Thanks for stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's
jump right in. When did you begin writing and why?
I
began writing fourteen years ago, the year after I left high school. The idea
of writing a book had been in the back of my mind since I'd been around
fifteen. It wasn't until I'd been out of high school in the world for a while,
had realized my choice of studies wasn't what I wanted to do and was between
jobs that I decided to try writing a book. But there were a few other factors
to the why—mostly that I think writing was in my blood and through my teenage
years, I'd experimented with a few kinds of writing. Penning an entire book was
a challenge, and I'm the kind of person who enjoys a challenge. Once I'd
written that first book (even though it was not great) I knew it was what I
wanted to be doing with my life.
Do you have a favorite genre? Is it the same genre you prefer to
write?
I
tend to bounce between different sub-genres of romance. I started out reading historical
fantasy, before moving onto historical romance, then moved to paranormal romance,
romantic suspense, and urban fantasy, before finally getting into sci-fi
romance. I still read all of these genres, and occasionally read totally
outside these genres when the mood takes me. Really, if it’s a well written
book, I'll pretty much read anything.
Do certain themes and ideas tend to capture your writer’s
imagination and fascinate you?
It
kind of depends on what I'm working on. For instance, a while ago I was very
much interested in the older hero/younger heroine trope, and ended up writing
Damage Control. So my interests or what I'd like to work with tend to change
with the book or series.
However,
one thing I'm always interested in is what I call "gray"
characters—the ones where you don't really know if they're good or bad. Are
they a good person on a dark path? Or a bad person looking for redemption?
Someone who made a few too many bad choices and don't know how they ended up
where they are in life? I always thought it would be a huge challenge to write
this kind of character and do it really well. Rian in Atrophy is kind of my
masterpiece in this respect. He's got a really dark past that hugely affects
the person he is now, and struggles with his demons every day to the extreme.
When I first started writing him, it was actually almost uncomfortable delving
into that much darkness, but now I've kind of gotten used to him. Still, he
pushes the boundaries a lot of the time, but I figure that unless I'm pushing
myself, I'm going to get bored pretty quickly!
Do you have a favorite author who introduced you to the genre?
Linnea
Sinclair was the first sci-fi romance author I ever read. Her book, Finders
Keepers was kind of a revelation. I was addicted right away, and went looking
for other titles by her, even as I branched out to other sci-fi romance
authors. It took a little while, but eventually I worked up the courage to
write a sci-fi romance myself.
What advantages or challenges does a writer in your genre face in
today’s fiction market?
I'm
sure you've heard it said before, but I think one of the biggest challenges any
writer faces today is exposure, and this is especially true for sci-fi romance
authors. For some reason, a lot of people just don't know sci-fi romance even
exists, though I think this is starting to change. Genre aside, with the
saturation of books on the market at the moment, it’s a huge challenge trying
to get books in front of readers, to get them to pick your book over the
hundreds of others they're exposed to week after week. What works one week for
one author may not work the following week for the next. I don’t think anyone
has the magic answer for this, certainly not me. Truthfully, I don’t spend a
lot of time doing promo, I’m more focused on simply writing books at this
stage.
Tell me a little about the characters in Atrophy
Well
I've already mentioned Rian, he's the captain of the Imojenna—an ex-war
hero flying an ex-war supply runner vessel along with a small crew, which
includes his sister. After taking some damage, they make an emergency landing
on the prison planet, Erebus, where they end up with a stowaway and new kind of
trouble. The story has been compared to Joss Whedon’s Firefly, I think because
of the similar dynamics of a close-knit crew living and working on a ship
together.
Where’s the story set? How much influence did the setting have on
the atmosphere/characters/development of the story?
The
story is set in the distant, unspecified future. The galaxy has been settled,
but there are others lurking just out of sight—shape shifting aliens who are
steadily but surely infiltrating all levels of government and military before
they launch the final invasion. Rian was captured and tortured by these beings,
and his scars, plus the knowledge he carries that the wider universe at large
is unaware of, I think really sets the tone and mood of the book. Everything
pretty much always comes back to Rian… I want to say he's kind of like the sun
that everything else orbits around, but it might be a little egotistical on his
behalf!
If you had to write your memoir in five words, what would you
write?
Attempting
to Live Outside Myself
How often does your muse distract you from day to day minutiae?
Truthfully,
it used to be more of a problem than it is now. My muse and I had to come to an
understanding about when and where we interact once I started having my kids.
In my early 20s, my head was always in the clouds, which might have been why I
had trouble keeping a steady job while I was studying. I was always half
thinking about the book or assignment I was working on, or coming up with new
ideas, or running dialogue through my head. These days, occasionally something
will sneak up on me, but I usually write it down or file it away for later when
I'm not at my other job or running after the kids.
What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?
In
2016 I'll be releasing the next two books in the Atrophy series, titled Quantum
and Diffraction. I'm also hoping to release a new romantic suspense series I've
been working on featuring a team of Australian black-ops agents in late 2016 to
early 2017, but as of now its still in the works.
As
for Quantum, that story features one of Rian's oldest friends, Captain Admiral
Zander Graydon, and unfortunately for the crew of the Imojenna and their fight
against the shape shifting aliens, things are only going to get more
complicated.
Atrophy
Genre: science fiction romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, Otherworlds imprint
No
one on Erebus escapes alive...
Twelve
years on the prison planet Erebus makes a man long for death. The worst part
for Tannin Everette is that he was framed for murder. He's innocent.
When the ship Imojenna lands for emergency repairs, Tannin risks
everything to escape...only to find himself face to face with the captain's
undeniably gorgeous sister.
Zahli
Sherron isn't planning on turning Tannin in. In fact, she actually believes
him. Sure, he's sexy as every kind of sin, but he's no criminal—so she hides
him. But no one escapes from Erebus and lives to tell about it. With every day
that passes, Zahli further risks the lives of the entire crew...even as she
falls in love with a man she can never have for herself.
Excerpt:
In the diffused glow of her cabin, her eyes
looked almost black and her tousled hair a rich deep gold. She smelled like
summer-storm-rain on a hot day back home on Barasa, bringing another sting of
innocent days past. He could feel her lush curves yielding against him, though
tension ran through every line of her body.
She knew he was
onboard now. The only way he’d be getting off this hellhole of a planet was
with her cooperation. If she would agree to hide him. His heart tripped over
itself. It’d been a long time since he’d trusted anyone besides himself, and
she almost literally held his life in her hands.
“I need your help.”
His voice came out uneven and he swallowed against the tightness in the back of
his throat.
She shook her head,
pressing herself harder against the wall, her nails digging into the skin on
his forearm.
“Please, just listen.
I need to get off Erebus. I know you have no reason to trust me, especially
now. It’s asking a lot, I know that, too.” Helpless emotion he’d long thought
dead and buried tightened his chest. For once, he needed something in the
universe to go his way, for this stranger to give him the chance the IPC
justice system hadn’t. “I just need a little faith here. So I’m going to take
my hand off your mouth, because I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want you
to be afraid of me.”
With a short breath,
knowing with almost total certainty that his one chance of freedom was about to
be blown, he dropped his hands away from her and stepped back.
She didn’t shift,
didn’t run, and didn’t scream for help, just stood there with fingers locked on
her necklace, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Tannin
Everette.”
Fatigue started
catching up with him as his body finally hit the adrenaline wall and splattered
into a jelly-like mess. His limbs heavy, he walked to her unmade bed and
dropped onto the edge. He scrubbed both hands over his face, swallowing again
around the tautness in his throat and stared unseeing at the floor. Would he
really allow himself to be killed rather than return to a life on Erebus? Panic
blended with grief in a sickening whirlpool of misery. He wasn’t brave enough
to die, rather than stay on Erebus. Survival instincts reared within him,
despite the depravity he’d be facing out in the general population upon his
return.
“You’re the guy who
came in after that officer attacked me.”
Her bare feet appeared
in his line of vision, toenails painted gold and a petite, graphite-colored
ring on the little toe of her left foot. She crouched down and touched his
chin, bringing his head up.
“What happened to
you?”
No one had ever asked
him what happened. As far as everyone had been concerned, the case had been cut
and dry, no need to ask any questions when the apparent evidence was so
overwhelming.
Buy
link:
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0166PXF1I
Entangled
Publishing: http://www.entangledpublishing.com/atrophy/
Bio:
Jess has been making up stories ever since she can remember.
Though her messy handwriting made it hard for anyone else to read them, she
wasn’t deterred and now she gets to make up stories for a living. She loves
loud music, a good book on a rainy day, and probably spends too much time
watching too many TV shows. Jess lives in regional Victoria, Australia, with her
very supportive husband, three daughters, two hyper-active border collie dogs,
and one cat who thinks he’s one of the kids.
Links:
website:
www.jessanastasi.com
facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Jess-Anastasi-Author-Page-129441077081452/
Twitter
@JessAnastasi
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4477408.Jess_Anastasi
