Q&A with Ruth A. Casie

From time to time readers ask me about my writing. I love sharing information about myself and my writing with them. Below are some of the questions they've asked. Please leave a comment if there is something else you'd like to know.

1 -What is your author name?

I write as Ruth A. Casie. It's sort of an acronym of my children's names. Ruth is my given name. I was afraid I wouldn't answer to anything else. A. is for Ari. C is for Cori (the bride) and 'asie' is for Staci (her maid of honor).

2 - What is the first book you ever published?

The first book I wrote was Knight of Runes

3- What is your publishversary?

The book was published on November 14, 2011

4- What is your favorite book you've written thus far?

Each book has something that makes it my favorite, but if I had to choose one book it would be Knight of Rapture. Arik will move heaven and earth to be with his Rebeka.

5- What book took you the longest to write?

I knew the story for the second story, Knight of Rapture, in my Druid Knight series, but it took me a long time to put it down on paper. When it was done it was wonderful and worth the time.

6- How long did it take you?

About 10 months, but it will be eclipsed by a contemporary time travel story I’m working on intermittently that’s been in the works for a year!

7- What kind of music (if any) do you listen to while you write?

I like soft jazz and classical when I’m writing. Nothing with lyrics. I get distracted or worse, I find snippets of lyrics in my writing. Really, no kidding.

8- Who is your favorite character from any of your books?

Rebeka from Knight of Runes and Knight of Rapture

Jamie Collins from The Highlander’s English Woman and The Guardian’s Witch.

Beth from Happily Ever After. She’s a romance author.

9- What are you currently working on?

I’ve just finished The Einstein Theorem. This is a time travel romance about a time traveling art detective who must decide if she will sacrifice a once in a lifetime career for her last chance for a timeless love.

10- Do you have anything you snack on while you write?

I snack on lots of sparkling water, Crystal Light pink Lemonade and Hershey Kisses

11- What is your favorite quote or line from one of your books?

This is not a fair question. It’s like asking me to choose a favorite child. However, in Happily Ever After. I’ve put my favorite lines into memes. See for yourself.

12- Are you a self-published or traditional published author?

I’m a hybrid author published with Harlequin, Carina Press and self-pubbed under Timeless Scribes and Knight Media

13- What is your writing inspiration?

I enjoy telling stories. There are times I can see a picture or read an article and a story plays out in my head. I get some of my best ideas for stories or work out plot issues while I’m driving. If you want to hear about how the hero in The Maxwell Ghost got me out of a speeding ticket, leave me a comment below.

14- What genre do you write?

I write what I love to read, Medieval Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance.

15- Do you have any writing rituals?

Butt in chair, music on, write.

16- Do you have a specific place you write or time?

A year after my daughter got her own apartment. I commandeered her room and turned it into an executive office. I spend a lot of time in my office and I wanted it to be comfortable and mine. It’s filled with books, a large library table, did I say books, and a corner computer with two screens. Oh, and more books. I have found that my best time for working on deep POV is the morning and drafting and outlining in the afternoon.

17- Do you have any advice for inspiring writers?

Yes. My advice to new writers is finish the book. You can’t edit and make it beautiful until you have it on the page. Also, after you get the first book out, write the next one and the next. That was a hard lesson for me to learn.

Shh! This is a sneak preview!

18- What are your writing goals?

Create stories that people can’t put down.

19- What authors inspire you and your writing?

Barbara Michaels, Sarah MacLean, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy

20- What will be your next release?

Never Say Never, April, 2018

Eion – Havenport’s Highlander, October, 2018

Einstein’s Theorem *sigh* soon, I promise, soon!

Here Be News

New Releases:

Veronica Scott released the first book in a new scifi romance series:
AYDARR (A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel) Sectors New Allies Book One. 
The plot:

Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway? Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

Amazon      B&N  Google   Kobo     iBooks

Other News:

Now Available as an Audio Book!

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Humorous Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
by Linda Mooney writing as Carolyn Gregg
Word Count: 13K
$1.99 e / $6.99 p / $6.95 a

Narrated by Guy Veryzer
Length: 1 hr, 33 min.
Hear a Sample

Gus Balfour has lived with his “shortcomings” all his life. He’s been picked on, made fun of, and obviously had problems in the bedroom. But through the years, he’s learned other ways to please the ladies. Or so he thought. When his girlfriend leaves because he simply doesn’t have enough to give, he decides it’s time to take matters into his own hands…or well, maybe a surgeon’s.

After learning about the complications and exorbitant costs that go along with the surgical enhancement, he thinks all hope is lost. But a name and number left by his housekeeper could change his life.

Syan isn’t the old, wrinkly witch he was expecting, but she quickly proves there’s no job too big, or too small, when you’ve got the magic touch. 

Excerpt and buy links.

Bring It Back(list) Feature:
Jody Wallace shared Holiday on Ice: 

Bring it Back(list): Holiday on Ice by Jody Wallace

HOLIDAY ON ICE

By Jody Wallace

A Tallwood Tall Tale

Travel Queen Survival Tip #23: If you get stuck in an ice storm, find a hot guy to melt it!                            

Travel agent Darcy Burkell has a secret. Because she's claustrophobic, she doesn't precisely jet around the world despite what’s implied in her popular newsletter about vacation destinations. When she hires photographer James Jones, who grew up in the same town she did, to illustrate her stories, they become cyber-friends.

James decides Darcy might be the one woman to help him settle down--or at least someone who’ll travel with him instead of expect him to stay home all the time. Right before Christmas, he shows up unannounced and suggests they take a holiday trip together.

Darcy is too embarrassed to admit her phobia and turns him down flat. She knows what kind of woman he wants, and she’s not it. Her resolve is tested when she and James become gridlocked near the same bridge by an ice storm. Impassable roads force them to spend hours together in his vehicle...shivering. And cuddling. It's freezing outside, but inside it gets hot enough to melt all the ice in Alaska. The question is, can their affection remain toasty after Darcy confesses her big secret?

Warning: This title contains dreadful weather, a medium-sized misunderstanding, jelly beans that taste like boogers, and coitus interruptus by redneckus.

BUY LINKS

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PAGE 1:

Darcy noticed his ass first. It was perfect, cupped in old denims that weren’t too tight or too loose, the faded outline of a wallet in his back pocket. It was an ass that enticed her to drop her papers or beg him to check the pressure in her tires, just so she could watch him bend over.

Of course, she could check her own tires, even change them if she had to. She had a bookcase of nonfiction and how-to books. She never knew when she might need to identify animal tracks of the Southwest or give advice about deep sea fishing.

Yeah. Or change a tire.

Darcy maneuvered around the welcome desk of the crowded Arkansas rest area, hoping for a better angle of the man. As it was right before Christmas, this place was travel central. People milling and gabbing, waiting for bathrooms, watery coffee and the feeling to return to their "sitters", as her Pop termed it. She tiptoed past a squabbling family to peek around the hotel coupon display at the man she’d spotted.

There he and his butt were. Nice. Very nice. She deserved something nice after the stress of the past couple of days. He was taller than he’d seemed from across the room. His shoulders were broad, and he was dressed for the weather—a thermal undershirt and a T-shirt over that. Dark blond hair brushed his nape. 

From where she hovered, she couldn’t tell if his front lived up to his back.

The man rearranged the coat tucked under his muscular arm, making space for an old woman who also wanted to read the state map. They exchanged a few comments, too quiet for Darcy to hear. There was something familiar about his posture, about the way he shoved his hair back and tilted his head toward the lady beside him.

She booked a lot of vacations for outdoor enthusiasts. Snowboarders, bikers, hikers, kayakers, wilderness junkies. He had that look about him, a kind of suppressed energy that said he didn’t belong under a roof, growing roots and gathering dust.

And then there was the national park logo on the back of the guy’s T-shirt and his battered hiking boots. She was canny, all right. She’d make a great detective, as long as detecting didn’t involve surprises, small spaces, other people’s germs and confronting suspects.

This guy—this guy was clearly not her type. She could tell just from his tush. But who would it hurt if she ogled him a little longer? The guy, maybe, if he disliked being objectified, but he’d survive. The truth was, Darcy couldn’t bring herself to return to the confines of her car just yet. She could only tolerate it so long before she needed a breather.

When she traveled, she made a lot of stops.

A lot of stops.

Thus she was behind schedule, as usual. Her tardiness was made worse by the fact she’d been delayed at the office this morning. Ironic, considering one of her top travel tips for clients was always set out earlier than you think you need to.

The old lady near the map hurried off, flipping open her cellphone as she went, but Mr. Dream Jeans loitered like he had nowhere to go. Was he not running late like everyone else? Rushing home for the holidays before the grey skies made good on their promise of nasty weather? Darcy’s father was going to chew her out for hitting the road after the all-powerful Weather Channel had predicted record snowfalls for the Southeast.

It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen a single flake. The Weather Channel had predicted snow and that meant it was going to snow. There’d be drifts over cars. Houses. Drifts that forced the entire Southeast to walk to school uphill both ways.

Come to think of it, snow might liven things up. Darcy hadn’t seen anything in the miles of scrubby terrain other than SUVs filled with fighting kids and the occasional family dog.

Until now. The man-scape was highly preferable to a picturesque snowfall. She wasn’t going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house anyway, just to Pop’s to join the rest of the Burkell clan.

Darcy feigned interest in the brochures, but her eyes were on the prize. Her heart beat faster, like it did right before she hooked a new client. His ass was probably taut and muscular beneath the denim. And tan. Every inch of him tan.

Read more! http://jodywallace.com/books/holiday-on-ice/ 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your holidays are warmer and less icy than this one...

Jody W & Meankitty

www.jodywallace.com 

If Christmas Carols Were Pitch Lines

So, I was hanging out with my musician friends the other night.It being the season, a lot of carols were going around the circle. Also a lot of Jamison’s, which might have somewhat fueled my moment of inspiration. Anyway, I realized that, if you separate them from their religious context, the lyrics to many holiday songs sound like damned good elevator pitches. (Meaning no disrespect to anyone’s religion, and without any reflection on the historical existence, or lack thereof, of any religious figure.)

Work with me here. Look at O Little Town of Bethlehem.  Pretend you know nothing about the Christmas story. . .Yet in thy dark streets shineth/ the everlasting light./The hopes and fears of all the years/ are met in thee tonight. Don’t you just want to read that story? Even better, don’t you wish you had written it? Look at it closely. . .the contrast of dark streets and everlasting light. Looks like we’re getting some grim times and someone or something that’s going to be fighting that darkness. Hopes and fears are meeting tonight. Ooo, there’s a conflict ahead. In fact, we’re going to be entering a world in conflict, since we already have some people hoping for the aforementioned light and others fearing it. But that light shining, that’s promising us that things aren’t going to get too grim or too dark.

Then there’s God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen. We’re told of someone who comes To save us all from Satan’s power/When we are gone astray. Forget for a moment that you already know the story and divorce yourself from any religious associations you have regarding Christ and Satan. We have a deceptively cheery little pitch with an almost subconscious appeal to shivery danger. We’re also looking at a redemption story. . .and anyone who has read my Ravensblood series knows how much I love a good redemption story.

Let’s look at another one. O, Holy Night has always been one of my favorites, and not just for its soaring vocals. Long lay the world in sin and error pining/’Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. Again we are starting with a pretty dark world and the promise of a hero or savior figure coming on the scene to save us (after, we hope, many chapters of delicious tension). If we move on to the next verse, we almost have a blurb. Truly he told us to love one another/His law is light and his gospel is peace./Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother/And in his name all oppression shall cease. We are left with no doubt that our protagonist is a good guy. He’s all about love and peace, but we know there’s going to be a struggle against oppression between the pages to keep us from getting bored amid all that peace, love, and understanding.

Speaking of second verses, I think it’s a shame that we too often know only the first verse of carols when the really good stuff comes later. (Fellow writers can take that as a reminder to start strong in your pitches and blurbs because you never know how much time your reader will gift you with. Take We Three Kings. Okay, the first verse does promise us some sort of classic journey or quest plot. Bearing gifts we travel afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain/Following yonder star. But It’s the rest of the verses that tell us why we might want to spend time with this story over the myriad other quest books available to us. Myrrh is mine: it's bitter perfume/Breathes a life of gathering gloom./Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying,/Sealed in the stone-cold tomb. Looks like things are going to get a bit hairy for our hero!

Glorious now behold Him arise,/King and God and Sacrifice./ Without too much in the way of spoilers, we get a hint that it’s safe to read on. This isn’t going to end up like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet where the characters we love die and stay dead. (Personally I love both Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, but they’re not works I turn to when I need a little cheering up.) Plus we are tied in to the Sacrificed God archetype and the death-and-resurrection theme that calls to us so powerfully from the collective unconsciousness. (Yes, I’m a big fan of Christopher Vogler’s books on writing and Bill Moyer’s interviews with Joseph Campbell.)

I could go on. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel reads like a nice little blurb about an oppressed people rebelling against tyranny. (Sound a little like Star Wars?) If you can find all the verses to Good King Wenceslas you have not only a blurb, but nearly a synopsis. I leave you to listen to other carols on your own. See what stories you can imagine if you first ‘file off the serial numbers’!

 

When she's not hanging out with musicians and drinking Jamison's Shawna Reppert is a best-selling author of award-winning fantasy and steampunk.  Check out her website and blog at wwwShawna-Reppert.com

 

 

Let the Boys Decide: Gender Assumptions and Boy Appropriate Books

I’m feeling a bit militant today, so be warned this is a bit of a rant. 

There’s a lot of outrage today about how Best of lists invariably list more books by male authors than by females. Some male readers claim they don’t enjoy books by women, period.

Where did this prejudice start? As children.

Most women my age will remember being steered toward books that were "girl appropriate": books with female protagonists, mysteries, books about horses, and romances. Most of us fought back. We said, those books were good, we enjoyed them, but we also want to read books about cowboys and rocket ships and dragons. Adult women are perfectly willing to read books with male protagonists. I can enjoy both historical romances AND military SF.

Girls today can read anything they want.

Not so boys. 

Boys are still steered toward "boy-appropriate books": SF, mysteries, boy-protagonist fantasy books are all okay. A romance? Never. The steering can be subtle. Books may not be outright forbidden, but how many times are female-protag, female-authored books recommended with a warning? “I enjoyed this book, but it does have kissing in it, so you may not like it.” 

As a YA author I find it extremely annoying when people decide that a romantic subplot--not the main plot, the subplot-- somehow disqualifies my books from being read by boys. This despite the fact that I love writing action scenes and my Otherselves series includes mirror magic, parallel worlds, volcanic eruptions, dragon attacks, airship battles, kidnappings, slave revolts and more. Think about that. If a man wrote a boy-protag book without a romantic subplot and told girls they shouldn’t read it, people would be outraged. But we constantly do the opposite.

I know, because I’ve done it myself. I have two sons and I’ve had to consciously stop myself from only recommending “boy” books to them. But here’s what I’ve discovered. Yes, my sons’ favourite author is Rick Riordan, but they also enjoyed Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall series, Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel series, Gail Carriger's Finishing School series and Kelley Armstrong’s Age of Legend series, which have female-POV and romantic subplots. My eldest son’s favourite book by me isn’t the one that’s divided between girl/boy viewpoint, but Silver Eyes which is first person female POV.

So please, if you have a teen boy who likes to read on your Christmas list, don’t exclude female authors. Don’t warn boys that “they may not like” certain books. Let the boys decide for themselves.

(Also, don't reject books just because they have a girl's face on the cover.)

There is one True World, and then there are the four mirror worlds: fire, water, air, and stone. And each has a magic of its own...

In the Fire World, seventeen-year-old Leah is the illegitimate daughter of one of the realm's most powerful lords. She's hot-blooded - able to communicate with the tempestuous volcano gods. But she has another gift...the ability to Call her twin "Otherselves" on other worlds.

Holly resides in the Water World - our world. When she's called by Leah from the Fire World, she nearly drowns. Suddenly the world Holly thought she knew is filled with secrets, magic...and deadly peril.

For a malevolent force seeks to destroy the mirror worlds. And as Leah and Holly are swept up in the tides of chaos and danger, they have only one choice to save the mirror worlds - to shatter every rule they've ever known...

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