Far and away my greatest joy is interacting with my fans, mostly via Facebook. I'm very accessible, and often have long conversations with many of them. I've even "guided" a few of them through the process of creating their first books, which includes Smashwords, of course. My FB author page is simply Scott Prussing Author, so come by and give me a shout...

I hate to admit to this because it sounds so commercial, but here goes. Twenty years ago, I wrote a mystery/suspense novel called Unturned Stones. It’s still my favorite of all my books. I think it’s totally original, well-written, with lots of clever twists. I managed to acquire a New York agent, but he was unable to get it published.

Flash forward 15 years. A friend of mine’s husband, who is an avid reader, read my book and loved it. He knows how hard it is to get anything published and casually uttered this “throwaway” line: “You should write something with vampires in it. Anything with vampires sells.” I thought: I can do that. So I did.

I wanted Breathless to be a Twilight type story that was really not like Twilight, if that makes any sense. So I started thinking about what I could do differently, but still appeal to that huge audience. I invented volkaanes (vampire hunters) and one-fanged vampires, and gave my heroine some definite strengths and weaknesses. I made my vampires a bit more traditional, with no “sparkling” or total assimilation into human society like attending high school. I used my mystery/suspense background to create a suspenseful story (why did Leesa’s brother suddenly disappear and what happened to him) as a backdrop for the romantic triangle of Leesa, a volkaane and a vampire.

This is a tough question, because my all-time favorite books are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed closely by The Fountainhead. However, I'm not much of a fan of Tolkein's other books, and I don't like any of Ayn Rand's at all, so it's hard to call them favorite authors. I like Terry Goodkind in fantasy and Michael Connelly in suspense.

love riding my bicycle. I live in San Diego, only four blocks from the ocean and eight blocks from the bay. There is a three mile long concrete boardwalk along the ocean and a ten-mile bike trail around the edges of the bay. The weather is usually perfect and the scenery along both is fantastic. It’s not unusual for me to see dolphins offshore while I’m riding. As a special treat, when the tide is way out, I can ride my bike on the hard flat sand just above the water. That is the absolute best!
I'm also a big movie fan (theater, not rental), I like to hike and to golf. Naturally, I enjoy reading.

I just sit down at my computer and go. I do not use an outline or any character profiles. I guess I'm a "seat of the pants" writer. I just let the story and the characters take me where they want go. It can be challenging some times, but it's also great fun.

I read mostly mystery/suspense, followed by fantasy. I really don't read any paranormal romance, even though my most popular series is in that genre.

I do not own an e-reading device (I've never even owned a cell phone!) My favorite reading device is the public library!

Far and away my most effective technique has been making the first book in my series (Breathless) free, to hook readers into buying the following books in the sage. Lots of interaction and posting in groups on Facebook has been helpful as well.

It's small and cluttered. But when I look up, I can see palm trees out my window. :)

My fans mean everything to me. They have supported me by helping with the editing and the promoting my books, as well as by buying them. I have tried to return the favor by naming characters after many fans, and by providing free rubber bracelets and T-shirts for them.