The Voss Papers

Today, something strange happened: I woke this morning with a nagging feeling that something important was happening, and I couldn’t remember what it was. To be honest, this was a little worrying. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten to post the latest instalment of the little free novella I’m giving away as a Locktober present to the Reddit chastity community, because I woke to a stack of enthusiastic messages. Was it someone’s birthday? It didn’t seem likely, because the date felt a little too sad. I even tentatively combed old diaries trying to make sure it wasn’t the date a friend had been bereaved last year, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t until I was boiling the kettle and staring at a calendar that hangs in my kitchen that it clicked. Today is the 19 th of October. Today, in the world of The Ruritanian Pretender , is the anniversary of the raid on Romwald. And I woke up, with part of my brain somehow aware of that, and it made me sad without even knowing why. I find ...

Hope broke her heart. I wanted to give her back her country.  My latest book,  The Ruritanian Pretender ,  is out! If you haven't bought a copy, go buy a copy. Because I'm really pleased with this one - which I think is saying something; it's a little gauche to admit it, but I often find while in the moment everything I write feels  achingly  good, the moment I commit to sharing it with the world I tend to panic that maybe it isn't achingly good  enough , that one sentence here or there could have elevated things from the merely orgasmically well-written into levels of 'linger-in-your-mind-and-shiver-your-thighs-the-next-morning' pleasure...  It’s a terrifying thing to build your characters and send them into the world, hoping they’ll make people’s knees weak the way you told them to. (I think every author feels that post-publication panic, although I'm not so sure that applies to Thomas Hardy, who I've always suspected of just grabbing the most depre...

I think there have probably been two reactions when people have seen the title of my newest work, The Ruritanian Pretender .  (Well, actually, I hope everyone;s first reaction was, I hope "Oh wow! Anna's written a new book and  god  I bet it's hot!" - in which case, congratulations: it  absolutely  is!) But in general I think people will have seen the title and done one of two things.    Either, they said "Oh, cool. Where the hell is Ruritania? I can't find it on the map." Or they'll have said "Oh! This one's going to be a swashbuckler and the submissive male lead is going to be a dead ringer for a prince and there will be castles and peril and political intrigue in the mountains of central Europe!" You, in the second class of reader, are my people.  So are the people in the first class, of course; you just might need a little more... training. I think we can both work with that!   Ruritania isn't real, it's never been real: but...