Tell us 3 little
known facts about Ruby Fielding.
My favorite season is winter, although this one has been a
bit extreme even for me! I’m currently living in a cabin in the heart of a New
England forest – up in the White Mountains
in New Hampshire and baby it’s cold out there!
I’ve travelled a lot,
and lived in some fabulous places, but I never really ventured far beyond the UK
until my mid-twenties, when I suddenly realized life was passing me by.
The closest thing I have to a day job is ghost-writing books
for minor celebrities - all covered by non-disclosure agreements before you
ask! I’m pretty scrupulous about those NDAs, so most of my family and friends
probably just assume I write that Fifty
Shades stuff all the time.
We’re here to
celebrate the upcoming release of your next novel Hunted. Can you tell us what
this segment of the Shifter’s World Series is about?
Hunted started off
as a short story (published as Lone Wolf).
The setting and the characters took a powerful hold on my imagination and
pretty soon I’d written three more stories in the series. Rather than just
collect the four stories together, I rewrote them into a single narrative,
which became Hunted. It was important
for me to do this extra work, as it gave me the opportunity to tighten the
writing and expand on some parts, and to remove the inevitable repetition you
need in separate stories as each reintroduces the world and characters.
Here’s the cover description:
Should she struggle to survive alone or give in to desire
and risk the - perhaps deadly - company of others?
In a world where plague has swept civilization away like
leaves in a storm, where viruses that cause people to shift and change have
altered what it is, for most, to be human, a few survivors hold out in a
desperate attempt to save the human race. Selene lives alone in the forest,
protecting herself from human and shifter alike until one day a stranger turns
up: a young man called Skinner, out on a quest to hunt down and destroy any
shifter he can find. Torn between desire and fear, Selene must confront her
true nature and make some impossible choices if she is to survive this harsh,
post-apocalyptic future.
Hunted: a Shifters'
World novella - a shapeshifter erotic romance of survival and desire in a
deadly future from the co-author of Seduced
by Moonlight and The Touch.
Why shifters? What
draws you to write about them?
I love
that extra frisson of danger and risk: if a story doesn’t have that, then it’s
just a romance. This is fine –
I’m a sucker for a good romance – but I want my
paranormal romances to get under the skin. There should be thrills, risks:
genuine tension that heightens the romance, and makes any happy ever after
hard-earned.
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| Shifter's World Book 1 |
It’s an animal thing, too. It’s about those raw, intense
passions and needs. You don’t get much more alpha-male than a shifter hero, a
man who can just sweep you off your feet and possess you. As a writer it lets me explore intense attraction and
giving yourself up to desire. It’s fascinating, and damn me, but it’s hot.
Did you always want
to be an author or what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’ve always written, and I think I’ve always wanted to be a
writer of some kind. At school I wrote stories that featured my friends and
made fun of the teachers – it was how I tried to be cool. Someone really should
have told me there were easier ways to be cool.
At university I worked on my college newspaper, and I went
into journalism and advertising copywriting. I still do bits and pieces of all
kinds of writing, but on my own terms: I have the luxury of variety and being
able to pick and choose and somehow being able to get by.
When writing Hunted
did you have a favorite part you would like to share?
The cage was not high enough for her to stand, so she sat in
the middle, her knees drawn up to her chin, as if huddling into a fetal ball
might somehow protect her.
At first there was no sign of
them, but eventually they came. As the shadows grew longer and the sun fell
below the tops of the trees, they came.
First, a man. Naked, his body
scrawny and white, almost luminously so in the growing twilight. Dark hair
matted his chest, and the silvered hair on his head was long and his beard
thick and unkempt.
He came to stand by the bars of
her cage, making no attempt to cover himself so that inevitably her eyes were
drawn to that thick knot of hair at his crotch and the semi-hard shaft of his
manhood.
“Please...” she said softly,
eyeing the cage’s bars warily. “Please don’t...”
She started to rock back and
forth and all the time the man just stood there, studying her.
So close, his scent was almost
overpowering, an intense, sweaty musk. An animal scent, one that reached deep
inside her and started to wake something primal.
“No, please don’t.” She shut her
eyes tight, fighting the thing, the beast within.
After a long silence, she hoped
that he had retreated. When she opened her eyes she saw a beast, fully in
wolf-form, charging towards her, and then throwing itself at the cage. The
impact was like an explosion. The bars clanged and groaned, and for a moment
she thought the cage was going to topple over or collapse under the onslaught,
and then the beast fell back with a yowl of frustration.
What did you find most
difficult when writing this story?
Conflicting priorities. Because my professional life is
packed, I rarely get a good stretch of time where I can concentrate on a single
project. That’s why I wrote Hunted as
four separate stories to start with, just to break it down a bit. I like those
stories, but I think it works best as a single narrative.
What character in the
Shifter’s World Series would you like to bring out of their book for a day? How
would you spend that day?
Selene in Hunted
fascinates me. She’s packed full of determination and spirit, surviving on her
own in the wilds, but also she’s lost: her memories are vague; just as she gets
insight into her past that memory is snatched away. So frustrating for her! And
she’s clearly special: not only a survivor, but someone who has a past, and
someone who is different now. I’d
chill with her, maybe take her to a spa – her life is tough, so she deserves a
bit of pampering. And maybe that would
help her to start to unravel her memories: I’m really keen to find out more
about her past and why she’s so special and a day at the spa would be a lot
easier than writing her story to find out!
Tell us about your
writing routine/ rituals. Do you have a certain place or time of day that helps
you write best?
For many, writing is a solitary activity, but I love the
buzz of everyday life around me. So wherever I happen to be living, you're
likely to find me at the nearest wifi hot spot with my laptop and a large mug
of coffee.
What’s next for Ruby
Fielding? Is there another Shifter’s World novel on its way?
Definitely! I’m hooked. I haven’t started it yet, as I’m
focusing on another book project, among other things, but I’m hoping to get
back into Shifter’s World soon. I’m torn about what to tackle next: although Hunted ends at a definite resolution,
Selene’s story needs to be continued – I want to see where she goes next.
Alternatively, I could pick some other characters in this setting and follow
their story; I have a few ideas for that.
Where can we find
Ruby?
All the latest news on my writing and publishing can be
found on my website and on my Amazon
author page; also, why not join my mailing list for news and offers,
or hook up with me on Facebook?
Is there something
you would like to say to readers or fellow writers?
Writing, publishing and reading are far more connected these
days, and readers can make a real difference. If you like an author or a book,
it’s usually very easy to find them on the web or social media, and most
authors love to hear from enthusiastic readers. Equally, leaving a rating or
review at Amazon or other booksellers, or on sites like Goodreads, can be
really helpful – not only does the author get feedback, it helps other readers
find books they might like. So please don’t be shy and retiring: we love to
hear from you!
Hunted:
a Shifters' World novella is currently available from:
- Amazon.com
- Amazon.co.uk
- Barnes and Noble
- Kobo
- Google
Play
- ...and it
will be available from Smashwords and All Romance eBooks soon!
Thank you for stoping by the ludis Ruby. You're welcome back any time, especially with a handsome shifter. :) Hunted will be available starting January 16th for an introductory price of $.99.
Don't forget to leave a little comment luv! Have you read any Shifter's World Novels? What do you like most about shifter/were characters?
Many thanks for giving me the space to talk about my books! Official publication day for Hunted is the 16th, but it's available already at the links included at the end of the interview. :)
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