Anya Bast

Chats….

June 10th….

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Sunday, June 10th at 9 PM ET to chat with me at Writerspace. I’ll be discussing Witch Fire.

June 14th….

Maverick Authors Chat!! Join Lauren Dane, Megan Hart and Anya Bast in the Maverick Author’s chat room at 8pm eastern for chat, prizes, fun and hijinks.

June 14th….

Join the Berkley Jove Authors at Writerspace, 9 pm eastern. Authors beside myself who have been invited to chat include, Angela Knight, Yasmine Galenorn, Meljean Brook, Anne Bishop (OMG! Fan girl moment! Yiieeee! Ahem, sorry…moving on), P.C. Cast, Susan Sizemore and many more.

June 25th….

Join the AfterMidnight Authors at Writerspace (seeing a trend here?) at 9pm eastern. Besides myself, attending authors include Sylvia Day, Shiloh Walker, Cheyenne McCray, Deliah Devlin and Patrice Michelle.

Book Signings….

June 23rd….

On June 23 from 3:30 to 5:00 (est), I’ll be signing along with authors Toni Blake and LuAnn McLane at…

The Bookstore
301 W Lincoln Trail Blvd
Radcliff, KY 40160

Dear Reader,

I’ve been asked many times in recent weeks why I wrote Witch Fire. The answer is simple. I wrote Witch Fire because Jack McAllister wouldn’t be denied. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes authors are stalked by characters who demand to have their stories told.

Jack hung around the periphery of my mind for a long time, at first just a wisp of an idea. It wasn’t until I dug a little into his personality–his past, his likes and dislikes–that he began to truly take shape. In the process of discovering Jack, the plot for Witch Fire emerged. I couldn’t turn back once that happened. Jack needed his story told, needed closure…really needed a good woman and, most importantly, needed love.

If I fall a little in love with my characters while I’m writing them, especially with my hero, I think (hope, at least!) I’m doing something right. And I definitely fell a bit in love with Jack McAllister. It is my wish that you will do the same as you read him.

Not that Jack is perfect, far from it. Oh, he’s got his positives, no doubt about that. He’s protective, principled and strong. He’s well read, sensitive and intelligent, even has a sense of humor and a bit of an artistic soul. However, Jack has his flaws too. He’s got control and commitment issues, and he’s definitely carrying some baggage from his childhood. Lastly, he’s got a secret, a bad one.

But who wants a perfect man, anyway? Not Mira Hoskins, that’s for sure.

And Mira Hoskins, well, she might be the worst of Jack’s problems.

I hope you enjoy my first release from Berkley Sensation and the first book in this new series. Witch Fire was a joy to write and I sincerely hope I can pass just a little of that joy on to you.

What a blast! I’m so happy I got to meet some of you, like Melissa, Barb, Andrea, Deb, Pam and so many others. I met some awesome new authors (and bought new books!), and I also sold out of Witch Fire at the booksigning, which  made me very squeeful.

Here are a few photos…

That’s Pam K and I.

Pam with the basket of mine she won in the raffle.

The incomparable J.C. Wilder, the wonderful Lauren Dane and the charming Isabo Kelly (It was the first time I’ve met Isabo. She’s delightful).

The lovely quilt with book covers they raffled off for charity.

I’ll definitely be going back next year!

Apparently Witch Fire is one of the featured novels in the freebie Borders Books & Music “Romance Top Picks” pamphlet. I am actually not familiar with this publication, but this is what I was told by someone this morning. They give it away at the front door or at the counter or something? In any case, there’s a $1 dollar off coupon you can use on any of the titles in the booklet, so grab one and you can get a buck off Witch Fire.

Oh, and it seems Witch Fire is starting to ship to the bookstores. *gulp* Not sure when they’ll put it on the shelves.

Ask me if I’m nervous. G’wan, ask me.

You can read more about this over on Dear Author.

I happened across this site a few days ago and thought it was really cool. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before on the ‘Nets. Romantic Advances gathers all the upcoming releases in one place and cross references them by sub/genre. So, if you’re looking to add to your already towering TBR pile, (like the one beside my bed that theatens to topple and kill me in my sleep? Yeah, like that one), you can go there and find new reading fodder.

Additionally, if you write for a RWA recognized publisher, you can fill out a form and have them post your book. Slick!

Anyway, when I visited the site I had no idea who was behind it. Turns out these bloggers (most of whom you probably know) are the brains behind the beauty.

• Devon
• Jane
• Jennie
• Kristie J
• Rosario
• Sybil
• Tara Marie
• Wendy

I’m pushing to get the revisions to Witch Blood done. The revision process is always huge for me. I love the actual writing of the book. That’s the fun part. The revision portion of the project is just plain hard work. I still love it, but it’s a lot of work. Especially when you’re like me and you’re second guessing every paragraph.

In other news….

So, even though Witch Fire isn’t out on the shelves yet (June 5th) and it’s not shipping from Amazon.com yet (I bet it will be soon, though), I know it’s shipping to people who special ordered it from brick-and-mortar stores. Yiiiieeee…. Witch Fire is out there and people are reading it!!!!

There’s this funny writer thing. I have something like twenty books out there, but the release of every new one (especially one as huge as Witch Fire) always makes me feel like I’m getting ready to speak publically — you know, the clammy hands, shortness of breath thing. Ah, the nerves I’m feeling right now…someone pass the chocolate (and a bottle of wine).
I love Mira and Jack so much. I hope you all do too. 🙂

So yesterday we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. I wanted to LOVE it, like super duper squeeing LOVE it. Unfortunately I just thought it was okay. I loved Cap’n Jack, of course. You can’t put Johnny Depp in a role that I wouldn’t like him. I’d pay money to watch that guy read the phone book.

Okay, now back to revisions….

Don’t Hassle the Hoff: The Autobiography.

Shuuuuut up! No way. Noooooooo waaaaaay.

That’s it. I have no more words.

An interesting topic came up on the RT reader’s board recently. I read it last night and spent all this morning thinking about. I was going to reply there (and probably still will), but my response is long enough that it makes a good blog. Since I’m always looking for blog fodder, well, dude, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.

The thread is about the lack of sexual tension in erotic romance, and how sometimes the H/H fall into bed with each other too soon, before the reader cares whether they have sex or not. The excellent point was made that it actually makes the book less hot.

In fact, this is an issue I’ve struggled with when writing some of my books. (I have fought a few characters over this very issue.) I do mostly write erotic romance, so it’s something I’ve spent a lot longer than just this morning mulling over. In some of my books the H/H get busy pretty early on (never in the first chapter or anything like that, but early in the story). In other books, Water Crystal comes to mind immediately, it takes them a while.

I can’t answer for all authors, but here’s why sometimes the sex happens early in my books…it’s all about the characters.

The characters drive my plots and determine when everything happens and at what sort of pace. If I have a character who has a good reason, good motivation, for resisting jumping into bed with the other lead, then I am provided with a way to build a significant amount of sexual tension.

For example, Angelo in Water Crystal resists Bianca for a couple very good reasons. The first is because she’s his prisoner and he’s got honor. As much as he might he want to give into Bianca’s constant blatant attempts to seduce him, he won’t. Later on there’s another reason but it’s a spoiler so I won’t talk about that one.

In Witch Fire, both characters have good reasons to resist each other. Jack knows that to sleep with Mira he’ll be tangling up his life in ways he may never be able to undo. Mira just wants to avoid all men and stay true to the promise she’s made herself, no matter how attracted she is to Jack.

In Blood of the Damned, Jade has plenty of reasons to resist Niccolo. The list goes on….

Conversely, some of my characters don’t have good reasons to resist. Some of my characters are the wilder kind and to have them resisting sex would simply go against their natures and ruin the story with implausibility.

However, if the H/H do have sex early on in the story, you can bet there will be lots of other sorts of tension keeping them apart until the end, not the least of which will be emotional. Because there are lots of kinds of tension — sexual, internal, external. Tension and conflict, after all, are integral components of any novel, romance, erotic romance or otherwise.

I always try for sexual tension in my books because sexual tension makes the book hotter. Sexual tension is foreplay. Who wants to have sex without foreplay? However the length of the sexual tension in my books is dependent on the characters and the characters alone. I write ALL DIFFERENT kinds of characters, so some of my books may have a lot of sexual tension and some may have less.

It’s all about the character in the end.

And I have not done my job as a writer if I haven’t made the reader care about the characters and what happens to them, no matter at what point in the story they first make love.

It does have to go through the revision and polishing process, which is not a small task, but I wrote THE END on Witch Blood last night. Whew! The ending took me forever to write. I think I have three different versions.

So now I go through it chapter by chapter and then send them out one by one to my critters. Right now I have random notes to myself scattered throughout the book, notes to go back and change this or that or clarify some point. I have to address all of those, make sure there are no skipped words, (I’m the queen of skipping words), plus a million other details, but…..

It’s good to write The End on a project.

Today I’m exhausted. I’m getting sickish, but beating it back with Wellness Formula that I bought at Wild Oats.  I didn’t go to sleep until 2am (see above for the reason) and instead of sleeping until her wonderful time of 8am, Miss S woke up at SIX. Ugh.

Nevertheless, I start revisions today.

Ceeeeeeeeellllllebrate good times! C’mon.  Nah nah nah!  (heheheheheheh. I’m so evul because I know that’s going to be stuck in people’s heads now. I just needed to share the wealth. I don’t like to suffer alone.)

…but for a good reason. I’m so close to finishing Witch Blood I can taste it.

Next week, thirteen things I do when I have writer’s block. Luckily, I don’t have it now!