Today I would like to welcome Scott Prussing to The Writing World. I have an interesting interview for you all. Keep reading to find out more about this author.
What inspired you to write your first book, Scott?
I’m going to give a somewhat complicated answer to a simple
question, because I have two “first books.” One (Unturned Stones) is actually
the first one I wrote, but nothing ever happened with it. The second (Breathless)
has been moderately successful and has led to 4 sequels.
A friend of mine, who is an avid reader, read Unturned
Stones and loved it. He knows how hard it is to get anything published and said
offhandedly: “You should write something with
vampires in it. Anything with vampires
sells.”
I decided to make write a “Twilight type” book that was not
really like Twilight, if that makes sense. I started thinking about what I
could do differently, but still appeal to that huge audience. Instead of making
vampires the lead characters, I made them the catalyst for the action. I also made
them more traditional. I invented supernatural vampire hunters I call volkaanes
and created one-fanged vampires, who are crippled versions of the real thing. I
made sure I had an engrossing storyline with several subplots. I think I
succeeded pretty well, because there are now 4 sequels to Breathless, with
plans for a fifth.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Sure, I remember exactly. Shortly after college, I read an
article in the local newspaper about a boy who was writing a Lord of the Rings
type novel. LOTR is my all-time favorite book, and I thought “I could do that.”
So I started writing—in ball point pen on a legal pad. I ended up with an 800
page Lord of the Rings rip-off. The story wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t very
well-written. It’s what got me started, though. Thankfully, that manuscript no
longer exists.
How does your take on vampires differ from what is already
on the market?
My vampires are closer to the traditional than to the
sparkly, high school attending vampires with special powers in Twilight. The
sun hurts their skin, but does not kill them, so they prefer the night or
cloudy days. They live communally in underground caverns, following certain
rules to keep from drawing too much attention to themselves. They can pass as
human when necessary, and some of them mingle with people now and then. I also
invented one-fanged vampires, who I call grafhym. They are crippled versions of
the real thing, far less powerful, and they are shunned by other vampires. Grafhym
play a critical role in book one, Breathless.
What makes your stories different?
I think my paranormal romance novels have more mystery and
suspense than many books in the genre—an offshoot, I think, of having started
my career with two suspense novels. I also try to create a few new things in my
books, such as the one-fanged vampires and supernatural vampire hunters called
volkaanes I invented for my Blue Fire Saga. In Heartless, book 5 in the series,
I added another new invention—xenorians. They are members of an ancient sect
that believes all magic will eventually turn evil and so must be destroyed.
You have
VERY creative worlds, yet the emphasis of your books seems to be more weighted
to the story. What are your feelings on world building vs. character building
vs. storyline?
I think all three are
important. If readers don’t like your characters, they’ll have a hard time
enjoying the story. I’ve always been more of a “story guy” than anything else,
so that comes easiest to me. I think that’s one reason people way beyond my
core audience love the Blue Fire Saga books.
My books are usually set in locations I know well, so there
is little “world building” needed for that. Since I invent and use some
different kinds of supernatural characters, I do have to build a way to fit
them into the everyday world and to make it logical and real. It’s kind of like
world building with the real world. The last thing I want is for a reader to say
about something is “that doesn’t make sense.”
Description doesn’t come naturally to me, so I have to
remind myself every time the location changes to spend at least a few sentences
describing the new place (sights, sounds, smells, etc.) I don’t enjoy reading books
that go on and on with descriptions, so I try to be very descriptive without
using too many words. It’s actually been a very pleasant surprise to me when
readers and reviewers call my books things like “wonderfully descriptive.”
What are
your favorite and least favorite parts of writing?
My favorite thing is when I write a section that I KNOW is
really good in some way—clever, funny, inventive, creative, flowing, etc. It
could be a scene, a piece of dialogue, a description or even a character. My
least favorite part is when I get stuck, where I know what I want to say but
can’t figure out how to say it in a way that is smooth, flowing and clear.
Sometimes it can take longer to write three sentences than it does to write an
entire page.
What do you do to help you write? Do you down the energy
drinks? Eat junk food? Blast the tunes? Do tell.
I’m kind of boring here, I’m afraid. I just sit down at my
computer and start writing. I hate to admit it, but writing is usually (but not
always!) pretty easy for me. Sometimes I have the radio playing, sometimes I
don’t even remember to turn it on. I don’t eat or drink anything while I’m at
my desk. If I get stuck, I’ll sometimes stretch out on my bed with my eyes
closed to think (my computer is in my bedroom). For some reason, if I’m really
stuck, a shower helps. Like I said, all in all, pretty boring.
Readers can stalk Scott Prussing at:
Website: http://www.scottprussing.com
Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Prussing/e/B004YTTFX6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scottprussingauthor
http://www.facebook.com/BreathlessFampires.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BreathlessBook
eBook links to Breathless:
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