What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
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...
What was your inspiration for Breathless, the first book in your Blue Fire Saga
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.
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