Anya Bast

The winner, by random drawing, of the Fab Four Contest is Larena W. Congratulations! Please drop me an email via the contact form, Larena. If in a week I still have no response, I’ll have to pick another winner.

Erin McCarthy, Tate Hallaway, Michele Bardsley and I have joined in a blogathon of contesty goodness! Travel to each of our blogs and read the questions posed to each other and our answers. Leave a comment and be entered in a contest to win four different prizes (check each blog to see what the particular prize is).

Michele Bardsley
Tate Hallaway
Erin McCarthy

Here’s my question and all the answers:

You have a couple weeks and unlimited funds and can take one of your characters anywhere in the world on vacation. Which character do you take, where, and why?

Erin – Corbin Atelier from BLED DRY to Paris. He is a French vampire stuck in Vegas and if he could get back to France, he would be a fantastique tour guide, ma cherie.

Michele – Um. Hmm. Oh, what the hell! I’d take the triplets with me, the lycanthrope princes Damian, Darrius, and Drake. Then I would have hot men waiting on me hand and foot … and you know, other places. I’m not sure it would matter where we went because who needs scenery when you have them? Heh. No, really. Someplace tropical. Then they could wander around mostly naked.

Tate – I would take William to Tibet to see the Dali Lama. For people unfamiliar with my books, William works with Garnet (my witch heroine) in an occult bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin. At least once — sometimes twice — every novel, he changes his religious persuasion. I think he’d love seeing the Dali Lama, plus he seems like the kind of guy who would be fun to travel with as long as you were willing to go off on tangents and not be very rigid about scheduling, you know?

Anya – I would take Thomas Monahan from Witch Blood to tour Europe with me. He would enjoy visiting all the museums and would love to try all the different foods and wines of each country. We’d wander the Cinque Terre in Italy, visit the chateaux in France’s Loire Valley, and round out the trip with a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Thomas would be an interesting companion and the guy needs a vacation in the worst way. I probably wouldn’t be able to get him to loosen up until we got around to visiting the South of France, though (the wine would do it).

So, dear readers, if you had couple weeks and unlimited funds and could take any characters from any books anywhere in the world on vacation. Which character would you take, where, and why?

My prize is a $10 GC to Borders Books & Music plus a signed copy of Magical Seduction or What Happens in Vegas, winner’s choice. Worth playing for? (I don’t EVER watch Survivor, swear!) Then leave a comment today or tomorrow for a chance to win. Don’t forget to visit Erin, Tate and Michele’s blogs for more shots at great prizes.

Well, officially, anyway. I’ve had reports of people finding in bookstores over the last week. But today you should be guaranteed to find it on your local bookstore shelves. To answer a question I’ve been fielding often recently — YES, Witch Blood is a stand alone title. You’d probably get more out of it having read Witch Fire first, but it’s really not necessary. I’m writing all the books in this series to stand alone. :)

A water witch, Isabelle Novak has always led a chaotic, nomadic existence. But her life spins out of control when her sister—her only friend and emotional anchor—is killed by a demon. Driven by grief and a desire for revenge, she turns her back on the Coven and the rede they hold sacred: Harm thee none…

When Isabelle first encounters Thomas Monahan, she’s running on pure rage and sorrow, channeling her pain into power—and trying to freeze the life out of a warlock she holds responsible for her sister’s death. Together, they form an uneasy alliance to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power. As head of the Coven, earth witch Thomas must thwart Isabelle’s dark impulses, but his very presence stirs deeper desires she never knew she had…

The first chapter, book trailer, and online buy links can be found on my web site here.

“Any paranormal fan will be guaranteed a Top Pick read. Anya has provided it all in this hot new paranormal series. You get great suspense, vivid characters and a world that just pops off the pages. This book is not too be missed.” — Night Owl Romance Reviews

“Lovers of magic and paranormal romances will doubtless find themselves enraptured by the gripping plot and intense sensuality of Witch Blood. Be prepared to read it straight through, because you will not be putting this book down once you begin reading it!” — ck2skwipsandkritiques — Five Clovers

Contest!

Go read the first chapter of Witch Blood and send the answers to the following three questions to anyabast(at)yahoo.com. Don’t post the answers here please! Put WITCH BLOOD CONTEST in the subject line so your entry doesn’t get lost. One winner will be selected and notified on March 12th.

1.) What two things has Stefan done to keep the public from getting too close to him?

2.) What has been Isabelle planning for months?

3.) What two foreign languages does Isabelle speak fluently?

Don’t forget — I’ll be chatting about Witch Blood on Wednesday at 9 pm ET in the Writerspace Readers Chat Room.

I’m peeking my head up from Deadline Hell to talk a little bit about some recent books I’ve had in my TBR pile. I feel like I’ve been talking about Witch Blood non-stop. Oy. It’s time to talk about other people’s books for a change.

Meet Sirantha Jax, a woman with the rare ability to “jump” ships through Grimspace. Unfortunately this little skill just might get her killed. This is a gritty story, laced with action, adventure and a little bit of romance. It’s one of those books that make you stay up waaaaaay too late so you can finish it. Jax is complicated and layered, emotional and snarky as all hell.

I loved this book and Jax too!

Isn’t that a fantastic cover? Christine Clavel is just an astounding cover artist. *sigh*

Okay, now for something completely different. This is A Spell for Susannah, a fantasy romance from Samhain Publishing. I pronounce it SOW-WAYNE, how do you pronounce it? Now, make no mistake, the author is a friend of mine. In fact, I critiqued this book a long time ago when it had a different title. I also love this author’s writing regardless of our friendship. Jody Wallace is a skilled, polished and very talented writer.

Meet Susannah in this twist on the tale of the twelve dancing princesses. She’s discovered a secret castle filled to the brim with dancing princes. In a kingdom where the nobles have been cursed to only bear female children, this is quite a surprise. She and her sisters enjoy this delicious secret to the fullest up until Susannah’s parents hire Jon Tom, a detective, to unravel Susannah’s wily ways and discover what their offspring have been up to.

I’m liking this new Nocture line. One of the books I’ve picked up is Scions Resurrection, by Patrice Michelle. I know Patrice’s books from Ellora’s Cave. They’re hot and have a lot of heart. They’re action-packed and written in a way that allows you to clearly see the plot unfold in your mind’s eye–kind of like a movie in your head. Scions Resurrection is no exception.

Ariel, the heroine, is an author of vampire fiction. Too bad vampires are real and it’s caused their eye to be drawn to her…. I found this to be a wonderful and engaging book that let me slip into its world for a time.

And another about face. This one’s horroresque. I’ve been a fan of Adrienne Jones for a while. The Hoax was awesome. Gyspies is irreverent and humorous, the story of Joe, an aging punk rocker, who has a time demon living in a calendar on his wall. The demon is pressing him to honor a suicide pact he made with his former bandmates. They’re all supposed to kill themselves on their fortieth birthday. In order to save his life, Joe is going to have to face something even more horrifying than the demon in the calendar…himself.