Happy Dancin’ News! Cha cha cha! 💃🏻
My free book is available for you!
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I’m havin’ a Pointer Sisters moment. I was never much of a fan, to be honest, but I can honestly say…
🎼🎹🎶 I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it! 🎶
Yesterday, I finally got my free book ready to give away! Woohoo! At about 14,000 words, it’s a novelette (between 7,500 and 17,500) of sweet but angsty “second-chance, small town clean romance.”
It’s a gentle introduction to my fictional small town of Ennington, set here in southern Alberta where I live near the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains.
You’ll notice the pseudonym, “Ruby Ashford” (can’t even begin to tell you what I went through to find that name, and it had to be sound in terms of numerology, too. Didn’t need a name that came with karmic debt or other energy that wouldn’t be helpful).
The reason for my using a pen name is I have more than a dozen books published in my real name, and they are in various genres, mostly non-fiction but also fiction and even an inspirational colouring book.
I will be relying heavily on the highly detailed “science” (or maybe it’s an art!) of how to use Amazon ads that I’m learning from the huge author’s group I’ve mentioned. And my colourful author page would present an enormous problem for the algorithm. Poor thing would be at least as confused as potential readers. 😳🫣😵💫
Anyway, you can take a peek at my / Ruby’s free novelette here:
And I’m delighted to say my Patreon gang is growing! I’m having fun sharing my journey there, and this week will be busy planning and creating more content to share in the coming weeks with my beloved free members, plus some extra cool bonus content for my dear patrons.
I’ve also finished the first novel in the Willow Valley series (around 74K words) and need to get Books 2 and 3 done before launch on May 30, a little less than three months away.
Sleep? What’s that?
Who cares?! I’m having the time of my life, finally pursuing a 40-year dream!
After 5 years of health challenges and other personal issues, including the awful trauma with my leg injury nearly 2–1/2 years ago and the other ugliness that followed (and my leg is still not fully functional), I can tell you it’s been a ridiculously long journey to get here. To get back to a place of feeling even remotely creative. To find that little spark again and gently fan it into an ever-growing flame.
I’d lost all hope after the accident that trashed my leg and left me struggling to learn how to walk again unassisted. I fell into a deep depression and didn’t recognise myself anymore. Without that creative spark — and having so much trouble dealing with an overload of trauma and upheaval, I felt well and truly broken.
But I kept digging for that bit of hope, for something that would anchor me and bring me back from that dark place. Something that would make me feel a bit like myself again.
I found it in the small town clean romance series that I’d begun early in my illness, but as things got worse, I had to put it aside for 4 years.
So after clinging to hope to find my way through a dark and difficult healing journey, I’m over the moon that I’ve reached this point and can see my 40-year dream beginning to come true.
And I just had to share it with our Pub Family.
Happy writing! 💜
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