CHARACTER INTERVIEW OF LEESA NYLAND OF BREATHLESS

Breathless is Book One in the 4 book (so far) paranormal romance series The Blue Fire Saga.

Weston College freshman Leesa Nyland has been fascinated by vampires since she was three years old. That’s when her mom started acting weird, refusing to go outside during the day and insisting the sunlight hurt her skin because she’d been bitten by a one-fanged vampire.

But fascinated doesn’t mean Leesa believes. Any more than she believes in blue fire, people who live for centuries, and kisses that can kill. When her beloved older brother suddenly disappears, she is forced to confront all these and more. She also has to figure out what to do about her mysterious new boyfriend. She knows Rave likes her a lot—so why won’t he kiss her? 

As Leesa draws closer to finding her brother, she faces some gut-wrenching decisions. Should she risk her mom’s life trying to “cure” her? Should she continue seeing Rave after he reveals his dangerous secret? And most terrifying of all, should she make the ultimate sacrifice—give up her humanity—to save her brother?

“Breathless is a truly captivating read. The characters are impossible to forget.” ~ VampireRomanceBooks.com

“Breathless is a book you will fall in love with and want to read over and over again.” ~ Bite This! Vampire Book Blog

“Breathless is for sure a page turner. When I finished, I wanted more.” ~ Paranormal Book Club

Character being interviewed: Leesa Nyland

Book Title:  Breathless
Author: Scott Prussing, 

So Leesa, why don’t you begin by telling our visitors a bit about our story? 

Oh, wow, where to begin? It’s kind of complicated. I’m a freshman at Weston College in Connecticut, and let me tell you, it has been QUITE a year so far. But I’ll get to that. To really understand everything, I need to go back more than eighteen years, all the way back to when my mom was pregnant with me.

She was hiking with her sister when mom stumbled out of the woods with a puncture wound on her neck. My aunt said it looked like mom had gotten poked by a sharp branch, but mom insisted she’d been bitten by a one-fanged vampire. I mean, really, who ever heard of a one-fanged vampire? That’s crazy, right? Mom stuck to her story, though. She didn’t grow a pair of fangs (or even one fang!) or get any other vampire powers. But she did stop going out during the day, saying that the sunlight hurt her skin. So I ended up with a half-crazy mom who never went outside and who believed in vampires. How’s that for a role model? And when my dad left us, it was just my big brother Bradley and me. Is it any wonder I’m shy and kind of awkward?

Anyhow, fast forward sixteen years. Bradley left for college--the same one I go to now. For the first year, he texted or emailed me every day, so I didn’t miss him too much. But then he sent me an email telling me he was going away, and that I shouldn’t look for him. He even told me to forget about him. As if! He was only the best big brother EVER.

That’s why I’m here at Weston. I’m determined to find him, or at least find out what happened to him. I haven’t had much luck yet, but boy have I learned some other things! First of all, it turns out vampires really do exist, and that my mom really was bitten by a one-fanged vampire—the one-fangs are called grafhym, by the way. And there are also these supernatural vampire hunters called volkaanes. They’ve got this magical blue fire inside them that they use to kill vampires. I know volkaanes are real, because I’m in love with one. His name is Rave, and let me tell you, he is GORGEOUS! Then there’s this sexy vampire named Stefan who also seems to want me. It turns out there’s a reason these two supernatural hunks are drawn to me, but I’m not going to share that here.

So as you can see, I’ve got my hands full—and I don’t mean with classes, homework and exams. One of my professors, who seems to know everything there is to know about vampires, says there might be a way to cure my mom. So we’re working on that. Plus, I’ve got to try to find Bradley. It’s looking like vampires might be involved there, too. And, oh yeah, I need to figure out a way to kiss Rave without that magical fire of his frying me to a crisp….

Most everybody wants to be different in some way than they are. What’s the one thing you wish I had done differently with you?

I guess I wish you had made me a little less shy. I hate being uncomfortable around new people and in new situations—I wish I was more like my new best friend, Cali. Not quite so wild and outrageous as she is, of course, just a bit more confident and outgoing than I am. Like when Cali dragged me to my first frat party earlier this year, she met a guy and was chatting him up within a few minutes, while I stood around awkwardly by myself. Of course, I did end up meeting a sexy vampire and a gorgeous volkaane that night, though I didn’t know they weren’t human at the time. Heck, I didn’t even really believe in that supernatural stuff back then. Wow, was I wrong!

If I had let you change something about the story, what would you have changed?

Ha! That’s easy, Scott. I would have changed the whole kissing thing. I hate not being able to kiss Rave for more than a few seconds, because his magical inner fire would burn me to a crisp. It’s REALLY frustrating. Those few seconds are way beyond amazing, so I’m not really complaining—not too much, anyhow. But if I could just kiss him even for a minute or so, that would be awesome. Rave is starting to learn this special technique to control his heat, so maybe one of these days….

Oh, and I could do without my limp, too, although I guess that’s part of what makes me who I am. And please, no more Physics classes—that class was way too hard. Let’s stick to psychology and literature, stuff like that, because they’re way more fun.

What do you like best about yourself, Leesa? What do you like least?

I like that I’m very loyal and very determined—I think my limp has a lot to do with me being so tenacious and determined. When I set my mind to something, I don’t give up easily. That’s why I can walk as fast and as far as pretty much anyone, despite my bad leg.

As for what I don’t like, as I said before I don’t like being so shy and introverted. But thanks to Cali and Rave—and to you, Scott—I’m slowly getting better!

There are already a couple of sequels to Breathless. What do you think of them?

I LOVE them all! I’m getting to spend more time with Rave, though the kissing thing is still a problem. I really wish you would do something about that for me, Scott.

I also love that it turns out I’m not quite as ordinary as I thought—that’s way cool. It seems I’ve got a bit of magic inside me that I’m just beginning to learn how to control. Which is a very good thing, because there’s a whole lot more supernatural danger around here than I ever imagined. Who would have ever thought that hungry vampires were NOT the worst thing I’d have to deal with? Luckily, I’ve got some cool new friends and allies to help me out.

Do you have anything else you’d like to say, Leesa?

I just want to say it was great talking to you like this, Scott—we should do it more often! And I want to thank everyone for taking the time to listen. I hope they’ll all want to get to know me and my friends better—believe me, it’s been an amazing freshman year so far!

Links

Signed hardcover copies of Breathless can be purchased at http://www.scottprussing.com.

Paperback copies of books 2, 3 and 4 are also available here.

Ebooks available at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords. 

BREATHLESS: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004U6WM7E

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breathless-scott-prussing/1103450265

DEATHLESS: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005M4VGNE

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deathless-scott-prussing/1105547096

HELPLESS: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006G40T8M

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/helpless-scott-prussing/1107828719

FEARLESS: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089FGD9A

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fearless-scott-prussing/1111435870

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Breathlessbook

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scottprussingauthor and

http://facebook.com/BreathlessFampires

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4325564.Scott_Prussing

Video Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggTqcI3gGs&feature=youtube_gdata

ASIN # for Breathless: B004U6WM7E

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