Meet BREATHE: The Story That Started It All
Some stories begin with an idea. BREATHE began when I needed somewhere to put everything I was feeling.
I started writing BREATHE in June 2025, one month after going through a medical trauma that changed a lot for me.
I was struggling with anxiety and medical PTSD, and suddenly I didn’t feel completely at home in my own body anymore. There was fear I didn’t know what to do with and emotions I didn’t always know how to explain.
So I started writing.
At first, I wasn’t thinking about publishing a book or becoming an author. I just needed somewhere for everything in my head to go.
That’s when Aria came along.
A Little Piece of Me in Aria
In BREATHE, Aria leaves Las Vegas after escaping an abusive relationship. She’s spent too long being controlled and feeling trapped, and she finally decides she’s had enough.
So she runs to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in search of a fresh start.
Aria’s circumstances aren’t mine. Her story isn’t my story.
But the feelings behind parts of her journey were very real to me.
After what I’d been through, I was tired of feeling trapped in my own body. I wanted to feel like myself again.
And while Aria ran to Michigan, I ran toward something too.
I ran toward my family. I ran toward therapy. I ran toward help.
And I wrote.
Somewhere between creating Aria and figuring out where her story would take her, I realized I was giving her some of the things I was searching for myself: safety, connection, control over her own life, and the ability to believe that what happened before doesn’t have to determine what happens next.
That’s when BREATHE became more than just a story I was writing.
Okay…But Why Vampires?
Because I’ve apparently been in my vampire era since Twilight, and I have absolutely no intention of leaving it.
I’ve always loved vampires—the mystery, immortality, danger, romance, and the idea that an entire supernatural world could exist right beside ours without us knowing.
So when my imagination started running with this story, vampires felt inevitable.
And apparently I couldn’t give Aria just one mysterious supernatural man.
She needed three.
Naturally.
From “Someday” to Actually Doing It
I’ve loved writing since middle school.
I’ve also always had a huge imagination. My brain is constantly coming up with characters, scenes, conversations, and ideas—sometimes when I’d really prefer it didn’t.
But actually publishing a book?
That belonged in the maybe someday category.
Going through my medical trauma changed the way I thought about “someday.”
It reminded me that life is short, and there were things I wanted to experience instead of just wondering whether I could do them.
Writing and publishing a book was one of those things.
It’s something so many people dream about doing, and I decided I wanted to find out what would happen if I actually tried.
So I did.
Why BREATHE Will Always Be Different
I know BREATHE won’t be the last book I write.
But I also know there will never be another first one.
There will never be another book that came into my life at exactly this moment or for exactly these reasons.
As Aria’s story grew, so did I.
Writing didn’t erase what happened to me. It didn’t make my anxiety disappear, and it didn’t magically complete my healing journey.
I’m still on that journey.
But BREATHE gave me somewhere to create during a time when so much of my attention had been consumed by fear.
I didn’t die. I’m alive, and I am choosing to live. That is what BREATHE was for me.
And every time I look at this book, I get to see proof that something beautiful can still grow during a difficult chapter.
That’s why BREATHE means so much to me.
So…What Is BREATHE?
After all that emotion, I should probably mention that I did, in fact, write a spicy vampire romance.
BREATHE is an adult supernatural dark romance set in November in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Aria arrives looking for a fresh start. Instead, she finds three men she can’t explain her connection to—and a secret that will change everything she thought she knew about the world.
But while Aria is discovering what’s been waiting for her in Michigan, the life she escaped in Las Vegas hasn’t completely let her go.
Inside BREATHE, you’ll find:
Snowy Michigan Upper Peninsula setting
Vampires
Supernatural dark romance
Why Choose
Fated Mates
Found Family
Age Gap
Spice
Dangerous secrets
A heroine finding herself again
At its heart, BREATHE is about a woman who runs away believing she’s escaping the end of something—only to discover she may actually be standing at the beginning.
From My Writing Desk to Your Bookshelf
It’s strange to think that something that started as a document on my computer during one of the hardest periods of my life will soon become a book someone else can hold.
There was a version of me who only wondered what it would be like to write a book.
I’m really glad she finally decided to find out.
I still have a long way to go in my own journey, but I will always be thankful that I gave myself the opportunity to write this story—and that I was brave enough to let other people read it.
Soon, BREATHE won’t exist only in my imagination or on my writing desk.
It’ll be on your bookshelf.
And I don’t think I’ll ever stop being grateful for that.
Thank you for being here at the beginning. 🖤
~ J. L. Ski
BREATHE
Book One of The Immortal Series
Coming November 2026
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