Anya Bast

Yep, my cover luck is holding. Here’s the cover for Strands of Sunlight, a historical fantasy menage a trois romance (say that three times fast), releasing from Ellora’s Cave on September 12th. Pretty, isn’t it? There’s a blurb below. Watch for an excerpt soon!

Rhiannon always thought she was just a low born peasant. When a mysterious lord buys her contract of servitude and brings her back to his keep, she finds out she’s actually the bastard daughter of a great lady. She also discovers she’s prophesied to kill the man responsible for her mother’s undoing.

And prophesied to die while doing it.

At the keep, Rhiannon is caught between two men: Tristan, the severe and sometimes brutal lord who introduces her to erotic bliss and binds her there, helplessly addicted to his every whim. And Gareth, the shining, handsome knight who treats her like the lady she never knew she was. In competition, Tristan and Gareth tempt her with physical pleasure beyond her imagination. Both of them stake a claim on her body, but only one of them will win her heart.

But once the prophecy begins to unfold neither Gareth nor Tristan will be able to save her….

The always spectacular Vivi Anna guest blogged today over on Maverick Authors. Go on over and say hi. She has her new cover up! Veiled Truth releases in October from Nocturne and is, by the way, one of the books I’ll be giving away during my huge Book A Day month-long contest in September.

Last week was a busy one for me. I finished the first draft of Witch Fury, and I completed all the edits on Witch Heart. *whew* Except for the final proof read, I don’t have to worry about Witch Heart anymore. Witch Fury still needs a lot of work, though. That book will go through at least two more drafts before I send it off to my editor.

Yesterday I also started plotting a new novella. I’m itching to begin writing it, but I need to map it out a little more before I dive in. That’s what I plan to do today. I need to delve a little deeper into my characters and find out what makes them tick. I have to decide whose story it is primarily–the hero or the heroine’s?

By the end of the day I’ll probably know a lot more about how the “chase” will go.

There’s a common thread that runs through all romance novels, no matter the sub-genre. Usually either the hero or the heroine is doing the “chasing”. Nine times out of ten, it’s the hero chasing the heroine. Generally that’s because most romance novels focus on the heroine–it’s mostly her story, her journey–and she’s the one with the most emotional baggage. That baggage prevents her from jumping right into a relationship with the hero. He needs to pursue her and convince her that she loves him and will be happiest with only him.

It’s not always the hero doing the chasing, sometimes it’s the heroine. And in some books neither of them wants a relationship, but it ends up happening anyway. But I mostly seem to read stories in which the hero chases.

I tallied up my own novels and found they range the spectrum. When I write there tends to be a natural “chaser” who emerges, and that chaser tends to be the character who has the least amount of personal baggage. Or sometimes, like in Witch Fire, they both resist–but falling in love happens despite them.

So, here’s my question for you–what sort of story to do you most enjoy reading? Do you like it when the hero is the one to pursue the heroine or vice versa? Or do you enjoy a mix? What scenarios do some of your favorite romance novels feature?

Jasmine Haynes is guest blogging over at Maverick Authors. G’wan over and say hi. You know you want to!

By random drawing of the entrants to my Cover Delishishness post on this blog (and from my LJ), the winner is Jackie! Congrats, Jackie! Can you please drop me an email with your preference via the contact form on my site?

Have an awesome day, you-all! I’m getting so veeeery close to the end of Witch Fury. Looks like I’ll be writing The End tomorrow.

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!

My Maverick Author buds, Lauren Dane and Megan Hart, have sold another anthology to Black Lace!

From Publisher’s Marketplace…

Megan Hart and Lauren Dane’s NO RESERVATIONS, the sequel to the upcoming Taking Care of Business, again to Adam Nevill at Black Lace Books, in a nice deal, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

Well, this is my personal cycle of anxiety, anyway. The creation of a novel brings with it a roller coaster of emotion.

I start research on a new novel. There is excitement! Geeky joy! The glomming of lots of new books to read in order to help me build my world! Yay! Yayayayayayayay!

During the plotting stage — more happy, happy, joy, joy! The creation of new characters? Bliss! Discovering their pasts and all the deep, dark secrets that drive them throughout the book? Wheee!

I start the novel and look forward to writing every day. I luuuuurve it with a passion that gets me up from my fluffy bed at six every morning to write before my tornado, er, daughter wakes up. There are occasional bouts of dark ohmygodthisSUCKSandeveryonewillhateit.

I finish the first draft and go into the editing stage, which is intensive for me. Happy, happy, yet far more frequent incidences of ohmygodthisSUCKSandeveryonewillhateit.

I complete all revisions (which take me almost as long as writing the first draft) and send it off to my editor. I’m satisfied with my story and the way I told it. It could be no other way, after all. *shrug* I feel I have done justice to my characters. Yayayayayayayayay!!! *drinks champagne with husband*

First round of edits from editor arrives. I realize that while I can change sentence structure and move paragraphs around, ect, I can’t make any major changes to the book. Eeek! Anxiety sets in. Lots of ohmygodthisSUCKSandeveryonewillhateit. Lots and lots of second guessing myself.

Final proofreading stage. Same dealio as edits, except I have talked myself into my zen place now, so I’m feeling better about the whole thing.

Book release. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Lots of joy! My book is out there and people are reading it. Ohmygod…my book is out there and people are reading it? Eeeeeeeeeeek! What if everyone hates it? What if it totally sucks? Ack! Blarg! Blargity blarg blarg blarg! *vomits in trashcan* And yet…my anxiety is also mixed with this euphoria born of having my story out there in print.

Gradually the anxiety fades back into peacefulness as I see that not everyone hates my books *wipes sweat from brow* Whew! I mean, I can’t expect to please everyone but most people seem to be enjoying it. And all is well. S’okay. Zen place is found once more.

And the cycle starts again.

Welcome to a peek inside my head. Scary, huh? ;)

This post brought to you by the first round of edits on Witch Heart.