Hi all! I was so excited when Jacquelyn asked me to come over here and guest blog! I'm a big fan of her books and am eagerly awaiting Elijah (and damned upset we have to wait so long for it).

My name is Anya Bast. I write for Ellora's Cave and Berkley Sensation. I also recently sold a book to Berkley Heat (whee!) and have a novella in a Harlequin Spice anthology coming out next year. I write paranormal romance and I tend to write it on the hot side. Hell, sometimes it's flat out flaming kinky. It just depends. My EC books tend to be the kinkier ones. My Elemental Witches series, just out from Berkley sensation are more "spicy" paranormal romance.

That's me….

I don't look like I write ménage a trois and BDSM romances, do I? I know. I look like I should be asking if you want to buy some Avon products, but what are you going to do? Born with dark, smoldering good looks, I was not. More your Betty as opposed to your Veronica.

I started writing when I was very young, but didn't turn out my first full length novel until I was twenty two. I finally sold a number of years later -- to two publishing houses in the same week. I live in the country, (where the buffaloes roam and, dude, I am not kidding about that), with my husband, our toddler daughter, eight cats, two rabbits and a dog. The strays see "sucker" written right across our foreheads.

But I digress….

For days I mulled over what I wanted to talk about. What would be of interest to both readers and writers? Hmmm… Should I talk about writing process? What is it like to go from being an ebook author to a mass market NY pubbed author? Should I talk about paranormal creatures and the readers who love them? How about graphic sex scenes and infusing emotions into them. I discarded every idea that came to me for one reason or another.

In the process, I picked up Jacob and read the first line. "How ridiculously simple it would be to cause them harm." What a great first line! Immediately you're wondering who this person is. Who do they wish to harm? It compels you to read the next sentence, then the next paragraph. It hooked me.

So I decided to write about first lines and how they can hook the reader. See? A good topic for readers and writers.

I always spend a lot of time on the first paragraphs of my books, especially the first line. It's probably the part of the book I agonize over the most because I know that often it's the readers first introduction to the story and determines whether or not they'll read on.

Here are some of the first lines from some of my books, in no particular order.