Character Blog with Kyle McLaughlin

Hi! I'm Kyle McLaughlin, one of the heroes in Lisabet Sarai's book, Necessary Madness. The book will be released on December 28th. You'll be able to buy at Total-E-Bound:

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What makes you special?
I have the power to see the future. Visions come to me, usually of some terrible disaster. It's like I'm there, living through the horror with the victims. This ability is more like a curse, actually. However, I've been learning to control it, with help from my teacher Elspeth and my lover Rob. Now I can sometimes navigate through time deliberately, change my point of view and discover the details of the future crisis so that it can be prevented.

Tell us about your most current adventure.
This would be an upcoming or new release. Feel free to share and excerpt, remember we are promoting as well as, having fun and include a release date if you have one.

Rob and my story begins in Necessary Madness. I was homeless, on the street, trying to drink myself into oblivion to escape the awful pictures in my mind. Then Rob showed up. He's a cop. He picked me up, brought me to the hospital and then home. I was attracted to him from the first time I saw him, but he resisted me for a long time. He thought that I was too young for him, that I needed an authority figure more than a lover. (Chuckle) I managed to convince him that he was wrong... Then Stefan Aries showed up, trying to steal my power through his black magic. But I really don't want to talk about that.

If you could offer advice to your author, what would it be?I think she should continue our story in a second book. Lots of people around the Quabbin Valley have psychic power. I'd like to find those people and help them before they get into the same sort of trouble that I did. I know that Rob wouldn't mind. He tries to act tough but he's got as soft a heart as any man I've ever met.

Are you happy with the way people perceive you?
Before Rob came along, people thought that I was just a crazy bum. My visions really scared people. I even upset the other guys in the homeless shelter. Rob changed all that. He gave me love and support. He gave me a home.

Is expressing love difficult for you? Why?
I had never really loved anyone before I met Rob. Nobody cared about me, whether I lived or died. My parents were killed in an accident when I was six. I lived my life in foster homes, always the strange kid, distant from everyone. My visions started at puberty and that pushed people even further away. By the time I met Rob I was cynical and desperate. It took me a long time to trust that his love was real.

Is there a message you want to get across in this interview?
The characters in paranormal books are usually painted as some sort of super-beings. I've got this incredible power of precognition, but all it has ever done has made me miserable, at least until recently. I suppose that creatures like vampires and werewolves might glory in their powers, but special abilities are mixed blessings at best for a human being like me.

What was the least interesting thing that has ever happened to you?
The least interesting thing? Hah! Most of my life has been boring and ordinary, except for the times when I was in the clutches of my visions. I remember my foster parents locking me in my room with a TV for hours at a time, just so I wouldn't bother them. School was a blank, a blur, everyone trying to pretend that I didn't exist. Sometimes I think I only started to live when I met Rob.

Share a little bit of the ‘real’ you with our readers. Any Dark secrets?
Well, I'm only twenty. I guess my darkest secret is the fact that when I was on the street, I sometimes gave guys blow jobs in order to get enough money to eat. Rob was really hurt when I told him this. He thought that I was some kind of tramp.

What is your most favorite thing to do?
Make love to Rob. Nothing comes in even a close second.

Have you ever lost control?
It's only recently that I've had any control at all. My visions could come at any time and they'd take me over completely. People thought that I was schizophrenic or epileptic.

How many sex partners have you had? How many at one time?
The guys that I blew in the alleys don't count. Rob's really the only lover I've ever had. He was the first person to--well, you know, to enter me. He didn't know I was a virgin at first. He thought I was a street-wise slut. Once he found out, though, he was as gentle and loving as any man could ask.

What are your opinions on Stefan Aries?
He's actually a lot like me, in some ways. He grew up feeling like an outsider. In his case, it was due to the fact that everyone in his family had psychic powers except him. He felt inadequate and unloved. Funny, I would have been happy to trade places with him.

What are the pro’s and con’s to being a precog?
Well, now that I can control my powers better, I think that I can actually help other people. If I foresee a disaster I can prevent it. Before, my life was just a hell. I wanted to kill myself rather than suffer through the agony of the visions and then the guilt at not being able to do anything about the things I could predict.

How does one become a precog?
Elspeth says that psychic powers are usually hereditary. I really didn't get to know my parents well before they died, but her theory sounds plausible. After all, Rob's sister was a telepath and Rob has powers too. He's an empath, though he didn't know that until we met.

Stefan was trying to become a precog himself, by stealing my powers. That involved a gruesome ritual that I'd rather not talk about. However, it clearly worked since that was how he became a telepath--killing Mary (Rob's sister) and taking on her paranormal abilities.

Describe your best kill. Why was it the best?
I don't kill people. Maybe you're confusing me with Stefan.