) and look at my book when it’s done and then say, “Oh! Lookee! That book should begin on page 50! That thar is a false beginning!” and then cut the first 50 pages out with a nary a blink of my eye. (Okay, I might blink, and I definitely wouldn’t use so many exclamation points.) It’s easy to get so attached to your work that you can’t cut text, or delete unnecessary subplots or characters. Eventually you have to learn to do it because sometimes cutting out some of your precious words makes the work stronger.

4. Crit and Be Critted.
Join a crit group or find a good crit partner. Although, caveat…it may take you a few times to find one you fit with. I learned so much by critting and being critted. Not only does it allow you to glean and share crafty-type knowledge and learn from the writerly travesties and triumphs of others, it toughens up your skin. You need to have a few callouses built up before you try and publish, and you *really* need them after you’ve published.

5. Make Friends With Other Writers.
So important. Only another writers know and understand common writerly angst. There is SO MUCH writerly angst. Plus, the sharing of knowledge is good — which houses and editors are acquiring, ect. Joining RWA as an unpubbed writer was one of the best moves I ever made.

6. Develop a Writing Habit.
Set aside time to write no matter what. If the muse isn’t working with you, if the words aren’t flowing, write anyway. Shite can be revised. You can’t wait for inspiration all the time. Sometimes that’s a long wait for a train don’t come, (2 pts for anyone who can name the movie I took that from). Sometimes you have put your ass in the chair and just write. “BICHOK” say the category romance authors — Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard.

7. You Can Always “Deepen” Your Character(s).
I have found I can always go back to a manuscript and find new ways to bring depth to my characters, whether it’s in the characterization or in their overall development. There’s always somehow I can make my characters more “real,” or show the changes they’ve undergone a little better. Always.

8. The Publishing Industry is about Money and Marketability, Not About “Art”.
The publishing industry is not an industry filled with fluffy bunnies. Editors are looking at the bottom line. They’re looking at marketability. That’s how badly written books make the bestseller list and some well written books never see print. It’s just a fact.

9. You Must Put Yourself Out There.
Over and over and over. Initially it’s sending your stuff out to be critted. Then it’s sending your stuff out to be assessed by editors and agents. Finally, it’s with the readers. Every day I throw myself out there, whether it’s socializing on my loop, posting excerpts, or arranging chats. I throw myself out there knowing that sometimes I won’t get responses, my excerpts will be ignored, ect… It’s just something a writer has to do. Throw ourselves out there and know we might be rejected. Over and over and over, and in many different ways.

10. I’m never happy with the finished product.
I’m never happy with my finished work. I can always go back and find flaws and things I’d like to change. I actually try very hard to never read my work after it’s been published because of this. If I must, I do it through my fingers (you know, like how some people watch a horror movie?). I’m extremely critical of my work. I’m probably my own worst critic, in fact.