Character Leesa visits today from "Breathless" by Scott Prussing

Welcome to Author's Spotlight

Character Interviews

with Stacy Eaton

Today we have Leesa from Breathless written by Scott Prussing.

Welcome Leesa! Glad you could make it today. Please do me a favor and tell us a bit about the book you star in.

Oh wow, where to begin? I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Leesa Nyland. I’m a freshman at Weston College in Connecticut, and let me tell you, it has been QUITE a year so far.

Really? How so?

I’ll get to that in a minute. To really understand everything, we need to go back more than eighteen years, back to when my mom was pregnant with me.

Wow... All that way back? Why is that?

She was hiking with her sister when mom stumbled out of the woods with a small puncture wound on her neck. My aunt said it looked like mom had gotten stuck by a sharp branch, but mom insisted she had been bitten by a one-fanged vampire. I mean, really, who ever heard of a one-fanged vampire?

Not me!!!

Nobody believed mom, of course, but she stuck to her story. She didn’t get a pair of fangs (or even one fang!) or any other vampire powers. But she did stop going outside during the day, saying that the sunlight hurt her skin.

No fangs or powers but she was sensitive to light, interesting. What happened?

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?

lol....

And when my dad left, it was just my older brother Bradley and me. No wonder I’m so shy and awkward.

I bet.

Anyhow, fast forward about sixteen years. Bradley went away to Weston College. Yep, 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!

What!!?!!

He was only the best big brother ever. So that’s why I’m here at Weston. I’m determined to find my brother, or at least find out what happened to him. I haven’t had much luck with that yet, but boy have I learned some other things.

Like what?

First, it turns out that vampires really do exist, and that my mom really was bitten by a one-fanged vampire—they’re called grafhym, by the way.

They really exist? Hmmm... Who wouldn't have known.

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 of them.

Oh yummy.... what's his name?

His name is Rave, and he says he’ll do anything he can to help me find Bradley. Then there’s this sexy vampire named Stefan who also seems to want me. It turns out there’s a reason these two supernatural guys are drawn to me, but I’m not going to tell you that here.

Oh you tease!

Anyhow, as you can imagine, 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 about vampires, says there might be a way to cure my mom.

Oh that's great.

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 his inner fire killing me….

Very interesting Leesa... Very interesting. Ok - let's answer a few questions.

We all want to be different, so what is the one thing you wish your creator had done differently with you?

I wish Scott had made me a little less shy. I hate being uncomfortable with new people and 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 took me to my first frat party earlier this year, she met a guy and was chatting him up within fifteen minutes, while I stood around awkwardly by myself for awhile.

I know how uncomfortable that can be.

Of course, I did end up meeting a sexy vampire and a gorgeous volkaane that night (although I didn’t know they were not human at the time). Heck, I didn’t even really believe in that stuff back then. Boy, was I wrong!

Who knew college would be a wake up call, huh?

If you could have added something to the story, and your creator would have let you, what would that have been?

Ha! That’s easy. I would have changed the whole kissing thing. See, I can’t kiss my boyfriend Rave for more than a few seconds, because he’s got this magical inner fire that could burn me to a crisp. It’s REALLY frustrating.

I bet!

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. Scott has Rave 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.

Limp? Wait... where did that come from? Again - Another good tease!

What do you love best about yourself? What do you like least?

I like that I’m very loyal and very determined. When I set my mind to something, I don’t give up easily.

Good quality.

As for what I don’t like, as I said before I don’t like being so shy and introverted. But I’m getting better!

Good! What part of the book was the hardest for you and your creator to work through?

I think one of the toughest parts for Scott was the “girl talk” stuff. How’s a guy supposed to know what we girls talk about when there are no guys around? But he got some help with that from a female friend, and I think it turned out just fine. Getting inside MY head couldn’t have been that easy, either, but now I feel like he and I are best buds.

Never hurts to be friends with your creator!

Is there a sequel for this book? If so, what do you want to accomplish in the next book. If not, do you wish you could continue your story?

There are already a couple of sequels done, and I LOVE them. I’m getting to spend more time with Rave, though the kissing thing is still a problem. What’s really cool is that it turns out I’m not quite as ordinary as I thought.

Somehow I didn't think so.

I’ve got some special magic inside me that I’m just beginning to learn how to control. Which is a good thing, because there’s a whole lot more supernatural danger around than I ever imagined. Who would have ever thought that vampires were NOT the worst thing I’d have to deal with?

lol...

Anything else you would like to share before we go?

I just want to say it was great talking to you (and your followers!) today. I hope they’ll all want to get to know me better—believe me, it’s been a most amazing freshman year so far!

Great Leesa - Thank you for coming by. Your story sounds great and I look forward to checking out your video trailer and the book. I hope my readers will take the time too.