One of the most inspiring posts I see on my many author forums is when someone takes the time to share their story. Each Friday, I’m going to feature a different indie author to help inspire all of you!
What is your pen name?
Ruby Sirois
What genre do you write in?
Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, BBW Romance
How many books have you published?
Two with a third currently on preorder.
What inspired you to become a writer?
I’ve always been a voracious reader with a passion for fantasy, romance, and historical fiction. When I was twelve, I wrote a hundred pages of a fantasy novel, but I hit a block because I had just pantsed the whole thing and never finished it. About 9 years ago I started self-publishing erotica. I was even traditionally published in a couple of print anthologies under that name. But life took turns and I have abandoned that pen name as my interests and focuses have changed. I started writing under Ruby Sirois earlier this year. I have a clear focus for what I’ll be writing–I call it Nordic Paranormal Romance–and I’m looking forward to building a world that readers love. It’s full of cozy settings, richly described scenes, steamy romance, and relatable, lovable heroines who love their friends and their children as much as they love their heroes. And did I mention sexy alpha shifters, powerful demi-gods, vengeful goddesses, real-life Swedish culture and history, lovable witches and their snarky talking cat familiars, and a plethora of mysterious realms connected by Yggdrasil? My readers tell my they love my world and don’t want to leave. Since all my books are set in the same universe, they won’t have to!
What is your indie success story?
I’ve had a steady but small side income from my writing for years. My goal is to make a full-time living and build a new career in my 40’s.
What are your marketing and advertising strategies?
I’m focusing on writing more books and building my newsletter. Later on, I’ll start advertising when there’s a budget for that.
What are you working on right now?
All of my books are set in the same universe, a magical realism Sweden which is heavily influenced by mythology, fairy tales, real-world history, and my own flavor of fantasy.
There are also more secretive realms which readers will get to experience. The world-building is heavily influenced by my own experiences as an American in Sweden and my interest in mythology, history, and fairy tales. My readers rave over how real my world feels, and how believable the settings and characters are. I draw a lot on real contemporary Swedish life as well, and use a smattering of Swedish words in my writing for flavor (I am fluent in Swedish).
My debut novella, Curvy and the Canid: A Wolf Shifter Fairy Tale Retelling, is a steamy modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. We see a bit of real-world Swedish and art history, as well as some of the history exclusive to my world in regards to witches, shifters, and angry Norse goddesses. And of course, there is a steamy build-up throughout the romance arc which my ARC readers found delicious.
Since all my books are set in the same world, I do hide Easter eggs that refer back to other books. This makes writing more fun for me, and as a reader, this is something I love when authors do. I hope it makes my books just that much more enjoyable for my fans.
My first series is called Thor’s Sons Crave Curves. Book 1, Deal With Her Dragon, is my debut novel. It’s about a 40-something mead-making witch and the witch-hating fire dragon she summons as a last resort to help save her failing meadery business. The other three books in the series will feature heroines who are all involved in the meadery, and the four half-brothers who are all dragon sons of the god Thor. Each dragon shifter is a different elemental, and we will see how earth, air, fire, and water dragons differ (and what they have in common).
Each one is very steamy, with a HEA.
Right now I’m working on Book 2, Landing Her Dragon–this is the water dragon’s book. In my world, water dragons are naturally musical, creative, and sensitive. They have a siren song which leads them to their fated mate.
The only thing is, the witch his song tells him is his mate loathes dragons! I also have plans for a spin-off series of novellas which will then be published as a box set in December of this year.
In addition, I’ll be writing a stand-alone novel inspired by the Persephone myth but set firmly in my own magical realism world. So by the end of the year, I intend to have ten books of various lengths published on Kindle Unlimited.
Where can we find your work?
https://storyoriginapp.com/giveaways/92f16e52-b541-11ea-aa16-879a312330a4 https://www.amazon.com/author/rubysirois https://www.goodreads.com/rubysirois https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ruby-sirois
As a thank you for following my blog, I wanted to send you some awesome (and helpful) self-publishing tools. Click the link below to receive the following FREE items:
Outline Template
Word Count Tracker
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Inspired by this author’s post, and want to start your indie author career? My book will give you all of the information you need to begin!
The Struggling Indie Author 