| |
 Anya
Bast is the author of numerous works of romantic
fiction, mostly all paranormal and mostly all scorching hot.
She lives in the country with her husband, daughter, eight
cats, a dog, and an odd assortment of rescued animals.
Somewhat reclusive by nature, she can be drawn
out with a good bottle of red wine, classic movies, or good
music. When she’s not writing, she can be found trying to
grow organic vegetables, shopping in thrift stores for that
perfect piece of clothing, or dreaming about travel to some
faraway country.
She’s hard at work on a brand new series
for Berkley Sensation right now, while winding up her
national bestselling
Elemental Witches quartet.
Book Three -
Witch Heart - comes out on January 6, 2009.
What is the first book you remember
reading? In your genre?
Hmmm, it would depend on which genre you mean. I write both
erotic and
paranormal romance. If it’s erotic romance you mean,
I think it would be an EC book by Elizabeth Jewell, but I
can’t remember the title now. I purchased it when I decided
to try my hand at erotic romance and was starting my market
research.
I was writing paranormal romance before paranormal romance
was cool (one reason it took me so long to sell my first
book, no one was buying what I was selling). However, I
think the first paranormal romance I ever read was
Johanna Lindsey’s Warrior’s Woman, which I adored.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was old enough to read. I
used to come home from the library with armfuls of books. I
can actually remember the first time I declared it publicly,
though. I was in the car with my father. I must have been
about seven. He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I leaned into the front seat (I was in the back) and said “I
want to be a writer and write about worn yellow raincoats
with tears patched with scotch tape.” I guess I’d recently
read about a “worn yellow raincoat patched with scotch tape”
and the description had really floated my boat. I don’t know
what book the description was from. I wish I knew. If anyone
recognizes a classic children’s book with such a
description, let me know!
 Did
you have a mentor or critique group?
When I first started out, the RWA (Romance
Writers of America) was incredibly helpful to me. I
joined my local chapter and found its members to be very
friendly and encouraging. I also belonged to a paranormal
crit loop that I found invaluable. I had a few dedicated
crit partners too. These days my process is such that it
makes it hard for me to work with crit partners, but I have
a few people I know I can count for a look through and
opinion if I need them.
Which of your characters if your favorite?
That is such a hard question to answer! I love all my
characters. I can’t spend five or six months with them in my
head and not love them. ;) So usually I say my favorites are
the ones I’m writing at the moment. Elena is a joy to write,
but she’s a little lost. Everything in her very long life
has suddenly been turned upside down and she’s going to have
to start over. Gabriel is misunderstood, dark and brooding.
He’s somewhat emotionally broken, but I think he’ll come out
all right in the end.
Was the transition from Ebooks to Print scary for you?
Honestly, I always felt I would do better in
mass market print than in eBooks and it turns out I
was right…at least so far. I was more relieved to make the
transition than anything else. Plus, there are many
differences between publishing in eBooks and print, but I
would say more is the same than it is different.
The erotica...How did a nice girl like
you end up writing such naughty stuff?
Once upon a time I wrote
fantasy romance that wasn’t erotic at all (but maybe
a little hotter than mainstream). I joined a number of
writing organizations and Yahoogroups loops to help further
my career. It was in one of these organizations where I was
first exposed to erotic romance, the subgenre and its
authors. This particular organization hosted a
writing
contest every year and this particular year there was
a big hullaballoo because they were discriminating against
the erotic romance authors. It was pretty blatant.
It was a result of that same old perception: A novel is just
trash if it’s got graphic sex in it. I don’t think—never
have thought—there’s anything shameful or trashy about
reading or writing erotic romance. Why should a woman’s
sexual fantasies be labeled “bad” or “wrong”? Because we’re
women we’re not supposed to have them? Since I’ve always
been activist-minded and all about non-censorship and
fairness for all, I was really offended on behalf of the
erotic romance authors. I made my voice heard among those
voicing objection to the discrimination.
As a side-effect, this whole thing got me thinking about the
subgenre and wondering if I could write it myself. So I
“gave myself permission” to write the hottest scene I could.
I tore down my filters and locked the prudish part of myself
(she was never all that prominent to begin with, I’ll be
honest) in a closet and threw away the key.
The scene turned out to be pretty hot! And then the scene
needed a connecting scene…. It was fun! And then, all of
sudden, it was a whole novella. Turned out I had a knack for
writing erotic romance. I ended up selling that novella to
Ellora’s Cave and the rest is history.
Thank goddess for discrimination? Erm, maybe not.
You have three levels of, I'm trying to decide on the
right word for it... Hotness? How do you decide how hot the
sex is going to be in a project? Do you decide ahead of time
this will be erotica, erotic romance or paranormal romance?
 Yes,
I know ahead of time how erotic it will be. I need to know
ahead of time because some characters will go that direction
and others won’t. Since the characters come before the plot,
I need to know if they’ll work in an erotic romance or not.
It also depends on who the target audience is going to be
and what line or publisher I’m writing for. If it’s for EC,
Harlequin Spice, or Berkley Heat, it’s got to be uber hot.
If it’s for Berkley Sensation, it could range from a regular
(more mainstream) amount of spice to very hot.
I would consider my Elemental Witches series to be of a
mainstream sort of heat, but there are some who find it very
hot. My natural voice lends itself toward heat, but it sort
of depends on the reader’s POV as well. One reader’s idea of
hot is another’s not-so-much.
And is that separation is it more a choice between
activities or the words used?
All of the above. I consider my Ellora’s Cave books and
The Chosen
Sin (Berkley Heat) to be erotic because there’s a lot of
“kink” in them (BDSM, ménage a trois, ect) and there’s a
profusion of “naughty” words. It’s also question of
quantity. My erotic romances simply have more sex scenes.
And now the Lipton questions....
1. What is your favorite word?
Venezuela
2. What is your least favorite word?
Pustule
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or
emotionally?
Time to be alone, without stress or demands. Certain kinds
of music or art. Water. Meditation.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or
emotionally?
Stress, bad news of all kinds, lack of sleep, the inability
to get any alone time, my pets being sick.
 5.
What sound or noise do you love?
The sound of my daughter’s laughter, cat purring, my dog
howling, the silent sound of a recent snowfall
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
High wind whistling around the house, alarm clocks, Barry
Manilow
7. What is your favorite curse word?
The f-word, though since becoming a parent I’ve trained
myself not to swear.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to
attempt?
If I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a psychologist. Scary thought,
huh?
9. What profession would you not like to do?
Septic toilet salesperson wouldn’t be a very fulfilling gig.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say
when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
“You’ve learned all the lessons you were supposed to learn
during your last lifetime. You don’t have to go back for
another round. Congratulations!” Fat chance of that
happening, though. I have feeling I’ll be taking many more
turns on this ride called life. I hope the next time I come
back that polar bears aren’t extinct. I love polar bears. |
