Anise Rae grew up among the cornfields and soybeans of Ohio, dreaming of being a ballerina, an astronaut, and a romance writer. Thanks to her soul deep love of chocolate and a lack of natural grace, her ballerina dreams floated away as high as the moon, equidistant with the astronaut aspiration. She stuck with writing.
Now transplanted to the south, Anise lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with her kids and a dog gifted with the power of finding dirty socks.
Syphon’s Song, a 2012 Maggie Award of Excellence finalist, is the first book in the Mayflower Mages series.
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Legends say a syphon can drain a mage dry. He’ll brave the danger. Will she?
Someone’s playing pranks. The body of the late Casteel patriarch has been stolen and gifted to the family’s enemy, the powerful Rallises. As far as Bronte Casteel is concerned, they can keep it. She hasn’t spoken to her family in thirteen years, not since they exiled her from society for her lack of mage power. But she’s a syphon mage, able drain another mage’s power. Syphons’ destinies are always the same: death by fiery stake. She hides her secret by living among the Nons--powerless humans and the lowest class in the Republic. When her family orders her to go plead for the body’s return, she comes face to face with the one man who knows her secret.
Colonel Vincent Rallis isn’t letting his syphon get away this time. Not when she’s under suspicion of body-napping and aiding anti-mage terrorists. He’ll prove her innocence whether she wants him to or not, and then convince her they belong together...forever.
Vincent’s help comes with a steep price: Bronte must reveal her power. The inevitable ensuing witch-hunt and trial would be bad enough, but even a tough girl might buckle if her prosecutors are her own parents.
CONTENT WARNING: Hot, steamy nights with the colonel’s magic touch . A Lyrical Press Paranormal Romance.
Almost all my stories are inspired by some type of ‘what if’ question. It’s a mental game I play with myself all the time. It keeps me entertained. (It’s important to be able to entertain yourself, you know.) It’s also one of the best parts of being a writer. The inspiration for Syphon’s Song came from one of those sessions. Here’s the question I came up with: what if it wasn’t Puritans who sailed on the Mayflower to the New World seeking freedom from persecution? What if it was witches?
Fast forward three hundred years or so and voila! Welcome to the modern day Republic of Mage Territories.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
The first draft probably took around five months. The editing took forever. I always feel like there’s something I can do to make the story better.
I wrote the story in late 2011. It was nominated for an award in 2012. I signed a contract for it in 2013 and it was published in 2014. Geesh! See? That did take forever, though in that time, I also wrote two more books.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
I love plotting because it means I get to sit around and daydream. Dreaming up stories is one of my favorite things in the world.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
At one point in my writing life, I would have had said that editing is my least favorite part. But it’s not anymore, at least not the developmental editing where I’m remedying sticky plot points or correcting a character’s actions to be more in line with his/her personality. I want my books to be the best they possibly can be, so I don’t mind fixing draft after draft in that aspect.
I confess that I am not good at line editing, which is the last type of editing that a manuscript goes through. Looking for missing words, incorrect punctuation and misspellings takes extreme focus. Line editing is the equivalent of combing through a kid’s hair that’s riddled with lice and trying to get out all the nits. Uh huh. That’s right. Line editing is like delousing a kid’s head. My brain is simply not detail oriented like that. I get distracted by the story, and all of the sudden I’m reading for fun instead of combing through the words for mistakes.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
Hmm. This is tricky. I’m tempted to say someone like Natalie Portman because she’s beautiful and her smile makes me think she must be a nice person. Plus she got to kiss Chris Hemsworth. But if I only got to be her for one day, then after that, my life would really suck by comparison. Besides that, she’s already kissed Chris, so I wouldn’t get to kiss him if I were going to be her today or tomorrow.
It’s a similar situation with someone like J.K. Rowling. Yes, she lives in a great, big fancy house and she writes great books, but I’ve still got to come back to my laundry piles and dirty dishes. So I’m thinking I need to pick someone I admire, who does great but really hard work. I want to come back grateful to be me. So…who does that leave?
I’ve got to go Google. I’ll be right back.
Ok.
I’m going to be Thomas Frieden. He’s a very famous man. What? You’ve not heard of him? He’s the director of the CDC, of course! If I were Tom for a day…I bet he goes by Tom, don’t you? Even if he doesn’t, the day that I’m him, he’s going to be called Tom. Anyway, if I were Tom, I could soak up his brain, which must be overflowing because he’s got an MD and MPH, and absorb all his experiences. Then I’d have fabulous details to twist and squeeze and shape into my worldbuilding.
I’m sure being the director of the CDC is a very demanding occupation. It would probably be a relief to get back to my little library job and come home to write books. And do laundry. Tom probably doesn’t do laundry.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Well, finding out the answer to this was a sobering experience. I could tell you that it’s a jar of fig preserves, but I’m pretty sure that would be a lie. I think the oldest thing in my fridge is a bottle of champagne. Unopened. And that really makes me sad. What the heck have I been doing with my life?
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
Readers can expect me to drink that bottle of champagne. Other than that, Enchanter’s Echo, book two in the Mayflower Mages series, is sitting on an editor’s desk. Book three, Sorcerer’s Spin is on my desk. Actually, that’s not quite true. It’s only on my desk if I put my head on the desk since most of it’s still in my brain. But I’m working on fixing that.
