Onirik : Blue-moon a interviewé déjà de nombreux auteurs mais vous êtes la première qui lit le français et le parle. Pouvez-vous nous dire si vous connaissez la France et pourquoi vous maîtrisez si bien notre langue ?
Anya Bast : I had the opportunity to live in the south of France after I graduated from high school for a while. I lived in a small town near Carpentras with a woman who didn’t speak any English. I was forced to learn some French at that point (I’d taken Russian in high school). When I came back to the states and went to college, I decided to continue on with the French and took some classes to fill in all the blanks I had from learning French immersion style (like reading and writing it). I still don’t write it very well. During college, I met my husband, who is Belgian. His first language is French and so my education continues. We’re teaching our daughter to speak both languages, French and English.
I would not say I’m fluent, however. I would say that I can only « get along » in it. My accent is horrible and I make many, many mistakes in French. I wish I was fluent because it’s hard for me to have in-depth, meaningful conversations with my husband’s family and I feel like I miss a connection with them because of that.
Onirik : J’ai d’ailleurs constaté qu’un des méchants de votre série paranormale s’appelle Stefan Faucheux et est d’origine française ! J’espère que vous envisagez aussi des héros français ! Pouvons-nous en espérer un ?
Anya Bast : I’m sure that one day down the road I’ll write a French hero. J Please be flattered that I made Stefan Faucheux French, however. I adore my villians. They’re my favorite kind of character to write and Stefan is my favorite villian so far.
Onirik : Vous avez commencé votre carrière en écrivant de la romance érotique et vous continuez pour le moment à en publier. Allez-vous continuer à écrire dans les deux genres ?
Anya Bast : I made a name for myself by writing erotic romance at small publishers. So when I was contracted with Berkely, a large publisher, it was with the understanding I would continue writing erotic, since I had developed an audience in that sub genre. My Elemental Witches series is beyond the norm « hot, » but not erotic. I do still write erotic, however (The Chosen Sin, for example) and I’m writing another erotic right now titled Jeweled. I’m balancing the two — erotic paranormal romance and « spicy » paranormal romance. I like to write erotic, so it works for me.
Onirik : Un certain nombre d’écrivains actuels ont, comme vous, débuté par la romance érotique. Je pense notamment à Larissa Ione, Shayla Black ou encore Annaliese Evans. Comment expliquez-vous que ces auteurs se tournent maintenant vers la romance paranormale ? Est-ce plus facile de commencer à publier dans le « romantica » ? ou est-ce une évolution logique ?
Anya Bast : The publishing industry is very prone to trends. Sometimes all readers seem to want are historicals. Sometimes all they seem to crave are contemporaries, for example. Several years back the trend was for erotic. That’s when I and many other authors were picked up from the small publishers (who had been more willing to take a chance on publishing erotic romance first) by the larger New York based publishers. We all started out writing hot and still do. For most of us, like myself, it’s our writing « voice ». We simply enjoy writing the hotter paranormal stories.
I can’t speak for the other authors you named, but I started out writing erotic paranormal romance because that’s what I wanted to write. Now I’m just doing it at a larger publisher that can provide larger distribution. Lucky me, I guess.
Onirik : Les scènes sexy dans vos romans sont particulièrement originales et vont plus loin que celles qu’on lit habituellement dans des romans qui ne sont pas des « romantica ». Les éditeurs vous laissent-ils libre dans ce domaine ? Que pensez vous que ce genre de scènes apportent à vos livres ? Jusqu’où pensez vous que l’on puisse aller dans ce domaine ?
Anya Bast : Well, having started out writing very hot books, I think it was assumed that my mainstream romances were also going to be hot. I worried at first that the larger NY publishers that I now write for would not give me the freedom I had at the smaller houses. I was wrong to worry. I enjoy an exceptional amount of freedom where I am now. So far I have controlled how hot my books are. I have throttled back with my Elemental Witches series and will keep the same level of heat in my new Dark Magick series (hot, but not erotic), but my Berkley Heat titles will remain extremely erotic. Jeweled, the book I’m working on right now, for example, is a romance between three people that contains many menage a trois scenes.
Onirik : La série « Elemental Witches » est une vraie réussite. Elle présente un monde complexe et riche. Où trouvez-vous l’inspiration ? Quels auteurs vous influencent ?
Anya Bast : Inspiration is a funny thing. It comes from everywhere. Music, movies, conversations I have, people I observe while grocery shopping, my dreams. Things randomly spark ideas. As far as authors go, I love George R. R. Martin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin McKinley, Charlaine Harris, and many others.
Onirik : Ce que je trouve particulièrement intéressant dans vos personnages est qu’ils ne sont jamais simplistes : dans The Chosen sin par exemple, Christopher est un personnage négatif mais qui inspire de la sympathie, qui aime sincèrement et a été aimé par Daria, l’héroïne. Il aurait presque pu être un héros ! Pourquoi choisissez- vous ce type de héros ?
Anya Bast : I love to write the villians. I dislike writing « mustache twirling » villians who are evil « just because ». I want their motivations to believable, for them to have emotional layers, just like we all do. I want the reader to sympathisize with them and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing – even while disliking them and wanting them to be punished. I think reading a villian like that makes the story much more interesting to read. It definitely makes it more interesting to write !
Onirik : Dans vos romans, les héroïnes ont toujours une place de choix. Elles se battent, ont souvent connu des périodes très difficiles, sont courageuses et évoluent beaucoup au cours du livre. Qu’est-ce qui vous intéresse dans ce type d’héroïne ?
Anya Bast : I think the reader falls in love with the hero, but identifies with the heroine. I want the heroine to be strong, able to take care of herself in many ways, but also a little vulnerable. All my characters usually have « baggage » from their past and most of the time it’s sort of dark. At the beginning of the book, they’re in a bad place. It’s throughout the story that they develop and grow, so that by the end of the book they’ve overcome some of the emotional obstacles in their path, or are at least on their way to doing so.
I make sure my heroines are not dependant on the heroes for this emotional growth, but that it grows from battling the external conflict in the story. I want the heroine to love and want to be with the hero by the end of the book, but not absolutely need the hero in order to be a full and complete person. I want her to be strong, independent and fully able to stand on her own feet.
Onirik : Vos héros ont des relations très intenses mais ont peur de l’engagement. C’est le cas pour Daria et Alejandro ou pour Theo et Sarafina. Dans le premier cas, c’est l’héroïne qui hésite et dans le second c’est le héros. Pensez- vous que cela soit un élément important d’une romance aujourd’hui ?
Anya Bast : Sometimes in my books it’s the heroine who « chases » the hero (Sarafina and Theo). Sometimes it’s the hero who chases the heroine (Daria and Alejandro). That happens as an organic growth of the character development. Generally, it’s the character with the smaller amount of emotional baggage who does the chasing. Theo has the most to overcome emotionally in Witch Fury and Daria, by far, has more emotional baggage in The Chosen Sin.
Onirik : Vous annoncez également la sortie d’un nouveau livre « Wicked enchantment » qui semble être un roman fantasy inspiré des légendes celtes. Pouvez-vous nous en dire plus ? Avez-vous d’autres projets ?
Anya Bast : Sure. Wicked Enchantment will be the first full-length novel of my new Dark Magick series. There will also be a novella (Sweet Enchantment) in the September 2009 anthology, Hot for the Holidays. Wicked Enchantment releases in January 2010 (in the U.S.).
The Dark Magick series is fae-based in its worldbuilding. I used ancient Irish mythology about the Tuatha Dé Danann as my base, although the series will be set in contemporary times. If you’ve ever read Grimms, you know that faeries aren’t always the small, pretty winged beings you might find resting on a flower petal. These faeries are not those type of faeries. These faeries range from harmless to lethal and are every shade inbetween.
Dark Magick series will be a little darker than the Elemental Witches series, but will still be action-packed, spicy paranormal romance.
For Berkley Heat, I’m working on a two-book historical fantasy series. Both books are menage a trois romance, featuring one heroine and two heroes. That one takes place in a fictional country that is undergoing a revolution (not unlike the French Revolution with a little Russian flavoring). That series is erotic beyond all doubt.
Thank you so much for interviewing me ! This was a lot of fun. I love to connect with readers who live all over the world, especially those in France.