Anya Bast

That’s the sound I make when I realize Wordpress has inexplicably DELETED MY WIDGETS! Widgets are the side bar links, y’all. They’re gone. ALL of them. Damn it.

Come back, widgets! Cooooome baaaack! *sigh* A woman’s widgets are sacred. You just don’t a touch a person’s widgets that way.

Eh. So, anyway, if they don’t pop back I’ll get busy recreating my links here in a couple days. It might take me awhile since Baby S REALLY wants to play with my lap top, so I’m constantly fending off tiny fingers from my keyboard.

If you think your blog or web site should be linked, let me know in the comments.

I’m throwing a month long party on my discussion loop to celebrate my two upcoming releases — Whisper of the Blade from Ellora’s Cave on May 16th and Witch Fire from Berkley Sensation on June 5th!

Starting on May 5^th — Cinco de Mayo, baybee! — I will begin posing questions to my discussion loop membership. Every three days I will select a winner from those who participate — stuff like autographed paperbacks, free ebooks and other goodies, culminating in a basket of yummy stuff to be given away on June 5th, at the close of the party.

Sound good? If so, tune into Silver Purr starting May 5^th and watch for the questions to begin.

If you aren’t a member, you can join here.

~*~*~*~*

 And if you’re the chatty type…

 Join me on Wednesday, May 23rd at 9 PM ET in the Writerspace chat room to talk about Whisper of the Blade.

 And then join me again on Sunday, June 10th at 9 PM ET to discuss Witch Fire. Same place!

*pokes head from the mountain of dirty diapers and blow an errant strand of hair away from face* Almost everyone is at RT. POUT! But that’s no reason for me not to get back into my Thursday Thirteen habit. So, here it is….

Thirteen of my favorite quotes:

1. “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is.” – Forrest Gump

2. “I know I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything…” – Lloyd Dobber in ‘Say Anything’

3. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. Andthe human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
- Professor Keating (Robin Williams) in ‘Dead Poet’s Society’

4. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

5. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Ghandi

6. “Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods”
~Japanese Proverb

7. “The world is full of people who missed their destiny because they were afraid to take a chance.”

8. “It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable.” – Eric Hoffer

9. “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.” – Princess Bride

10. “Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.”
~Unknown

11. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great”
~Mark Twain

12. “Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.”
- Bill Cosby

13. “To the world you may be somebody, but to somebody you may be the world.”

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Rhian

2. Christine d’Abo

3. Tilly Greene

4. Carol

5. Kristin

6. Sarah

7. Jen

8. Tink

9. Sparky Duck

10. miladyinsanity

11. RED

12. Shiloh Walker

13. Ann(ie)

14. Summer

15. Kuanyin

16. Charlene Teglia

17. Christine

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I have just one thing to say first. Why, oh, why does the spitup always come AFTER you take the bib off?

Okay, onto the Yeeha!

Romantic Times BOOK Reviews gives Witch Fire four stars in their latest issue!

“Sizzling suspense and sexy magic are sure to propel this hot new series onto the charts. These characters definitely have baggage, which only makes their relationship growth more interesting. Bast is a talent to watch, and her magical world is one to revisit.” – Jill M. Smith

Witch Fire releases officially on June 5th, but you can preorder it now from AMAZON.COM (and other book retailers).

A quick post to point you in the direction of an emotional, unforgettable read. Broken by Megan Hart should not be missed. She writes characters who will stay with you for a lifetime.

It’s available from Amazon.com now!

Blurbage…
My name is different every month—Brandy, Honey, Amy…sometimes Joe doesn’t even bother to ask—but he never fails to arouse me with his body, his mouth, his touch, no matter what I’m called or where he picks me up. The sex is always amazing, always leaves me itching for more in those long weeks until I see him again.
My real name is Sadie, and once a month over lunch Joe tells me about his latest conquest. But what Joe doesn’t know is that, in my mind, I’m the star of every X-rated one-night stand he has revealed to me, or that I’m practically obsessed with our imaginary sex life. I know it’s wrong. I know my husband wouldn’t understand. But I can’t stop. Not yet.

One of the things I love most about writing on the spicier side of the romance genre is showing how the relationship evolves between the hero and the heroine via love scenes. I like writing sex scenes anyway, and I love the depth of emotion they can show between the main characters.

I see a lot of criticism of sex scenes out there, especially explicit sex scenes. People say they’re not needed, are gratuitous or vulgar. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course. I’m absolutely not offended when people say they don’t enjoy the hotter love scenes, but I do think that sometimes people overlook the ways in which sex scenes add to the emotional content of a story.

In Witch Fire I attempt to raise the emotional stakes every time the hero and heroine come together. I wanted them both to risk something during each sexual encounter and for those risks to grow exponentially. Jack risks the destruction of the safe emotional barrier he’s built around himself. Mira perceives that she risks her independence and power every time she succumbs to Jack, only to find independence and power in ways she never thought imaginable.

The emotional growth of the relationship as illustrated through sex scenes is important for me to try and achieve because sex scenes aren’t just about body parts and the physical act of intercourse. Let’s face it, they likely aren’t just about the physical act in reality either, (well, this is likely true for most people, anyway), and so why should they be treated as such for characters in romantic fiction? Love scenes should be about the physical act and more — the psychological push and pull between the hero and heroine, the emotional give and take, the laying bare (pardon the pun) of what each character holds private and concealed.

They shouldn’t just be about titillation (though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that once in a while. Whatever floats your boat). Ideally, they should be about trust, the giving and receiving of pleasure and, above all, love.

Hope you all have a great Friday!

So I racked my brain trying to come up with a blog that didn’t involve baby poop. Because, while I’m fairly obsessed with that subject right now, I’m sure most of you reading this blog aren’t as enthralled. 

Baby S is doing very well. She’s a generally happy, “easy” baby (knock on wood) who loves to cuddle, loves our cats and dog (whew!) and is juuuuust starting to figure out that toys can be fun. She’s under a year old and her life in our home is a huge change from where she spent the first months of her life. Still, she’s doing remarkably well. It’s amazing how adaptable babies are. It’s also amazing how quick and strong they flourish and blossom when attention and love are completely focused on them. 

Slipping into my new role as mother to this beautiful little girl doesn’t mean I shed my role as author with a writing career I care a great deal about. I am an author with deadlines! So while I learn to parent, I’m also learning how to better manage my time.

So far this means far less frivolities for me during the day. My time now is scheduled for my daughter’s benefit–because she needs routine. So these days when I have writing time…I WRITE. No more allowing myself to be distracted by other things. I find myself more focused, more centered…and more productive. 

Whoa, seriously, I said more productive. Wild, huh? But I’m finding that I no longer take my time for granted. Not when I’m playing with my new daughter, and not when I have writing time either.

Could it be that parenthood might actually increase my productivity? It seems too good to be true and yet so far…. 

Time will tell. It always does.

The cover for Witch Fire is finally up on Amazon.com. Finally.

I swear I’ll be back regular-like soon. I have houseguests AND a new baby right now. It makes for some hectic. I just hadda pop on and squee about the cover for a moment.